Question for colored vinyl record collectors: Would this piss you off?

[moonbeams]

Hi everyone, so I'm releasing this record in 2 months.
The question is, would it piss you off if you received a record that didn't look like the color you were expecting?

We ordered 2 colors from the plant (Packaged Sounds in UK! best plant ever):
Moonlight Reflection (Metallic silver blob inside clear blue with black swirls) and Pluie Noir (Black Rain). Due to pandemic related shipping restrictions , we had 1/3  of the stock shipped to our distro in USA, 1/3 remain in UK, and 1/3 shipped here to Japan. Since I can't personally manage the color stock in other countries, I decided to have the colors shipped out random (but if you order 2, we would look for both colors (you can check color with your cell phone light).But some of the colors are transitional, so I'm worried that customers might be upset if they received a color that they weren't expecting.

Here's the Moonlight Reflection colorway (limited to 91 copies)

 

 

 

And here is the Pluie Noir (Black Rain) (limited to 81)

 

Then there are 9 of the Moonlights little black smoke looking more bright blue:

 

I'm wondering if it's OK to ship these out, but put the first pic in the promo photo as most copies are like that. (Only a few without black smoke).

 

Then there's about 15 copies that are transitional between Moonlight to Rain. These are cool, but too few. So random seems most fair:

 

And finally there's just 8 copies transitioning from Rain to the plant's next job, purple:

I don't want to piss off variant collectors, who I appreciate very much.  But as a fan, I miss the pre-Internet days when colored vinyl was a random surprise you got when you opened the record for the first time.

 

I appreciate you reading this far and providing feedback.

Here's some of the blue variations for reference:

Edited April 17, 2022 by moonbeams
fix spelling, remove ads

[ThunderPantz]

Some customers will be inordinately angry, some won't care, and some will be mildly disappointed. For those that do complain maybe think about providing them a code for 15-20% off their next order. Also maybe provide a note with each copy shipped that the pressing didn't meet your expectations. A heads up could ameliorate their disappointment.

[TheGhostOfRandySavage]

Send out an email and let people know what the issue is and that they might not receive what they ordered. With that email offer to refund them if they would like to cancel. Be apologetic and I think a large number would understand. For those who do not cancel I would consider doing what the post above me said.

 

This kind of thing happens, but this is your reputation and your (and the plant) fuck up.

[moonbeams]

7 minutes ago, MachoHommeRandallSauvage said:

Send out an email and let people know what the issue is and that they might not receive what they ordered. With that email offer to refund them if they would like to cancel. Be apologetic and I think a large number would understand. For those who do not cancel I would consider doing what the post above me said.

 

This kind of thing happens, but this is your reputation and your (and the plant) fuck up.

First, thanks for the comment. I'm sorry , I wasn't clear.
No one fucked up.
This doesn't go on sale until mid June.
Because it's being sold from 5 different places, color quantity is hard to manage, so I was thinking to have the colors be random.
But some copies are transitions and don't look like the normal colors. They are more rare.

So I was asking if you were expecting something on the left, but got something on the right, would you be OK?

 

A lot of people don't know it, but black totally takes over once introduced.  So its impossible to get every copy looking the same.

[TheGhostOfRandySavage]

If it's not on sale yet I would just be upfront about what happened when you sell them. Just say, "Hey, these came out with some transition colors, here is a sample of what you may get." Just be upfront about it and it shouldn't be an issue.

[moonbeams]

29 minutes ago, MachoHommeRandallSauvage said:

If it's not on sale yet I would just be upfront about what happened when you sell them. Just say, "Hey, these came out with some transition colors, here is a sample of what you may get." Just be upfront about it and it shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks. It's just impossible to have enough of the smaller run variants for everyone, so I thought it best practice to mix them all together. 

[zuck]

I think all of those look amazing, so I personally wouldn't be upset getting any variation of them.

[LIGMA_BALLZ]

Everything pisses me off

[Sad Heart]

Hit me up when they go on sale. Definitely wanna grab. The rain / rain run off ones are especially cool. 
 

And yah, as far as a variant collector goes, I’d echo just being upfront. If there was a small run of say /100 that had some variations in the mix I wouldn’t lose sleep over trying to buy 10+ of them just cause different colors were in the mix. I’d still count it as one variant. 

[ntslash]

I personally don't care if the color looks different than the original mockup or description. Most preorders indicate the actual color might be different anyway. Only thing I would really care about is if I received the wrong variant (example - if I ordered the blue swirl edition out of 100 and received the solid white out of 5000). 

 

If the records just look different than the original mockup, then I would let people know and give them a chance to say they want to cancel the order. 

 

Now, if I bought a car in a certain color and they sent me the wrong color, then I would be pissed and would demand they paint it the correct color for no charge. 

 

In your case, since they haven't gone on sale yet, you could always list it as random colored pressing and post a few pictures of examples. You could also add a note box on the order and allow people to indicate if they have a preference of color. If they don't, just send one at random. 

Edited April 17, 2022 by ntslash

[SNEAKORDS]

I've seen and received records that are so far outside of what the mockup was and legit awful looking, all of those look pretty great. it's not like you're saying "transparent blue nebula swirl" and shipping out a solid purple record like some labels do.

[Multiverse]

I think you're fine

I know some collectors get very nitpicky but the process isn't a guarantee and I don't know, I never fully expect or care that my record color looks like the mock-up but I also don't collect variants like that so I'm prob not the right demographic anyway

[MyckelJay]

I, personally, wouldn't even bother mentioning the intended variants. Just put "random" on the listings when you sell them. Bands have done this in the past, and I like not knowing beforehand. Hawthorne Heights did it when they release "Hope" on vinyl. A Skylit Drive did it when they released "Rise" on vinyl. I didn't hear about any backlash from fans or collectors.

[xfactor675]

This is the main reason that collecting is less and less appealing to me each year. The fact that you have to come here and ask this, especially that you didn't even sell them because of the fear that your buyers will be pissed of is so sad. Collectors are the worst, they complain about shipping delays, colors not matching the mockups, bent corners etc. I don't want to sound a boomer (well, im becoming one in the recent years) but who cares if it doesn't exactly match, you get a record you like while you are supporting a label you like. There are bigger problems out there... 

Edited April 18, 2022 by xfactor675

[Shitty Rambo]

I expect all records I buy to look 15% like the mock up and am genuinely surprised when they actually do. The only thing that pisses me off about buying records in the year of our lord 2022 is the insanely high prices for single disc releases. Fuckin' inflation. 

[burdenx]

Just list them as colored vinyl and be done with it. Record collectors are irrational morons.

[nico]

Not so much, I do hate every single store getting there own color and before you know it, there are like 16 different colors being pressed for a release as a first press.

[Sad Heart]

7 hours ago, nico said:

Not so much, I do hate every single store getting there own color and before you know it, there are like 16 different colors being pressed for a release as a first press.

Agreed. That’s super annoying. 
 

Was curious if you were gonna chime in given your awesome and extensive MT collection. 

[nico]

16 hours ago, Sad Heart said:

Agreed. That’s super annoying. 
 

Was curious if you were gonna chime in given your awesome and extensive MT collection. 

well the thing it with the Minor Threat pressings, that started out over 40 years ago and it has been repressed numerous times in different formats over those 40 years. That is a whole different ball game imho than the new Terror album, that starts out with that many versions. Or a repress of a Bad Religion album in 7 different versions.