Death Cab for Cutie's "The Barsuk Years" Vinyl Boxed Set

$

33

In 2012, the record company known as "Artist in Residence (AiR)" acquired the rights to Death Cab for Cutie's first 7 recordings.  It was likely the most horrible Boxed Set, cursed with more than a year-long wait AFTER fans' credit cards absorbed the $250 purchase fee AND $50 in S&H, the final product arrived.  It was a disaster.  The cloth-bound box was crushed during shipping for many folks (we started a FB group to keep each other apprised of what was going on), and 5 of the 8 remastered discs were mislabeled.  (Remember, there are 8 vinyl records in the box, since the last one, "Transatlanticism" was a double record).  Mine sat, in disgust, untouched.  But enough people claiming credit card fraud, like me, hit AiR to respond that they would be reissuing the five mislabeled vinyl records ASAP. 4 months later, they arrived.  What you are bidding on is ONLY the five mislabeled, remastered, 180-gram vinyl records delivered in white anti-static sheets.  No box.  No slipcovers. 

THE BOXED SET WAS SUPPOSED TO INCLUDE:

- You Can Play These Songs With Cords (33 rpm; vinyl exclusive to this box set – jacket features original cassette artwork)

- Something About Airplanes (33 rpm; die-cut jacket and layered vellum insert)

- We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes (33 rpm; die-cut jacket)

- The Death Cab for Cutie Forbidden Love E.P. (45 rpm; vinyl exclusive to this box set)

- The Photo Album (33 rpm; includes original full-size photo inserts)

- The Stability E.P. (45 rpm; vinyl exclusive to this box set)

- Transatlanticism (45 rpm double-vinyl with full-size 12-page book insert)

- Numbered cloth-bound box, individually signed by the band

WHAT 1,500 OF US GOT:

- A numbered, cloth-bound box that was not signed by the band, in fact, the box has all sorts of issues, like separating each record within its own special slot, except the slots broke during shipping.  Many were streaked with black ink from the dividers.  The box itself was just poorly designed and while mine was not damaged (other than the slots issue) externally at all, several purchasers did get beat up boxes.

- Printing so delicate on the cloth, that you could swipe it away just by sliding your finger across it a few times.

- Inside of “Transatlanticism” was a small “cardstock” that had the signatures of each of the band members, the box was not signed, nor were the covers of each vinyl record.

- Our charge cards incurring a $250 + $50 S&H charge nearly a year before Resident at Large fulfilled their orders.  They didn’t respond to inquiries and – in my case – my credit card dispute after so many delays, I finally charged them with fraud, and they repeatedly assured my bank that the set would come out as promised.

- 8 Vinyl records, 5 of which were completely mislabeled.  So you might go to put “The Photo Album” on and instead, the songs from “The Stability EP” were what played. 

- The way the actual band dealt with this issue was to simply distance themselves from it, which was easy to do since Barsuk gave Artist In Residence control over issuing a boxed set.

WHAT’s IN IT FOR ME?:

-Many folks missed out on being a part of this box set process.  In the end, Artist In Residence eventually sent all of us the 5 mislabeled records, correctly labeled.  They knew we were not going to return a package with the goofed up records unless they paid postage, and they at this point likely didn’t make a dime.  So I have five mislabeled, 180 gram vinyl records that some DCfC fans would enjoy owning as is, since you can now buy ALMOST each and every record in the boxed set from places like Amazon, and you’ll pay between $22.99 - $32.99, depending on which DCfC records you want on vinyl.

-To an audiophile who doesn’t have the cash to buy one of these sets on Ebay or Amazon, the majority of prices you will find literally exceed $999.99 dollars, so here’s your opportunity to hear this music on vinyl, and duly priced accordingly.

-You get 5 vinyl records in just simply simply no-static white inner sleeves.  They will be mislabeled.  They won’t be in a box.  There will be no autographed little piece of cardboard.  There will be no album cover art.  What you are buying are DCfC remastered songs in white sleeves.

WHICH ALBUMS ARE THE FIVE YOU’D BE SENDING ME?

Here’s the meltdown of what you’d be getting, again with no external slip covers, no art, no box, no autographs.

- The Photo Album with The Stability EP’s label

-The Stability EP with You Can Play These Songs with Chords’ label

-You Can Play These Songs with Chords’  with We Have the Facts’ label

-We have the Facts with Forbidden Love EP’s label 

-Forbidden Love EP with The Photo Album’s label

WHAT YOU WON’T GET ON VINYL:

- Something About Airplanes (33 rpm; die-cut jacket and layered vellum insert)

- Transatlanticism (45 rpm double-vinyl with full-size 12-page book insert)

That’s it.  There’s the story.  Here’s your deal.  I’m going to leave this as a 10-day auction because folks stopped looking for the boxed set given how small a press run it had and the rumors of how bad the entire thing ended up.  There are actual YouTube videos of fans opening their "prized" DCfC keepsake" and then telling you how screwed up the whole thing ended up being.    

I’m an audiophile.  I love opening up the jackets and reviewing the artwork, photos and lyrics.  In many cases, there wasn’t much artwork or information to gather on the very earliest records, since they came in cassette form or EP’s with very little information.  Would I be interested in this if I really didn’t want to shell out $999 dollars and not even know if I was getting the mislabeled records inside a beaten up box, or be told exactly what I would be getting?  Perhaps.  So for pricing, I took an average from the five records you’ll be receiving and using the lowest singular price of any of these records available individually on Amazon (note: “Forbidden Love EP” is not available at all).  You’d be paying $112.85 and if ordered all together, no shipping.  Bought individually, you’d pay $132.71. 

So to establish a base price for making this worth my time, I took $112.85 divided it by 5 (5 albums) and my auction starts at $22.57 FOR ALL FIVE RECORDS.  S&H will be a separate charge that I’d love to waive, but between a special protective box and the weight of 5 180-gram vinyl records (2.5 lbs.) I can’t. 

So, the auction begins at a paltry opening bid of $22.57, less than the price of some of these records individually. 

ACTUAL SHIPPING I WILL BE CHARGING THAT I’VE ALREADY HAD USPS PRICE OUT TO ME AND I’M NOT ELEVATING TO MAKE MORE MONEY:

Within the U.S. will be $6 USD.

Within Canada it will be $21.90 USD.

Within most other countries it will be $31.60 USD.

 Payment via Paypal.  All orders are dispatched within 48 hours of confirmed receipt of funds deposited into my Paypal account [Monday to Friday]. 

Please note that I do not sell through eBay to: Argentina, Chile, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine or Romania.