From: ponder@oakhill.sps.mot.com (Carl Ponder)
Subject: Quit & rejoin BMG strategy...
Organization: Motorola Inc.  Austin, Tx.
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 00:35:46 GMT

I just rejoined BMG for the 4th or 5th time, I lose count. I
have done some cost-accounting on my memberships with BMG and 
Columbia House, which I have also just joined for the 4th or 5th 
time. What I come up with, is that the average cost per disc has 
been under $7 for Columbia House and under $5 for BMG (this includes
the shipping charges, taxes, stamps, and bills). Having made use
of the following rules, it was actually $6.85 for Columbia House 
and $3.49 for BMG last time:

	1] Quit IMMEDIATELY after you fulfill the agreement.
	    Any of these "buy one get one at half price" or
	    "buy one get one free" deals really *pale* in comparison
	    with the introductory offers. I you want more
	    CD's, they'll be happy to let you rejoin, so long
	    as you'd been paying your bills.

	2] Use the "buddy system" -- you get free cd's for signing
	    someone up, so buddy up with someone and alternately
	    sign each other up before you quit, and have them sign
	    you up when your ready to rejoin.

	3] Go through old catalogs, or call before you join, to get
	   the full list of what you want. Always order the most
	   expensive CD's as the "free" selections, and pay for the
	   cheaper ones. Use the Columbia House catalogs (and phone
	   number) to figure out what you like to have, then screen
	   the list to see what you can get cheaper through BMG,
	   which carries a fairly small subset of the CBS inventory.

	4] With Columbia House, pay for the double-cd's and take the
	   single ones as the free selections. The double cd's will
	   count twice toward filling the aggreement, and cost less
	   than twice a single CD. Of course, this depends on the
	   exact cost of the double CD in question and whether they
	   count it double. 

	5] Take advantage of special sign-up deals. BMG has a deal 
	   where you only have to buy one at half price to fill the
	   agreement. Columbia house has deals where you only have
	   to buy 5 cd's if you buy the initial half-price CD when
	   you sign up.

	6] With BMG, you can even get bonus free CD's when you fill
	   your agreement. For example, they sometimes have a "buy
	   one get two free" deal, which you can use to fill your
	   agreement, giving you two extra CD's for only shipping cost.

The CD club rules seem to be designed to take advantage of people who
are too lazy to quit and too lazy to send back the monthly "reject"
message (but paradoxically, pay their bills). These rules can work to
your advantage. I don't have any opinion about the quality of club CD's, 
all I can say is that you can get the cost down lower than most cutout 
bins and any used place. Since your CD dollar goes a lot further, you 
can afford to take chances and broaden your tastes. Happy listening...

	-- Carl Ponder

ps -- for all you who are asking about the quality of BMG discs,
	this has been an ongoing issue for a LONG TIME. Does
	anyone out there have equipment to take a digital dump 
	from a music CD? We should at least be able to tell
	if they're mastered differently, by comparing the actual
	bits...
Xref: sparky rec.music.cd:7613 rec.audio:14944