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So this shit is what its come to...


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Yes. Really.

So what you are saying is that you dont collect records, you collect music? So you would have no problem trading me something you have that is a really rare first press for a repress? Get over yourself.

And yes, you dont see the guys who have been doing this for forty years running to hot topic so they can flip the motherfucker on ebay, that some new jack shit.

Collecting something is a hobby. Fucking blues collectors spend their life trying to get a damn 78. Its been re-released 42654656 times but they want the 78.

And yes, I listen to all my records.

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Late night rant from someone who is older than 34 ...

It's always interesting to hear people's skewed, half-informed view of how things operate in the music "biz." I mean, seriously - the scenarios you're describing fall in line with some sinister major label shit and are truly the exception, not the norm. At least not within the confines of the Vinyl Collective message board.

While I can't speak for all labels, I'm sure that many will agree with the following ...

First, running a label is a business, but only to the extent that we're simply hoping to make enough money to continue releasing records in the future. Most of us aren't doing this full-time and there are no grand illusions that we'll ever make enough cash for anything other than sinking it right back into our labels.

To that point, pressing vinyl is hardly lucrative. Manufacturing is expensive, and if you're lucky enough to one day sell through a pressing of 500 at a meager $10 - $12 a pop, consider yourself blessed with a couple hundred bucks to put toward your next record. Sure, you'll earn a little bit more on the second pressing (providing there's even a demand for it), but even that's pricey ... and unless the band is huge, it will sell slowly.

There's no real joy in selling records other than knowing that it provides the opportunity for someone else to discover and appreciate the music much as I do ... and that it allows me to continue sharing new music as well.

And yes, if there is a demand, most of us will keep these releases in print ... not because we're going to get rich off of them (we're not) but because it is in fact about the music and helping out bands that we love and respect and that we think deserve to be heard by as many people as possible.

If it is all about the music then, why not, as you've suggested, press the record on any old format such as CD? Because, geniuses ... that would be implying that all formats are created equal. However, anyone who runs a vinyl label will tell you that is simply not true.

Without getting into into a CD vs Vinyl debate, most of us prefer the sound of the latter. The warmth, the intimacy ... the way that well-recorded / mastered LP is so entirely engaging and enveloping. It's the heft of a 180 gram slab of wax and the creativity that goes into designing an elaborate gatefold sleeve. Hell, it's even the way that vinyl facilitates the tweaking and modification of turntables in that never-ending quest to coax the perfect sound from your speakers. Simply put, there's a connectivity in vinyl records that you just can't find with CD or digital. it's the difference between listening to music and truly experiencing it.

So yes, it is about the music, and we think that vinyl is the best format to showcase it.

At the end of the day, I have to believe that most people who buy records are doing it for the right reasons, as are most of the labels who release those records. If you consider it a hobby, that's cool. If you genuinely love the format and the sound ... awesome. If you appreciate both ends of the spectrum, way to go. And if you're an eBay flipper, we think you're kind of a dirt bag, but you're one of the few. You can't ruin this for us because for every one of you there's 100 of us.

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People flipping records before having them in hand is just as bad as labels repressing them. The labels do it to take advantage of the demand. So do the flippers...

The labels also take your money (most of the time now) before they have them in hand too.

Capitalism at it's finest. "Don't hate the player".

.

We are just now getting our first represses in from the plant. As a collector, I understand the your sentiment, but at the end of the day if something I released is sold out and a lot of people are asking me for copies, I don't see the point in not repressing. We change the second pressing to make it dead obvious that it isn't a first pressing-generally updated jacket/label art. We post exact counts of the variations and different pressings on a few sites. I run a label because I like music first and vinyl second. My primary goal isn't to make collectors items but to make music of bands that I like available to people on vinyl. We do pretty well for a small label- but it would be a stretch to call it 'capitalism at its finest'. Can't say that we've taken any money out of the label for personal use (except for when we bought some tacos for us and some friends helping screen print some sleeves). I buy lots of represses. My personal collection is for listening first, collecting second.

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Just a couple more things that are confusing to me (and yes, I understand there are always exceptions to the rule).

I just don't understand why it's so tough to be content with a first pressing regardless of how many additional pressings follow. You will always have one of the original and that will never change. I would argue that a band's popularity is just as important to value as the "rare factor."

I get that there are older records from popular bands that for whatever reason never made it past a first pressing. But if I were a collector (I'm not) and we're just talking about the majority of releases discussed on this forum, increased demand and a band's rising popularity feel like a good thing to me in terms of making a first pressing more valuable. Again, maybe I'm wrong.

