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

True. And that’s likely why they don’t do it for exclusives since they are all preorders now and often are already a month or so behind other shops in sending out exclusives...
Seems like with their crazy pre order lead times, they should be able to squeeze that sample in there, but I wouldn't be surprised if they either don't care, since the mock-up sells better than a real picture would, or they get one, approve it, and say eh, good enough.

Edit: Although, considering their business model with these exclusives seems to be: get money first, then order (or seems so based on those lead times), I'm not sure what they would do if they weren't happy with the sample. If the reason the sample is bad is that it was just an ill advised combination, like GZ warns against, the only solution would be to change the design, which would also anger the people who paid for the mock up.

I think for the exclusives its mainly the labels that handle everything. Say secretly puts out the new bright eyes record, they produce it, get it mastered etc., then get to the pressing plant and order a batch of black copies, plus a variant for their own club, acoloured indie version, and then they sell a bunch of colour variants wholesale to target, rough trade, vmp or Newbury. Label probably sell the variants to vmp etc based on the pressing plant mockup, but they probably don't go through test pressing of every colour variant. So once the pressing plant is done they put the I the sleeves and send them directly out to the fulfillment center of the retailers. Thus no one at vmp ever sees a store exclusive before it goes out. I thinlk people here overestimate the work vmp puts into store exclusives themselves. They just ooder order from the label, get recordx and ship them out.
It is different for tgeir rotms where they (often) get new masters take care of the pressing etc. That's why they have to for those
 
I think for the exclusives its mainly the labels that handle everything. Say secretly puts out the new bright eyes record, they produce it, get it mastered etc., then get to the pressing plant and order a batch of black copies, plus a variant for their own club, acoloured indie version, and then they sell a bunch of colour variants wholesale to target, rough trade, vmp or Newbury. Label probably sell the variants to vmp etc based on the pressing plant mockup, but they probably don't go through test pressing of every colour variant. So once the pressing plant is done they put the I the sleeves and send them directly out to the fulfillment center of the retailers. Thus no one at vmp ever sees a store exclusive before it goes out. I thinlk people here overestimate the work vmp puts into store exclusives themselves. They just ooder order from the label, get recordx and ship them out.
It is different for tgeir rotms where they (often) get new masters take care of the pressing etc. That's why they have to for those
I think you're right for the exclusives that aren't true exclusives.

But, that made me wonder, why do so many other stores get colored (exclusives) that actually come out around the same time as whatever the artist/standard version is and VMP is often way behind in terms of release date? Or am I imagining that to be true?
 
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I think you're right for the exclusives that aren't true exclusives.

But, that made me wonder, why do some many other stores get colored (exclusives) that actually come out around the same time as whatever the artist/standard version is and VMP is often way behind in terms of release date? Or am I imagining that to be true?
Interesting point. I don't know. As I was an intl subscriber I always knew I would be getting stuff after release day so i did not care too much about speed of delivery to have noticed. In the moment their shipping seems just very inconsistent. I have received my final who took relatively normal 3 weeks to get here while others just got shipping notices
 
I have more than 30 PP records (all their Strata-East, Tribe and Nimbus West reissues, Al Green, Nina Simone, Canned Heat, John Lee Hooker, Grant Green, Cesaria Evora, etc..) and all are stellar. Their CS is great as well. You should check on Spanish webshop Jazz Messenger. They offer Int'l free shipping for orders above 250€ (I know it's a lot but "only" more or less 10 PP records, right?). Contact them first though.
Also -- it may be worth keeping an eye on the euro/dollar exchange rates for an order like this... They are trading at a high against the dollar ~1.18 but that may shift over the next few months.

For stateside orders, Light in the Attic occasionally has very good prices on PP cuts and I'll second that the label (and without question, Speakers Corner) have some amazing releases. My only gripe: PP dropped their logo into two of the recent Charles Lloyd releases like a bad Photoshop. Sound quality wonderful, but it was a little heartbreaking. I don't regret buying the record because, well, music -- but it was a WTF moment
 
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