Conference cookie::notes$archive:cd_v1

    This sounds a lot like the American Gramaphone packaging of the
    Mannheim Steamroller "Christmas" album.  If so, I vote NO!
    (I told AG that in a letter and they sent we a jewel box for
    free.)
    
    -- Ward

    Packaging, as I see it, is to protect the disk and provide the
    whatever info is necessary about the disk.  The "Prince" packaging
    was a pain for two reasons: 1) It didn't fit the already created
    form factor and 2) The liner notes were not in the packaging 
    surrounding the disk.
    
    Does anyone have any idea what it costs to make those jewel boxes??
    And then have to assemble them??
    
    Believe me, if it was your business, you would be thinking of
    alternative ways to package these disks.
    
    As for the Robert Palmer packaging, I find it meets the established
    form factors, has room for the liner notes, protects the disk,
    and probably costs a whole lot less than the jewel box, which BTW
    can be a royal pain to open!
    
    I sort of prefer this new packaging over the old one.
    

    Re:.2
    
    > As for the Robert Palmer packaging, ...(it) probably costs a whole
    > lot less than the jewel box....
   
    Did you pay a whole lot less than you would had it been in a jewel
    box?
    
    I've never owned a non-jewel box CD, so I can't speak for its ease
    of operation, but I'll be willing to bet it *does* cost less than
    a jewel box.  My problem is with the companies who don't pass on
    the savings to the consumer.  If, indeed, the cardboard is an
    improvement, then it's the first time I can remember an improvement
    being cheaper than what it replaced -- a great opportunity for the
    industry to provide a better product and not bite the hand that
    feeds it.
    
    BTW: This notes file contains extensive kvetching about cardboard
    vs plastic elsewhere.  Anyone remember where? (Christmas Music /
    American Gramaphone / ?)

    Not to start this note on packaging all over again, but I obtained
    the disk through a CD club so the "real" price is a mystery.
    The public probably won't see the price come down for a while,
    even if all the cd's used this package.  Eventually, they probably
    will cost less, but let's face it, the industry will price the stuff
    at whatever the market will bear regardless of the packaging.  Even
    DEC keeps prices the same on products that were cost reduced to
    gain more profit, but when the volumes drop, the prices usually
    will follow.  It would be nice if it worked the other way, but it
    never does and probably never will.
    

    The afore mentioned kvetching is contained in 199.  Follow me there
    for an interesting new development.
    
    Gary

A big NO on this packaging.  It warps in damp weather.  The warping is bad
enough to distort the plastic carrier that holds the disc.  I worry about
possibly warping the disc itself in this container.

About all that can be said for it is that it's an improvement over the
earlier cardboard packaging scheme (e.g., PRINCE album).

--PSW

It would seem pretty obvious that the jewel box is expensive .... but I have
seen replacement jewel boxes selling for $1.00 a piece RETAIL (not wholesale).
Expensive from a company's viewpoint maybe, but not enough to affect greatly
the selling price of an individual disk.  $14 w/o, or $15 w/ case?  Big deal.

In my opinion, the price is so inflated already that the extra expense of the
jewel box is irrelevent (please, no rebuttals that the price includes 
recovering development costs).  The jewel box works and nothing else I've seen
works as well.

Matt

    Ah, come on, the plastic in the jewel-box cases probably costs a
    couple of cents more than cardboard costs.  The $ difference wouldn't
    matter to most of us collectors (we own just over a hundred CDs;
    I don't know if that is large or small collection, these days) but
    it does matter to a manufacturer.  If we all complain that the
    cardboard case is not acceptable, we ought to be able to persuade
    the manufacturers to not use it, without getting stuck with a higher
    price for our efforts.

    Plastic of this type (for jewel boxes) is typically on the order of 15
    to 20 cents/pound.  Once the initial mold tooling is done, the
    manufacturing cost for injection molding is very low (that's why they
    are starting to mold cars out of plastic). 

	RE:.2  Opening can be a pain with the plastic jewel boxes

	Obviously, you haven't learned how to open a jewel box!

	There's a trick to opening them.  If you try to open them like
	a book, it sticks.  The real way of opening them is to lay
	the box in the palm of your right hand.  Hold your right thumb on the
	right side and your right pinkey on the left side.  Next, with your
	left hand, place your left thumb on the bottom side and your left
	middle finger on the top side.  Now lift up with your left hand, and
	it magically opens!  You'll have to try this with a box and see.

	_ Mike

    I'll be darned...I knew there had to be a better way to open them!
    
    Burns

    To paraphrase .10 .....
    
    As long as you grab the top and/or bottom edge and not the right
    edge (opposite the hinge) the jewel box opens very easily.
    

Being a car CD user, I found an easy 1.1 handed method of opening the jb's.
By holding the hinge end of the box in my wheel hand, I position my thumb and 
forefinger at the top of the right hand edge of the box like this:
			----------+
				 /|
			--------+ |
				|.|<  forefinger
			front	| |
				| |
		<to hinge	|.|<  thumb

With a twist of the fingers (forefinger lifts the cover, thumb pushes the rest 
down), the box opens.  

						No accidents yet
							- JP