I saw an ad in the New York Times that said "old bestsellers are affordable first editions." The advertiser was offering less than a half dozen "old bestsellers" for $50. This is a blatant deception, clever as it is. The books they refer to as "old bestsellers" had first editions numbering in the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands. They are by reputable and popular authors and are easily available online for 99 cents or less.
It's hard to give a sucker an even break, so I won't try.... other than to comment: clearly shoppers are upset to the point of killing store employees in a mad rush to find a "bargain." They don't stop to think that even the "bargain" may be vastly overpriced. Yes, some kind of unspoken covenant about shopping has been forever broken. Yes, the internet (initially a project of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency) had something to do with this. But, shopping really turned into a religion about the time the "consumer" movement gained traction back in the 1960s. As the movement grew--- industry and government regulation, "consumer"-directed advertising ("citi never sleeps" etc, which once referred to early ATMs)-- a notion formed, that it was not nice to exploit consumers with all their buying power. The effect of the movement has basically been opposite. Intelligent consumers have turned into chumps, to the extent they will knock over a Wal*Mart temp employee on their way to buy something that they don't understand the value of.
There was a variation on the "consumer" movement that started building in the early 1970s, the medical version of it was called HMO or PPO, etc. This was the idea that the consumer had the right to harness America's vast health care assets not just to cure problems, but also prevent them. Gee, guess what happened? Screwed again. Guerilla shopping didn't come out of nowhere. People are mad. Dine 'n dash is considered a game. Let's face it, if a restaurant operated like a hospital ER, you'd be paying for that meal the rest of your life. Unless you were flat broke when you got there, without a pot to piss in. Of course, the restaurant wouldn't serve you but the hospital would, the ER has to, the government says so. They pay the bill so the hospital won't kill you, at least not that day.
I digress. Where I'm going with this is, you're being overcharged, OK? You can't do much about it. At moneyblows books and music we have sold online since 1997. Almost everything we have is hard to find elsewhere. But, thanks to the internet, even hard to find stuff is easy to find. So, we have to price appropriately. We are still in business because we are self financed. Our prices reflect reality because our existence is month to month and a bank doesn't own us. There's no merit or virtue in this, other than, you can look for something, find it and buy it, at our store, without any more fear than any other transaction, and maybe even less, since we don't have a line of angry people outside.
Hey, what else can I say except, Shop Here! Or , if you want to find us on amazon, or abebooks, or gemm, or netsoundsmusic, or musicstack, or choosebooks, or biblio, or zvab, just ask and we will send you to the right place. If you want to use a search engine to find us, just type moneyblows. You will find us out there. You may even find some other funny stuff which we have no control over. People like to fantasize about money blowing in the wind. But let me tell you, in the last 11 years, people have bought stuff from us that is now worth more than they paid. We believe in collectible books and music and have plenty of it ourselves that you'll never see offered for sale. OK, I've rambled on long enough. C'mon in and enjoy the selection!

Money At Rest

We must do our part in lowering prices, so we have an unbelievable coupon deal for customers from today (Nov. 23rd) until the end of December 2008. When you are filling in your order, contact us for a code which will give you Half Off! And, whether you use the coupon or not, if your order totals $25, we'll throw in free shipping. That's at www.shop.moneyblows.com only. We've recently put up some DJ quality stereo 45 rpms for $2.75 each.
Kinks
Willie Nelson
Queen
Quiet Riot
Billy Joel
Petula Clark
KC and the Sunshine Band
Orchestra Manoeuvres in the Dark
Bette Midler
Murray Head
Paul Simon
Little Richard
Mickey & Sylvia
The Miracles
Rosanne Cash
Martha Reeves and the Vandellas
U2
Taco
The Clash
Stray Cats
Police
Bob James
Robert Plant
Meri Wilson

If you act quickly and use the coupon you could get all these 45 rpms (most of them stereo 7" singles) shipped to you free for around $30 total. That's a heap of value, and an example of what's available all over moneyblows.com for lovers of vintage music items, replacement record needles-- and, coming soon, thousands more music and books!

