Trick Or Treat: Best Of String Cheese Incident

So first the music - if you enjoy SCI then there is plenty to enjoy in this 9 CD box culled from their famous Halloween shows. The ones featured are:Atlanta 1998Philadelphia 1999Portland 2000NYC 2001LA 2002Las Vegas 2003Madison 2004Las Vegas 29.10.2005 (2 bonus tracks)The total running time of these CDs is well over 11 hrs with the length of the extract from the gig varying from date to date. There is a lot of fun involved as you would imagine with themes being present with some gigs, pirates travelling around the world musically at Philadelphia, a train ride around NY in NYC, and famous rock deaths at LA. Many of the tracks featured here are covers all with the SCI stamp on them. In addition to the full 9 CDs, there is the bonus of the 2CD album best of the box and a double vinyl album for your turntable to enjoy.In addition to the music, the box also contains a signed limited edition print of the spider's web (mine is 910/1200 so there are not many of these boxes around), a selection of mini-posters advertising the gigs, a 12 page (longbox size) booklet giving details of the gigs, a 24 page book of photos of the 2001 gig, so all in all a lovely package one would think.No for the downside of this box - the cheap packaging. This is not a cheap or budget box so I expected quality packaging, however this is not the case. On opening, on top is present the L/E Print and the photo book, the book being slotted into a lightweight sheet of card, both slots in mine were severely torn and the book loose. On lifting the first two items out, there is another flimsy cardboard tray containing the double CD one side, the 9CDs, booklet and mini-posters the other. Although shrink wrapped, the multi CD package is a fold-out where it has to be unfolded 4 times to get at CD9, so you need a large flat surface to do this. Everything has to be taken out including the tray to get at the vinyl album at the bottom, but the tray is so very flimsy it has to be to be emptied first!My box was very well packaged for posting, with the shrink wrapped set being in a close fitting cardboard box, then in an outer box with packing so the internal damage is down to the cheap and nasty presentation of the box set. To balance things up though, at least they did not use plastic boxes for the CDs, it is all cardboard and paper.Although I have a gripe with the format of the package, I have no regrets with purchasing this set, it is just a shame to spoil a beautiful collector's item by cheap packaging. I watched this item for quite a while before purchasing and managed to get it in the end for well under sixty pounds from Amazon themselves, however the next day I noticed the price had jumped up again, but if you want it, keep you eyes open. If you can't afford the box, then grab the 2 CD set.