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

Joe Mac said:
It’s not even cheaper I’ve been interested in 5 records they’ve done out of 27. I already owned good copied 2, got another Irish member to bag me the third and let Otis go. Spiritualized is the one that really burns, I love that record and would like a good copy but at that price they can go and whistle.
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Yeah it's definitely not worth it to someone who isnt even interested in their curation (I for the most part really like it).
And especially in essentials case, you can probably get most of those on discogs from people who didnt swap or cancel, or just werent feeling the record, for less than VMP would charge.
 
SJR said:
The number of folk in here saying "the year is a good deal, I might go for it" baffles and concerns me. Of course it's an individual's prerogative, but look where this company is now compared to last year. Do you really want to financially commit to them for another year? More importantly, do you trust/believe in them to be here let alone offering a good value product this time next year?
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I do think they will go under but if they do, it is very easy to get money back. I did it with Sinemia when they went under and had the difference in my membership price back after a short phone call to Chase. I'll use Paypal just to be extra safe but I'm really not too worried about it.
 
Rowan said:
It's exactly that. For internationals in order to make it worthwhile there needs to be a commitment and anything under 12 months seems to fall into the land of shady economic benefit and anything over 3 months hits massive risk reward on VMPs sustainibility. I mean. If they didn't seem so shakey at the minute 2 subs on a yearly for the main would be £48 a month. That's, like, €53/54 euros a month. Its not bad. Its just the bloody risk!

Plus at this point it's rare I actually want both the classic and essentials
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If your a current subscriber and getting the bridge deal and like a coupe of years ago when there was usually 1 or 2 good records a month and decent swaps then yeah. Most months now there’s not even one I’m interested in and if there is it seems that I already own it! As such I’m not currently subbed, forum killed me off once, rebounded for QOTSA and jan picks killed me off the second time. At this stage I’d just like to figure a way to get spiritualized for a fair price and then forget that they ever existed.
 
wynn72 said:
Yeah it's definitely not worth it to someone who isnt even interested in their curation (I for the most part really like it).
And especially in essentials case, you can probably get most of those on discogs from people who didnt swap or cancel, or just werent feeling the record, for less than VMP would charge.
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Yea--for some of those essentials releases, you could even buy from Vinceron at this point for cheaper. DAMMIT--VINCERON WINS THE LONG GAME.
 
zarile9 said:
You mean $33 a month, right? The 12 month subscription is $399.
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They are sending $299/year bridge deals to certain members. I don't know specifically who is getting those offers. Maybe it is only for people whose subscriptions are expiring this month. Pauly said they would be emailing people about deals when their subscriptions are coming up on renewal.
 
Ethos99 said:
I did not.
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For me it wasn't an email. It is on the membership page where you edit your membership, there is a message on the top and you need to expand it. I changed my plan from 1 month at 43 to a year at 399 with a 100 discount. There's no way I'm paying 43 for a record but I'm not ready to quit yet so I'm in for at least another year.
.
 
MikeH said:
Oh I do agree that whether or not a record is worth $40 is entirely subjective. When I first started buying records, I thought $25/record was insane. I just think if you're comparing MoFi/AP to VMP, the difference in quality is NOT subjective. Those other labels are consistently ahead.

I also realized that a lot of my posts can come off as bashing people who want to stick with VMP and I don't want to come off that way so I'll try to dial it back. If you can lock in the $299 yearly price, enjoy the titles and are happy with the service, I don't think it's a terrible deal at face value. I know there are people who get their records on time every month (or who don't mind if records arrive late), who like the aspect of discovery and don't experience warps. I was one of those people for a long time so I stuck with VMP for 4+ years. But now I'm at the point that the majority of swaps left that I'm interested in are not worth $33, most of the ROTMs are things I probably wouldn't spend $40 on if i wasn't locked into a membership. That doesn't even take into account the whole way they treat their customers who do have issues, or how poorly the company is run. I can't think of any other online retailer where I have had such a consistently bad experience simply trying to get someone to respond to issues. yes--they are often resolved in the end but I've had to have back and forths with CS that lasted for weeks and I had to ultimately threaten a chargeback and CC the CEO for something as simple as trying to get a missing record sent to me.
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I agree with almost everything you say so I dont take it as you bashing people who want to stay with it. Usually when we disagree it's on the little things and I take it more as a discussion.

Mofi/AP are consistency ahead but Ill be completely honest, I'm not even close to an audiophile. I can tell the difference between a good and bad pressing, of course, but unless you played most of these Audiophile pressings right next to each other, the difference wouldnt be enough to effect my enjoyment. It's one of the reasons why I hate 45rpm remastering, even if it does result in a slight uptick in sound.

Overall, I like VMPs curation and think their pressings are usually at minimum above average, if not always the "best it's ever sounded".
It has introduced me to a lot of music I wouldnt be exposed to normally and I'm lucky that I have a pretty diverse taste where It's hard to have a full out miss for me. I've been subscribed to all 3 tracks since Biggie and have swapped a grand total of 5 times, and have ended up later buying 3 of those I swapped out of (Plus recently sold Beach House, so I guess that counts as a miss).

