IVWT is closing

[craigisashark]

RIP. IVWT was a great distro

[jrodan]

Didn't want to see this distro go but 2 (speculative) comments come to mind:

1) Maybe his records were priced at a level so low it was unsustainable. Maybe it isn't that the other distros are bad. They charge the "fair" price and IVWT didn't charge enough.

.

just wanted to respond to this because Brian is a friend of mine and because of such, i can shed a bit of light. without going into Brian's personal business, that should not be offered for consumption on this message board, this is not the reason the store is closing. Brian was able to keep prices extremely low because his overhead was low. he handled every facet of the distro himself. the reason the distro is closing has nothing to do with him not making enough money to survive, it is because of personal reasons, as well as him wanting to focus more on the label side of things. i am sure it is possible for the distro to open once again someday, but at this moment and time he was unable to keep it going without sacrificing his personal life.

distros can definitely handle selling at the prices Brian did, but most of the ones with selection anywhere near what IVWT had are forced to hire other people to help out. Brian did not want to hand the company over to workers and thus have to pass along the inflated prices to make that work to the customer. i applaud him for sticking with his vision and i have no doubt he will succeed at his next endeavor, just as he did here.

[daegor]

Thanks for clarifying, I'm sure with the business that went down on the boards many of us had wondered if he had lost business and it was for financial reasons. I'm glad to hear its not and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors, which I will again do my best to support!

[thebiglebowski]

just wanted to respond to this because Brian is a friend of mine and because of such, i can shed a bit of light. without going into Brian's personal business, that should not be offered for consumption on this message board, this is not the reason the store is closing. Brian was able to keep prices extremely low because his overhead was low. he handled every facet of the distro himself. the reason the distro is closing has nothing to do with him not making enough money to survive, it is because of personal reasons, as well as him wanting to focus more on the label side of things. i am sure it is possible for the distro to open once again someday, but at this moment and time he was unable to keep it going without sacrificing his personal life.

distros can definitely handle selling at the prices Brian did, but most of the ones with selection anywhere near what IVWT had are forced to hire other people to help out. Brian did not want to hand the company over to workers and thus have to pass along the inflated prices to make that work to the customer. i applaud him for sticking with his vision and i have no doubt he will succeed at his next endeavor, just as he did here.

Cool man. Thanks for sharing.

I just wanted to comment that this isn't really incongruent with my statement about the prices being unsustainable. A sustainable business is one that doesn't have to close because an owner's personal situation changes or that one person want's to put out records. I don't know the exact business model but it seems like labels such as No Idea and It's Alive benefit from their distros. They aren't anchors they pull along but could put out more records if they dumped them.

[jrodan]

Cool man. Thanks for sharing.

I just wanted to comment that this isn't really incongruent with my statement about the prices being unsustainable. A sustainable business is one that doesn't have to close because an owner's personal situation changes or that one person want's to put out records. I don't know the exact business model but it seems like labels such as No Idea and It's Alive benefit from their distros. They aren't anchors they pull along but could put out more records if they dumped them.

you are missing the point. you said the business possibly closed because the prices were unsustainable. and that a sustainable business doesnt have to close because their personal situation changes. the personal situation is not financially motivated in this case. therefore, his prices had nothing to do with the business being sustainable. i see what you are trying to do, and based on the information you had before i certainly can understand your sentiment, but the fact is, this distro is closing at the moment due to a personal situation Brian is dealing with and not a financial one.

[thebiglebowski]

My point is that a sustainable business can handle a personal situation from the owner. One person doing everything, charging very little, and passing the savings on to us is AWESOME. Props to your friend. But that can't last forever. Family members die. People get married. They get divorced. They get sick. And if you don't charge enough to have a little rainy day fund to get through the ups and downs with some help (whether they be financial or personal), then this is going to happen eventually.

The fact that it ended basically in itself proves that it was unsustainable. If it wasn't, it wouldn't be closing. Think you are attaching some kind of meaning to the word "unsustainable" that isn't there. Like that "it was dumb financial sense to charge less than everyone else and that is why it closed". No way.