At the end of the day, your collection is only worth what someone will pay for it ... and if you end up selling it, doesn't that make you a flipper as well? Conversely, if you're a collector that that never intends to sell his / her collection, then why worry about it's value? It's uniquely special and intrinsically valuable to you, and that really shouldn't be affected by outside factors.

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Exactly, there's a huuuuuuge amount of bullshit behind anyone who claims they're in it 'for the music' or that other people are 'in it for the wrong reasons' when they have meltdowns over re-pressings. All that does is potentially lower the value of your record (which it won't if it actually has a reason to be valuable, like that Tattoo RFTC 7" mentioned, and isn't just From Here To Infirmary or something that didn't get a wide release), and/or make the album less rare; things that only flippers should be worried about anyway.

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Your parents need to ground you for being stupid.

I see that my assumptions were correct and that I am much older than a lot of you.

Your assumptions are as retarded as your take on labels re-pressing records. I'm 42 years old. While the collector in me likes and collects original pressings, the music fan in me appreciates not having to take out a mortgage on my house to own something like a new copy of a Zero Boys LP on vinyl and the teenage punk kid living today that is actually smart enough to buy his music on vinyl certainly appreciates the fact he can buy that LP for 10 dollars.

Tell me, do you get mad at Coca-Cola for constantly making more bottles of Coke? I mean if you didn't get them when they first made a batch why should you be able to now? Those money grubbing assholes, how dare they run a business and how dare they make the supply meet the demand.

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I see that my assumptions were correct and that I am much older than a lot of you.

Your assumptions are as retarded as your take on labels re-pressing records. I'm 42 years old. While the collector in me likes and collects original pressings, the music fan in me appreciates not having to take out a mortgage on my house to own something like a new copy of a Zero Boys LP on vinyl and the teenage punk kid living today that is actually smart enough to buy his music on vinyl certainly appreciates the fact he can buy that LP for 10 dollars.

Tell me, do you get mad at Coca-Cola for constantly making more bottles of Coke? I mean if you didn't get them when they first made a batch why should you be able to now? Those money grubbing assholes, how dare they run a business and how dare they make the supply meet the demand.

I'm confused, are we supposed to drink our records? Have I been doing this all wrong?

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This all got away from the original topic. I have no problem with represses, when the Lifetime LPs were repressed, I bought all of them, mainly because Im a completest idiot, I know they will never have value, but I wanted them.

Thats the point, I wanted them.

If a band has lets say 1500 fans and 700 of those fans collect their releases on vinyl, the label presses 700 to appease those fans, then some idiot come along and buys 10 copies when it come out, hes not a fan but knows that he can sell these copies at a profit to the people that couldnt get one. The reason those fans couldnt get one, was because jackass was buying 10 copies. Then the label represses the LP for their fans that want a copy but couldnt get one, but again the fan gets shut out because jackass bought 10 copies again. So far with this equation the only people happy are the label, and the flipper. The poor dude who just wants a copy on wax is fucked.

This is what I mean when i say its destroying the hobby. The fans/collectors who want an item cant get it because people are trying to make money off of it, in this case double what they paid(in fact the seller hasnt paid anything, because it isnt out yet and its ridiculous that he gets away with it) and that shit aint right. The advent of the internet has changed record collecting, in some ways good, in some ways bad. Im just pointing out the bad.

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Your assumptions are as retarded as your take on labels re-pressing records. I'm 42 years old. While the collector in me likes and collects original pressings, the music fan in me appreciates not having to take out a mortgage on my house to own something like a new copy of a Zero Boys LP on vinyl and the teenage punk kid living today that is actually smart enough to buy his music on vinyl certainly appreciates the fact he can buy that LP for 10 dollars.

Tell me, do you get mad at Coca-Cola for constantly making more bottles of Coke? I mean if you didn't get them when they first made a batch why should you be able to now? Those money grubbing assholes, how dare they run a business and how dare they make the supply meet the demand.

I'm confused, are we supposed to drink our records? Have I been doing this all wrong?

ZING!

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I just don't understand why it's so tough to be content with a first pressing regardless of how many additional pressings follow. You will always have one of the original and that will never change.

At the end of the day, your collection is only worth what someone will pay for it ... and if you end up selling it, doesn't that make you a flipper as well? Conversely, if you're a collector that that never intends to sell his / her collection, then why worry about it's value? It's uniquely special and intrinsically valuable to you, and that really shouldn't be affected by outside factors.

This.

This was something I mentioned earlier as well. It's like walking into a restaurant and enjoying a meal and then getting angry and storming out when someone sits down at a table beside you with that same meal but they got it half off with a Groupon discount. Barring major financial burden, I don't plan on selling the lion's share of my record collection, so me paying $70 for an OG press of something and seeing it re-issued it six months later and being sold for $12 won't really do anything to bum me out.

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