Christopher Jefferson wrote:

> Fellas,
>
> The funny thing was, I went up to a mini-convention in Daytona Beach, FL
> this past weekend ("AnimeExpress '98") and one of the folks travelling
> with me had almost nothing in his portable CD collection save Son May
> CD's. That leads me to believe that he picked up most of them at various
> cons for bargain prices. Then came the shocker: even at the con we
> attended, the other three guys I was with were able to purchase CD's for
> fifteen bucks a piece! Who made these CD's you ask? Son May. The
> contrast with Anime Weekend Atlanta couldn't have been more pronounced.
> There, for instance, one couldn't purchase a GFC CD for under 35 dollars
> U.S.. I suspect that those CD's were the real deal. I didn't look, but I
> think that in Daytona they were unloading their SM stock.8-) As for me,
> I stuck with an Urd key ring and a "Ghost In the Shell" t-shirt.

Cons have been, indeed, one of the major places to find SonMay CDs and not just at

anime conventions, but a lot of Sci-Fi conventions that have a dealer with some anime

wares. Fortunately, many of the bigger cons these days are banning the sale of SonMay

CDs. I wrote an editorial about this whole issue once for Animecca in which I chided

the dealers for being greedy (cause they can sell more SonMay CDs which have a higher

profit margin despite the lower price).

> Still and all, Son May succeeds because of the financial imperative of
> cheap CD's. I have not bought one because I accept the arguments of Les,
> et al, that the original manufacturer and the seiyuu artist (for
> example) should get the fruits of their labors, not some pirate in
> Taiwan, Macao, or Shanghai.

I have a couple of SonMay CDs myself which were, like someone else mentioned earlier,

gifts from people who didn't know any better as well as two that I bought myself back

when I didn't know any better. Since having learned better I've gone out and bought

the original CDs in order to make up for the error.

Les

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Les Jenkins is The Casual Otaku       (http://casualotaku.dreamhost.com/)
To email me remove the words NOSPAM from my address.        Atheist #1085