Strongly disagree on the one step "bubble" and it kinda ignores all context surrounding some of these releases.
Relaxin didn't sell out because AP is repressing their $40 AAA version at some point. If the AP wasn't coming out, I'd bet almost anything the Craft would have sold out. Same reason why the MoFi Folk Singer didn't sell out very quickly (I think you can still get it at retail or below). If AP comes out and says "we aren't repressing Relaxin", I'd bet we would see a spike in sales for the One Step (which sounds great by the way).
I don't see that Patricia Barber selling out because...well...it's Patricia Barber. I love Impex's work but their curation is truly puzzling. They do cool stuff like Kenny Dorham's Matador and some Three Blind Mice titles but then seem to do all of Patricia Barber's discography as expensive one steps that don't sell.
Some of these aren't selling out quickly because of the title choices, pure and simple. Whether it's titles that don't benefit from the one step process, or titles that already have tons of AAA reissues out there (and ones that are substantially cheaper). People are tired of seeing the same uninspired titles over and over and over again.
The MoFi one steps may have trouble selling because of the digital step now. They have already had trouble selling because of the title selections and flippers aren't buying them as much because resale on the last bunch have all been pretty bad. I think nearly everything from Paul Simon onwards can be purchased for retail or less. Saw someone selling the Paul Simon one step for $70 on the hoffman classifieds last week.
If companies put out great titles as AAA one steps, they will sell out. A&R is more to blame, IMO, than people not being interested in the one step process.
Outside of the current One-Step debacle, MoFi was getting greedy, meaning, everyone glommed on to the One-Steps, it wasn't just "audiophiles" anymore, they cracked mainstream so to speak. They. MoFi, also glommed on to that and started slating all these One-Step releases. One-Steps, again, before all the hu-ha, were special because they came out "every so often" and not in huge qty.
I own 2 One-Steps, one that is almost certainly digital and I knew that going in, got it at an acceptable price and I'm happy with it because it's one of my all time favorite albums...............and it sound amazing. MoFi could have started weening the public into the digital chain, but they knew damn well that AAA was THE selling point on One-Steps.
They could have, with the announcement of the VH catalog, stated something to the effect of "with changing times and lack of availability of original tapes, we've made the decision to introduce a digital aspect to our One-Step process to insure the best quality sound on vinyl", then go through the whole "why", even with a digital step, it's the best possible sound on vinyl and why it differs from CD's, SACDs and streaming.
They fucked up, they didn't give their customer base the respect they deserved and just looked at them as rabid consumers. I've never felt the audible difference was there, based on price, between the OMR's and One-Steps, but that also begs the question of what consumers are playing these albums on. I still contend that if you have an entry level system, you're not getting the cost back in what you're hearing when purchasing a One-Step, yes, it will sound great, but your only getting a percentage of the quality built in, so to speak.............and that's a completely different can of worms
All that said, I've leaned towards Acoustic Sound and other companies for AAA pressings, if for no other reason than "bang for your buck" when it comes to pricing. Even then, it has to be a real "want" to plop down $60 on an album for me know a days.
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