xfactor675 Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Black friday is coming soon and I was thinking about yesterday's topic about the damn high shipping prices and came with an "idea" and I wonder what do you label owners think about this? So the idea: Shipping to Europe, Australia etc. is getting ridiculously high. So how about a new kind of a black friday sale for us you keep the products' prices the SAME and make the discount on shipping. what am I talking about? For example B9 always does this time of the year buy for 50+ and you get free shipping worldwide, so this could be a good one. OR only on this day flat rate at for example 15 bucks whatever quantities in the cart? So yeah, i bet it's tough as the shipping is must be paid and it's not your inventory you can lower the price of, but still think about it. As for me, I would still buy 4-5 records where the shipping itself not higher than the price of the records at least once a year.... tell me what you think, say fuck yous, whatever, just talk about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xfactor675 Posted November 1, 2013 Author Share Posted November 1, 2013 so is this really not a conversation-worthy material? let alone a single comment... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
circuit bored records Posted November 1, 2013 Share Posted November 1, 2013 so is this really not a conversation-worthy material blessedxcursed 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xfactor675 Posted November 1, 2013 Author Share Posted November 1, 2013 loving the community here sometimes... but whatever I'll delete the topic then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skeletal Lightning Posted November 1, 2013 Share Posted November 1, 2013 It's not necessarily that labels charge a lot for int'l shipping. It's that it costs a lot to ship internationally, and there's not much that can be done about it. A sale is a sale and you get a discount regardless. In the end, does it matter if you get $2 off a record vs. $2 off shipping? Also, for smaller labels, $50+ order = a free shipping worldwide ends up so that the label losing ~$15 for each international order after factoring in the total cost of (the cheapest) shipping and typical wholesale rates. Unless you're a bigger label, you already lose a ton of money with each release, why essentially "pay" an international customer to buy from you? blessedxcursed, xfactor675, jackholexxxx and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxmartinxx Posted November 1, 2013 Share Posted November 1, 2013 Move. blessedxcursed 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Justin Maheiny Posted November 1, 2013 Share Posted November 1, 2013 WTF are you talking about? Are you talking about Record Store Day that happens to fall on Black Friday or are you just talking about Black Friday sales? I'm pretty sure the big deal about Record Store Day is the amount of releases that come out specifically for that day. It isn't some sort of fire sale where people are looking to save a ton of money on records. Giving free shipping on $50 bucks worth of records to international customers is basically giving them all about %50 off. While it may sound very difficult and impossible to accomplish, I think you'd be about 100 times more likely to convince record stores/labels in your own country to have their own Record Store Day than convince labels in the US that they should eat 50% of every international sale. And assuming you aren't talking about Record Store Day and you literally only mean Black Friday in the sales sense. If you were to find some label that massively reduced their prices on that day, what difference does it make if the decreased cost comes from shipping or the cost of the records themselves? You'd still be saving money either way right? xfactor675 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xfactor675 Posted November 2, 2013 Author Share Posted November 2, 2013 Dear adiverdescends & Justin. Thank you for your real comments. and to the others I love you too. I agree with you 100%, I'm just tired the thing that shipping cost more than the actual record. I know labls lose money, i know shipping is out of their hand. this is why i questioned that only for a day they use flat rate for us too. that's all. sorry if anyone felt offended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
celebdeath Posted November 2, 2013 Share Posted November 2, 2013 It'd only be the really big labels that could swallow shipping reductions. To be honest, the smaller labels generally have enough demand in their own marketplace anyway, so as they dont rely on international purchasers, it's certainly not in their best interest to cut the arse out of their minimal margin by undercharging shipping. Obviously, they like us internationals buying their stuff, but needs must, and they dont need us to buy their releases. i wouldn't want to throw that sorta thing on smaller labels anyways. It is a tough market and i;d rather these labels survive so they keep releasing records, than dying off coz they swallowed too many costs. Skeletal Lightning and deletedunknown 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rioux Posted November 2, 2013 Share Posted November 2, 2013 I kinda agree with you. I would buy more than 3 records at once, if the shipping rates were lowered one day in a year. But as someone said, it's hard for smaller labels, that has small gain margin and, at least in my experience, the lowerest shipping rates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Justin Maheiny Posted November 2, 2013 Share Posted November 2, 2013 I kinda agree with you. I would buy more than 3 records at once, if the shipping rates were lowered one day in a year. But as someone said, it's hard for smaller labels, that has small gain margin and, at least in my experience, the lowerest shipping rates. Everyone agrees that they would order more records from overseas if shipping costs were lower. This goes for US buyers as well. But seeing as how