Post by soundboy March 5, 2009 (1 of 14)
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I don't know about the classical SACD releases, but certain pop/rock SACDs have seen their value shot thru the roof. Just today, a SACD of Keane's "Hopes and Fear" was sold for US$125.00 over at stevehoffman.tv. I've read that this title has been offered at close to US$400.00!! Other pop/rock SACD that have seen their value go up are Spandau Ballet's "True", Sarah Brightman's "Eden", etc.
Opinions?
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Post by Claude March 5, 2009 (2 of 14)
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That is true of many hard to find CDs as well, not just SACDs. If a group of opinion leaders on the Steve Hoffman forum finds that a rare disc is the best sounding version of a title, the demand and price rises immediately.
On the other hand, if a disc receives thumbs down for sound quality, it's value will remain rather low.
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Post by onebit March 5, 2009 (3 of 14)
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soundboy said:
Just today, a SACD of Keane's "Hopes and Fear" was sold for US$125.00 over at stevehoffman.tv. I've read that this title has been offered at close to US$400.00!!
Opinions?
If you do the currency conversions on the third party sellers listed on this site, the range is from roughly $ 150.00 to a staggering $ 600.00 USD!
How much of this is just 'fishing', I don't know, but I've seen crazier things happen (a certain sealed copy on Ebay of Wish You Were Here comes to mind :)).
These SACD's are just the modern equivalent of CD first pressings, only maybe even rarer, since fewer were actually made.
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Post by tream March 5, 2009 (4 of 14)
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Just goes to show that if an SACD is on your with list, it is better to get it now rather than wait. Funny, that kind of behavior would probably stimulate the production of more SACD's!
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Post by wolf359 March 6, 2009 (5 of 14)
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This is nothing new on this site one only has to look at the thread relating to the price of the Krafwerk SACD or the similar thread about Amazons effect on rising prices. Some time ago some one I think asked why Rounder Records had stopped producing Alison Krauss SACDs the answer was the standard one that it was uneconomic and not viable. This contrasts strongly with the high prices charged on Amazon and bid for on auction sites. If some people are silly or rich enough to pay the price asked then surely the record companies could produce them for less than that and still make them viable.The danger is that the less than honest sellers move in and sell you a none existent copy or worse the RBCD. I mention this because many people in the past complained about DVD4music. I have not seen or heard about them for a while but while browsing Amazon I stumbled across them again this time operating as an Amazon seller. The worrying thing is that they had good high rated positive feedback. Going back to the orginal topic the ELP Brain Salad Surgery SACD which came out a few months ago cost me £14.99 so why was it showing for £68 on E bay recently perhaps knowledge plus scarcity = profiteering
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Post by Claude March 6, 2009 (6 of 14)
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wolf359 said:
Some time ago some one I think asked why Rounder Records had stopped producing Alison Krauss SACDs the answer was the standard one that it was uneconomic and not viable. This contrasts strongly with the high prices charged on Amazon and bid for on auction sites. If some people are silly or rich enough to pay the price asked then surely the record companies could produce them for less than that and still make them viable.
I don't understand that reasoning.
The $100 going price for this OOP item does not express a quantitative demand, but just the fact that a few people a willing to pay a lot of money for a rare item.
If one person is ready to pay $100 for the disc, it does not mean that 2000 or 5000 people would buy it for $20, which may be required to make a release viable.
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Post by wolf359 March 6, 2009 (7 of 14)
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Claude said:
I don't understand that reasoning.
The $100 going price for this OOP item does not express a quantitative demand, but just the fact that a few people a willing to pay a lot of money for a rare item.
If one person is ready to pay $100 for the disc, it does not mean that 2000 or 5000 people would buy it for $20, which may be required to make a release viable.
Claude
I mean that I do not think that there is any research that has been made public about the amount that we the general public would be prepared to pay for an SACD. There has been some general explanations about how much it costs to produce a new release SACD disc from scratch. Beyond that is how much would the public pay is what is at issue here and it is all to do with keeping the format viable. Many companies have now dropped SACD on cost grounds. My point is that if the disc is rare yes one can expect to pay high prices but some prices are way over the top.I simply wonder how much it costs a company to reissue a SACD that has previously been deleted and is OOP bearing in mind that the recording, masters,artwork etc are already in existence. To take RBCD as an example many companies reissue ad infinitum the same titles over and over again often at cheap prices (especially in the pop area)presumably they must be selling to someone or why bother. My problem is that once an SACD is OOP they are very rarely if ever reissued I cannot understand why if an SACD has met its costs they do not reissue at a cheaper price and pick up as many residual sales as possible to grow the demand for the format ,lower the price per unit cost, and meet the already paid for production costs. If the disc has made a loss because of high costs the old supermarket maxim pile em high sell them cheap and make a small profit may apply but no one will provide figures to say which business model record companies follow
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Post by Claude March 6, 2009 (8 of 14)
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Well, as a jazz fan I see this situation all the time.
Small labels estimate the number of discs they will sell (say 3000 copies) and have them pressed in one batch, because that's the least expensive (pressing plants have higher prices for small quantities).
Once the 3000 copies are sold out (after a few years), the album will only be reissued if there is a certain demand for another 1000 copies. Meanwhile, a few people are looking desperately for the CD and are willing to pay very high prices for it. But that small demand does not justify a reissue, even if the discs could be sold for twice the regular price.
Today, downloads or CD-R on demand services can solve this problem, but of course that's not a solution for SACD fans.
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Post by callmez March 6, 2009 (9 of 14)
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Claude said:
Today, downloads or CD-R on demand services can solve this problem, but of course that's not a solution for SACD fans.
Someone is probably gonna flame me, but here goes:
I recently noticed that David Elias' SACDs, "Crossing" and "The Window" are now available as hi-res downloads from iTrax.com. Of course, if you want to burn an actual hi-res disc that you can toss into a player, it has to be... DVD-Audio. Sorry.
While "Crossing" is still readily available as a SACD, prices for "The Window" seem to be shooting upward. iTrax now provides a viable hi-res alternative, but since we don't have home SACD burning capability there is no such option.
Just in case anyone is curious:
http://itrax.com/Pages/ArtistDetails.php?aID=a3352cca8929e29db43ddae2fcf001bc
Mark Z
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There's a seller on ebay who somehow gets some of the Universal Japan SACDs that are long oop. It's not unusual for these to go for hundreds of dollars. A while ago, he was asking $800 for the Universal Tannhauser SACD!
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