ALRIGHT.? After several years of being out of commission, I'm ready to get back into the swing of trading.

My primary interests are ANY "Dark Star" Dead shows from the Godchaux era (basically October 1971 - retirement in 1974: I can't stand the New Years 1978 "Dark Star") that I don't have.

TRADING RULES: Alright, let?s talk about trading. My rules are: I'm always up for trading cd-r's, and I also trade cassettes. I don't mind doing B+P's for newbies. I?m a newbie-friendly trader.

I don?t want anything that?s commercially available in an OFFICIAL recording?bootlegs are fine.

I don?t want anything on bad or generic media: if you?re making cd-rs for me, use good disks! No Memorex, no Office Depot brand, etc. Imation, Sony, Verbatim, etc. are good. Ask me if you have any questions about blanks.

I don?t want anything that has .mp3 in its lineage.

I don?t want any cd-rs that aren?t burned DAO. I don?t want any cd-rs that aren?t properly copied, usually EAC. I don?t want anything that?s unlistenable.

I?m not a big fan of AUDs (audience recordings), but truly choice AUDs are fine.

WISHLIST: My main trading interest is Dark Star: I love everything the Dead played, but my collection centers on cd-r versions of Godchaux-era Dark Stars. I don't even need the whole show, just the Dark Star sequence!

NOTE ON GRADING: I'm a musician, not an audiophile. I grade tapes according to the balance of the mix (can I clearly hear what Lesh, the drummers, etc., are doing?), then the quality of the recording otherwise (hiss, distortion, taper's screw-ups, etc.) An A=great balance; B= problems with balance. A crystal clear recording that's poorly balanced will get a B+. A slightly hissy recording that's well balanced will get an A or an A-. Also, I'm grading AUD's and SBD's separately. A SBD graded B will sound about as good as an AUD graded A, IMHO.