[jrodan]

you keep switching between saying price sustainability and business sustainability. the business was not sustainable because he had a personal situation that he couldnt devote the time needed to continue. the prices were sustainable because he was making money while providing product at a lower price than anywhere else. the price he charged for the records was in no way related to the business's sustainability in this case. his personal life and time needed to devote were.

in my opinion, when you say his prices were too low to sustain, you are incorrect in making that statement.

[thebiglebowski]

How do you separate price sustainability from business sustainability? Sustainable prices + sustainable costs = sustainable business. So if the only way to sustain those prices is at a bare-bones cost level (ie, one person doing everything with no overhead/help), that just isn't going to last forever (because people aren't machines). You said yourself that he didn't want to hire someone to pass along the cost to the customer. Interesting choice. So you say it wasn't money, it was time. But if it solely one person's time that makes a business run and it can't (or won't, by choice) function when that person needs time off (ie, hiring help isn't an option without passing higher costs to the customer), that is unsustainable.

[adamlikesmusic]

2) Didn't like the store layout. With No Idea it all opens in one page, and I just skim from top to bottom grabbing anything that makes me think "I forgot to grab that. Click.". Don't need a picture of the album. Even when you set IVWT to display 100 per page, took a while to get through everything. And it seemed like there were too many bands I had never heard of. Maybe it was a lot of hardcore stuff?

To summarize, easy to find a specific record. Not conducive to "window shopping", which is usually what I am doing at a distro.

This is definitely one reason I never placed an order through the distro. Unless I had something specific in mind, it was too hard to find things.

[morfiend]

How do you separate price sustainability from business sustainability? Sustainable prices + sustainable costs = sustainable business. So if the only way to sustain those prices is at a bare-bones cost level (ie, one person doing everything with no overhead/help), that just isn't going to last forever (because people aren't machines). You said yourself that he didn't want to hire someone to pass along the cost to the customer. Interesting choice. So you say it wasn't money, it was time. But if it solely one person's time that makes a business run and it can't (or won't, by choice) function when that person needs time off (ie, hiring help isn't an option without passing higher costs to the customer), that is unsustainable.

Gotta agree here. I run a distro by myself and even though I probably don't even do 1/4 the business IVWT does it can be unbearable to keep up with at times. I have a full-time job and I still need to find time to spend with my fiancee/friends/family and that would be almost impossible if my business were to expand and I didn't hire help. I don't make a lot of money but its enough to make the business worth my time. If my prices were bare bones like IVWT's it would be impossible for me to keep up and try and turn a decent profit. If he really was doing everything himself that's very impressive.

[Emo Revival]

This tuned from a thread mourning the loss of a great distro to a weird Econ debate. Atleast it's not a typical VC thread.

[companyinkrecs]

This tuned from a thread mourning the loss of a great distro to a weird Econ debate. Atleast it's not a typical VC thread.

pretty entertaining/intelligent debate though.

[circuit bored records]

Reading that email message yesterday I just got the kind of "fuck it, I'm over it" vibe. Not that he shouldn't be, if it ain't what he's passionate about anymore he should definitely be moving on. I really doubt it has anything to do with money/business though, I dont even think he thought he could make a decent living off of IVWT alone, he even referred to it as his "project" and not "business."

Kind of a moot argument, it's going to be done regardless. Definitely one of the best distros while it lasted though.

[somethingvinyl]

I still want to know how his prices were so low.

[thebiglebowski]

Gotta agree here. I run a distro by myself and even though I probably don't even do 1/4 the business IVWT does it can be unbearable to keep up with at times. I have a full-time job and I still need to find time to spend with my fiancee/friends/family and that would be almost impossible if my business were to expand and I didn't hire help. I don't make a lot of money but its enough to make the business worth my time. If my prices were bare bones like IVWT's it would be impossible for me to keep up and try and turn a decent profit. If he really was doing everything himself that's very impressive.

The tag line on your distro is kind of interesting -- "Specializing in Imported Hard to Find Vinyl".

Given the popularity of group buys on this site, that might be an interesting niche for a distro. Try and work out deals with overseas labels to get decent prices (if not wholesale) or just buy 30 at retail, utilize the shipping economies of scale, and distro em out in US. Utilize the traffic to sell some domestic records as well.