I understand, I am a rarity here and in their prime target market and can't blame anyone for not fitting that criteria.
And their CS response time and fulfillment is undoubtedly absolute garbage. If anything makes me eventually quit, it will be that.
 
Lord Diaper Baby said:
I'm not sure we said anything differently. I mentioned that you could get them on swaps for cheaper than the 40. Did they stop it months ago? I thought you could still do it?
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No I’m saying that they weren’t always $40 out of swaps. That $5 or $11 increase 10 or 11 months ago was a huge bone of contention that they dressed up as a “member benefit” although no one quite understood how it was...
 
Joe Mac said:
No I’m saying that they weren’t always $40 out of swaps. That $5 or $11 increase 10 or 11 months ago was a huge bone of contention that they dressed up as a “member benefit” although no one quite understood how it was...
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Oh I got ya - words are difficult sometimes.

Yes, I remember that they used to not cost 40. But the person I answered seemed to be asking about now; so I only answered to how it is meow. But you are correct, those were the halcyon days of yesteryear.
 
Rahawk2 said:
For me it wasn't an email. It is on the membership page where you edit your membership, there is a message on the top and you need to expand it. I changed my plan from 1 month at 43 to a year at 399 with a 100 discount. There's no way I'm paying 43 for a record but I'm not ready to quit yet so I'm in for at least another year.
.
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I clicked around and wasn't getting the anything like the screenshots I've seen. my sub ends 8/30 so i figured if they were offering i would have seen it.
 
wmeugene said:
The problem is that I have to give them a year's worth of commitment to get a reasonable price. I just cannot do that with how crappy the Classics curation has been, swaps have been a wasteland, and they haven't told me in advance what records I'm getting. If I am going to gamble $300, I'd rather do it at the blackjack table next time I am in Vegas.
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Same. I feel strongly that if the quality of offerings had gotten better and more interesting then I'd be more inclined to consider buying for a year up front. but It hasn't been. I've been buying fewer and fewer exclusives and swapping more and more. I can't commit to a year when I feel like it's going to be a struggle to figure out what I want, and if the company will even be around in a year. I've been on the 3 month plan for over 4 years; I could very reasonably do another year at the current rate if I felt it was worth it.
 
Joe Mac said:
No I’m saying that they weren’t always $40 out of swaps. That $5 or $11 increase 10 or 11 months ago was a huge bone of contention that they dressed up as a “member benefit” although no one quite understood how it was...
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I wish the old forum still existed so that I could still quote the infamous "We want the store to be a magical place with special pricing for members," which itself came after a bit of a price hike (the first time they grandfathered in old pricing structures, including the now-defunct Crate membership), and after they had weaned us off the "$17 for everything in the store" model they had in the very beginning.
 
wynn72 said:
I agree with almost everything you say so I dont take it as you bashing people who want to stay with it. Usually when we disagree it's on the little things and I take it more as a discussion.

Mofi/AP are consistency ahead but Ill be completely honest, I'm not even close to an audiophile. I can tell the difference between a good and bad pressing, of course, but unless you played most of these Audiophile pressings right next to each other, the difference wouldnt be enough to effect my enjoyment. It's one of the reasons why I hate 45rpm remastering, even if it does result in a slight uptick in sound.

Overall, I like VMPs curation and think their pressings are usually at minimum above average, if not always the "best it's ever sounded".
It has introduced me to a lot of music I wouldnt be exposed to normally and I'm lucky that I have a pretty diverse taste where It's hard to have a full out miss for me. I've been subscribed to all 3 tracks since Biggie and have swapped a grand total of 5 times, and have ended up later buying 3 of those I swapped out of (Plus recently sold Beach House, so I guess that counts as a miss).

I understand, I am a rarity here and in their prime target market and can't blame anyone for not fitting that criteria.
And their CS response time and fulfillment is undoubtedly absolute garbage. If anything makes me eventually quit, it will be that.
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From everything I've seen you post on here, VMP as an idea is a pretty perfect match for ya so I'm happy for you and I would probably resub at the discounted price if I were in your shoes too. I think I just have reached a point where I rarely feel the need to add any of the ROTMs to my collection since my shelves are pretty maxed out. I have already cancelled my sub after it expires next month so I'm glad to get Spiritualized at least. I'll still follow what albums they release but will probably just buy them elsewhere or on discogs later if any affordable copies pop up.
 
bobomac2 said:
My question is how do they expect to get rid of their old stock? If they haven't wiped out the stuff available every month at the old rates, no way will they get rid of them at the new ones. They're probably going to have to have some massive fire sale, but that may not even work.
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I wonder this too. Like...is anybody going to really pay $33 for most of the swaptions they have? Especially since a bunch were in the sale section of the site already? Who will swap Cecil Taylor for $33 when it's for sale for $13 in the store...If people didn't want to pay a max of $29 for those albums as ROTM a few months ago, why would they pay $33?

My guess is we'll start seeing these albums pop up on all of those other Huckberry type sites in no time.
 
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