Hi,
I just placed an order in the clubstore and received a confirmation as usual. That told me the "Prince in Hawaii Gift Box" will be shipped not before october 18th. I don't know what the gift box is (I didn't order it) so i checked the store; couldn't find it. My question about it in the Member Connection seems to be removed for some reason...
Anybody knows what The Prince In Hawaii Gift Box is????

Interesting - it could be anything - a cd - a dvd - a dvd & a cd.
You may have stumbled onto something there.

I'm definitely very curious about this - sounds interesting. My guess is it includes the book and the concert on CD - which is a suggestion I made (along with many others, I'm sure) at the time the book was released.

Here's the scoop straight from NPGMC...


PRESALE: Prince in Hawaii Gift Box

Price: $100.00

This deal’s not 2 b missed! This gift set is sold xclusively by the NPGMC. Each set contains:

- Prince in Hawaii hardcover book: this exquisite 142-page book offers a full-color pictorial journey of Prince and the NPG in Hawaii
- Hawaii 2003 tourbook
- Limited edition Hawaii tour t-shirt (L or XL)
- Play in the Sunshine hand-dipped, custom-blended incense
- Controversy Live from Hawaii CD single
- NPG Child poster

All of this is shipped in a gorgeous specially-made royal purple gift box – perfect 4 display and 4 storing ur NPGMC gear!

NOTE: THIS IS A PRESALE ITEM. ORDERS PLACED NOW WILL BEGIN SHIPPING THE WEEK OF OCT. 18.

Instead of just one song, why did include the entire concert? I think $100 is enough to cover it.

Call me cynical, but this seems like a ripoff. I know some fans dig merchandise but can't Prince release more music too?

$135 now

Oh c'mon rialb, it's TOTALLY worth the money. After all, it's in a pretty purple box!!!!

Plus it includes a WHOLE SONG. Isn't the live Controversy track that was released 6 months ago in the Musicology room live from Hawaii? What's the reaction to this like at the club? A manufacturing problem led to the cancellation of The Chocolate Invasion, yet they managed to put together this specially-made "royal purple gift box"? And for only a few dollars, too. Hilarious.

And wouldn't it be great if the CD single contains just the mono version of Controversy as offered on NPGMC?? 100 bucks for mono....

Nono!!

[/quote]

great box, even the official cdsingle is worth $100 !!!!
and you'll love the Hawai Picture book, it's great

xenophobia2002 said:

great box, even the official cdsingle is worth $100 !!!!
and you'll love the Hawai Picture book, it's great[/quote]


X, I know you're kidding.

Jesus Christ. One song and an overstocked book, huh... how about a price-point that doesn't involve taking out a second fucking mortgage?

Shapeshifter said:

X, I know you're kidding.[/quote]

I am not, remember the One Nite Alone Piano CD, that's now worth $100. The NPGMC Box for One Nire Alone Live is worth $125. So, worth more than the membership fee. In time the Controversy Cdsingle will be worth much, because notthat many people will buy it. It will only drop in money if Prince decides to sell it seperatley. But then again, if not more than 2000 copies are made, it will be worth that much, remember the Xenophobia 1 track Days Of Wild Cdsingle !!!!

xenophobia2002 said:[quote]

Shapeshifter said:

yep, that's true

xenophobia2002 said:

The ONA piano CD is a full album (albeit brief), and aside from the 4 teaser tracks released as downloads Year 1, it's all stuff that still, a few years later, has not been released in any form. That's a big difference to this Hawaii Controversy single, which ONLY has ONE track, which has already been made available for purchase as a download 6 months ago.

There's no way the Controversy single will be worth anywhere near as much money. Even the Days of Wild single that you're referring to is an entirely different animal, being that the version of DOW on there was not released previously and has not been released in another format since.

Jesus, is there no limit to the amount of money the club is willing to make people part with in order to hear one fucking track? I think it's hilarious that he's gone from "giving away" a million copies of Musicology to concert-goers to charging a hundred bucks for a t-shirt, an already-released live track, a picture-book, a t-shirt from a group of dates that's already a year old (guess they didn't sell as many as they were hoping at the Hawaii shows), and a picture of a white baby.

What's up with all the baby shit, anyway? Is there no room in the inn for a Prince fan without kids these days?

Hilarious. The moderators at the club are touting the fact that the purple "hat box" makes the set "more than worth" the money. What the fuck kinda fanbase do they think they're marketing this shit to?

The book is worth about $50 dollars, if this item is limited the cd singled will be worth a lot if it is unlimited its value will be $20 or so? Its all a gamble. Mainly I'm buying this for the book and cd single, I'm not sure what to do with the purple box? Maybe I'll shit in it.

