Oblivions

8 minutes ago, YouTwo said:

I get that seam splits like that don't matter when listening to the record and are pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things.  That being said... If I was sleeving my collection and had a bunch of records with them and didn't know why I'd be trying to find out why and try to prevent it from happening in the future too.  That's what the OP is trying to figure out.  

I think the OP got their answer, no? The ensuing discussion (at least my contribution to it) was not intended as a counter argument or rejection of their question. If that happened, I'm sorry!

I've listed my records on there twice, both times for a several month stretch, and never made one sale. I don't have a huge amount of records I'm selling but I usually have a good 60-100 records for sale at any one time which is enough to get consistent sales on every other marketplace. After months of no sales but constantly having to edit my inventory, I gave up both times and unlisted everything.

I'm curious whether their user base heavily leans towards certain genres? Indie rock and pop punk/emo did not do well at all, in my experience. The site's look and feel makes it seem like the users would be older and into classic rock but that's an uneducated guess.

11 minutes ago, Derek™ said:

I wish I could remember the name of the member who was adamant that “if you’re paying for a new product, there is no reason that it should show up anything less than 100% mint”.  They would argue until they were blue in the face, despite everyone suggesting that they need to either taper their expectations for the occasional transit damage, or get into a different hobby.

 

Buying vinyl for a decade now - the overwhelming majority being ordered online - I think I’ve probably requested a new jacket or a replacement LP so few times that I can count the instances on my hands.  Sometimes a parcel gets stomped.  Other times the shrink is too tight and causes a bit of instant ringwear or seam splits.  I’ve seen water damage and pulled out record jackets that could double as dip bowls.  It’s unfortunately a dice roll, which sucks when the average cost of a new release is $25-35 PPD.  But it’s the name of the game, and I’d personally go crazy if I was sweating every little scuff or tiny corner bend on newly acquired vinyl.  Short of unplayable-warped vinyl and major jacket creases, I typically let it slide.

Yeah. I get the idea of paying full price and expecting a non-damaged product and I do appreciate people who keep sloppy labels/shops accountable but, in practice, due to the reality of how records are made/distributed and the finite amount of time we get on this Earth, I just can't personally join that crusade for vinyl justice. If I needed perfect sleeves and perfect records (and to vacuum clean each perfect record before playing it for the first time) in order to collect records, I would quit collecting immediately. I barely have time to enjoy my dirty, slightly warped records as it is!

That said, when I sell a record, I'm more than happy to make sure it arrives as perfect as possible and field complaints about dings/splits. In 8+ years of selling stuff, I've only ever taken umbrage with one person who didn't email me or ask for a refund or anything but instead left a neutral feedback that said "Record arrived with a small hole in one part of the shrink wrap, wish they had told me this beforehand". It was a hole the size of a penny and it was in the photos. You'll be shocked to learn that the buyer was a vaporwave collector. 

I'm being a little facetious but there's something freeing about seam splits and corner bends. I spend a lot of time reading vinyl forums and browsing Discogs and the Great Quest for Vinyl Perfection can seep it's way into my subconscious as I read about people's frustrations with imperfect jackets or sleeves. It's sort of like getting your first ding on a new car; now, you can stop worrying about getting your first ding and continue with your life. "My jacket has a seam split. Phew. Now, I can just enjoy listening to this and not care about being an archivist and collector of mint memorabilia. I AM FREE."

5 minutes ago, pepperonigin said:

Honestly this is my biggest gripe with VMP, a lot of the records I receive are heavily warped.

Truth.

I imagine a goal for Discogs' marketplace is to get people to actually move what they're selling and I could see how only showing the last 10 sales being a universal rule would encourage the most sales? RocAndRolla78 is less likely to have his VG $15 record listed at $181 until the end of time if the $180 sale of a NM sealed, perfect copy from 2008 isn't highlighted in the sales stats box. This is purely a guess though, so who really knows.

1 hour ago, swb said:

I just checked my account tab on the Numero site and it shows this shipped on 3/6 for me. They normally upload tracking in that account page but no tracking for this order. Excited to have it pop up sometime in the next week!

Crucial update. It was delivered to my PO Box today. Weirdly fast for media mail. Check your boxes if you ordered this.

I just checked my account tab on the Numero site and it shows this shipped on 3/6 for me. They normally upload tracking in that account page but no tracking for this order. Excited to have it pop up sometime in the next week!

Paying import duties, offering free international shipping, and giving away free replacement copies with no questions asked was way way way more than good customer service. It was a little bananas. I don't think anyone can fault them for rolling back some of those perks. They might have a case against them for setting unreasonable expectations though. 

This is very mild but my personal worst example. I passed on 4-5 copies of New Adventures in Hi Fi because I thought $50 was too expensive. Then it started selling for $90-150 almost immediately afterwards and I ended up ponying up $120 for it.

Could also be worth messaging their support account on their sub-Reddit.

https://www.reddit.com/user/ntlcherrytree

DEAL ENDED

What I want to know is, who wants to grab me a copy of that Bingo Handjob LP and Green Day Woodstock LP? If your shop is getting copies and you think you can snag one for me, hit me up! If cost + shipping works, I'll add on a nice tip! Ask anyone who bought me records last year (can't remember if that Dischord started here or on Vinyl Me Please but I way overpaid happily for a bunch of non-rare stuff lol).

Do you still have those thick flexis? Those were rad and vinyl heads here should check those out (the music is good and they are both thick/firm and bendable).

Totally blanked and didn't remember about the pre-sale till 9am and I was still able to get orchestra seats row D at the Greek. I'm guessing orchestra is their A section? The seating chart for the Greek doesn't use the orchestra label.

