What's the deal with the Master Reels and trading?

[dissention]

Originally Posted by MacMan

Does anyone know when Bill surfaced with these Masters? I have some Masters, but they were all acquired through trading... and I've been trading for a few years - and it baffles me that I never saw him post anything anywhere advertising these for sale... Yet all of a sudden these things started popping up and alot of people seemed to find him and the Masters... Just curious if anyone knows any of those details...

And part of the story I heard was that he in fact was given them... but with the condition that he pay back the person that fronted the purchase. The initial buyer took out a loan from a family member - passed away - left them to Bill and Bill took out a loan and paid off the source of the cash. That could be total crap... It's just what I had heard.

They first started making the rounds in late '00, then got more wisespread by the summer of '01. The first ones to be circulated were the Julia reels and the Dealer reels, along with a few other others like Lady From the Mountain.

I, too, was told the same story (only they were given to him by a friend, not a family member), but I just have to question the validity of it. I mean, by all accounts, Bill isn't a very big Mac or Stevie fan (but big enough to make loads of money off of them and their fans). Why would a casual fan agree to pay off the reels AND transfer them to disc? What kind of bank gives out a $30,000 loan to some schlub just to pay off the bill for copyrighted music reels? AND - hasn't it been paid off by now, what with his procurement of $100,000 and all? Why does he and his minions harrass people who want to trade htem and say that he won't transfer any more of them? Maybe because he doesn't want to see his source of income go kaput? It is utter crap.