unknown pleasures

It looks like eBay if you eliminate the chance of ever getting a bargain and just accept the ridiculous “Buy It Now” prices some sellers inexplicably choose.

I've never heard of this site before but from a quick glance, it's a distillation of everything I dislike about collecting anything.

The seam on the shrink of my copy was slightly off center; it starts slightly visible on the front of the jacket and by the time you get down to the bottom it's visible on the back. I won't settle for anything less than an even shrink seam along the edge. It's the perfection I expect - nay, demand - as a true collector of the art form we call vinyl records. PayPal here I come...

C’mon, it’s a work of art.

Honestly, that should be the Buy It Now price.

Sounds like the kind of guy who’d run a record subscription/curation service.

Maybe they realize how whiny you are. 🤷‍♂️

Cardigan covered by The Cardigans seems like a real missed opportunity for an additional release...

The differences in the UK and US charts are fascinating to me - far more catalog stuff in the US charts vs far more contemporary stuff in the UK charts. Also, crazy that bands like Joy Division are as high as #3 on the UK chart and Kate Bush is even there at all when I reckon Joy Division sells more shirts than albums in the US and Kate Bush is still relatively obscure. I suppose part of it is also that vinyl never really “went away” in the UK so things like Abbey Road or Dark Side of the Moon were selling consistently while in the US a bunch of hipster teenagers are trying to catch up and start their collections at Target and Urban Outfitters.

In case you’re on the fence, I don’t think DHL is worth the extra. Just my two cents...

This is kind of crazy because I was just looking at a UK chart and Abbey Road isn’t even in the Top 40 (which is as high as it goes). In fact, there’s at least two better selling vinyl albums by The Beatles themselves. I wonder why Americans are so fascinated by Abbey Road?

When labels do this type of auction it’s clear they’re fine making a little less than they would versus auctioning them off if it means a few of them end up in the hands of fans who’d be unable to afford them. It’s really quite admirable in my opinion. Someone who’s going to pay hundreds for one of these will get it regardless, it’s just that in this case most of the profit will go to a flipper instead of the label but again, they must be OK with it if it means little Johnny who only had $40 to spend on his favorite band’s test press could end up with one.

I would guess a typical record flipper would be into something more pretentious than Dylan like Kraftwerk or Captain Beefheart.

Allow me to introduce you to a little someone known as HeWhoCannotBeNamed...

I agree, nothing in that statement sounds genuine to me. I'm sure the Nobunny project (possibly even pulling the same crap) will be back as soon as this boils over. Maybe it'll be in a year. Maybe it'll be ten or twenty years from now. But there's no doubt in my mind.

I'm with you on this. It was like Discogs was basically giving you a free 30-day loan in the amount of the fees/taxes, then you got even more back if you paid them with a rewards credit card like you're saying. (It's no wonder they're ending that!)

This isn’t true as of July 1st, they fractured the zone pricing greatly when USPS renegotiated their Universal Postal Union (UPU) rates since they were upset with China getting such a good deal to ship to the US. It’s not massively different but I’ve noticed the USPS First Class rate for a LP to Europe can now be anywhere from approximately $21 to $27 so that’s over a $5 spread to that one region alone.

Not the IG page but I found Brooklyn Vegan had the best writeup I'd seen of this whole mess, giving a broad overview and also lots of links to reactions from bands on the label: https://www.brooklynvegan.com/burger-records-shuts-down-for-good/

I don’t expect these buttons to be very popular anytime soon:

The thing I was reading was specifically about physical sales, which I still think UO does more of than any other single chain. I’ve tried Googling and can’t find it again, and honestly can’t find much info about sales broken down by retailer at all that‘s recent.

Inflation is a bitch.

Have you considered starting a YouTube channel?

I think Urban Outfitters is officially the largest retailer of records in the world (at least that was the case a year or two back) so regardless of my opinion of them it's nice they're getting some vinyl out to people.

Ain't that poetic?