Very possible. All she’d have needed was a Sufjan Stevens wig and the gumption to pitch a lead verse on recording day.

YOU KNOW WHAT? F YOU!

(I’m actually sneaking back into this fight thread to say if you do an R.E.M. or Mitski chiptune Kickstarter, I’ll drop $50 on the vinyl.)

NO. YOU’RE THE DOUCHE!

Haha. Y’all are funny. This is a niche, non-essential thing. Price it for the people who are into it and according to what you need to earn back to be to be worth your while.

Beyond increasing your profit, a higher price point also weeds out a lot of headaches as a creator/producer/maker as it cuts down on people who are only interested because of the price. Those are the people who will take up residence in your inbox and count the pennies lost from their corner ding or get upset by the spec they didn’t read in your description because all they saw was the price. Having less customers total but more interested customers quality wise, especially if your goal isn’t to mass produce and make real money, can be preferable. If you’re married, your spouse will also thank you for not losing money and not wasting time by keeping your fun side projects as fun side projects.

All that said, this is VC so technically I’m the jerk trying to stop nature from rightfully happening. Sorry, buds. I couldn’t help myself!  

15 minutes ago, filthyrich said:

If this was The National's clever way of convincing me to (finally) pull the trigger on Cherry Tree, then... Mission accomplished. 

Question: Are the presale shows also going on sale to the general public? Obviously the big festival ones are, but I'm talking the small venues... like The Roxy in ATL. That place is tiny. Fairly certain The National could sell that out solely through the presale, but I have to assume the usual outlets (TM, etc) will get at least 50% of the tickets or more. Since the floor is GA, more than 2 of us could go, assuming we can all snag tickets.

 

So far, there have been no actual shows that are member only (the sound check shows may have been member only). If that changes, I imagine they'd let you know in their email. They explicitly mention that tickets are limited and not everyone will get one in their correspondence for previous shows.

Stephen is one of the biggest douches in the world and yet I love everything 3EB does, non-ironically. This is my biggest listening blindspot as I normally am mindful and affected by the known antics and personality of the musicians I listen to. Lyric-wise too. I cringe and fume when I hear some of the stuff Rivers Cuomo tries to get away with and yet I will sing along to 3EB songs about tater tots and going down on someone in the shower for an hour.

If you haven't read it yet, this John Vanderslice story about S. Jenkins is amazing, especially if you're into JV and aware of his reputation as being a very nice person: https://music.avclub.com/singer-songwriter-john-vanderslice-on-the-very-personal-1798238890

1 minute ago, tvrec said:

Did anyone note this part on Cherry Tree:

Each ticket purchased for the tour shows in North America (including the April ones) comes with a redemption code for the digital version of the album. That code can also be used to upgrade for a discounted physical album.

 

Trying to figure this out...

 

I think they did this with Sleep Well Beast and it was a few bucks knocked off a less limited variant (maybe the white one?). Good if you don't need the most rare variant or an ASAP pre-order copy and can wait until you buy tickets.

4 minutes ago, pepperonigin said:

Honestly I'm just sick of listening to entitled people think they are guaranteed something as if being a member of a fairly large artist's fan club guarantees you the best of the best. From what I've seen Cherry Tree has excellent customer service and I'm glad they went above and beyond, more artists and services should give a shit. There's no anger here and I don't consider myself a nihilist, more a realist. Sometimes things don't go the way you want and in the end they don't owe you anything.

I was joking and being self-deprecating since I understand where you're coming from. If we're talking in a general sense I think we agree but I think this scenario is a bit different than a normal public pre-sale where some people miss out, both in the logistical specs of the situation and the wrinkle that the National are a little more appreciative of fans than the average band and wanted a better pre-sale experience for their members. People still missed out on the second pre-sale but there was not a massive backlash afterward because it went more smoothly and those folks understood that they had their fair chance and it didn't work out. For the most part, I feel like National fans are a tiny bit more understanding than some of the other VC band constituencies, which I think are better examples of your point about people whining if things aren't perfect. 

9 minutes ago, pepperonigin said:

I don't know why people were complaining. A presale code guarantees you nothing and you are competing with hundreds of other crazed fans. Nice that they did another presale but they really didn't have to.

I mean, if your POV leans towards nihilist guy on the internet, yeah, we are owed nothing and the only thing we can complain about is being brought into this life without our consent and/or killed for our food/land resources in a Mad Max style fantasy or something.  But, in less exciting, practical terms, the service they initially used had technical issues and the initial allotment of tickets was a bit too small for their club size, which led too a bit too many members being in the 'no luck' pile despite being there at the right time.

You're definitely right that they didn't have to react and do the 2nd pre-sale but they wanted to because (IMO) they do care about being a good club. The National have always had a fond appreciation for R.E.M. and their Cherry Tree club reminds me a lot of the R.E.M. club in it's thoughtfulness towards the product and service and appreciation of members. Other bands and clubs might back away from the reaction and stay hands off but good on CT and the National for doing what they could to give more members a chance.

4 minutes ago, jackshidt said:

If anyone is planning to use the Cherry Tree membership for early access to their concerts, be aware that their special Los Angeles concert went on sale last week.  I am not a CT member and I did not buy a ticket, but CT members complained long and loud that they could not get tickets with their advance passwords.

They heard the complaints and, within a few hours, they coordinated a 2nd pre-sale through a different provider and a lot more people were able to get tickets. The initial sale was a cluster but the response and remedy was immediate and A+. IMO, the CT club team have done a great job of listening to their members and providing a good service for their $50.

Just now, dantheriver said:

I quit.

Let us National fans have our self-medicated, work party tuxedo meltdowns and brain farts. We're 2 excited 2 function right now.