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

Dead C said:
If handled with some semblance of competency, shouldn't require additional investors. They spent your record money on anoraks and company parties
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I've said this in the past, but I just don't think it's all that profitable of a business and as they scale up in subscriptions they've failed to scale up their operation, and now they're playing catch-up and are incurring huge costs, poor integration of new systems, etc and their pricing and cost structure isn't viable.

It wouldn't shock me if we're here at this time next year and VMP doesn't exist.

Clint Howard said:
It's kind of scary given all their 'success', that they can't just approach a bank about a loan.
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I'd guess it's because they're already highly leveraged and can't show healthy cash flows. Banks aren't in the business of losing money, generally. I can't imagine them getting any reasonable finance terms right now through normal financial institutions.

D Jilla said:
For those familiar with the company SoundStage Direct, their situation was eerily similar. They were a fully reliable shop at one point (probably even more than VMP), kind of a competitor to Music Direct and Acoustic Sounds.

One month, they just stopped shipping stuff. Then, as a “sorry” for the shipping issues, they offered a big sale, selling a ton more product. Months went by and no one got anything. Then, the website went offline, it was gone, and your only recourse was CC/PayPal claims.

As @High Rant District says, look out for yourselves. At a certain point, there’s no coming back from major financial issues—don’t be surprised if they need to cut bait.
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Yup, the SSD comparison is spot on.

If January comes around and you haven't received your December albums, file a CC claim and don't look back.

Anyone still waiting on November or earlier RotM's, file now and don't look back.
 
Btsvinylfarm said:
It wouldn't shock me if we're here at this time next year and VMP doesn't exist.
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It's what I expect to happen.

They invest their money on ridiculous shit and focus on the wrong things. They shouldn't be trying to publish books and making anoraks when they can't get their basics together.
 
The amount of business 'insight' on this thread is overwhelming. Does anyone actually own a business here?

In other news: I got two shipping notices, one for Aretha one for Fiona. Neither has started the journey but the labels have been created.
I've also gotten a reply from CS about a problem with my November record. I swapped for Jackie Shane. It's a two album deal with one studio recording and one live. The record was sealed but only the live record was there. VMP is sold out so they credited 25 to my account. Did anyone else by that record? Did anyone else have the same problem?
I've also emailed Numero Group to see if they have an extra disc 1 they can sell me.
 
Ajax said:
The amount of business 'insight' on this thread is overwhelming. Does anyone actually own a business here?

In other news: I got two shipping notices, one for Aretha one for Fiona. Neither has started the journey but the labels have been created.
I've also gotten a reply from CS about a problem with my November record. I swapped for Jackie Shane. It's a two album deal with one studio recording and one live. The record was sealed but only the live record was there. VMP is sold out so they credited 25 to my account. Did anyone else by that record? Did anyone else have the same problem?
I've also emailed Numero Group to see if they have an extra disc 1 they can sell me.
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I’ve been a member since 2014 and this might be the latest in the month I’ve gone without getting a shipping notification. Shits fucked.
 
Btsvinylfarm said:
I've said this in the past, but I just don't think it's all that profitable of a business and as they scale up in subscriptions they've failed to scale up their operation, and now they're playing catch-up and are incurring huge costs, poor integration of new systems, etc and their pricing and cost structure isn't viable.
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How weird would it be if the real reason they shut down the old forum was that they just couldn’t afford the expense if it wasn’t generating revenue, and the real reason they were willing to take all that abuse is because the truth was even worse? Just supposing, just for a second, that that’s what happened, they would actually have done us a favor in the long run by cutting us off when they did.
 
Ajax said:
The amount of business 'insight' on this thread is overwhelming. Does anyone actually own a business here?
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I've worked in various aspects of corporate finance, through numerous industries, over the course of a decade plus. Everything from small manufacturing/operational finance to large corporate M&A work.

Some of takes I'm posting are guesswork, but the assumptions are all reasonable and informed. I haven't ever owned my own business, but you don't need to have been a President/CEO of a company to spot financial warning signs in others.
 
Indymisanthrope said:
How weird would it be if the real reason they shut down the old forum was that they just couldn’t afford the expense if it wasn’t generating revenue, and the real reason they were willing to take all that abuse is because the truth was even worse? Just supposing, just for a second, that that’s what happened, they would actually have done us a favor in the long run by cutting us off when they did.
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I mean, if things were that bad that they couldn't afford hosting the forum anymore, they likely wouldn't have survived this long.

I think it's more likely that they didn't want to play host to a repository for negative feedback for their product/service.
 
Ajax said:
The amount of business 'insight' on this thread is overwhelming. Does anyone actually own a business here?
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A lot of us here are in corporate finance, several of us have/are in the music industry, and lots have been collecting records so long to have seen several labels, stores and sites go under from bad practice. Unfortunately, a lot of the same flags start popping up when something is going under. But we are coming at this from an angle that we really want VMP to succeed and stick around- we just want them to get it together and be on the level with their customers. We wouldn't be so mad over a business we hate.
 
Btsvinylfarm said:
I mean, if things were that bad that they couldn't afford hosting the forum anymore, they likely wouldn't have survived this long.

I think it's more likely that they didn't want to play host to a repository for negative feedback for their product/service.
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You’re probably right; that just popped into my head and I wanted to try it on to see how it fit.
 
Colonel_Angus said:
Nvm.


It absolutely is my department...

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