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

Jan said:
I think the exclusives are revenue srream that should actually not cost much work. They get them wholesale from the labels shipped to fullfillment, put them in the store software , sell them and sent them out ( theoretically). Their rotms mean much more work for them. And given they recently sold some exclusives pretty well at prices 5-10$ above our store that should bring in some decent profit. It would probably be better when they managed their logistics properly. The last month i was a member i think i got 4 sepeeate packages in 2 days when i ordered bundled member shipping. Shipping 4 packages to europe instead ofprobably eats a big chunk of profit.
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My fiancée works in risk management and she is constantly appalled by VMP’s practices hah. I got 3 separate VMP packages last month all on the same day from the same order. There’s no reason for that and must eat into profits drastically. I’m sure VMP gets some kind of discount for how many packages they ship but still...when you think about how much money they make (they claim $10 mil gross sales per year) and how much more they could be making if they actually had a logistics team...Oof.
 
wynn72 said:
I honestly think to your first point that a new track or two would bring in way more funds than the exclusives do AND would make their business run more efficiently. But thats only speculation on my part since we don't know subscriber numbers or net profit amounts of Tracks vs Exclusives. You may just as likely be right if costs are significantly lower to just press a run in an exclusive color of a wide release.

But I honestly think the news of more tracks means a likely end to Anthologies or at least a big de-prioritization. Storf said awhile ago that those other tracks they were planning were shelved in favor of Anthology since it was easier to commit to a theme for one box set than an ongoing track. I think it's obvious, especially with that Grateful Dead set, that this didn't work out. I wouldn't be surprised to see Herbie be one of the last Anthologies. They are just too big of a risk whereas tracks are a bit easier to predict month to month and even if they are left with a bigger inventory of an occasional record, it's not the end of the work.
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My thinking here is that an add-on is $23 per subscriber. Many subscribers here buy more than 1 exclusive per month. Adding a new track might get you some new subscribers, but also just opens more swaptions so you may just get people ditching Essentials for new track one month. Anywho, I guess we will find out soon enough!

As for Anthologies, they are nice. They likely make more money mark-up-wise off those selling out than anything else. But like you said, if they get a stinker or do numbers that are too huge like GD, it's a big misstep. I'm not sure what they could flip those boxes for wholesale but I'm not sure how that GD box set will ever sell out. Pauly said that the slipmats are still very much available and that was for the first 3,000 customers. They haven't even sold half of the boxes yet.
 
Jan said:
I think the exclusives are revenue srream that should actually not cost much work. They get them wholesale from the labels shipped to fullfillment, put them in the store software , sell them and sent them out ( theoretically). Their rotms mean much more work for them. And given they recently sold some exclusives pretty well at prices 5-10$ above our store that should bring in some decent profit. It would probably be better when they managed their logistics properly. The last month i was a member i think i got 4 sepeeate packages in 2 days when i ordered bundled member shipping. Shipping 4 packages to europe instead ofprobably eats a big chunk of profit.
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You're probably right (at least that should be the case), but they did say their prices are higher than most because they get charged more. Especially because of things they ask for like Unique colors, VMP stamping, numbering, etc. How true that actually is, or what the lowest profit margin they'll allow obviously comes in to play too. We're all just making our best educated guesses.
The shipping is without a doubt a mess though, it used to be so much better but they overextended themselves and their system. And they either are not willing or able to fix hire a strong enough tech team to keep their system running well enough to handle the way things are now (which blows my mind considering how widely used Shopify is).
 
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MikeH said:
As for Anthologies, they are nice. They likely make more money mark-up-wise off those selling out than anything else. But like you said, if they get a stinker or do numbers that are too huge like GD, it's a big misstep. I'm not sure what they could flip those boxes for wholesale but I'm not sure how that GD box set will ever sell out. Pauly said that the slipmats are still very much available and that was for the first 3,000 customers. They haven't even sold half of the boxes yet.
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I've liked the Anthologies alot. Have bought them all so far and think it's one of the best products they've put out. But it's too big a risk and they got way too overeager with that Dead set. I don't know what they were thinking pressing those numbers for something that cost so much, even if it is for a band that popular.
I would love to see Anthology continue, but I'd much rather other tracks at this point, especially budget wise. And it seems like fiscally it makes way more sense for them as well
 
Hollywood said:
As an international customer, I'm considering this swap for credit and get an additional 20% bonus credit offer 🤔
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My thinking as well. I was on the fence about BVSC. There was nothing interesting for me in swap so I was going to keep it. But if I can trade up for something I want more that is (hopefully) in stock to ship right away, this might be the route to go.
 
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