TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
@Mather had numerous issues if I recall correctly.
EDIT: [scrolls down] yeah, I remembered correctly.
Vinyl Me Please (store, exclusives, swaps, etc)
- Thread starter Captainfog
- Start date
EDIT: [scrolls down] yeah, I remembered correctly.
Ponman2003
Well-Known Member
With 5 of the last 6 ROTMs previously showing sold-out and now are all back in stock, I think I agree. I think they’re doing this bc their system sucks and they’re seriously trying to prevent oversell. But it could certainly be FOMO.
This is not the first time exclusives/ROTM backstock was SWAP exclusive. There’s a reason why ppl storm the SWAPs portal every month.
suzycreamcheese
Member
Nice stunt. Of course, as an international member I again arrive late to the party and all interesting swaps are gone. I really wish they would start communicating properly. Pretty pissed.
Btsvinylfarm
Active Member
But based on the the amount of availability of prior titles that happened to "sell out" they're either terrible at judging demand or just stoking FOMO.
Ive never seen them label them as "swap exclusive" though. It seems like this will be a new ocurrance each month.
On one hand, it's good for members who don't like the tracks available. But when the tracks show immediately as out of stock, and these swaps are super limited, and the company social media is telling customers to wait and see if more tracks become available; it puts customers in a false sense of panic.
Launching at 7pm EST I'd horrible for Europeans
Rahawk2
Well-Known Member
Nope it's Permaswaps now after the 1st , but you may be able to have CS change it for you.
TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
I emailed Customer Service to see if they would manually swap me over to Phrenology. Hopefully they will allow it. I personally have never emailed CS regarding a swap but many others have and typically they do it without issue as long as the album is in stock.
Ponman2003
Well-Known Member
Do we know stock #s for El-P and Mr Hands? Tough to judge otherwise.
Where did they do this?
MikeH
Well-Known Member
I know it sucks but I thought it’s pretty clear on the website that is the new system and has been for months. They ask you to confirm and say you cannot swap again IIRC. Either way I’m sure you can email CS to ask them to swap.
tonythegamer
Well-Known Member
they had Grace- Jeff Buckley, Bandana - Madgibbs, Irma Thomas - Wish Someone Would Care, and the Outkast ROTM labeled as Swap Exclusive this past iteration. All these previously OOS titles came back for swaps only.
MikeH
Well-Known Member
Maybe I’m just not buying into this whole thing...but I think it’s their new system instead of holding back stock to sell for $40 later. They have a certain number of albums pressed each month. With Swaps there’s really no way to know which album will be most popular each month. For ease of numbers sake, say you have 12,000 members of VMP and 4K people on each track and you press 6K of each album. Let’s say a popular album comes out on the hip hop track— you will have people shifting over from another track to Hip Hop. The next month, the hip hop track might not be as popular so you have all those people still signed up for it from the previous month plus new people swapping over. The system will say it’s sold out. Not everybody swaps right at 7PM, so over the next few days, people will definitely swap and more spots will open up. And on top of that, you have new people joining.
It seems to me (correct me if I’m wrong) that once swaps are closed, lately all three tracks are marked sold out. This prevents people from adding on a track after shipments are locked in. I’ve never thought anything is actually sold out though in the first month. They have replacement stock on top of that which they seem to release somewhat quickly.
I personally think they are just really bad at estimating how much to press and which albums will be popular and sell out. Swaps are awesome but I also could see that being a logistical nightmare when they have multiple months in a row where only one or two tracks are great. But who knows, maybe I’m giving them too much credit and they really are just trying to screw everybody over to make a quick buck.
I didn’t see anything inherently wrong with that exchange they had. The fact is, there are limited number of swaps. If you want one of the swap exclusives that are hard to get, then swap for it now and don’t wait. If you want Blackalicious, there’s a very high chance the track will open back up as people swap over the course of the open swap window.
keylime_5
Well-Known Member
It should work, I got them to swap to Mr Hands for me by emailing them.
Ponman2003
Well-Known Member
But I don't understand when you say they had them "labeled." Did they publicize them as such somewhere? Or did they just show up exclusively in SWAPs? (b/c that has happened many times in the past)
tonythegamer
Well-Known Member
Same. I think it’ll be good but I’d rather just buy it on Discogs for $20 after I know I’ll like it. Hell the VMP version is probably going to put out more vinyl copies than the regular version is going to sell.
Ponman2003
Well-Known Member
Ohhhh shit! I didn't notice that! Well I think the idea is great (to have reserved titles for members), except of course when those titles were previously said to be OOS to members for replacements. That's fucked.There was a little label on them in the swap menu that said "Swap Exclusive":
But y'all are right. The swap-lock is making this a mess. If that didn't exist, the game of rushing to SWAPs would still be exciting and valuable for members, but then tracks opening after the initial rush would still be an option.
4080
Well-Known Member
I like the idea of “swap exclusives” and it helps that I’m not interested in the picks or already have a copy I’m happy with. This is going to be interesting going forward if it continues and they have a month where all 3 tracks are bangers and they throw up exclusives that are also bangers, then what?