In praise of 4-2-7

[mprince]

I bought a bunch of records (30+) from @4-2-7 a month or so ago, still getting through them. Just wanted to say it was like no AK transaction I've ever had. First, Dan called me and spent about 30 minutes on the phone with me to find out what I was looking for, what I liked, artists/genres/etc. Aside from that we had a nice conversation as there is also a tiny bit of commonality in our systems as we use the same turntable. We also discussed condition - I was looking for records to play, Dan doesn't grade his titles, rather he reassured me he wouldn't send me a record he wouldn't put on his own table and I would get nice records. This part of our conversation was important to me as we've all been there - we buy stuff advertised as "NM" and receive "G/VG" (aka the curse of Discogs).

Over the next week or so I got several PM's from Dan, saying things like "I found this title, it's my personal copy, but if you want it you've got it". He also found a mint copy of a record we had discussed (Body & Soul by Joe Jackson), he already had a good copy in my stack and he replaced it with this one, still in shrink.

I received my package from Dan and was blown away. Packing was impeccable (all the records were packed in a single box, the same boxes record stores get). Many had been ultrasonically cleaned already and put in nice poly sleeves. In any case, I spent a morning going through the stack, putting most on my vacuum RCM and cleaning them up (mostly sleeve dust). I also found he sent a lot of records/compilations that were in some of my "fringe" genres, and I'm glad he did - a nice addition to expand the reach of my collection.

I haven't played every record yet (although I am playing a sweet John Mayall record from the purchase as I type this), but based on visual inspection and the ones I have played, I am mightily impressed. Most of what I received plays and looks very high on the rating scale. I'm building my record fund for another purchase from Dan soon.

Best part of this was, I could tell Dan enjoyed this process of helping me through this process - he is very good at it. Just wanted to recognize Dan here as in the daily grind of posting and natural differences of opinions on here, sometimes we are all nothing more than a user name with anonymity and online personalities that are easily taken out of context. I'm glad I got to interact with Dan outside the forum and look forward to the next time.

 

[4-2-7]

Wow, thanks Mike, that's a very nice review and great effort on your part to post it. You where great to work with so that makes everything easy trying to get you things you like and wanted. Communication and trust is important in working with others.

When you wanted to try one of my priced per title surprise boxes, but mentioned you like XWY titles, it's better if the two parties can flex on price and volume. If I have to hold to x amount of titles all at x dollars each you get that at a very fair price. But if you want specific titles that all can vary in price, I'm not going to charge someone 10 or 15 dollars for 5 dollar records. Just as I'm not putting in 25 dollar records in the 4 dollar priced boxes. The way we worked it out I was your personal record shopper in an area you could not go.

And yes I get great enjoyment when I can match the right records and music with the right person. I'm not going to have records collecting dust in my collection that are someone else's holy grail. It was fait and karma that I found that mint first pressing of Body & Soul by Joe Jackson. I though I was selling my only copy to you and then found it in another area. While the one in my main library was nice the other was prefect like it was bought yesterday.