I got mine eventually, but when I saw it at Sam Goody or wherever that was, before mine actually came, I bought it. I don't know what kind of willpower it would have taken to leave all that new Prince material just sitting on the shelf, while I'm over here sitting by the mailbox, but I didn't have it.

Oddly, my puck version came crashing down off of the shelf on its own 2 days ago, and shattered. I didn't even know it made of the kind of material that could shatter. I never was really impressed or happy with the packaging but now that it's gone, and would cost at least $150 to replace

herb4 said:

mikeyaddict said:

Still waiting for my lotu$£lower t-shirt. They said they sent it.

Man, those shirts must be amongst the rarest of Prince collectibles LOL.

I'd heard about Crystal Ball and the mail order thing then one day I walked into a Blockbuster and there it was.

.

I have one and I only wore the damn thing once. Still looks great in that box in storage.

SchlomoThaHomo said:

I got mine eventually, but when I saw it at Sam Goody or wherever that was, before mine actually came, I bought it. I don't know what kind of willpower it would have taken to leave all that new Prince material just sitting on the shelf, while I'm over here sitting by the mailbox, but I didn't have it.

Oddly, my puck version came crashing down off of the shelf on its own 2 days ago, and shattered. I didn't even know it made of the kind of material that could shatter. I never was really impressed or happy with the packaging but now that it's gone, and would cost at least $150 to replace

$150 is the average price for the four-disc clear case edition. The five-disc version sells for at least $100 more now.

I don't recall any problems/delays with receiving mine in the mail along with the T-shirt and The War cassette. Like many others here, I also bought the retail version in the jewel box when I saw it in stores.

Se7en said:

Mine came in a decent amount of time (for that era). They threw in a War cassette, a few Emancipation large-fomat lyric books, and a Jam Of The Year T-shirt.

Well I never got any of those extras

Krid said:

I received mine pretty quickly, I remember that. It was the 5 disc version, incl. The Truth and Kamasutra.

If I remember correctly, I also got a T-Shrt and a cassette with "The War" on it. Anyone else got this as well?

I loved the CB album and also The Truth, but I don't think I ever listened to Kamasutra in it entirety...

Same here!!!

SchlomoThaHomo said:

I got mine eventually, but when I saw it at Sam Goody or wherever that was, before mine actually came, I bought it. I don't know what kind of willpower it would have taken to leave all that new Prince material just sitting on the shelf, while I'm over here sitting by the mailbox, but I didn't have it.

Oddly, my puck version came crashing down off of the shelf on its own 2 days ago, and shattered. I didn't even know it made of the kind of material that could shatter. I never was really impressed or happy with the packaging but now that it's gone, and would cost at least $150 to replace

A lot.

Se7en said:

Mine came in a decent amount of time (for that era). They threw in a War cassette, a few Emancipation large-fomat lyric books, and a Jam Of The Year T-shirt.

My "The War" cassette and T-shirt came separately some months later - it was a nice surprise.

Given the range of experiences here, it all seems pretty shambolic, bless him.

I think it took them over half a year to post mine, but then I received 2 sets (separately, both by DHL), even though I only ordered one and was only charged for one. Both came with a T-shirt and one package had The War cassette too.

.

Prince's business ventures were spectacularly amateurish when it came to implementation and logistics. I remember reading it somewhere back then that their order management system for Crystal Ball consisted of a bunch of Post-It notes and I don't think it was far from the truth.

.

[Edited 1/19/19 4:05am]

Kares said:

.

Prince's business ventures were spectacularly amateurish when it came to implementation and logistics. I remember reading it somewhere back then that their order management system for Crystal Ball consisted of a bunch of Post-It notes and I don't think it was far from the truth.

.

[Edited 1/19/19 4:05am]

Man, you aint shittin.

I think a lot of it was down to his left brained tendencies as an artist but also attributable to his lack of delegation and insistence on total control. I can totally picture Prince just having some business or website idea, telling his underlings to "handle it" and then giving them little to no instructions, real information or decision making power to actually implement it. Plus, dude had a lot of issues with follow through and steadily losing interest in ideas.

NPGMC was the closest he ever got to a real success and even that was often problematic. When fans didn't get their promised 5 CD's, he snarkily one-offed "C-NOTE". When his forums and his message board filled up with posts that cointained anything but praise for him and acquiescence towards his religion, open communication got censored and created a really boring echo chamber devoid of real discussion. The servers would crash when concert tickets went on sale.

LotusFlower.com offered little more than old video clips and songs we all heard a million times behind an impenetrable interface . Dude couldn't even get t-shirts made and sent out.

Krid said:

I received mine pretty quickly, I remember that. It was the 5 disc version, incl. The Truth and Kamasutra.

If I remember correctly, I also got a T-Shrt and a cassette with "The War" on it. Anyone else got this as well?

yep,this is exactly what I got too and it came pretty quickly.

Crystal Ball mail order: I never received mine,

my order was made with my parrents Visa back then, that could maybe explain the fail?!

My local music-shop (Stereo Studio) here in the north of Denmark, they had Crystal Ball at the same time the orders were sent out.. (maybe even before).

I did buy both versions, 1 from the shop and 1 from a helpfull fan in Copenhagen. The last mentioned included Kamasutra, (though maybe the worst and akward Prince-recording ever?).



However I really enjoy this fine album (minus the remixes they are a terrible waste of space, but most of the material is EXCELLENT..

Great album imho, but a shame my order never came through back in 1998..


I made a very expenssive phone call, to Paisley Park (maybe it was: 1-800-New-Funk?), I can't remember the number now, but..


- unfortunately it did not help, I never got any package..

I found this in my mailbox today:





I want my $77.77 back.

NouveauDance said:

I never got around to ordering direct because the exchange + shipping to Canada were a bit pricey for University student me and my then girlfriend snagged a copy of the retail version for me on a family trip shortly after it came out.

Here's the weird bit though - despite never ordering, I received a copy of The War cassette in the mail! Not sure how or why, but I was pleased to get it!

TwiliteKid said:

I never got around to ordering direct because the exchange + shipping to Canada were a bit pricey for University student me and my then girlfriend snagged a copy of the retail version for me on a family trip shortly after it came out.

Here's the weird bit though - despite never ordering, I received a copy of The War cassette in the mail! Not sure how or why, but I was pleased to get it!

Canadian as well, and while I did order the album, I cancelled the order when I found the 4-disc jewel case at HMV several months down the road. Then a few months later, there's 'The War' in my mailbox!