Wholesale Records Distributors

Sprague Dawley

Sprague Dawley

Member
Joined
May 18, 2019
Messages
171
Location
Japan
used to run a store so I know a few (RIP Mordam and No Idea! they were my guys!) but I want to know moarrr. especially doom metal ones.

my take:

Revelation too pricey and stuck in the past
Ebullition always been cheap. bit too hardcore for me these days though
Cobraside v.good. got a lot of great stuff.
ILD some cheap as helll exclusives (SFTRI)
Sound of California nice big list with some surprising range but its run by 1 guy who... yeah... I dunno... I mustve ordered the INDIAN lp 3 times off the guy and each time he writes back and says "I don't have it and I havent updated the catalogue"
Secretly Distribution very nice. Touch and Go and Flying Nun exclusives. Most of the other bands I've never even heard of. Too bad their b2b site is permanently broken. Do they want customers or not?
Midheaven still the best stuff. and still a bit snooty. God forbid you would want to ask them a question. They'll ignore it.
Robotic Empire looks alluring but havent pulled the trigger yet
Alliance talked my way into an account, supposedly the biggest wholesaler of vinyl on the planet, responsible for “48% of all vinyl sales” on gods black earth in the last year. but wft. what a let down. Sure they got buttloads but it aint at wholesale prices. Theyre just a goddamn distributor with Big Business prices. As I said to the very helpful businessman sales rep guy, I can buy almost all this stuff from the actual source or their exclusive distributor at way cheaper. These "wholesale prices" are higher than what the lp is priced at in stores. Let alone 3x higher than the cheapest copy of it on discogs. In fact, just found out that "Collectors Choice" vinyl (who I think recently changed his handle to "Top Pop" or something) is in fact their arm of ADA.

StickFigure Distribution & Mailorder although seem to be mainly on discogs. Great guy BUT the postage prices from the US make it pretty much impossible

Cargo UK also. ask for wholesale list

Deathwish Direct Wholesale List havent bought from yet but CONVERRRGE

Armageddon also do wholesale. As well as having two online stores for their shops. Awesome dudes. BRAINBOMBS reissues: Home
Dead Tank Records wholesale list: Dead Tank Wholesale

Norton Records wholesale list: OCT. 2018 CURRENT WS EXCEL
 
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gafacaode said:
Sorry for the ignorance but I have no idea how this works.
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Easy, mate. Send them a nice friendly email saying you're starting a distro/store. They'll set you up with a wholesale account (lower prices) and you go nuts on wholesale priced goodies. There's often a minimum order though, $50, $100 etc.
 
Oh boy, that's interesting! I'm not sure if it would work out for me as I am in Brazil. Do they ask for some kind of proof that you have a store? Is ordering a bunch of single copies ok? I mean a real store would order more than one copy ok each album, wouldn't it?
 
gafacaode said:
Do they ask for some kind of proof that you have a store?
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Usually, no. Plus, in these downloady days, in an age when "discogs stores" are a thing, I think they really just want your $$$. I think it'd be easy for you being in Brazil, they'd be very glad to distribute their product to potential "new markets"
gafacaode said:
Is ordering a bunch of single copies ok? I mean a real store would order more than one copy ok each album, wouldn't it?
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Ordering more than one copy is very much encouraged! In fact, it's usually required.

ps I see ILD has just instituted a 50-item minimum order.
 
Many distros have a smattering of RSD exclusives at wholesale prices... but they still ain't cheap.
debianlinux said:
Color me fascinated as I actually intend to run a store for my retirement...
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Now for the bad news...

...wholesale rates might be about 30% lower than RRP but they're still so high these days that the profit margin is miniscule. eg, outlying example, yes, but ELECTRIC WIZARD LP's are generally $26 wholesale. Break even territory. Record stores make their money from offering walk-in customers peanuts for their awesome collections. That's where the mark-up is. Which, of course happens less and less these days cos it's free to just list yer stuff on discogs... hence the death of local indy stores imo. My poor old record store ended up being basically a band t-shirt boutique. Financial survival
 
I see big bad Alliance outlet ccmusic.com quotes an insanely low $29 shipping to send 20 lp's to Japan. I don't know how they make it so cheap. U.S to Japan it usually costs $29 in shipping for just 2 or 3 goddamn lp's.

Presents a dilemna:

cc: 20x $16 lp's + $29 shipping = $349
midheaven: 20x (the same) $11 lp's = $220 + the daily lottery of Fedex "Great Rates" shipping= ?
 
Continuing an old idea; how much of an issue would it be for a trusted former to become a “dealer” to get in RSD and then broker group buys for the forum? I mean talk about running counter to the spirit of the event but...
 
debianlinux said:
Continuing an old idea; how much of an issue would it be for a trusted former to become a “dealer” to get in RSD and then broker group buys for the forum? I mean talk about running counter to the spirit of the event but...
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with the record store day titles, I don’t think there’s a guarantee of how many you can get. And I’m guessing you would need to have a physical store, no?
 
djdavedk said:
with the record store day titles, I don’t think there’s a guarantee of how many you can get. And I’m guessing you would need to have a physical store, no?
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I don't think the limited copies is much of an issue. Using a lottery/opt out system would accommodate this pretty evenly assuming good faith from all parties. Besides, limited availability would practically insure sufficient good faith participation would buy copies where some bad faith might have capitulated.

Let's say the demand for Gorillaz D-Sides is 40 copies. Our "store" receives 8 copies. 20 people bail immediately saying they'll take their chances at their local in 2 days. We lottery the remaining 20 people and 6 of them pay up and receive their record. 2 show bad faith for whatever reason. We come back to the remaining 12 of which 5 found it anyway in the meantime leaving 7 folks to take those 2 copies.

It's a management headache for whoever runs it, though. Also a lot of trust has to necessarily be put in that person.
 
I know someone who owns/runs a store. He has told me that distribution from labels has been a nightmare for the past couple years. Late shipments, missing shipments, on and on.
 
Sprague Dawley said:
I see big bad Alliance outlet ccmusic.com quotes an insanely low $29 shipping to send 20 lp's to Japan. I don't know how they make it so cheap. U.S to Japan it usually costs $29 in shipping for just 2 or 3 goddamn lp's.

Presents a dilemna:

cc: 20x $16 lp's + $29 shipping = $349
midheaven: 20x (the same) $11 lp's = $220 + the daily lottery of Fedex "Great Rates" shipping= ?
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been tossing up whether to do an order from wholesaler midheaven.com or retailer cc.music. Incredibly they're the same price in total

Midheaven
30 LPs

$400
$150 postage
$550 total

cc.music
30 LPs

$510
$40 postage
$550 total
 
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