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

Those VMP Mobb Deep came down prettttty quickly in pricing on Discogs.
In the description of the $40 copy on discogs right now : "This item is still sealed, and I have not checked for skipping on Side A that's been reported on some copies of this pressing. " Oof...there's a skipping issue too? Or did they mean "shipping issue"?
 
Wait, I just remember Storf said that the March Classics ROTM is from 1982! I’m a little relived now! 😅

But omg, wish I could just go into the Saddle Creek/VMP warehouse as well as the VMP office and have a Harry Potter wand and just go “Expelliarmus” to fix everything lol

I mean that means nothing Nathan. That’s his job. He’ll have to keep doing it until the end, regsddlsss of the outcome. He can hardly say to them, we might be gone in March so I won’t bother lining up a record...

Also I’m very confused as to why disarming them all is going to fix a load of business mismanagement issues?
 
I mean that means nothing Nathan. That’s his job. He’ll have to keep doing it until the end, regsddlsss of the outcome. He can hardly say to them, we might be gone in March so I won’t bother lining up a record...

Also I’m very confused as to why disarming them all is going to fix a load of business mismanagement issues?
So, honest question Joe! I know you very much dislike VMP right now, but do you think the company will be completely shut by June 2020? 🤔

I JUST WANT TO DO MAGIC SPELLS AND HELP VMP!!! 👨‍🎤🧚‍♂🔮

Seriously, why did the store migration have to go this horribly wrong??? 🤦‍♂️
 
So, honest question Joe! I know you very much dislike VMP right now, but do you think the company will be completely shut by June 2020? 🤔

I JUST WANT TO DO MAGIC SPELLS AND HELP VMP!!! 👨‍🎤🧚‍♂️🔮

Seriously, why did the store migration have to go this horribly wrong??? 🤦‍♂️

It’a not that I dislike them, it’s that I feel let down by them, I see that they’ve made gargantuan errors. I don’t trust what they’re saying and I would be reticent to give them more money.

Honestly my instinct is that it’s 60/40 in favour of them being gone but if it does happen it’ll be quicker than June.

If you think the problems began with the migration then you’ve been burying your head in the sand for a long time. The migration issues are not an anomaly, they are symptomatic of the the types of mistakes VMP has been making since I’ve been a member, that’s March 2018, 21 months ago.
 
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They'll survive, their subscriber base is enormous and filled mostly with people that have more money than sense and/or aren't your classic vinyl collectors of days gone by or maybe they're just a new generation of collector who prefers the vinyl to come to them rather than go digging for it, a fast food fast vinyl generation.

Vinyl Me Please are the McDonalds of the vinyl industry!

I’m getting less sure of this by the day. I find the need for non-traditional short term finance to press the records really worrying, especially considering the size of their customer base. Also the costs incurred with their shipping errors this month could sink even a well run, profitable business. I hope for those with money tied into them and also for the employees sake that I’m wrong.
 
It’a not that I dislike them, it’s that I feel let down by them, I see that they’ve made gargantuan errors. I don’t trust what they’re saying and I would be reticent to give them more money.

Honestly my instinct is that it’s 60/40 in favour of them being gone but if it does happen it’ll be quicker than June.

If you think the problems began with the migration then you’ve been burying your head in the sand for a long time. The migration issues are not an anomaly, they are symptomatic of the the types of mistakes VMP has been making since I’ve been a member, that’s March 2018, 21 months ago.

As someone that wished endless doom on them, I will say that it's pretty uncomfortable watching it actually happen. I'd imagine that I'm not alone in the fact that my hope's in them failing were only because I didn't want to support the idea that you could operate so callously and win at the end of the day. It was partly just that I believed their shortsighted tactics and increasing disregard for their customers would eventually blow up in their faces. I felt like it was inevitably going to come back and haunt them, both because I felt it should happen on a karmic level, and also because foolish decisions would indicate no other result to me, unless they made some drastic adjustments. I wanted those adjustments to come, but I stopped trusting they would well before the forum ended. Once that happened, it felt like they officially sealed their fate.

Who didn't think shifting to reddit was going to be a mistake for them? We warned them. If those anoraks sold out, I would have been amazed. If those Woodstock sets would have flown off the shelves, my head would have exploded. I would have had to admit I was wrong, but we all knew those weren't going anywhere. They should have known that too.

From the minute the forum went down, the exclusives stopped selling out so quick. The crazy part is that, once they began moving again and they actually had a supportive subreddit behind them, that's right when they fucked everything up. Such a twist!!

I'd still like to see them pull out of the nosedive -- if only long enough for me to get my Danny Brown and Fiona records -- but only if they fix things up, and I can't for the life of me, construct a scenario where that redemption could come about. I don't know how they could become what they once were. In the best case scenario, I don't see them returning to a reasonable price point, removing swap limits, restoring one month memberships, fixing the exchange policy, reinstating referrals (for real), etc.etc. And, even if they did, how will they address the radio silence and lack of transparency they've already exhibited up to this point? A lot of damage has been done. It's a really ugly fucking mess and, everytime I turn around, it doesn't get better, it actually gets worse. It's in their court to at least attempt to fix it, but they've been shifting responsibility so long, it's become their default.
 
