That Escalated Quickly (aka Common Records Turned Rare)

The product is underproduced with intent.

If I'm a D list rapper, and I try to sell 3,000 albums... well I might sell 100. Butttt, if i make it limited to 300 then they will be sold the same day AND give me clout AND make my next run more profitable.

Don't blame the artist, blame yourself. Silly fomo head (I consider myself a silly fomo head as well)

I think that's where the room for nuance is. Like...there are definitely artists or teams who deliberately underproduce goods (as opposed to genuinely under-estimating demand or being deliberately cautious to avoid dead stock). I cannot be mad at flippers when the artist is also deciding to actively limit the amount of product in the market. Finding that intent can be difficult but it seems like in some cases it's obvious.

Like on the Microphones issue, I think I get the frustration a bit more - expensive item that likely isn't a "quick click FOMO buy", a mystery number produced it seems, and then one seller immediately puts it up for 3x cost on receipt. And the band almost certainly doesn't want to float thousands in inventory given the price of the product will add up real quicky.

The limited hip-hop runs or artists who have 11 variants? Eh. With ya.
 
I did a fun thought experiment inspired by this thread.

Now that I am fully out of my VMP subscription, I went to discogs and searched "vinyl me please" within my collection. Not a prefect system, but I wanted to see what percentage of VMP albums I own actually increased in median value. I was always on the annual plan that came out to about $24/month. But I've picked up exclusives along the way, so I figured the cut off should be about $30 for gained vs loss value.

Looks like about 70% of my collection has grown in value. Even if we up the cut off to $35, I still have 62% gaining value.
As much as we all hate flippers, that's actually pretty good numbers for a side hustle. Especially if the losses are only losing 50% in value, but about 6% of the ones I have are over $100 median value now. Looks like I should have just purchased 2 of everything the entire time I was on VMP.
 
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I did a fun thought experiment inspired by this thread.

Now that I am fully out of my VMP subscription, I went to discogs and searched "vinyl me please" within my collection. Not a prefect system, but I wanted to see what percentage of VMP albums I own actually increased in median value. I was always on the annual plan that came out to about $24/month. But I've picked up exclusives along the way, so I figured the cut off should be about $30 for gained vs loss value.

Looks like about 70% of my collection has grown in value. Even if we up the cut off to $35, I still have 62% gaining value.
As much as we all hate flippers, that's actually pretty good numbers for a side hustle. Especially if the losses are only losing 50% in value, but about 6% of the ones I have are over $100 median value now. Looks like I should have just purchased 2 of everything the entire time I was on VMP.
This is how I justified my re-sub to be honest. I went through the VMP records I had that I wasn't really interested in and sold them at the discogs average, which ended up being more than that sub actually cost me and I was still leftover with the records I wanted. I just figured I would do the same again that time next year if there were any purchases I regretted.
 
I posted this in the Spinning thread just now, but thought I'd officially add it here.

This is the Mondo Exclusive, but the regular Red / Blue 2 LP set is also going for more than retail price.

Various – Last Night In Soho (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Mondo/Back Lot Music – MOND-235, 2021

Mondo exclusive variant

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This variant shipped in December, it was only "limited" based on a Twitter post from Mondo, no pressing run numbers were given.
 

I saw this one constantly while record shopping, and I bought my copy for $16. Cheapest copy currently for sale on Discogs right now is $60 and a quick visit to eBay led me to find its lowest priced copy is $50. Inflation is crazy out there...
 
I sold my copy for like 32 bucks in 2017...


Also have this full album VMP edition...
Damn, I sold the VMP one for £80 back in 2019. Should have kept hold of it by the looks of it.
 
I sold my copy for like 32 bucks in 2017...


Also have this full album VMP edition...
i sold the VMP for $140 back in 2020. the guy who bought it from me now has it listed at $2,500 on discogs hah
 
I sold my copy for like 32 bucks in 2017...


Also have this full album VMP edition...
If I didn’t hate dealing with Discogs buyers so much I’d send up my UGK Texas-shaped single in a heartbeat.
 
Some people kinda suck is the sad conclusion I draw from this first 'for sale' post for the Microphones box set that just landed this week.

I'll admit I'm one of the assholes that posted this for sale after I saw what the first couple went for. I had to have an MRI that hit me for $800 that same day. So I figured I'd rather have the money at that point. But no one's bit and I'm not complaining because I do actually want it, it's just definitely not worth $700 to me. Sometimes like with this I'm an unintentional flipper. I never buy to flip, but it's true sometimes something will arrive after a long pre-order and people be paying crazy amounts and I only have so much willpower when these young'uns are waving the Benji's, especially when I can buy more records with that money 😅
 
I'll admit I'm one of the assholes that posted this for sale after I saw what the first couple went for. I had to have an MRI that hit me for $800 that same day. So I figured I'd rather have the money at that point. But no one's bit and I'm not complaining because I do actually want it, it's just definitely not worth $700 to me. Sometimes like with this I'm an unintentional flipper. I never buy to flip, but it's true sometimes something will arrive after a long pre-order and people be paying crazy amounts and I only have so much willpower when these young'uns are waving the Benji's, especially when I can buy more records with that money 😅
I agree with this. I have very little will power, and sometimes the FOMO hits me hard, but when I actually recieve the record, I wonder why I bought it in the first place. A good example is the Peter Murphy box set. I bought it for $100, and it sold out from 4AD FAST. Really, the only albums I need are Love Hysteria and Deep, and they’re the only ones I’ve spun since I got it, so yeah, I’d sell.
 
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