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

Joe Mac said:
It is your money and it’s your call. You only have to justify it to yourself. It doesn’t justify it to others or make it comparatively worth that. $33 without shipping would be fair with less of a commitment for me, given the quality of their curation it’d really bite on the weak months. $52 for one month and $49.66 for 3 for me would be unsustainable even if I loved everything about them, especially as the $10 rise in add ons had taken the goodness out of the shipping benefit.
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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
 
Joe Mac said:
It is your money and it’s your call. You only have to justify it to yourself. It doesn’t justify it to others or make it comparatively worth that. $33 without shipping would be fair with less of a commitment for me, as an international I used to pay $36 a month on the 3 month plan. Given the quality of their curation the $33 would personally really bite on the weak months. $52 for one month and $49.66 for 3 for me would be unsustainable even if I loved everything about them, especially as the $10 rise in add ons has taken the goodness out of the shipping benefit.
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Yeah makes sense, if I was in your position I probably wouldnt either, especially if records are available and cheaper for you elsewhere. I know it varies wildly for international members.
 
wynn72 said:
Yeah makes sense, if I was in your position I probably wouldnt either, especially if records are available and cheaper for you elsewhere. I know it varies wildly for international members.
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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.
 
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.
 
The 299 for 12 months is pretty good at face value. But a lot of people do add-ons so that could run you an extra 10-20/month (120-240/yr) so there go your savings. As well, the idea of being in the pocket of a record subscription service for a year is unsettling. I was always month-to-month. Only reason they ever got me to a 3-month was cause of that 3 for 2 deal. Besides not liking a long contract, who knows if they'll make it that year and if they do go out of business then good luck getting blood from a turnip - you'll never see a refund.
 
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?
 
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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Yeah I think I've found at least one record a month that I'll enjoy to make it worth the gamble. Plus I've been really lucky with swaps so far, TLC, Bandana, Blossom Dearie, FKA Twigs, Woodstock Box, plus a few others. I'm only half joking that that Dead box may show up, plus they already admitted they are doing more represses.
 
bobomac2 said:
Starting to think the Grateful Dead box set put them under 😬 That had to cost a fortune to license
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wmeugene said:
I dunno, Grateful Dead Merchandising is really good at getting their money. No way VMP didn't pay an arm and a leg for those rights
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My brother works for a large apparel company who recently did a line of officially licensed GD shirts. He got one for me for my birthday and told me that they hardly made any money at all on them because of how high the licensing fees were.

From that anecdotal evidence, I cannot even imagine how much these boxes were.
 
Rahawk2 said:
plus they already admitted they are doing more represses.
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The represses thing is what's got me thinking about their relationship with the secondary market. They've already indicated with the Waitlist button and recent tweets about De La Soul that that's where they're heading, so I'm curious if they're taking into consideration some of the ridiculous secondary market prices into this new structure. Not sure its a great business model though..
 
Rahawk2 said:
Is everyone not getting this offer?

As a loyal member, you will receive special one-time discount if you upgrade to a multi-month term. Once your plan renews, you will receive an email confirming your discounted price.
  • 33 month term: New member price $119, your renewal price $89.25
  • 66 month term: New member price $219, your renewal price $164.25
  • 1212 month term: New member price $399, your renewal price $299.25
This is a limited-time offer and subject to change for future renewals. 1 Month term will renew at $43 (no special offer).
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I did not.
 
Lord Diaper Baby said:
The 299 for 12 months is pretty good at face value. But a lot of people do add-ons so that could run you an extra 10-20/month (120-240/yr) so there go your savings. As well, the idea of being in the pocket of a record subscription service for a year is unsettling. I was always month-to-month. Only reason they ever got me to a 3-month was cause of that 3 for 2 deal. Besides not liking a long contract, who knows if they'll make it that year and if they do go out of business then good luck getting blood from a turnip - you'll never see a refund.
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I've been month to month but did a 3 month on a separate sub for that 3 for 2 deal .I think if I use PayPal I'm protected if they go tits up, I'm not going to buy 3 a month anymore but 2 will be about 58 if there is something I really want ie Spirtualized and Ghotface (if that's what it is)
 
wynn72 said:
I don’t disagree with most of what youre saying but I do think it’s subjective whether it’s worth it. Do all of the titles match the Quality and Curation of those other labels? Of course not. But you’ll find stinkers in those audiophile labels as well.

The big difference is the subscription aspect which locks you in as opposed to picking and choosing. But people want audiophile and out of print titles as well as prices to be affordable, its hard to do both consistently on a monthly basis.
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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.
 
Rowan said:
I think the general line is that the price is solid. The company not do much
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It would be a good price if they could deliver on what they promise, absolutely. I'm just surprised at how many people are happy to throw hundreds of their chosen currency in a yearly commitment to a company that has sat idly by and watched their web store, logistics, product quality and after-sales service all take a significant and continuous drop in standards. Their reaction to their failings? Hike up prices and blame rising costs that haven't affected other outlets. Not to forget their blatant lying about not raising prices too.
 
Rahawk2 said:
I've been month to month but did a 3 month on a separate sub for that 3 for 2 deal .I think if I use PayPal I'm protected if they go tits up, I'm not going to buy 3 a month anymore but 2 will be about 58 if there is something I really want ie Spirtualized and Ghotface (if that's what it is)
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That's what I did - used a different email to get that deal and canceled my month to month on my other email. Heck, I had credit on my first sub and emailed them and got them to transfer it to my new one; I told them exactly why I created a new account.
 
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