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Parnassus
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Parnassus
Classical Compact Discs and Records
Parnassus
Classical Compact Discs and Records - FAQ
- How long has Parnassus been selling
records?
- Why is your catalog arranged by label and
number rather than by composer, artist, or some musical
category?
- How do I know I have a fair chance at
getting things from your catalogs before they are sold?
- What happens when I order a record from you
and you don't have it anymore?
- But why can't you accept blanket requests
and let me know whenever you get something by my favorite
artist?
- How can I let you know which records to
search for if I don't have an artist's or composer's
discography?
- Why are your policies different for LP and
CD searches?
- How do you grade your records?
- Why are out of print CDs sometimes so
expensive?
- What shipping method do you
recommend?
- What is the quality of your custom order
items?
Please suggest other questions to us via email
Answers
- How long has Parnassus been
selling records?
We began business in 1969 as a publisher of historical reissues
on LP. In 1971 we issued our first catalog of used and rare LPs.
We began to sell CDs in 1985. [Back to the
top]
- Why is your catalog arranged by
label and number rather than by composer, artist, or some musical
category?
We used this practice for our first catalog simply because it
eliminated the need for making decisions. (Does a recording of
Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite conducted by Toscanini go under
Grofé or Toscanini?) When we became computerized and had
to make a decision for formats, we asked our customers what they
preferred. A very large majority (about 2/3) went with the label
and number arrangement, which would now be almost impossible to
change. [Back to the top]
- How do I know I have a fair
chance at getting things from your catalogs before they are
sold?
Years of experience has enabled us to send our print catalogs and
our e-mail notifications on a schedule which usually gives all
customers an equal chance at getting an item. This may not be
true for any single catalog but it does average out. We do our
best to give print and e-mail customers equal chances. If there
is a recording you are looking for and you don't want to take a
chance on having it sold from a catalog before you see it, see
the next item for information on our search service. [Back to the top]
- What happens when I order a
record from you and you don't have it anymore?
Unlike all other dealers we know, we file a request for this item
automatically and notify you when we locate another copy. We do
this for all orders unless the customer has let us know that he
or she doesn't want it done. We also, again uniquely in our
experience, accept advance requests for items customers are
seeking. We do have some rules for these requests but they are
simple and, we hope, easy to comply with. We can accept requests
only for individual items. [Back to the
top]
- But why can't you accept
blanket requests and let me know whenever you get something by my
favorite artist?
The way our computerized system works, new arrivals can be
matched up with existing requests only when the labels and
numbers match. Otherwise it would be necessary to trust the
boss's memory, which nobody would want to do. [Back to the top]
- How can I let you know which
records to search for if I don't have an artist's or composer's
discography?
Ask us for help in compiling a want list. We can sometimes offer
compilations from our database or photocopies from our catalog
files. This doesn't always work (a request for George London
recordings will also turn up everything by an orchestra with
London in its name) but it can often be helpful. [Back to the top]
- Why are your policies different
for LP and CD searches?
Practical experience. If we don't have an LP a customer wants, we
may see it again or not, but there's a fair chance the customer
will still want it. If it's a recent CD (and we do offer many of
those), it's still easy to find somewhere else, if not at our
wonderful bargain prices. And if it's out of print but we didn't
ask a premium price for it, we're unlikely to find it again at a
price low enough. We do accept requests for out of print CDs, but
only with the understanding that if we find them the price is
likely to be at list or somewhat above. [Back to
the top]
- How do you grade your
records?
We grade visually, checking by playing a record only in cases of
uncertainty. It is the only practical method. (We remember one
dealer who play-graded every record. She soon went out of
business because she couldn't list enough records.) Our gradings
are backed both by our decades of experience and by money back
guarantees on every item we sell. [Back to the
top]
- Why are out of print CDs
sometimes so expensive?
The nature of the music business changed drastically between the
LP and CD eras. In the age of LP relatively fewer recordings were
published and they tended to have much longer catalog lives. CDs
come and go with great speed, often being withdrawn after a year
or two. Out of print CDs are generally scarcer than LPs, even
today, and they often command higher prices than their LP
equivalents. [Back to the top]
- What shipping method do you
recommend?
We use both UPS and U.S. Postal Service for domestic orders, at
the customer's preference. UPS tends to be slighly quicker and is
slightly more expensive. Both services have extremely low rates
of breakage and loss. For a business of our small size, only U.S.
Postal Service is practical for shipments outside the U.S. UPS
and DHL rates are prohibitively expensive unless customers have
much larger volumes of shipping than ours. [Back
to the top]
- What is the quality of your
custom order items?
Since we offer over 2,000 privately issued CDRs, we cannot
comment on every one of them. We have heard many of them and
their overall quality has been excellent. The CDs we produce from
earlier issues should be identical in quality to the originals.
The DVDs we produce are generally of excellent quality, subject
to the limitations of the source material. [Back
to the top]
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