Unfortunately you seem to sell the wrong kind of records for the majority of this board. Maybe that's just my perception cause I don't listen to hardcore. I dunno. Good luck with it.

[Emo Revival]

I still want to know how his prices were so low.

He just didn't charge as much as he could. For the AFI records he has listed distro cost is about 7-8 and he's charging 9.99. The MSRP is $12-13 I can't remember, but you don't have to charge that much. It's a choice distros have to make, he could charge more and make more per record, but he probably wouldn't sell as much.

[morfiend]

The tag line on your distro is kind of interesting -- "Specializing in Imported Hard to Find Vinyl".

Given the popularity of group buys on this site, that might be an interesting niche for a distro. Try and work out deals with overseas labels to get decent prices (if not wholesale) or just buy 30 at retail, utilize the shipping economies of scale, and distro em out in US. Utilize the traffic to sell some domestic records as well.

Unfortunately you seem to sell the wrong kind of records for the majority of this board. Maybe that's just my perception cause I don't listen to hardcore. I dunno. Good luck with it.

Thanks but I don't sell hardcore, it's mostly metal. Buying wholesale from overseas labels is pretty much what I do. You're right though, most of the people on this board could careless about what I carry, however, some of my most loyal customers have come from here. I've been open for over a year and half and haven't bought anything on credit and I profit every month. Slow and steady wins the race....

[drds89]

Thanks but I don't sell hardcore, it's mostly metal. Buying wholesale from overseas labels is pretty much what I do. You're right though, most of the people on this board could careless about what I carry, however, some of my most loyal customers have come from here. I've been open for over a year and half and haven't bought anything on credit and I profit every month. Slow and steady wins the race....

You carry some items I've been interested in, and they seem to fly outta your window faster than I can snag them! Only been able to score one [edit] from you so far and was very pleased. I try to check in most every day. Keep on keepin' on-- like you say, Slow and steady and wins the race!

[morfiend]

You carry some items I've been interested in, and they seem to fly outta your window faster than I can snag them! Only been able to score one [edit] from you so far and was very pleased. I try to check in most every day. Keep on keepin' on-- like you say, Slow and steady and wins the race!

Thanks man, appreciate it!

[somethingvinyl]

Hey Mofiend, remember when you bought stuff from me off DF like 2 years ago and it was awesome. Then you wanted to buy more but because I didn't respond to you quick enough, you got all pissy and wouldn't buy from me again (I didn't respond because we just had a baby). Good times.

Seriously, I need to pick up Uncle Acid from you. That record is killer.

[anomynous]

+1 for Morfiend praise

[sjb2k1]

From IVWT's FB:

SALE EXTENDED + NEW CODE: In the last 48 hours the amount or orders coming in have essentially equaled what IVWT usually does in an entire month. So thanks goes out to all of you for helping me clear this stuff out! The less time I have to spend on ebay, the better This will mean that our usual 24 hour shipping window will obviously have to be extended so please be a little more patient than usual. All orders will ship and you will get the usual shipping notifications, it will just take me longer this time. Secondly, due to the unexpected success of this sale, I have decided to extend it until Tuesday night at 11:59 and there is a new code for 25% off: Final25 . Most of all thanks to everyone who has written me about the store, it really makes me feel great that it meant something to so many of you. Some people have been asking for my suggestions on other places to buy once we are closed up, I'll most likely make a detailed FB post about that sometime next week.

[circuit bored records]

Darn it if I didn't scroll through the entire selection and place another order. This place needs to close already, before it takes all of my goddamn money.

Picked up a few more LPs including Misery Index - Traitors on limited color for like 9 bucks + discount, way better than getting standard black from relapse for like 16 or whatever. Seriously, gonna miss IVWT </3

[AlexH.]

Well, I am absolutely furious that it is now 25% off. I could have saved two dollars!

Seriously folks, this is the time to pick up those $20 LPs and overpriced reissues.

[toxicity]

Picked up about $80 worth of stuff after the 25% discount. I would have bought more, but they seem to have been cleaned out of a lot of stuff that was saved in my wishlist. They were the only distro where I actually bothered with maintaining a wishlist. I'd usually pick up a couple things if I had a few extra bucks at the end of the month. Damn fine distro, and it's a shame to see them go.