Vinyl Me Please Essentials

Skalap said:
Maybe I am unlucky with VMP or damn lucky with other record sellers. Fact is that considering issues I had in the past I check VMP records more than others. Another fact is the percentage of damaged records I receive from VMP is much higher than any other other seller.

I don't have too much hopes on VMP doing things right once their own plant starts working but I welcome every good surprise.
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their mailers definitely suck...but i really haven't had anything beyond a very mild warp from them. so maybe i've just been lucky! i hear you on always checking the records from them as soon as they arrive--I do that too with them. I get more corner dings than anything but they will always send me a replacement sleeve if not a replacement record. i've had some bad luck even with pressings plants that used to be excellent (like Pallas) and the BN Classics have had a buncha issues from Optimal.

i know for classics they are going to change the format of the booklets to be larger like the others to help prevent warps.

they are at least going through the motions to get all the right people involved in the new plant. They stole Gary Salstrom from QRP to head it all up so that's promising. I don't doubt there will be some hiccups but i hope the plant works out well because we need another good pressing plant out there and it would be great to get some of the VMP titles back at a better plant than GZ...
 
MikeH said:
their mailers definitely suck...but i really haven't had anything beyond a very mild warp from them. so maybe i've just been lucky! i hear you on always checking the records from them as soon as they arrive--I do that too with them. I get more corner dings than anything but they will always send me a replacement sleeve if not a replacement record. i've had some bad luck even with pressings plants that used to be excellent (like Pallas) and the BN Classics have had a buncha issues from Optimal.

i know for classics they are going to change the format of the booklets to be larger like the others to help prevent warps.

they are at least going through the motions to get all the right people involved in the new plant. They stole Gary Salstrom from QRP to head it all up so that's promising. I don't doubt there will be some hiccups but i hope the plant works out well because we need another good pressing plant out there and it would be great to get some of the VMP titles back at a better plant than GZ...
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Disrespecting Pallas in support of VMP? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. 😄
 
MikeH said:
their mailers definitely suck...but i really haven't had anything beyond a very mild warp from them. so maybe i've just been lucky! i hear you on always checking the records from them as soon as they arrive--I do that too with them. I get more corner dings than anything but they will always send me a replacement sleeve if not a replacement record. i've had some bad luck even with pressings plants that used to be excellent (like Pallas) and the BN Classics have had a buncha issues from Optimal.

i know for classics they are going to change the format of the booklets to be larger like the others to help prevent warps.

they are at least going through the motions to get all the right people involved in the new plant. They stole Gary Salstrom from QRP to head it all up so that's promising. I don't doubt there will be some hiccups but i hope the plant works out well because we need another good pressing plant out there and it would be great to get some of the VMP titles back at a better plant than GZ...
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See, this is why I hate them. We told them the books were a problem 6 years ago and they were like nah.
 
zdkaiser said:
Disrespecting Pallas in support of VMP? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. 😄
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haha. nah not in support of VMP, but i realize that even the good plants have had issues. Sam Records stopped using Pallas because of consistent QC issues as have other labels.

GZ is definitely the worst of the bigger pressing plants and it's why I have largely stopped buying the records of the month. I picked up Hey Jude but don't see myself getting any others except maybe Monk. I'll give the new VMP plant a shot once it's open though.
 
MikeH said:
their mailers definitely suck...but i really haven't had anything beyond a very mild warp from them. so maybe i've just been lucky! i hear you on always checking the records from them as soon as they arrive--I do that too with them. I get more corner dings than anything but they will always send me a replacement sleeve if not a replacement record. i've had some bad luck even with pressings plants that used to be excellent (like Pallas) and the BN Classics have had a buncha issues from Optimal.

i know for classics they are going to change the format of the booklets to be larger like the others to help prevent warps.

they are at least going through the motions to get all the right people involved in the new plant. They stole Gary Salstrom from QRP to head it all up so that's promising. I don't doubt there will be some hiccups but i hope the plant works out well because we need another good pressing plant out there and it would be great to get some of the VMP titles back at a better plant than GZ...
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To be fair, I found their mailers a bit better than the old they had before I left. For Classics, except my mistake, we told them from the very first shipment they should find another solution/size/whatever to avoid damaged records. Odetta is their 71 release in this serie.

We'll see how it goes. I just signed back for 6 months and I hope I'll have some pleasant surprises.
 
MikeH said:
haha. nah not in support of VMP, but i realize that even the good plants have had issues. Sam Records stopped using Pallas because of consistent QC issues as have other labels.

GZ is definitely the worst of the bigger pressing plants and it's why I have largely stopped buying the records of the month. I picked up Hey Jude but don't see myself getting any others except maybe Monk. I'll give the new VMP plant a shot once it's open though.
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Interesting, I've always had good luck with Pallas. Optimal on the,other hand can be flawless or complete shite.
 
