Vinyl Me Please (store, exclusives, swaps, etc)

dhodo said:
For him to act surprised it went quick and not have pressed a ton more is a headscratcher.
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In my mind, it's not a headscratcher. It's hype culture.

I think there is really a financial driving force to having an exclusive sell out and a bunch of buzz driven by all the people that missed out and the sky rocking prices. Someone who might have never thought twice about it sudden is thinking "huh, maybe I need to give this a shot." Picks up streaming, maybe picks up a standard press at their local (at a higher profit margin). Doesn't seem too crazy to me.
 
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displayname said:
In my mind, it's not a headscratcher. It's hype culture.

I think there is really a financial driving force to having an exclusive sell out and a bunch of buzz driven by all the people that missed out and the sky rocking prices. Someone who might have never thought twice about it sudden is thinking "huh, maybe I need to give this a shot." Picks up streaming, maybe picks up a standard press at their local (at a higher profit margin). Doesn't seem too crazy to me.
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Well, sure, but if they can sell out 5x as many in 24hrs, I don't see the downside. That's all I meant. Agree with your reasoning about why many don't try to keep standard copies in stores. For independent artists the overhead isn't necessarily worth it either.
 
dhodo said:
Well, sure, but if they can sell out 5x as many in 24hrs, I don't see the downside. That's all I meant. Agree with your reasoning about why many don't try to keep standard copies in stores. For independent artists the overhead isn't necessarily worth it either.
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I think that doing 5X kills the hype. Same way indie exclusives with 10K of a variant sell, but don't hold the same value. VMP wants their pressings to have some allusive street value too.
 
NewsFedora said:
Damn, he didn't archive the stream. Did anyone listen in? Is more wax on the way?
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Yeah. He said they're going to work on getting more pressed. That he didn't expect demand to be so high and didn't want to be sitting on a bunch of unsold product. Also said he doesn't want people to pay the crazy resale prices.

I'm really glad to have gotten this record when vmp first released it, but I'm following the story for a friend who was trying to get the record yesterday. I didn't know about "cook groups" and all that mess until now.

edit:
Here's him talking about the situation. If the timestamp doesn't work, go to 25:50
 
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rightasra1n said:
Yeah. He said they're going to work on getting more pressed. That he didn't expect demand to be so high and didn't want to be sitting on a bunch of unsold product. Also said he doesn't want people to have to pay the crazy resale products.

I'm really glad to have gotten this record when vmp first released it, but I'm following the story for a friend who was trying to get the record yesterday. I didn't know about "cook groups" and all that mess until now.
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Thanks for the update, although I still consider $50 to be a crazy price for a single LP. But clearly there is a demand for it, given how quickly things sold out yesterday.

I guess it was just a huge coincidence that he did the repress on his own without VMP's involvement right when VMP was saying they'd be repressing some high-demand out-of-print titles. VMP could've put the kibosh on that right away to minimize confusion but I'm really curious about what was going on behind the scenes with them where some employees themselves thought it was a VMP repress. Ah well.
 
NewsFedora said:
Thanks for the update, although I still consider $50 to be a crazy price for a single LP. But clearly there is a demand for it, given how quickly things sold out yesterday.

I guess it was just a huge coincidence that he did the repress on his own without VMP's involvement right when VMP was saying they'd be repressing some high-demand out-of-print titles. VMP could've put the kibosh on that right away to minimize confusion but I'm really curious about what was going on behind the scenes with them where some employees themselves thought it was a VMP repress. Ah well.
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Yeah, that's the messed up thing: It seems VMP (or at least some of their staff) thought they were doing it and then everything seemed to fall apart. I can't justify paying almost $80 Canadian for it, so I was really hoping VMP would put it out again. I'm more disappointed honestly that Promises got officially pushed and I've seen copies come and go elsewhere.
 
I'm actually thinking that they did plan on having it for their April represses and something fell apart last minute. If nothing drops tomorrow I'll be more sure that's what happened.
 
bdrummond said:
Yeah, that's the messed up thing: It seems VMP (or at least some of their staff) thought they were doing it and then everything seemed to fall apart. I can't justify paying almost $80 Canadian for it, so I was really hoping VMP would put it out again. I'm more disappointed honestly that Promises got officially pushed and I've seen copies come and go elsewhere.
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I have a few theories, from order of most to least likely...

1) Not everyone at VMP knows exactly what's coming out or when, including the customer service/social media people. So they -- like the rest of us -- put 2 and 2 together to make 5 and automatically assumed they MUST be doing the repress, given the timing of everything. But in reality it all truly was a coincidence and then it became another one of those "lol VMP done fucked up" situations that we've all come to know and love.

2) Internally VMP assisted Saba with the repress like before, but more with logistics and connections from how the original pressing was done. Saba would handle the sales and distro himself all along but not every VMP employee was fully aware of the details. This might also explain some of the added markup to the price. VMP still gets their cut even though they technically are not the ones selling it.