Hi, it's me from moneyblows books & music. As life catches up with original creation, we find that that the term "money blows" is being used by various innocent bloggers and other internet denizens. Many people do not realize that the term "money blows" was coined and copyrighted by none other than myself. I am not opposed to granting permission for "fair use" of this term, although I certainly did not create the economic conditions which make it so apt. I do recall, when discussing my creation of this term with someone on a bus in Chicago in the late 1990s, they asked me if it related to some kind of prosperity philosophy. Isn't that ironic, as they might say on NPR. Or, if it were proposed as a question, which many NPR interviews use to frame their comments, I might respond, "absolutely." I do "absolutely" own the term "money blows" or "moneyblows", whether expressed in one word or two words, and anyone reading this or not reading this needs to ask my permission for its use.
It really doesn't matter how you are using it. I am currently using it for my collectibles business, for moneyblows books and music. It is completely appropriate because the value of collectibles is as elastic as the value of money. But even if you are using the term to relate to money, you still need my permission to use the term "money blows" or "moneyblows" or anything like it. My attorney tells me to contact him if ever I have any problems with people thinking they can use this expression, but I told him, hey, I'll give permission if folks only ask. So, let me know if you have any questions. I should mention, some variations on the expression, I do not own. I do not own "honey blows", for example. Or "money knows," which you should use with abandon. Or "money flows," as google suggests without any particular justification. Think for yourself, and use any expression you want, but in any language, ask me before you use "money blows" or moneyblows". Thanks.

Shop.moneyblows.com

We have been gradually rebuilding our storefront where you can shop conveniently with us at shop.moneyblows.com
A quick run-through of the categories we've currently populated on the site:
10-in. vinyl records includes just a few items, never has been a big category for us. But, I should note a few very special items in this category: a Jazz at the Philharmonic Vol. 3 which is rare by any standard, featuring Al Killian, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie. And, something from the 1960s, published by Scholastic under the direction of the National Gallery of Art: Music of the Shakers. It's got some pretty incredible songs and performances on it.
The next category is called 12-in. singles. Also a small category consisting of mostly dance singles.
The next category is 45 rpm vinyl records. These are the "big hole" singles, and we have quite a few in all musical styles. To find the single you're looking for, best to use the Advanced Search and enter the artist or title.
We also have 78 rpm vinyl records for advanced record collectors who like to dig deep into vinyl history. There's some great blues, jazz, and r&b here, a smattering of pop and country, and it's also best to use the Advanced Search and enter the artist or title.
Our biggest music category by far is LP vinyl records, with thousands of rare and collectible albums, and also some copies of albums that are very popular, including rock from the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s. This is the "bread and butter" category that put the "music" in our store title. An interesting piece of trivia, is that we were the first dealer to offer vinyl records on amazon.com. You can imagine that before amazon starting offering their site to anyone with a few records to sell, we pretty much owned the category of vinyl records in the early amazon "zShops." (zShops was the "z" in amazon's "everything from a to z.") Likewise, before we pioneered the category of records on amazon, we were a books-only ecommerce outfit.
Other categories: we have some audio CDs & tapes. Once again, a very small category, but with some very distinctive and hard to find jazz and classical items. We were also a pioneer in offering record replacement needles online, and you may find this category very helpful, for we have needles and cartridges not only for many vintage players, but also to replace the needles found on some inexpensive common turntables sold today at places such as Radio Shack and online from Audio Technica. Under the growing category of music history we currently have some rare copies of The Clarinet magazine, and Etude Magazine, both of which are music teacher type specialty publications. We have many more publications to add to this category, so keep an eye out if you are interested in music-related publications. Another popular category is vintage sheet music, not just for collectors but also for musicians who seek the rare verses to important tin pan alley tunes, or original arrangements or chords. Finally, we are building back our books and magazines category, starting out with the very popular Architectural Digest periodicals that have become such big sellers for us.
So, that's a rundown of the current categories, and watch shop.moneyblows.com for more every day!

Autumn day in 2008, books & music going strong!

In the previous post, we gave links to URLs where moneyblows books and music can still be found. I'd also like to announce that the shopping cart is being rebuilt and you can find it (in its current state) at http://shop.moneyblows.com/
It's been quite a ride as we tried to work with our hosting company of 10+ years to restore our previous storefront. To any of you with shopping cart programs, you already realize how difficult it is to back them up, as so many of the pages seem to be controlled by scripts. So our elegant and content-filled storefront was essentially lost to the ages while the tech support people at our hosting company stalled the inevitable demise by making empty promises, leading us to think we might be restored.
In all of our dealings, we take a long-term approach, and we suffer fools gladly. It doesn't help business, though. Nor have other occurrences in the wider world. It's a good time to remind our readers that collecting books and records is not only enjoyable but lucrative. As Warren Buffett recently pointed out, the value of the dollar in the near term is a big question mark. As demand for things like oil goes down, prices have gone down. At the same time, the socialization of banks will play out in the rescuing of real estate developers with their questionable assets. This will probably prolong the recession rather than hasten its demise. We're not economic experts, but I can report that the value of our own collectibles is only increasing, not decreasing. Another virtue of the "long-term" approach is, there's little desperation unless you feel it in sympathy with your fellow man.
If you enjoy our posts, read some of the past ones and you'll learn a lot about why moneyblows books & music can help you find what you are looking for.

