Jos Janssen wrote:

>...  As I said before amongst these ranks, I cannot think of any valid
>reason (except maybe that you might think it looks highbrow in your CD
>stand) to buy ANY complete edition just because it's complete.

VALID REASON #1: MONEY
Boxed sets are often discounted significantly when compared to buying music
a single disc at a time. A 50% savings can more than make up for a clunker
performance or three.

If this is not a valid reason for you, please consider contributions to my
Fund to Promote Full Priced Purchases. I promise that every penny will go
towards the purchase of single performance full priced recordings.

VALID REASON #2: TIME
They are a convenient way to quickly obtain a given repertoire. You do
not have any reason to expect to improve your results through strategic
purchases without taking time to do research. This time is not always
available and/or some may prefer to instead spend it listening.

Sometimes I'll buy a complete set to gain initial exposure to some music
for one or both of the above reasons before zeroing in on other recordings.

VALID REASON #3: ARTISTIC PERSPECTIVE
Many of us collect multiple recordings of the same music. For such
collectors, it can be desirable to obtain a given artist's perspective
on a corner of the repertoire.

There you go, three valid reasons and I never even had to scratch my head.
All offered in the spirit of public service....

Tim Dickinson