4 ms·

Columbia House Offered 8 CDs for a Penny, but Its Lessons Were Priceless (2015)

8 points by 1658512800 4y ago

PaulHoule 4y ago
When we first moved to my current home, which has two rental properties on the lot, we received a large amount of junk mail for a woman we called "the queen of junk mail". Columbia House was a major sender and we found it particularly offensive because there neither a way to opt out or to find out what exactly the offer was going to cost. After throwing out what must have been twenty solicitations we finally accepted one in that person's name. We got the CDs and soon later a bill, which we ignored. We received correspondence for this person for about two years, sometimes threatening, sometimes cajoling. Incredibly, this person eventually received an offer to "come back to Columbia House" -- after accepting that offer we never heard from them again.
fatnoah 4y ago
I've have a couple hundred CDs, most of which were acquired during my college years of the mid 90's. I estimate that about two-thirds of those CDs came from churning Columbia House and BMG Memberships. I was pretty good about declining things, with only a couple unintended purchases. Including shipping, cost of the "buy 1" to get the rest cheap, and unintended purchases, the actual cost of the CDs was close to $3-4 each, which was still a great deal.
yummypaint 4y ago
P2P File sharing created a renaissance whose benefits we still enjoy, but whose spirit continues to be actively attacked by vertically oriented centralizers. It's important to the health of the entertainment industry that piracy remain a viable (though more work intensive) option.
tanseydavid 4y ago
Columbia House even had 8-tracks back in the day. Terra Houte, Indiana was actually a semi-important force in the music industry at one point due to Columbia house.
throwaway4dty8 4y ago
I absolutely took advantage of BMG in the 90s. I was super diligent about the cancellations and I. The end probably spent a grand total of $20-30 on over 100 CDs, most of which I still have to this day. Fun fact. These CDs were special runs just for them, complete with small BMG branding/copyright printed on the labels!

8 points by 1658512800 4y ago

When we first moved to my current home, which has two rental properties on the lot, we received a large amount of junk mail for a woman we called "the queen of junk mail". Columbia House was a major sender and we found it particularly offensive because there neither a way to opt out or to find out what exactly the offer was going to cost. After throwing out what must have been twenty solicitations we finally accepted one in that person's name. We got the CDs and soon later a bill, which we ignored. We received correspondence for this person for about two years, sometimes threatening, sometimes cajoling. Incredibly, this person eventually received an offer to "come back to Columbia House" -- after accepting that offer we never heard from them again.

fatnoah 4y ago

I've have a couple hundred CDs, most of which were acquired during my college years of the mid 90's. I estimate that about two-thirds of those CDs came from churning Columbia House and BMG Memberships. I was pretty good about declining things, with only a couple unintended purchases. Including shipping, cost of the "buy 1" to get the rest cheap, and unintended purchases, the actual cost of the CDs was close to $3-4 each, which was still a great deal.

yummypaint 4y ago

P2P File sharing created a renaissance whose benefits we still enjoy, but whose spirit continues to be actively attacked by vertically oriented centralizers. It's important to the health of the entertainment industry that piracy remain a viable (though more work intensive) option.

tanseydavid 4y ago

Columbia House even had 8-tracks back in the day. Terra Houte, Indiana was actually a semi-important force in the music industry at one point due to Columbia house.

throwaway4dty8 4y ago

I absolutely took advantage of BMG in the 90s. I was super diligent about the cancellations and I. The end probably spent a grand total of $20-30 on over 100 CDs, most of which I still have to this day. Fun fact. These CDs were special runs just for them, complete with small BMG branding/copyright printed on the labels!