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

Ghost said:
Nathan, I say this out of deep love and concern but I don’t know how sound of a strategy spending your retirement fund egg on records, traveling OR food is. To me that’s indicative of a pretty serious and seemingly destructive shopping habit. We seem to be around the same age and moving out of my parents house at 21 has really shined a light on the value of a savings and a rainy day fund. You seem to have the idea that you’re supposed to actively be splurging your money towards something, and by all means we should all have hobbies that we invest into, but at our age that’s like $50-$100 a month (MAYBE) not dozens of records a month ESPECIALLY not if you’re going after APs, MoFis, and One-Steps which can very quickly create GIANT monthly spends. I think we owe it to ourselves to always be watching the road ahead and how our actions now will affect our experience then. Time starts moving fast right around 25 and I am only now getting to a place where I feel prepared for a “rainy day” and that’s with a little more than half of your former retirement fund saved up. Only now am I realizing how daunting life can be if we aren’t financially responsible. I just get the sense that 5 years from now you’re going to wish you had an extra savings pool to throw at a house down payment or a move or maybe some investment opportunities. Like seriously dude, you saying you’ve withdrawn $15,500 out of your retirement fund to immerse yourself in vinyl makes my insides scream “OHGODFUCKNO”

Anyways, I know you didn't ask for my opinion and I’m sure it makes you want to roll your eyes but just maybe take a biggggg chill and build yourself a hard budget for vinyl spending, you will most likely thank yourself at some point! ❤
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Nah, tell future Nathan to kick rocks, buy more records and thank yourself NOW.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Good for you bud! You seem to be getting by fine. If it makes you happy then my all means. You’re not guaranteed a single moment in life so ya gotta make each one count.

In the long run we’ll all be dead.
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Yup. It doesn't matter if as we near the end we're drinking cherry coca cola out of champagne flutes because we've a bit left in the bank or our own piss out of sellotaped carrier bags because we went the full Herbie Goes Bananas in our 20's. The end result is the same. It's just the degree of comfort in the build up.

But I still read the email explaining said life choices with absolute horror... and then immediately felt totally old as fuck and had to make myself a cup of tea to get myself calm again.
 
Ghost said:
Nathan, I say this out of deep love and concern but I don’t know how sound of a strategy spending your retirement fund egg on records, traveling OR food is. To me that’s indicative of a pretty serious and seemingly destructive shopping habit. We seem to be around the same age and moving out of my parents house at 21 has really shined a light on the value of a savings and a rainy day fund. You seem to have the idea that you’re supposed to actively be splurging your money towards something, and by all means we should all have hobbies that we invest into, but at our age that’s like $50-$100 a month (MAYBE) not dozens of records a month ESPECIALLY not if you’re going after APs, MoFis, and One-Steps which can very quickly create GIANT monthly spends. I think we owe it to ourselves to always be watching the road ahead and how our actions now will affect our experience then. Time starts moving fast right around 25 and I am only now getting to a place where I feel prepared for a “rainy day” and that’s with a little more than half of your former retirement fund saved up. Only now am I realizing how daunting life can be if we aren’t financially responsible. I just get the sense that 5 years from now you’re going to wish you had an extra savings pool to throw at a house down payment or a move or maybe some investment opportunities. Like seriously dude, you saying you’ve withdrawn $15,500 out of your retirement fund to immerse yourself in vinyl makes my insides scream “OHGODFUCKNO”

I know you said you don’t plan on having kids or anything like that soon but in order to have kids at all you need to do your best to prepare years in advance. Like if you want kids in 5-10 years you should ideally be putting away for the little goober now. My fiancé and I desperately want a house and kids but it will probably be another 5 years or so before we can pull the trigger on those goals and that’s as a household that currently brings in $100,000/year. When you start working and have your own place and car and insurance and all that stupid adult shit, money will often leave faster than it comes in and it takes YEAAAAARS to build relative financial stability. It takes a long time in my experience to save $15,500 but you can spend it all in a minute. Something I like to think about to help me with my savings goals is the following:

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the next best time is right now.”

Anyways, I know you didn't ask for my opinion and I’m sure it makes you want to roll your eyes but just maybe take a biggggg chill and build yourself a hard budget for vinyl spending, you will most likely thank yourself at some point! ❤
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I have my own thoughts on fiscal responsibility - as we all have our own thoughts on everything, right? I'd like to make some comments/observations, but agnostic of @NathanRicaud because 1) I don't want to pile on an individual and 2) It's behavior that I've seen time and again. It's not generational. I'm 37 and have friends my age who don't have two sticks to rub together; and I have friends a decade or more older than me who, likewise, I wouldn't ask for financial advice. I also understand that there are the multitudes and vicissitudes of life that create hardships. But then there are also the hardships people make for themselves - i.e. they shit the bed and try to blame the sheets. This is what I'm talking about here.