record labels have bills to pay and it's not free to press records, they can't just pay the shipping costs for people that live overseas. You don't deserve some sort of special treatment just because you live outside the US. The same goes for us when we're buying records from other countries. I just passed on pre-ordering the new Samsara Blues Experiment because, with shipping to the US, it costs $52 for one record. Any album I want from Napalm Records same thing. It's not like this is any thing new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rioux Posted November 2, 2013 Share Posted November 2, 2013 Everyone agrees that they would order more records from overseas if shipping costs were lower. This goes for US buyers as well. But seeing as how record labels have bills to pay and it's not free to press records, they can't just pay the shipping costs for people that live overseas. You don't deserve some sort of special treatment just because you live outside the US. The same goes for us when we're buying records from other countries. I just passed on pre-ordering the new Samsara Blues Experiment because, with shipping to the US, it costs $52 for one record. Any album I want from Napalm Records same thing. It's not like this is any thing new. I don't deserve a special treatment just because I live outside the US. But you have to agree with me that it's easier for you to buy records, cause most releases have some sort of american version or, at least, american distribution. I, and other third world citizens, pay way more on a record. You see, I'm not complaining. I've been collecting records for five years, and I'm gonna keep buying it and supporting the bands and the labels that I like. I just would like to save a little money haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blessedxcursed Posted November 2, 2013 Share Posted November 2, 2013 I don't deserve a special treatment just because I live outside the US. But you have to agree with me that it's easier for you to buy records, cause most releases have some sort of american version or, at least, american distribution. I, and other third world citizens, pay way more on a record. You see, I'm not complaining. I've been collecting records for five years, and I'm gonna keep buying it and supporting the bands and the labels that I like. I just would like to save a little money haha if you want to save money find distributors that have the records you want or hit up the labels you want the records from and ask if they have outside US distribution. it's cheaper for a label to send 10 copies to one place and for them to sell them than to cut their profit to eat shipping costs for one order. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rioux Posted November 2, 2013 Share Posted November 2, 2013 if you want to save money find distributors that have the records you want or hit up the labels you want the records from and ask if they have outside US distribution. it's cheaper for a label to send 10 copies to one place and for them to sell them than to cut their profit to eat shipping costs for one order. The problem is that, in my country, a 2 or 3 records package goes ok through the customs. A bigger package doesn't. And, in the end, it's "cheaper" buy only my records. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Dopp Posted November 2, 2013 Share Posted November 2, 2013 I think that's a fantastic idea, it's just hard from a logistical point of view. Here's part of the problem for a small label... I just shipped a record to Canada today and shipping was $11. I charged $10 for the record and $5 for shipping... so I only made $4 on the transaction, which doesn't even cover the production cost of the album (I lost $0.50). I also shipped 3 records to the Netherlands and shipping was $22. They paid $30 for the 3 records and $10 for shipping, ($40 altogether), so I made $18 minus the $15 it cost for production. That's only $3 of profit. It's impossible to take the money you made from the last record you pressed to help you pay for the next album you want to press if you're doing things like that... I basically try to break even on international shipping knowing that most of my orders come from the U.S. It sucks, but I think it's important to get my artists music into the hands of their fans. The problem is it's not a smart way to run a business if you ever want to be successful... It's a great idea, it's just hard for a small label to make it work. Hopefully that point of view helps shed some light on everything. xfactor675 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xfactor675 Posted November 3, 2013 Author Share Posted November 3, 2013 Thank you Something to Break for your reply. this was the reason why I brought up this to have replies like yours. so seriously thank you!! Daniel Dopp 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 3, 2013 Share Posted November 3, 2013 how is it different for a company to eat the cost of shipping and not product? i mean, if they say "hey everything's 20% off!", that's 20% of the cost of all those purchases that they're not getting. how is it any different if they're footing a bit more for shipping on a regular priced item? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Justin Maheiny Posted November 4, 2013 Share Posted November 4, 2013 I, and other third world citizens, pay way more on a record. Uhhhh no one else thought this was completely hilarious when they read it? Please tell me you're kidding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mxv Posted November 4, 2013 Share Posted November 4, 2013 The sad reality is shipping outside of the country is expensive and over time will just continue to cost more and more. It isn't just shipping from the USA to another country that's expensive, we feel the same pain having people ship records to the states from overseas. It essentially doubles the price of an already expensive record. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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