Trading Policies

(New to trading? - Here is a great introduction to CDR trading and bootlegs)

In short: no sound quality rating = no trade, 1 CDR for 1 CDR, quality CDRs, DAO, no MP3s, no cases, airmail.

Long version:

  • I DO NOT SELL ANY CDS - NO EXCEPTIONS.

  • If you do not have sound quality ratings for your shows, please do not contact me. I do not have time to ask you to rate shows I'm interested in.

  • Whoever initiates a trade has to abide by the other person's policies (if you offer a trade to me, then I expect you to abide by these policies - if I initiate a trade you can expect me to honor your policies and you can ignore these).

  • Trade one-for-one (2 CD sets count as 2, etc.).

  • Use good quality CD-R's - no cheap CompUSA or no-name discs (I think Taiyo Yuden are best, I get them here).

  • Record DAO (Disc-at-Once) - no 2-second gaps between tracks for live shows!

  • Take every care to make the best quality copies you can, you'll get the best quality recordings I can make in return.
    I get many CDs with clicks, pops and little bursts of "static" introduced by poor duplication strategies; the following techniques should always be used to generally eliminate the introduction of such pullution.
    - Copying directly from another CD often introduces clicks and pops, make a disk image first. See Exact Audio Copy for a great free tool to insure flawless recordings.
    - Limit your write speed to 8x or less. Even if your writer does not report any errors at higher speeds does not mean that clicks, pops and other distortions are not being written to the target disk. If you have an older PC even 8x may be too high.
    - Don't run other applications when burning CDs (same reason as the last item).

  • No MP3-sourced recordings.

  • Don't mail jewel cases and don't expect me to. ALWAYS package the discs in a padded envelope, or a box with lots of padding around the discs, and NEVER put two discs on top of one another, unprotected, in a single sleeve!!! .. put them in individual sleeves, or put paper between them. If you lay them directly on top of one another they can melt or 'fuse' together during the shipping process, which of course ruins the discs entirely. If shipping internationally you must ALWAYS use AirMail, as Surface Mail is WAY TOO SLOW! If shipping domestically, please do not use Media Mail, it takes too long.

  • I stand by all discs traded and expect you to do the same. I have made an effort to note any defects I detect on discs rated 9 or above, but I do not listen to all disks critically and may miss something. If you find something not noted on a disc rated 9 or better, please let me know: I will check my disc and either send you a replacement or update my description (if you're really unhappy you can pick a different replacement - so far this has not happened). Discs rated below 9 may have undisclosed imperfections - that's why they're rated that low, do not expect perfection. I do not validate all of the tracklists, times, etc., that I receive from other traders - there may be discrepancies, let me know if you find one and I will update my data.

  • If we have not traded before, you send first.

  • Please do not post my email address on your site. There are many robots crawling the web and farming email addresses for spam lists. Feel free to link to my site or my art index or list my email address as trades [at] leopig.com but please, no "mailto" links. Thanks!

  • Do not write on the discs (if you use anything other than water-based markers it is likely to leak through and destroy the CD, sometimes in less than one year), just include a note or post-it with each one indicating what is on it. Please email any setlists, source information, and artwork that you have (I have a 3 MB limit on each email message, so you may need to send several emails if sending a lot of art).

    If you spot something on this site which you know is available as an in-print officially released CD, let me know so I can remove it from my list (this happened once so far). I do not knowingly trade copies of CD's which can be purchased legally. The "studio" CDs I have listed are (to the best of my knowledge) either out-of-print or available only as imports (in which case I will only trade them domestically).

    If you have an Ebay feedback page let me know...its a good source to know if you're a good trader. Here is mine.

    Contact me at trades [at] leopig.com if you want to offer a trade.

    If you want a web site of your own (for trading or anything) you can click here to get one from the place where I work for half off their regular price (as low as $6/month!).

    Kevin (Blairsville, GA USA)

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