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

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this may or not be the place to post this but i need some place to start. ive had both great and terrible experiences in five years being a vmp member. most recently its taken three emails, some insta comments, and three inquiries on their website to get some attention for a bad outkast and mars volta pressing. then im told i need to show proof after being apologized for being snubbed for two months. is there anywhere that we as members can look up what pressings have known defects at all? kind of a list / database that allows us all to call bs on vmp or see the trending quality of pressings? just a thought. thanks!
 
this may or not be the place to post this but i need some place to start. ive had both great and terrible experiences in five years being a vmp member. most recently its taken three emails, some insta comments, and three inquiries on their website to get some attention for a bad outkast and mars volta pressing. then im told i need to show proof after being apologized for being snubbed for two months. is there anywhere that we as members can look up what pressings have known defects at all? kind of a list / database that allows us all to call bs on vmp or see the trending quality of pressings? just a thought. thanks!
No, just here and reddit threads but reddit is a little more rosy as to their experiences.

Discog reviews maybe but there's nothing concrete that you can point to.
 
this may or not be the place to post this but i need some place to start. ive had both great and terrible experiences in five years being a vmp member. most recently its taken three emails, some insta comments, and three inquiries on their website to get some attention for a bad outkast and mars volta pressing. then im told i need to show proof after being apologized for being snubbed for two months. is there anywhere that we as members can look up what pressings have known defects at all? kind of a list / database that allows us all to call bs on vmp or see the trending quality of pressings? just a thought. thanks!
sadly it's just a gamble especially when you order something that isn't released yet, or has an 8 month preorder.

i tend to look at who pressed it and that colors my decision on whether or not to order. Anything thats VMP pressed at GZ gets knocked down a notch in my desire to own it, especially lately. Luckily, VMP has less and less true exclusives for their store so can usually wait and order from somewhere else. for the ROTMs, unless it's a title I REALLY want, I've been waiting for it to get released and see what the reviews are like. Classics is the only sub I haven't had any pressing issues with so I consider that track pretty safe.
 
I'm not convinced that a flat copy of the Jazz Is Dead 2 actually exists.

3 copies, 3 massive dishwarps. I asked CS if it was a known issue and they said it definitely wasn't and that I must have been unlucky with the first 2 warps. Interestingly, it looks like they have swapped pressing plants for the latest 2 in the series (from Precision Records to Pallas) so it makes me think they might have had really bad issues generally. I am just listening to JID 5 and its so so so good, much better than the others with no issues (and its reasonably flat!!)

Did anyone else pick up the JID 2? Was it flat?

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I didn't pick up the VMP but these showed up in my local today and I bet if I pulled the trigger not only would they be flat, but I'd feel better about not spending $40USD per (prices below are in Canadian moneys).

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yea they have also been on bandcamp in the US on regular black vinyl for $25 each.
I went ahead and snagged 001 and 002. Haven't checked bandcamp but shipping is USUALLY astronomical (although I did order an MF DOOM album that was reasonable shipping costs once).

Just under $75 for both w/ taxes when I would've been paying $80 + conversion from VMP. AND THEY WILL BE FLAT I KNOW IT.
 
I went ahead and snagged 001 and 002. Haven't checked bandcamp but shipping is USUALLY astronomical (although I did order an MF DOOM album that was reasonable shipping costs once).

Just under $75 for both w/ taxes when I would've been paying $80 + conversion from VMP. AND THEY WILL BE FLAT I KNOW IT.
bandcamp shipping to canada can be pretty rough.

i kinda hope they do a box set of these all one day. i haven't listened to them all yet but have enjoyed the ones i did check out so far.
 
bandcamp shipping to canada can be pretty rough.

i kinda hope they do a box set of these all one day. i haven't listened to them all yet but have enjoyed the ones i did check out so far.
I was going to maybe grab 009 too but I'd like to hear it first and I've spent too much this week already.
 
I didn't pick up the VMP but these showed up in my local today and I bet if I pulled the trigger not only would they be flat, but I'd feel better about not spending $40USD per (prices below are in Canadian moneys).

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Great scores, I have really enjoyed the series so far!

As an international, the VMP releases tend to be cheaper. The early JID releases seem to be a bit tricky to find over here now. JID 1 is on Amazon though for £33 (the VMP was £26 at member prices). The RRP seems to be around the £30 mark plus postage (another £4-ish). I do remember popping down to my local when one of them was released and they had sold out within a day or 2.

I do think that had I known the issues that the first set had, I wouldn't have ordered the next set. I'm kind of glad I did though as the VMP JID 5 & 6 have been pressed at a different plant and sound fantastic. I now have a complete set of flat, decent-sounding records (other than 2 which is less warped but still there, going to get it flattened soon), despite all the hassle.
 