Lee Newman said:
See, this is why I hate them. We told them the books were a problem 6 years ago and they were like nah.
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well they finally listened i guess 😂 they would know how many replacements they have had to issue due to warping from booklets so either they decided it was financially worth it to swap finally or they just wanted to make life easier by standardizing all the booklets/get them printed all at one place now that they have a 12" booklet format designed. who knows...

i get being critical of VMP--they do deserve it many times. i don't always love the curation (think I will maybe get 1 album in the next quarter across all tracks) and there's still stuff they do that blows my mind (like posting mockups of Air as a 2LP and letting that go all the way through to the marketing without noticing). but there just seem to be lots of people across various forums who endlessly shit on VMP and then still subscribe every month.

overall, i think they sometimes hit it out of the park, other times they leave a lot to be desired especially at the price point. the new "free records" deal seems to be decent if you have enough albums you'd want from the back catalogue. the full price sub seems too expensive to me for GZ pressings so I am hoping their plant does good quality stuff. and hopefully they do more true exclusives like Spirit in the Dark, Fire on the Bayou, etc. I'll be excited for the spiritual jazz collection they do at the new plant.
 
MikeH said:
well they finally listened i guess 😂 they would know how many replacements they have had to issue due to warping from booklets so either they decided it was financially worth it to swap finally or they just wanted to make life easier by standardizing all the booklets/get them printed all at one place now that they have a 12" booklet format designed. who knows...

i get being critical of VMP--they do deserve it many times. i don't always love the curation (think I will maybe get 1 album in the next quarter across all tracks) and there's still stuff they do that blows my mind (like posting mockups of Air as a 2LP and letting that go all the way through to the marketing without noticing). but there just seem to be lots of people across various forums who endlessly shit on VMP and then still subscribe every month.

overall, i think they sometimes hit it out of the park, other times they leave a lot to be desired especially at the price point. the new "free records" deal seems to be decent if you have enough albums you'd want from the back catalogue. the full price sub seems too expensive to me for GZ pressings so I am hoping their plant does good quality stuff. and hopefully they do more true exclusives like Spirit in the Dark, Fire on the Bayou, etc. I'll be excited for the spiritual jazz collection they do at the new plant.
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Fair enough. I try not to harp them too much. I think Country and classics overall are pretty great. I do hope the plant does well.
 
I think this is the longest I’ve been subscribed to them since that 2015/16 Sweet spot and I think they’ve mostly gotten their shit together. Customer service is usually good but they’re still hilariously bad at getting out of their own way. With all the tracks now, it’s usually easy to at least find something worth checking or even if their curation on every track is spotty from time to time
 
I think in a perfect world we'd get an equal number of jazz/blues/soul in the Classics track but apparently the jazz reissues they do sell so much better than the other genres that they put out 75% jazz. I think an eventual jazz track is probably inevitable.
 
keylime_5 said:
I think in a perfect world we'd get an equal number of jazz/blues/soul in the Classics track but apparently the jazz reissues they do sell so much better than the other genres that they put out 75% jazz. I think an eventual jazz track is probably inevitable.
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I mean how much of that is down to the idiot curating it using too many of the soul release windows to print stax records that were forgot for a reason just to fill his own damn collection holes. No way Otis, Al Green and Aretha didn’t sell as strong and that other real soul stars wouldn’t either. I think blues has just been the odd token release from the start, which is sad, but I get it’s the hardest sell out of the three genre.
 
Joe Mac said:
I mean how much of that is down to the idiot curating it using too many of the soul release windows to print stax records that were forgot for a reason just to fill his own damn collection holes. No way Otis, Al Green and Aretha didn’t sell as strong and that other real soul stars wouldn’t either. I think blues has just been the odd token release from the start, which is sad, but I get it’s the hardest sell out of the three genre.
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Gimme more blues
 
Joe Mac said:
I mean how much of that is down to the idiot curating it using too many of the soul release windows to print stax records that were forgot for a reason just to fill his own damn collection holes. No way Otis, Al Green and Aretha didn’t sell as strong and that other real soul stars wouldn’t either. I think blues has just been the odd token release from the start, which is sad, but I get it’s the hardest sell out of the three genre.
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Yeah I mean Otis, Aretha, Al Green I'm sure sold pretty well. But even more obscure jazz releases they put out sell pretty dang well apparently. And I think they had sold more John Coltrane than even Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin. Those jazz collectors out there ain't no joke.
 
keylime_5 said:
Yeah I mean Otis, Aretha, Al Green I'm sure sold pretty well. But even more obscure jazz releases they put out sell pretty dang well apparently. And I think they had sold more John Coltrane than even Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin. Those jazz collectors out there ain't no joke.
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I’d rather they just do a Jazz sub and make Classics everything else under that soul, r&b, blues, folk, etc. umbrella. Kind of surprised they don’t have a dedicated jazz track at this point.
 
mitchwagz said:
I’d rather they just do a Jazz sub and make Classics everything else under that soul, r&b, blues, folk, etc. umbrella. Kind of surprised they don’t have a dedicated jazz track at this point.
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I imagine trying to do a full jazz track may be difficult to program/license moving forward with so many jazz reissue programs across so many labels keeping a lot of good titles for themselves lately. I love jazz and even I hope they do more soul/funk/blues stuff.
 
Well, there's a new track coming PDQ.....my assumption is it's going to be rock in some form, but nothing's public yet
 
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