(swiped from Love4OneAnother.com - remember that?):

January 29, 1998
The Ball is ready 2 roll!
Shipping of the long-awaited package Crystal Ball begins 2day! If u were 1 of the smart ones who ordered early, u will not b 4gotten by 1-800 NEW FUNK... your packages have "goodies" inside not 2 b found anywhere else... once u receive your Newfunk, please drop us an emale... we would love 2 hear from u!

I was one of the smart ones who cancelled my order and bought the set at Best Buy weeks before anyone I knew received their pre-order copy. What a disaster that was.

I just got mine last week!

I picked it up casually last april, unaware there was any controversy surrounding it's release...

I kinda miss those days.

I thought this was going to be a thread about Prince's hernia.

I'm glad somebody brought this up. Are you guys still pissed that we didn't get three full discs (75 minutes plus) of outtakes? I know I should have let this go a long time ago but I'm still mad about how he screwed us. It's not like he didn't have enough material to fill three cd's!

what a bloody fiasco! i bought mine best buy weeks before anyone i knew received their copy. i knew about the 100,000 copies sold requirement, which seemed like a rather extreme number but it was a while before i realized just how fucked a lot of people were. i know people who still never got their order. not kidding!

What about the packaging. Online booklet my ass! He actually tried to make that an innovation! What a joke!

A very lame release!!

The "artwork" is dramatic
the choice of songs is dramatic
the sequence of songs isn't chronologic

There are just a few songs from the 80's on it ... and most are late '80. Prince doesn't know his own genius-times??

I have zero interest in songs Prince didn't release in the 90's ... most songs that were released are very lame

theblueangel said:

Bollocks! My package didn't have any goodies in it, just Crystal Ball. I also bought it in Best Buy long before my pre ordered copy arrived.
Nothing's really changed in 6 years with PP distribution difficulties, has it?

Xorn said:

I would have liked an original CD of Kamasutra. This was the real gem of this boxed set.

theblueangel said:

aaargghh the nightmare!

Doozer said:

i know it didn't seem like all that much at the time, but kamasutra was sent to those who ordered thru newfunk. i'm glad i got my 5-disk version via npg; u can't get kamasutra anywhere else.
for the record, i liked the "bootleg" feel of the package and sequencing. the online booklet was/is great!

I gotta admit, I kinda wish I had gotten a copy from the club at some point, just b/c I'd like to have Kamasutra "officially." I mean, Kamasutra itself is the crappiest of craptacular crapples but for "completist" reasons it'd be cool to have the official disc I suppose.

Plus the other 4 cds I have are all fucked up after years of them all falling out of the stupid case when I open them...most of the plastic center pieces were broken when I BOUGHT the damn thing, ugh. But yeah, I got it at some record store in a mall on the other side of town...waaay before most people who ordered it got it. I think I was lucky enough to have found it within a week of the first reported ball-dropping. Heh.

That Way-Back Machine is awesome...VERY interesting to go back and read what kind of things they had on there then...1000% more content than they have now, and for free.

Funny, as cold as it is today, it was even colder 6 years ago the day I bought CB.

I still haven't got the one I preordered. Hope they ship it soon. :looksatwatch:

theblueangel said:

They still haven't remembered me, yet. And surely, it should have read 'If u were 1 of the stupid ones...'?

i bought it at best buy six years ago today, got it before most every loyal online orderer, ran out to my car put it in, and was almost immediately disspointed. it's still one of the prince releases i listen to the least.

I loved it. Still do.

Technically, I am still waiting for mine. I got billed, then it never came. They sent me a Tshirt but never Crystal Ball. I called them over and over and nothing ever happened. They eventually turned it over to another company and said that it was out of their hands.

That was the last time I tried to purchase something from Prince online. The Artist! more like the Scam artist!

I ordered it and recieved a copy of The War instead.

fms said:

I liked it too. I picked mine up at Best Buy. I still haven't had a bad experience with the NPGMC yet. How cool is that?

As soon as I saw the tracklist posted online shortly before the ball dropped, I knew this wasn't what many of us had hoped for...

A question for all those who ordered and never received: Was your credit card still charged? Did you get it reimbursed? I keep hearing about these situations, and I hope there aren't hundreds of people who got charged and just let it slide...

TRON said:

Me too. Bought mine from Media Play back in '99. I had no bootlegs or anything so it was new to me.

Can one still get the art work for the round jewel case?

I can't believe it's already been 6 years. Seems like yesterday. That was a really fun day, the day I came home with that. Regardless of how much better the set could've been, there's a lot of great music on it. It was a treasure trove at the time. I was greatly satisfied with it after just hearing the first two tracks on disc one.

MrDjRon said:

You mean the infamous "HOCKEY PUCK" ??

jtgillia said:

My sentiments exactly!!!

I had time at home today, so I had my annual run-through of Crystal Ball, The Truth and Kamasutra.

There is some really solid material on here. And Kamasutra has really grown on me. I like it a lot now.

MrDjRon said:

Yes. The jewel box version came with the round booklet. Just buy the set used (there are shitloads out there going for around $15) keep the booklet, and sell the set back, or on e-bay. Or keep the extra set for the car or lake get-away.