Funniest part:

"Large Price: $100
Extra Large Price: $100"

Are they joking, since they know it's ridiculously overpriced?

booyah said:

i think they are referring to the t shirt sizes, lol. they come in large and extra large. at least, i hope they are!

my only question about this book thing is, mainly, in regards to the cheesy posing photos. who the hell wears a full suit and tie to the beach or on a mountain top? DUH!!!

It has been about a year since the whole Vermillion thing. They were a bit overdue for their annual "WHAT THE FUCK?!" moment. Well, it has arrived...

Yikes -- I would even advise my friends and family who know I'm a collector and who know I don't have this set to NOT buy it for me as a gift. Give us rehearsal or concert downloads for $50 each...give us alternate/extended versions of released tracks...but get out of here with the purple hat box nonsense.

If this were the only thing offered from the Prince Pee Wee's Purple Playhouse this year, I'd be awful dissapointed, perhaps even to the point of kicking up a fuss. All this stuff is either already available or kinda sorta not exactly something I'd go into a lather over. I'm not exactly thrilled by the concept of NPG incense, I already paid a very fair .77 for the Controversy download (why couldn't they throw in another live track from Hawaii and make the box a lil' more exclusive?), and as cute as the poster of the baby may be, it's kinda folly to throw in a picture of someone else's kid in a box of Prince merchandise and expect people to be interested. And the box itself may well be purty as a rose, but for a hundred bucks, I'm not swayed by a hatbox. I wanna get the book, but I'd rather pay sixty bucks for something I know I want than a hundred for the book and a bunch of tchotchkes that I really could do without.

Yessirree, I could kick up a real fuss if I wanted to - "what kinda crap are they tryin' ta push on us?!?" Thing is, I don't wanna kick up a fuss. I don't see why I should.

This year I got a new Prince album that I actually LIKED from the first time I listened to it. Ok, it's not the BEST Prince album ever, but I do feel like it's the best he can do right now, and that he actually tried to make an album that people would want to listen to. This year I've been to more Prince concerts than I've ever been to in my life, not to mention I finally snagged front row seats - TWICE - and had some ridiculously singular experiences as a result. There have been downloads this year that I've really enjoyed, there have been fantastic TV appearances and performances, some really fun magazine interviews and articles, and heck - I even got a kick out of this year's tourbook.

It's not like I feel we've all been deprived of anything. Let 'em put something out that's a little goofy and idiosynchratic. Any franchise will license its fair share of stoopid merchandise. Just wait for the next thing to come down the pike that ya think is cool and don't take the dumb stuff to heart. I don't get the static, really.

I agree with Anx...I don't want to pitch a fit over this dumb thing, but I do want to say that it is such a iggnant idea. Value for value, is $100 for this hat box contraption equal to what members got for $100 in year 1 of the club, even factoring in the rate of inflation since 2001 (even though time is a trick, right )? Are there any Prince fans that want a poster of an unknown baby with an NPG logo on it? Aside from the photo book, this set makes as much sense as a violet, scented shoebox with a limited edition poster of a houseplant in it. I'll protest by not buying this.

I look at it as an investment. It's the little wierd stuff that makes it collectable...like the box it comes in. This will be worth a lot of money to someone in the future.

Though I wish I could just get the book. Looks beautiful.
[Edited 9/16/04 23:20pm]

I don't think you can compare this to previous limited run merchandise - after all, this one is being sold to the general public, not just club members, and they are taking pre-orders. The only things that make this exclusive are the single and the hat box. It's very doubtful that anyone ordering this will then try and sell the single to recoup their outlay, as a not exactly exclusive one track disc won't get anything like that sort of money. I've no idea if anyone will want to buy the hatbox as a collectible if it doesn't have any NPG logos on it. Or at least those blinkered fans will already have bought it from the club, as anyone that demented will already be a fam in good standing.
As a marketing ploy it's very clever - they get shot of a lot of overstocked overpriced tat by lumping it together and including one item of real worth. As an indication of what they think of their members, and the type of members they want, it speaks volumes. They don't want fans who only care about the music,they want the slavering idol worshipers who will buy anything Prince related. Hypocrite.
Now, I'm sure if I put everything on eBay except the single, which is the only thing that interests me, I could probably re-coup $75, after all the book is $50 alone. However, when you consider that shipping to Europe is $45, and on top of that I would have to pay import duties(a percentage of the total value including shipping) and vat (17.5% on the total value plus shipping and import duties), thius little package would cost $200. I'd rather buy a 16 track GoldNigga, thanks very much.
Now, if this is an indication of future marketing, is there ever going to be member exclusive merchandise again, or is everything going to be made available to the general public?