I'm copying this (& my comments) from another board, but thought it would be of interest here.

My comment:

How interesting I would never have guessed that DD (absolute crap customer service) & CCM (the best) were the same company!

Super D is an import cd wholesaler who has also gone into retail on ebay & Amazon the last couple years. Some may know them as Phantom, which was their name for many years before they became Super D.

Oddly, some of us have found that Super D's retail pricing is LOWER then their wholesale.

I don't know what the original source is for this article:

"O.C. wholesaler buys CD, DVD seller
November 11th, 2010, 11:30 am posted by Jan Norman, small-business columnist
Super D, an Irvine-based music and video wholesaler, has bought the assets of financially troubled Infinity Resources in Illinois.

Infinity is best known for its catalogs — Collectors’ Choice Music and Critics’ Choice Video — and DeepDiscount.com.

Super D has annual revenues of about $150 million and 200 employees. Infinity grosses about $80 million and has 280 employees including 90 in a call center, said Super D President Jeff Walker.

Although the exact terms of the deal were not disclosed, Walker said Super D assumed Infinity’s financial liabilities including approximately $11 million in accounts payable. The transaction was financed by PNC Bank in Pasadena with an expansion of Super D’s asset-based line of credit and a 24-month term loan. The monthly payment is $200,000 and Walker said he is confident Super D can pay the loan off early.
Super D, founded as an independent music store CD Listening Bar in 1990, has more than 340,000 titles of CDs, vinyl, DVDs and video games in stock from 32 countries. The company distributes to 1,500 independent music retailers, chain stores and e-commerce web sites and direct to consumers.

“We are moving our business toward direct-to-consumer sales rather than retailers because there are fewer stores with less selection,” Walker said. “We’re also moving more into DVDs and a good portion of Infinity is in DVDs.”

Super D and Infinity officials had talked briefly about an acquisition in January, Walker said, but the first serious conversation was in October and the deal closed within four weeks.

“They were in a dire situation,” he said. “They had overbuild their facilities and didn’t manage as tight as we do. Then they fell behind in payables to vendors, and their bank tightened available capital.”

Hmm...wonder what this might mean for DeepDiscount's big sale that comes up around this time of year... And I've always like Collector's Choice, though it's been a couple of years since I've bought anything from them.

DeepDiscount hasn't had the good sale for a couple of years now. They scaled it WAY back to the point where it's been of no interest to most. Their sale used to be great, but it's been gone anyway. Maybe this will help bring it back, though I doubt it.

People on the board where I found the article have lately been reporting receiving cd's from DD with no jewelcase!

Oops, another senior moment!

About a year ago, I had suspected there was some kind of connection between CCM and DD, as my CD purchases from both were mailed from the same address, and the packing slips were of the same format & font. I had meant to post to IMWAN to ask about this and then totally forgot about it.

So in essence they were selling higher priced items via CCM to those who would pay higher prices, and they would sell the same items at lower prices via DD to those who shopped around for better prices. An interesting modus operandi...

I knew there was a connection when I was looking for the (at the time) just out of print Rupert Holmes box, and only Collectors Choice and DD had it still in stock. DD had the better price, though.

I love CC, but I've moved a couple times in the last few years and keep bugging them for catalogs, which I never receive.

I was under the impression that CC had gone mostly online. Check out there website http://www.ccmusic.com

I still get a catalog from them, although not monthly like I used to. That may be because it's been ages since I actually ordered anything.

I get several catalogs from them per month -- their general music catalog, their R&B catalog, their country catalog, their movie catalog, etc. I've only ordered from them a few times, but they seem to like me! Since their prices aren't particularly competitive & they generally don't do free shipping, my interest in ordering from them tends to be limited to their exclusives. I do almost all of my CD buying nowadays from AmazWAN (including third-party sellers) and Borders.com (with coupon codes).

Based on an email I received today, it appears that they also got Smithsonian Folkways in the deal.

Geff,

Could you elaborate? Smithsonian Folkways is (was?) part of the the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. If Super D has a new relationship with them, it would have had to have been part of another, and very different, sort of deal than their acquisition of CC/DD. Perhaps it's a new marketing relationship or something.

They were showing Smithsonian as an addition next to CCM. I was also surprised. It's possible that they just added distribution, but I chose to take it that way due to the formatting of the email & the known purchase of CCM.

Here's the best I can reproduce it without the graphics, the actual email is graphics based.

(one line) SDID welcomes the Infinity Entertainment Group family of labels

(one line) NEW Collector's Choice Music Hepcat Bandai Entertainment Smithsonian Networks