Three stars for offering very inexpensive records reel-to-reel recordings, and yes, cassettes and 8-tracks back in the day! It seems like you got eight [Yelper friend Michael N., is probably right, it was twelve vinyl records or cassettes] options of the "records" you wanted for a penny! The catch was you had to promise to purchase a set number of records or tapes in the future at full prices plus shipping. I remember seeing their direct mail ads as well as ads in magazines while I was growing up. Turns out the fancy phrase for this type of distribution is "negative option billing." Looking at old ads, thirteen records or tapes for $1.00 still seems like a great deal, especially these days! Columbia House filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2015; however, it looks like they may still cell CDs. Columbia House cited the intense competition of digital media and the resultant declines in the recorded music business. I'm glad I didn't "Go a little Crazy" and join their club! read more

For those who remember, was there a more hopelessly naïve business model than the Columbia House Music Club? Heavily advertised in large circulation periodicals such as Parade and TV Guide the come on was too good to pass up. Send them a penny and they'll send you twelve vinyl records or cassettes (later CDs) of your choice as long as you promised to buy twelve more at an absurdly inflated price over the next year. I had legions of friends who built entire music collections by sending in numerous memberships under ridiculous fake names. I wonder if they ever caught up to Ben Dover, Dick Hertz or Buck Nekkid. Even as a teen you had to wonder how they made money off this termite infested marketing strategy. They're all but gone now but I to wonder how critical they were in the career trajectory of Billy Joel and the Captain & Tennille who always managed to be the featured artists of the month. Dick Hertz sends his regards and magnanimously awards five stars to this mail order dinosaur. read more

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Although I agree with the other reviewers' assessment of the Columbia House Record Club, I believe this Terre Haute, IN location was a pressing plant only. Not a distribution center (I could be wrong; perhaps it was both). It was the main pressing plant that manufactured those delightful styrene 45rpms for lots of smaller labels that weren't able to press their own. The styrene are easily identified by their glued-on labels & their intolerance of anything heavier than perhaps a two-gram tonearm weight before getting "gray groove" & having that styrene sizzle during playback. You can also identify styrene buy the sound it made when you flicked your fingernail on the disc. It sounded different than if you flicked a vinyl 45rpm. read more

Back in the late 1980's to the mid 1990's Columbia House was my 'go to' place to get movies on VHS tapes. Back in the day movies that came to VHS could be rented at video rental stores but buying new releases for movies on VHS was a different story all together. You could buy these movies but the price ranged anywhere from $89.00 to sometimes over $100.00 and the majority of these films would be at this price for a year or more. Same went to as to how fast studios and marketing reps would actually make the transition from movie to video which could be six months to over a year. In the end the movie you loved in the theater would take about two years before you could actually buy it for a reasonable price on VHS tape. The exception here was huge blockbuster films like Jurassic Park that made an obscene amount of money and the movie would be available everywhere. Usually that would have to gross about $100 million for that to happen. Enter Columbia House. You could get new releases for about $24.99 about 4-6 months(providing you join the club and do the commitments which was buy a certain amount of movies and accept or deny their movie of the month that they suggested to send to you) out after the film initially went to video which in turn gave the avid movie collector (like myself) a early start to getting a new release for a decent price compared to shelling out a hundred bucks for each recently released movie. Columbia House also had great VHS series for many TV shows and had great two anime series where they would send you movies to check out on a trial basis and if you like it you buy it and if not you mail it back with the postage on them. Columbia House clearly had the edge over most VHS retailers even though they may have been slightly higher than retail stores. They also had a music program too for CD's but they got the new releases the same time everyone else did or slightly later and for a higher price so that never attracted me in wanting to join the music club. Enter DVD's! Somehow marketing reps,movie studios and retailers realized that releasing new movie releases sooner than what they were doing with VHS increased rental sales and sales in general because the movies were fresh in consumer's minds. With this Columbia House actually fell behind in keeping up with getting the new releases and still had really jacked up prices where you could just go to Wal-Mart and get the same thing right away without waiting for it in the mail and for a better price. I stopped being a customer to Columbia House then even though they had a decent selection of movies but the competition was too hard to beat and that 'edge' that they had with getting VHS tapes earlier than any other store was gone. Of course they can't sell movies before the release date with out getting severe monetary penalties and that was always the rule with selling new releases before their announced date. So back in the VHS era I would have given Columbia House a five star rating for that edge and having great series for VHS. So now my rating is 'Meh' , a two star rating for not being able to keep up with everyone else(go to their website and see what their new arrivals are, they are DVD's that have been out quite some time!). It is really a disappointment that Columbia House is not what they used to be but hey that is how it is in a world with high competition and changing technology. Now if only I could find a way to watch DVD's from another region without having to dig out my crappy region free Coby DVD player that only wants to play some of the time. Guess I could do some uploading from online too! Oh the choices! Hey, I am just glad that I can buy newly released movies on their launch date with out having to wait so long. Sorry Columbia House, you just ain't cool anymore. read more

They kept sending me their selection of the month even after they told me they would not. I had to call them during the middle of the day a few times and they didn't have an 800 number. read more