I have to bite my tongue many times on this forum and remember that it is a good-natured music forum and not an unsolicited advice column. However, time and again, I see people posting about how they're broke and "saving for..." Not saving to build something but "saving for" this piece of equipment or to further fund record buying. I'm not going to use "you" here, so I'll communicate my belief for "I": If I do not have a savings account with AT LEAST six months of income, then I don't buy WANTS. If I do not have money (for me, at least 20% of my income but usually much more) going into investments then I don't buy WANTS. If I cannot live on my own terms and as a self-sufficient (hu)man then I don't buy WANTS (and living off parents is not self-sufficiency - note I say "OFF", not "WITH"; I respect cultural and familial norms and see nothing wrong with multi-generational cohabitation).

Someone could counter that at my age, I'm more established. True-ish. But I began working at 14. I joined the military and left my mother's home at 18 - and I have been saving since. I look at it as a mindset that is non-generational. Because there are plenty of teens/twenty-somethings who share that mindset.

What's really sexy and attractive? Self-sufficiency. Things aren't sexy. Things can be great and it's awesome to be able to buy things. Heck, I spend more than I should on records, but I ALWAYS pay myself first.

I submit for consideration that if a person will not save then they aren't facing down sexiness - they're facing down anxiety and a lack belonging somewhere. I also say all this understanding that, again, there are life situations that cannot be mitigated that put people in financial dire straits. BUT that also doesn't mean they're irresponsible. Because, again, I consider it a mindset and not wholly a thing that can be judged by a number in someones bank account. I've known people who live paycheck to paycheck, driven by circumstance; but I still consider them financially responsible and willing to sacrifice WANTS in support of a bigger picture.

Again, I don't consider this a generational issue or an issue of class; rather one of perspective. And I cringe when I hear people being so flippant about their financial future and wanton in their spending.

Alright, end of rant. I just wasted a lot of money on that soapbox.
 
TCell said:
Why are we ranking Spoon albums? Other than it's more fun than debating the merits of a jumped the shark vinyl company we’ve all spent too much time and money on, but brought most of us together in the first place.

My Favourite Spoon albums:
1 - Gimme Fiction
2 - Girls Can Tell
3 - Kill the Moonlight
4 - Ga ga ga ga

Series of Sneaks and Telephono are fine, but a band trying to find itself, so inconsistent.

The last three are very good, but I haven’t spent much time with.
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I don't know but I think it's great we've held two conversations about totally different subjects all this time.
 
Lord Diaper Baby said:
I have my own thoughts on fiscal responsibility - as we all have our own thoughts on everything, right? I'd like to make some comments/observations, but agnostic of @NathanRicaud because 1) I don't want to pile on an individual and 2) It's behavior that I've seen time and again. It's not generational. I'm 37 and have friends my age who don't have two sticks to rub together; and I have friends a decade or more older than me who, likewise, I wouldn't ask for financial advice. I also understand that there are the multitudes and vicissitudes of life that create hardships. But then there are also the hardships people make for themselves - i.e. they shit the bed and try to blame the sheets. This is what I'm talking about here.

I have to bite my tongue many times on this forum and remember that it is a good-natured music forum and not an unsolicited advice column. However, time and again, I see people posting about how they're broke and "saving for..." Not saving to build something but "saving for" this piece of equipment or to further fund record buying. I'm not going to use "you" here, so I'll communicate my belief for "I": If I do not have a savings account with AT LEAST six months of income, then I don't buy WANTS. If I do not have money (for me, at least 20% of my income but usually much more) going into investments then I don't buy WANTS. If I cannot live on my own terms and as a self-sufficient (hu)man then I don't buy WANTS (and living off parents is not self-sufficiency - note I say "OFF", not "WITH"; I respect cultural and familial norms and see nothing wrong with multi-generational cohabitation).

Someone could counter that at my age, I'm more established. True-ish. But I began working at 14. I joined the military and left my mother's home at 18 - and I have been saving since. I look at it as a mindset that is non-generational. Because there are plenty of teens/twenty-somethings who share that mindset.

