I remember as a teen hurrying home from school to check the mail, hoping it would contain a large parcel from the Columbia Record Club. Inside would be ten or eleven records that had cost me only a penny (plus shipping and handling). What a deal!
And then, every so often, I'd get another package with more records I had bought at discount prices (plus shipping & handling).
It was a fun and exciting way build a music collection. The ads in magazines and Sunday newspaper supplements had dozens of album cover photos (or tape cassettes, as in the ad at the right), and all you had to do was check the ones you wanted. A whole world of music was right there on the page. And after you got your free records, you only had to buy a few more at full price (plus shipping & handling) in order to qualify for a free record of your choice.
Part of the fun was the anticipation. It usually took 7 - 10 days between placing the order by mail and actually receiving the records. I suppose I paid with a check -- I can't recall. This was before the days of Pay-Pal or online credit card payments.
Members would get a catalogue every few weeks with pictures of all the hot albums of the day. If you didn't respond by a certain date, you'd automatically get the monthly album pick, along with a bill. This was called a negative billing option, which ran into some controversy in the 1990s.
Those memories came back to me today as I read that Columbia House (the current name of the old Columbia Record Club) filed for bankruptcy yesterday. It was formed by CBS Records in 1955 and in its glory days, they probably had a membership in the millions. Today, according to the story in The Wall Street Journal, they are down to about 100,000 members, and they only sell DVDs. No LPs, cassettes or CDs -- no music downloads.
Today's teens have no idea what the Columbia Record Club was. Many probably don't know what a record was. And imagine kids today -- or anyone for that matter -- waiting a week for music. We're used to getting it immediately, for 99 cents or less.
It was a different world back then.
David,
I didn't buy records this way but was caught by a negative billing option once about 20 years ago when I bought one book from a publisher that specialized in titles for graphic artists. I began getting piles of unordered books and bills. I am not a graphic artist and had no use for the books nor did I want to pay for them. It took far too long to stop. Having been burned, today I am wary of using my credit card for any subscription. Should I want to get rid of it the only efficient way would be to cancel my credit card which, in turn, would affect my credit. So I pay by check when possible.
Posted by: Jeanne Byington | August 11, 2015 at 04:48 PM
via Facebook ...
Yes. It was just pennies to start. Then came the Big Invoice.
Posted by: Hank Goldman | August 11, 2015 at 08:45 PM
via Facebook ...
Yes it was, David ! Except for Vietnam and the KENNEDYs being assassinated, it seemed like better times. Everything today Is, Rush, Rush, Rush. (especially our ages)
Posted by: Henry Mendelsohn | August 12, 2015 at 09:07 AM
David... I could never figure out how they did it until my son-in-law became an executive for Columbia House... they were actually in the shipping and handling business. If you can remember, you paid a shipping and handling cost for every CD, Tape... unfortunately you and I go back to vinyl... that they sent you regardless of how many were bundled in a package. But oh the joy finding 11 choices out of the hundreds to pick from.
Then of course their was the book clubs... anyone interested in a 1956 Oxford dictionary?
Posted by: Ira Brody | August 14, 2015 at 11:16 AM
@Ira -- Shipping & handling... a business in itself. But you are right about the joy of finding 11 choices from hundreds of options. A decades-in-advance preview of what online shopping is like today.
Posted by: David Reich | August 14, 2015 at 12:44 PM