Books and Music on the internet

Today marks a new generation for moneyblows books & music. We are hibernating the moneyblows.com address for awhile, ditching the virtual "storefront" in favor of stashing our stuff in the internet bazaar. The web storefront has become a standard feature of e-commerce, helping us grow our world market. There's a special place in our hearts for the aggregators who host premium services such as moneyblows books & music. We trundle around in America past, giving new life to old flea market treasures. We have been at this for ten plus years now, so we have learned a lot about stopping the advance of old age in collectible books, magazines, and records. We anticipate what someone might want and maybe we have it when they come looking. The internet is great for that.
So, here are links to some of the places you can still find moneyblows books & music, while our legacy address of moneyblows.com is being re-purposed.
http://moneyblows.gemm.com/
http://moneyblows.musicstack.com/
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BooksBrowse?vendorclientid=28647&page=CLIENT
http://www.amazon.com/seller/workbook
http://base.google.com/base/search?authorid=1044995
http://www.moneyblows.net

To our wonderful customers for record styli, we eagerly await your feedback on our new approach to self-service record stylus ordering. Please use this link to browse through pictures, and then just call us when you see the one you want! Here's the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/michael.pellecchia/Needles
And, while promoting a picasaweb album, might as well also point you to album covers we have recently posted:
http://picasaweb.google.com/michael.pellecchia/MusicLPSpecials
Let us know if you like to shop for record styli this way. Moneyblows Books & Music was the first internet only store to enable self-service stylus selection, so we have done our part to get some old turntables rolling again. Viva vinyl.

A story and a side note

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I was sitting around at my brother's record store, in the shadow of the White Mountains, listening to some blues.
"Is that Gatemouth Brown," I asked.
"You're close," said the bro.
"T-Bone Walker."
"Close. next generation. Swingmasters."
"I was gonna guess that."
"You were scared to."
"No bad notes, that's for sure."
The phone rang.
"Yes, ma'am, we'll be right over," my brother said after listening for a minute.
He locked up the shop and we hopped into my 1987 Volvo 240 wagon with the graffiti all over the headliner.
A couple miles down the road past some mountain vistas, my brother pointed, and we pulled into the driveway.
A nice lady came out and Harlan introduced her to me. She led us down the hatch way into a dank cellar.
All around, there were boxes of old vinyl records. She gave us the tour.
"There's these," she said, pointing to some dank mildewy boxes.
"Those over there." We took a peek at the frayed dust jackets of tag sale detritus. Beethoven box sets. Stereo demonstration records. Old 45s.
Squeezing through the cramped aisle of the tiny basement, a light peered from the distance.
Harlan said to the lady, "can I show him that?"
We followed her toward the light. The dank smelly boxes gave way to some tidy shelves. The shelves had records on them. Ones that didn't smell.
The doorway to a little office was creaked open. That's where the light was coming from.
"This was where he worked," she said.
Until he dropped dead of a heart attack while skiing, she went on. Her late husband was pretty close to retiring from his teaching career. This was his lair, where he sold and traded records by mail order. His great hope was to retire, and then spend full time transferring his massive record inventory to the internet for sale at collector prices.
We tiptoed into the brightly lit office. Not a hair was out of place. I looked straight ahead at the shelf opposite me, just above eye level.
I reached for a record album that was displayed up there.
"This!" I hope I didn't startle the lady.
"I used to vacuum the floor to this record!," I said, startling myself.
By way of explanation, I said, you know how loud a vacuum cleaner is. Well, I would play this record even louder than the vacuum cleaner. It changed your whole perspective on mundane household tasks. Made you feel like you were in a widescreen epic film instead of chasing dust mites on the floor.
"And...."I climaxed, opening the box to show the booklet accompanying the record, "the liner notes are by my good friend, Michael H. Price."
This was none other than the rare limited, annotated reissue of The Big Country soundtrack, by the estimable composer Jerome Moross.
You could have heard a pin drop.
My brother Harlan let out a big gasp.
"We were just listening to the Swingmasters Revue," he noted accurately.
I put the record back up on the shelf.
We all looked at each other.
"I guess we better finish this job," somebody said.

#############

Side Note: Moneyblows.com has been down for all of August and our hosting company hasn't been able to get us back up yet. We apologize for the inconvenience