What's really sexy and attractive? Self-sufficiency. Things aren't sexy. Things can be great and it's awesome to be able to buy things. Heck, I spend more than I should on records, but I ALWAYS pay myself first.

I submit for consideration that if a person will not save then they aren't facing down sexiness - they're facing down anxiety and a lack belonging somewhere. I also say all this understanding that, again, there are life situations that cannot be mitigated that put people in financial dire straits. BUT that also doesn't mean they're irresponsible. Because, again, I consider it a mindset and not wholly a thing that can be judged by a number in someones bank account. I've known people who live paycheck to paycheck, driven by circumstance; but I still consider them financially responsible and willing to sacrifice WANTS in support of a bigger picture.

Again, I don't consider this a generational issue or an issue of class; rather one of perspective. And I cringe when I hear people being so flippant about their financial future and wanton in their spending.

Alright, end of rant. I just wasted a lot of money on that soapbox.
Click to expand...

I think if you've had to be self sufficient then you have a different perspective. I moved out of my parent's home when I was 20 and have moved back twice. Once because there was a gap in between selling my old flat and completing on my current (and hopefully forever) home and a second time when I was having work done to the house late last year. Both experiences have taught me one thing. Firstly, even as a 40 year old I still dearly, dearly love my parents but secondly I would rather have to choose between Netflix OR Amazon Prime (as both is a bit extravagant), limit nights out, eating out and takeaways and most relevantly limit my vinyl and other luxury purchases to a set monthly amount and either stick to it or go lower than have to go back to living with them again on a permanent basis. Like I say, I love them but absolutely fuck that.

I guess if you've never had that independence then you don't really have that mindset and you can quite happily wax a load of cheddar on coloured LPs safe in the knowledge that no fucker is going to come and boot you and your dog out of your home for it. You don;t really miss what you've never had so life is instead lived in current circumstances. The worst part about reading it was how old it made me feel.
 
It’s weird in my 20 and 30s I racked up over 50k in credit card debt, bought what I wanted, went out when I wanted never let not having money stop me from getting what I wanted. Its taking me forever to pay it off and I’ve been living much more conservatively. Some days I wish I would have behaved my self because I would have more money now to do what I want other times I’m glad I got all of the partying out of my system when I was younger.
 
I'll add in a bit here.
In 2020, I've slashed my spending like crazy including on vinyl and I can't describe how good it feels.
I've halved my expenses, mainly frivolous ones and as a result, we are now in a position to buy a house, something we had only dreamed of before.
So whatever your situation is, finding a way to do more with less pays off incredibly.
That's just my two cents but it's working really well for my family :)
 
"You guys ever sending that McCoy Tyner and Cornelius out? I was told multiple times that it would be sent at the beginning of this month, given the same boilerplate message time and time again about how there was, yet again, another glitch in the system that caused this, and now, almost two weeks into the month and with people getting this current ROTM already, I want an actual answer on the status of my order. It's my money you're holding hostage and I'm not the only person you're doing this to."

"I find it more absurd and more telling of the inner workings of the company as of now that I can get two notifications of two records I ordered being sent out separately (with only one tracking number, mind you), but apparently, it's now difficult to just bundle together someone's pre-existing (and now, over a month late) order and continue to delay the inevitable when said customer contacts you frustrated and bewildered at how they're being treated. And you wonder why people are leaving you guys."

- hot off the presses of my dms, who wants to guess how long it takes to get a snarky reply from whoever handles their Twitter, if I even get one to begin with?
 
sylvian said:
"You guys ever sending that McCoy Tyner and Cornelius out? I was told multiple times that it would be sent at the beginning of this month, given the same boilerplate message time and time again about how there was, yet again, another glitch in the system that caused this, and now, almost two weeks into the month and with people getting this current ROTM already, I want an actual answer on the status of my order. It's my money you're holding hostage and I'm not the only person you're doing this to."

"I find it more absurd and more telling of the inner workings of the company as of now that I can get two notifications of two records I ordered being sent out separately (with only one tracking number, mind you), but apparently, it's now difficult to just bundle together someone's pre-existing (and now, over a month late) order and continue to delay the inevitable when said customer contacts you frustrated and bewildered at how they're being treated. And you wonder why people are leaving you guys."

- hot off the presses of my dms, who wants to guess how long it takes to get a snarky reply from whoever handles their Twitter, if I even get one to begin with?
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At least you are getting a response.... I have had a record in USPS tracking hell for one month- It was like 10 miles from my house... 2 weeks ago. Now it is in Effing Juneau AK... and not one peep from VMP. grrrr.
 
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