Great scores, I have really enjoyed the series so far!

As an international, the VMP releases tend to be cheaper. The early JID releases seem to be a bit tricky to find over here now. JID 1 is on Amazon though for £33 (the VMP was £26 at member prices). The RRP seems to be around the £30 mark plus postage (another £4-ish). I do remember popping down to my local when one of them was released and they had sold out within a day or 2.

I do think that had I known the issues that the first set had, I wouldn't have ordered the next set. I'm kind of glad I did though as the VMP JID 5 & 6 have been pressed at a different plant and sound fantastic. I now have a complete set of flat, decent-sounding records (other than 2 which is less warped but still there, going to get it flattened soon), despite all the hassle.
I guess it depends on where "internationally" you are. I have not bought anything off the store in ages when I realized that these were all releases my local was getting in much cheaper when factoring in the exchange rate. As a Canadian at least there are very few instances when it is worth it to snatch up a store drop.

Also in the same order I'm picking up this weekend from my local is the BVSC 25th, which caused me to resub to VMP in the first place with similar mastering details and an extra five tracks. Hopefully it still sounds great even though the four sides are now spread across 3 and the last side is the unreleased stuff. Seeing it pop up at my local for much less than the cost of a sub gave me a bit of rage, and I'm taking to the end of the day to decide whether I'm officially done with VMP.
 
Great scores, I have really enjoyed the series so far!

As an international, the VMP releases tend to be cheaper. The early JID releases seem to be a bit tricky to find over here now. JID 1 is on Amazon though for £33 (the VMP was £26 at member prices). The RRP seems to be around the £30 mark plus postage (another £4-ish). I do remember popping down to my local when one of them was released and they had sold out within a day or 2.

I do think that had I known the issues that the first set had, I wouldn't have ordered the next set. I'm kind of glad I did though as the VMP JID 5 & 6 have been pressed at a different plant and sound fantastic. I now have a complete set of flat, decent-sounding records (other than 2 which is less warped but still there, going to get it flattened soon), despite all the hassle.

I had a look last night, couldn't find 5, but JID 6 is readily available & is a 2x45 rmp version. Was the VMP a double? Is it a good album?
 
I guess it depends on where "internationally" you are. I have not bought anything off the store in ages when I realized that these were all releases my local was getting in much cheaper when factoring in the exchange rate. As a Canadian at least there are very few instances when it is worth it to snatch up a store drop.

Also in the same order I'm picking up this weekend from my local is the BVSC 25th, which caused me to resub to VMP in the first place with similar mastering details and an extra five tracks. Hopefully it still sounds great even though the four sides are now spread across 3 and the last side is the unreleased stuff. Seeing it pop up at my local for much less than the cost of a sub gave me a bit of rage, and I'm taking to the end of the day to decide whether I'm officially done with VMP.
Oh for sure, yeah completely depends on where you are. Here in the UK I have found that the average cost for vinyl is more than the US anyway, so when it comes to situations like this VMP does tend to be more affordable.

I had a look last night, couldn't find 5, but JID 6 is readily available & is a 2x45 rmp version. Was the VMP a double? Is it a good album?
Are you sure 6 is available as a 2LP set? The VMP is 1 and the others I looked at were as well. JID 4 & 5 are 2LP 45rpm and sound fantastic.

I listened to JID 6 last night and it's so good! Gary Bartz really is a powerhouse!
 
Oh for sure, yeah completely depends on where you are. Here in the UK I have found that the average cost for vinyl is more than the US anyway, so when it comes to situations like this VMP does tend to be more affordable.
Blame Brexit. Everything boils down to Brexit.
 
Oh for sure, yeah completely depends on where you are. Here in the UK I have found that the average cost for vinyl is more than the US anyway, so when it comes to situations like this VMP does tend to be more affordable.


Are you sure 6 is available as a 2LP set? The VMP is 1 and the others I looked at were as well. JID 4 & 5 are 2LP 45rpm and sound fantastic.

I listened to JID 6 last night and it's so good! Gary Bartz really is a powerhouse!

My mistake, mixing up my 5 & my 6. It's the Gary Bartz can't find, but the Doug Carn is available.
 
Blame Brexit. Everything boils down to Brexit.

It’s not brexit it’s VAT. You’re basically avoiding paying the 20% VAT in the UK if it slips through customs which VMP packages usually do for whatever reason. It’s not a fair fight because your local has no choice but to charge VAT.

What will be interesting is now that the below £20 freebie has gone and the customs departments at the postal providers have got more aggressive will VMP parcels soon be pulled by customs to pay VAT too. It’d make it a very hard sell then.
 
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