Columbia House, the mail-order music club, is shutting down
here's some news: columbia house is shutting down here's some other news: columbia house is still a thing www.yahoo.com/entertainmen...
RIP to the greatest scam of all time. we got basically free tapes and records, and all we had to do was plead ignorance when our parents got a letter and a bill
It’s probably because I owe them $100+ from always ripping them off.
Hahaha! 16 year old me got away with it!
What were some of your Columbia House purchases? I don't remember them all, but I can say I joined in 1989 and Bobby Brown, Paula Abdul, Anita Baker, and Luther Vandross were all in my initial set. All hip hop was listed as R&B. I got in trouble with my dad for ordering "Sex Packets"
I also got out of hock after a couple of years and then they made me another offer of 12 free tapes and I got myself right back in again
i got my stepdad to order me jagged little pill
I used Columbia House as an opportunity to switch from cassettes to CDs in my sophomore year (I knew we were gonna get a computer with a CD Rom drive). I remember my first order had Tears Roll Down: Tears for Fears Greatest Hits, a collection of sax driven jazz albums, and R.E.M.'s Out of Time.
This and Cameo's Word Up! Like you, I got out and then back in a few times. www.discogs.com/release/1517...
I got the Jimmy Buffett box set (Boats, Beaches, Bars, and Ballads) through a friend looking to close out her membership.
Pet Shop Boys B-Sides en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alterna... Junior MAFIA Conspiracy en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspir...
There was a guy at my fraternity house who just kept making new names to sign up for Columbia House with. Will never forget the box of CDs addressed to Josey Wales.
Your friend was an outlaw
A fraternity house I frequented had a giant bulletin board dedicated to collection notices from Columbia House addressed to the likes of Ted Nugent, Fred Rogers and Elvis Van Halen.
We 100% did this in college. Yul B. Sauri was legendary. So was Alice N. Vunderlund. Dudes would camp out trying to intercept the mail every day, it was chaos.
Columbia House the 71-year-old mail-order music club that is somehow still operating in 2026, is finally shutting down for good. ”After 9/15/26, Columbia House will no longer be accepting new orders,” reads a recent message on its website. “You can still purchase books with your credit card online
No way? Still? This must be connected to the end of minting the penny. 😟
Ma probably had to cough up like $200 before it was all over with that for me. There were a few solid ones, not really near enough.
Got some cool stuff from them over the years - at least half my Weird Al cassettes for sure.
FTR. I am “bought Columbia house CDs” years old, not bought Columbia House records and tapes” years old
Not that it matters bc officially everyone on bluesky is 38 years old
I scotch taped a penny or two in my day (CDs and eventually VHS tapes for me, then DVDs; Columbia House and BMG)
Two of my buddies ordered a bunch of tapes from CH in the sixth grade. It was all stuff their moms would never get them because of the Parental Advisory stickers. They just filled out the form and sent it in. I guaranteed that was never paid.
My personal Columbia House story... I signed up in 7th grade when, like most junior high boys, I was going through a hardcore Led Zeppelin phase. I already owned self-titled and Zep IV but I wanted the album with a certain song that had a killer guitar riff but the chorus had no lyrics so I didn't
know the title. I decided to basically pick every Zeppelin album except Physical Graffiti because as a double album that counted as two picks. So the cassette came (yes, cassettes) and I had to fast forward through every track of every album, including In Through The Out Door and Presence.
while my friends were buy lots of 90s 1 hit wonder albums i ended up getting ZZ Top, 3 Dog Knight, Steppenwolf, CCR's greatest hits, at least 1 moody blues album & i'm unsure after that. Since i have a CD player again I should bust one out to listen to.
so it wasn't just us chumps in the western burbs gettin' the led out in junior high? interesting