So, in the course of my collecting, I’ve bought things from pretty much everywhere in the world. Philippines. Brazil. Thailand. The most far flung places you can think of, and there’s always a way with a little persistence and lateral thinking.
And Japan. Japan is worthy of (and will get) its own post, such are the wonders that can be found there, from obi stripped CDs through delectable vinyl at stupendous quality to laser video discs. And the people you deal with are lovely: friendly, enthusiastic and helpful. Yahoo Auctions Japan is a fascinating playground, and via such services as Buyee and Celga relatively easy (if a little expensive) to buy from. Copies of a factory pressed bootleg of the BBC2 broadcast of the Cambridge 2000 gig are readily available incidentally, and really not expensive. Nice little collectible to have.
And then there are other things. I obtained a couple of excellent CD-R bootlegs, one of which was posted here (the Tokyo 1986 gig). And more recently someone has been producing gorgeously produced CD-R bootlegs with a little “Collectors Edition” label. There are 5 of them, produced in some cases from material I’ve put online, and I bought the first 4 and love them dearly. Whoever did these has given a great deal of thought to the labels and photographs, and does really know his sprout onions. If that is a recipe.
So I delightedly discovered the latest and went to Buyee to bid. PROHIBITED.
Hmmm. Ok. Let’s try Celga. Celga is great incidentally, it’s not as easy as Buyee but the people doing it are very helpful. Celga bid duly placed; let’s wait the customary day for the end of the auction (these auctions are always 48 hours).
I wake up to an email explaining the bid had been cancelled by the seller, no idea why but probably he doesn’t like dealing with proxy services. So I waited for the CD to cycle round again (about a week later) and contacted a Japanese friend who was definitely not a proxy service, had a reasonable feedback rating, and who I was confident would succeed.
We get to nearly the end of the auction and the bid was cancelled. No explanation.
So if you read this and you happen to be aloha6505, or you know who he is, or you can contact him, or simply you can actually buy the sodding thing and sell it to me at an inflated price, leave a comment or message on the “free stuff” tab. I’ve never yet encountered a seller who is this unwilling to actually sell.
It’s not incidentally that this is difficult material to get hold of – it’s all circulating in better quality (judging by the other bootlegs from this guy who has a peculiar equalization preference that knocks out the middle frequencies and boosts the top). It’s that it stands between me and completism. Pity me.