Originally Posted by
Attila Kiss
Oh man, I felt so bad reading this article, because it was me who sent Doug to Metal Mayhem Music in 2000, a company owned and operated by Ryan Northrup.
I used to own the HAWK vinyl in the 80's, but had to leave it behind as I started moving around.
Once I settled, I was looking online to replace the LP. However, without much luck, but I did manage to find Doug via his website. I called him to ask if his first album was ever released on CD. It wasn't, but he was looking for a label that would be interested in putting it out. Impressed to learn, that a guy from across the ocean knew and owned his album, he offered to burn the music on a CD-R for me. What a nice down to Earth guy he is. Still have the CD-R, which he also signed + made another CD-R for me with some unreleased material as well. Honestly, one of the nicest Rockers I ever met (online).
Fast forward. Few weeks later I came across the Metal Mayhem site on the net.
The store was selling pricy, rare Metal CD's, and the owner was looking for trades, as well.
I couldn't afford the CDs, but I had a couple of CD's he was looking for, so I called him on a phone.
Of course, it was Ryan the biggest douchebag and internet scammer I had unpleasantry to cross path with.
We agreed on a few trades, while he asked me what is my interest. I said: Metal Guitar Instrumentals. We established, I have a bigger collection in that genre than he does, so he could not offer me much, except perhaps to get Jack Starr, who was signed to his label, to autograph "Out Of The Darkness" CD, I owned. Then he asked me if I have any 80's Metal act on my wish list who never released a CD, so he can burn a CD-R for me, in return for my trades. All the red flags came on. I declined the offer but remembered Doug and his search for a record label, so I told Ryan about it. He promised to look into the matter and few months later he released the HAWK CD. As a sidenote finally, we did agree on a 2 CD's to trade.
Sounds like a great backstory, does it?
It's about to get grim. I sent him my part of the trade in "Like New" conditions as promised + only the back liner from the Jack Starr CD. I figured Jack only needs one piece to sign.
What Ryan sent me were beaten up, scratched beyond belief CD's and without my Jack Starr back liner, autographed or otherwise. Needless to say, he did not answer the phone nor made good on his promise ever. And no. He did not refund the price of the scratched CD's either.
I wrote off the whole thing as a bad internet experience and never contacted Ryan again, hoping we won't cross paths in the future.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, because I started bidding on e-bay. There was this one store: "Kiss My Disc" from Windsor, ON (at least, that what it said on E-bay the location was) also operated by a guy named... Ryan. Coincidence, that he also had rare CD's and that all the CD's I got from the seller were scratched and without OBI? You be the judge, but first hear me out. I placed bids on few CD's with maximum amount I was willing to pay for them, then hoped I win some. I did win few and on few I was outbid. Now this is where it gets interesting. 5 minutes after the biddings were closed I received an email from "Kiss My Disc", asking if I'm interested in couple of CD where I was the runner up bid, because... Get this... The deal with the winner fell through. Really... In 5 MINUTES??? I looked up who the winner was. Guess who? metalmayhemmusic. You suppose to wait a week before declaring the buyer a deadbeat, not 5 minutes. What I think happened was this Ryan the douche was bidding on his own listings under different names and sometimes he ended up being the highest bid, so he would contact the runner-up if he liked their bid.
Yep. Ladies and Gentlemen that is Ryan Nothrup. I'm sorry Doug Marks fell a victim to him. I know exactly how he feels.