Around this time of year I see a lot of those three-CD sets that come housed in tin boxes. Some are holiday related and others are not. I've even seen a John Lennon tin box compilation this year.

Some of these are tempting because the price is right (such as one box featuring the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack with two related CDs for about $15 at Walmart) but I was wondering what was inside, as I'm not crazy about the idea of keeping my CDs in an oversize tin box. Are there regular jewel cases inside? And is the sound quality up to snuff on the compilations? If anyone here has bought these I'd like some opinions.

As I recall, the Charlie Brown set includes the most recent remaster in a digipak... other than that, I picked up a decent 3-disc Stax compilation a while back, nothing rare or obscure but good value for only $15.

http://www.imwan.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=20249&hilit=charlie+brown+jewel+holiday

The "A Charlie Brown Christmas" tin box I found a couple of years ago had Jewel Cases (click on the link above to see pictures and description)

Nice! I obviously recall incorrectly here... I know the album-only reissue was in a digipak, so that makes the $15 tin even more of the way to go!

Very cool! Thanks for the info, guys.

The Herb Alpert & TJB tin box is also very good with all remastered tracks.

Rick A.

The one thing I've noticed about those "box sets" is that on the surface, it seems like a great deal! 3 CDs for $15.99 or under.

But then you look at how many tracks you end up actually getting and it's a waste of blank CD space, as most times you could fit the total contents on two CDs, easy.

But they're obviously marketing these at casual fans who think "Hey, I'm getting a bargain! And this cool tin can!"