3) There is still a VMP repress on the way but they didn't want to directly "compete" with Saba selling copies on his own site (which was part of Saba's fears that he'd wind up sitting on a lot of unsold inventory). Turns out demand was so big they probably could've done it and things would've still worked out. There's still plenty of April left to see if that pans out, but honestly I feel if that were the case Saba would have said SOMETHING about VMP by now rather than just "I'm going to get another repress done to sell more on my site later on."

Fake Edit:
bdrummond said:
I'm actually thinking that they did plan on having it for their April represses and something fell apart last minute. If nothing drops tomorrow I'll be more sure that's what happened.
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I think that's possible as well, and might be part of theory number 2.
 
My box for this month arrived last night on the 5th. Had everything I was supposed to get this month. Probably the fastest I've ever received it. One month after I received my box on the 31st - which was definitely the latest I received it (except for that one time they oversold the White Stripes).
 
rightasra1n said:
Yeah. He said they're going to work on getting more pressed. That he didn't expect demand to be so high and didn't want to be sitting on a bunch of unsold product. Also said he doesn't want people to have to pay the crazy resale products.

I'm really glad to have gotten this record when vmp first released it, but I'm following the story for a friend who was trying to get the record yesterday. I didn't know about "cook groups" and all that mess until now.

edit:
Here's him talking about the situation. If the timestamp doesn't work, go to 25:50
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What's a cook group?
 
dhodo said:
What's a cook group?
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Do you know about the warez scene from the early 00s? The mp3 ripping groups? This seems like a modern day reincarnation of those. From what I gather, these groups came together around the sneaker and streetwear scene which has been existing on the "limited drop" model for a decade or more. Cook groups, either through having access to insider knowledge (early access passwords, drop dates/times), or through hacks and bots (apparently shopify is very easy to manipulate), are either able to instruct their members on how to get the product or outright buy it for their members. It seems sometimes they're able to bypass cart limits, jump the checkout line, etc etc. Some of these groups charge a monthly membership fee and largely cater to flippers and resellers. And now, they're into vinyl (or whatever else) too.
 
rightasra1n said:
Do you know about the warez scene from the early 00s? The mp3 ripping groups? This seems like a modern day reincarnation of those. From what I gather, these groups came together around the sneaker and streetwear scene which has been existing on the "limited drop" model for a decade or more. Cook groups, either through having access to insider knowledge (early access passwords, drop dates/times), or through hacks and bots (apparently shopify is very easy to manipulate), are either able to instruct their members on how to get the product or outright buy it for their members. It seems sometimes they're able to bypass cart limits, jump the checkout line, etc etc. Some of these groups charge a monthly membership fee and largely cater to flippers and resellers. And now, they're into vinyl (or whatever else) too.
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No wonder people went to TPB, oink, and Napster. FSCK these a-holes.
 
NewsFedora said:
Thanks for the update, although I still consider $50 to be a crazy price for a single LP. But clearly there is a demand for it, given how quickly things sold out yesterday.
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Being an old-head, I am not happy validating $30+ single LPs that are new releases. I know some have the budget, or didn't grow up in the era of $10 albums, but I have such a giant collection that I don't feel the need for these, or the budget to keep up with them. Thankfully I don't covet them and FOMO has lost its grip on me for the most part.
 
Looking extremely forward to the store drops tomorrow! I’m hoping we get a really nostalgic exclusive like Justin Timberlake’s Justified or N.E.R.D.‘s In Search Of... 🤞

I must say, I’m so excited to receive the VMP exclusives of Donna Summer’s Bad Girls and M.I.A.‘s Arular! They are both excellent albums and I’m happy both of them are in the same VMP package 📦😍
 
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djdavedk said:
Being an old-head, I am not happy validating $30+ single LPs that are new releases. I know some have the budget, or didn't grow up in the era of $10 albums, but I have such a giant collection that I don't feel the need for these, or the budget to keep up with them. Thankfully I don't covet them and FOMO has lost its grip on me for the most part.
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Yeah, I was close to buying the VMP Hiatus Kaiyote exclusive! I love the colour variant and Hiatus Kaiyote are from the same city as me - Melbourne (Australia) - so I was like “fuck it, I love Haitus Kaiyote, have seen them live and am from Melbourne”. But USD$45 for a single LP is just so much, especially as this VMP exclusive isn’t 180g!

I haven’t purchased it mainly because I can’t afford it, as my expenses with rent and dining out are a lot, but I still do plan on purchasing the exclusive in the future if I can comfortably afford it! On top, I’ve only heard one single and even though I like it, I would like to hear more before spending USD$45 on a new release!

But yeah, still...that price for a single LP new release is CRAZYYYY!!! 🤑🥴
 
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