I’m getting less sure of this by the day. I find the need for non-traditional short term finance to press the records really worrying, especially considering the size of their customer base. Also the costs incurred with their shipping errors this month could sink even a well run, profitable business. I hope for those with money tied into them and also for the employees sake that I’m wrong.

This spread of disdain over to instagram is not a great sign, either
 
I still think their communication issues are really bringing them down Right now. Probably everything was much quieter now had they sent out e-mails in Advance that there are Problems with the shipping/store Migration and November takes longer. Now, even if the promised w-mail they are supposedly wording since last week is coming it´s so late that no one actally trust them anymore. And obviously the subreddit and their social media are bombarded with complaints, more and more People have to see the Problems. The reddit turned so much against them, that the store drop post from yesterday is downvoted from the first page already. Plus People getting nervous about their financial Situation and actually cancelling orders, filing disputes with cc or PayPal could really hurt them.
 
VMP has sold out nearly half of their 36 ROTMs from 2019, they have had a number exclusives sell out rather quickly, all but the latest Anthology sets have sold out quickly too. I know there are a large vocal fraction of their customer base that are unhappy right now, but as soon as the next hyped exclusive comes along many of those same customers will be lining up to buy. They were in the same position last year of having orders delayed until after Christmas and CS backed up requiring other staff to help out with the queue.

They will be around until the "vinyl resurgence" starts to slow and fade.
 
I still think their communication issues are really bringing them down Right now. Probably everything was much quieter now had they sent out e-mails in Advance that there are Problems with the shipping/store Migration and November takes longer. Now, even if the promised w-mail they are supposedly wording since last week is coming it´s so late that no one actally trust them anymore. And obviously the subreddit and their social media are bombarded with complaints, more and more People have to see the Problems. The reddit turned so much against them, that the store drop post from yesterday is downvoted from the first page already. Plus People getting nervous about their financial Situation and actually cancelling orders, filing disputes with cc or PayPal could really hurt them.

The lack of communication has been the real issue all along. They don't control the narrative through silence, they just allow everyone to speculate more and more wildly. It's a horrible tactic.
 
VMP has sold out nearly half of their 36 ROTMs from 2019, they have had a number exclusives sell out rather quickly, all but the latest Anthology sets have sold out quickly too. I know there are a large vocal fraction of their customer base that are unhappy right now, but as soon as the next hyped exclusive comes along many of those same customers will be lining up to buy. They were in the same position last year of having orders delayed until after Christmas and CS backed up requiring other staff to help out with the queue.

They will be around until the "vinyl resurgence" starts to slow and fade.

I think your Right About the exclusives. I hope you are Right and they see the current way they run Things costing them Money and make them return to a better form. But i have to admit, i simply do not want to bet on that with my Money in the Moment. With so many sold out exclusives and rotms it should have been a brilliant year for them. Yet they have to or want to fund records through kickfurther.
I have a lot of records from vmp i really like. so i actually want them to succeed. But in the Moment i do not want to give them more of my Money.
 
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Here’s my suspicion.

Ever since their birth, they’ve proven to be awful predictors of trends. Awful. They place far too many orders for albums that are unpopular and don’t press enough for others. In a way, this attributed to their success... they became a name amongst rarity collectors, and the built in scarcity helped! They got cocky, overvalued their product, and undervalued the importance of the community. Through it all, they still proved to be AWFUL at predicting their customer. They got the idea that if they wanted to take it to the “next level” they needed to change things up. They thought they could come out with a lot more exclusives, raise margins, and ignore both the community and the lessons from past failures. They invested heavily on their brand, and on more failed projects (the Woodstock box was a massive financial failure for them). They started to borrow money, lots of it... thinking that the next step was just around the corner... but never improving on their ability to predict trends or recognize the true value of what it is they had created. The rest is history, if you use your credit card to buy a bunch of designer handbags thinking you’d definitely land that big promotion (spoiler alert: you won’t), it won’t work out in your favor.
 
VMP has sold out nearly half of their 36 ROTMs from 2019, they have had a number exclusives sell out rather quickly, all but the latest Anthology sets have sold out quickly too. I know there are a large vocal fraction of their customer base that are unhappy right now, but as soon as the next hyped exclusive comes along many of those same customers will be lining up to buy. They were in the same position last year of having orders delayed until after Christmas and CS backed up requiring other staff to help out with the queue.

They will be around until the "vinyl resurgence" starts to slow and fade.


They've had a number of exclusives sell out rather quickly lately and plenty more sell out eventually, often through swaps. I monitored it in real time though and we discussed it when it was happening and, without a forum to hype each other up, shit took a hard lull after the shift to N&G and it was noticeable. Neither of the Big Thief album flew out the door. TLC did not vanish for awhile. The last wave of Mr Bongo titles and the JuJu releases were kind of the last drop before the shift.

That was my point. Once the reddit sub became more active and they had some hype again, that's when they were dropping Madlib or Danny Brown and they started selling out day one again. It can either seem ironic that that's when they fumbled the ball, once they had some of that footing back, or like it was inevitable and unavoidable. A lot of the other sellouts were ROTMs and were fabricated through low initial presses and repressed like Outkast or Tical.
 
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