Shady scams and other silly business ideas to take advantage of earnest new vinyl collectors

I was harsh on vinyl me please upthread when they started, probably just unfairly associating their early model with how VNYL was run. But they seem to generally do a pretty good job right? I'm still not into the subscription model for this kind of thing, but a couple good friends of mine are pretty pleased with what they offer.

As far as VNYL, I think they pivoted pretty quickly from their early thrift store scraps model and into record label castoffs, and they take advantage of people's ignorance as far as music on vinyl goes. I still think that's their market.

yeah VMP is solid, I even own a few

(bought second hand, not gonna subscribe)

the name “vinyl me, please” is horrible + some of the marketing patter has weird men’s magazine “art of manliness” vibes. But yeah, their reissues are good, afaik, seems like they pay attention to making a good quality product.

yea I hate the name of the company but the two pressings I have from them are really great, packaging and all

They do a nice job. The vinyl is nice. The heavy tip on jackets are super duper nice.

I did a mini subscription when the releases aligned with a few I wanted that were otherwise really hard to get or expensive, but I wouldn't do it all the time. Theres been a couple I've missed, and wish I hadn't as on the secondhand market they got really expensive.

I guess I'm not really a fan of the hype beast vinyl market.

I was harsh on vinyl me please upthread when they started, probably just unfairly associating their early model with how VNYL was run. But they seem to generally do a pretty good job right? I'm still not into the subscription model for this kind of thing, but a couple good friends of mine are pretty pleased with what they offer.

I'd subscribe if I was in the US and had more $$$s - I roll my eyes at a lot of what they press up, and their box sets have been very overpriced and kind of baffling ("Here's 8 or so random Herbie Hancock records, $500 pls"), and I find the sleevenotes often unedifying and the patter in the copywriting aggravating. But their pressings are good, they care about the final product, and they often are repressing things that I'd like to own. They put Buhloone Mindstate back in print a good few years before the DLS reissues earlier this year (sadly both reissues were only 1LP and missing a bunch of tracks, but whaddya gonna do), and I just picked up a second hand copy of their reissue of Kamaal The Abstract, which looks and sounds lovely.

I have a Lee Scratch Perry one and a Jorge Ben one, both excellent and stupidly expensive as OGs

I didn't know they'd pressed up Africa Brasil. I may have to hunt that down...

okay how much are they paying you guys...

lol

Still not enough to afford their postage to the UK!

also re: VNYL, i'll never forget chaki's invaluable investigative reporter visit to the store. god, what a dire company. i'm surprised there's anyone active at that company to block Jason Gore on twitter, their instagram and Facebook have been dormant for a long, long time.

Dank Deals and other super bodacious offers to take advantage of before time runs out

haha yes the whole discovery of the VYNL model was a great ILM moment and Chaki's video the cherry on top

"Vibe system?!!"

I actually like the sound of this, if not the name...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/nov/18/uk-vinyl-hotel-vinyl-pimp-hackney-london

God, awful name.

Depending on his pricing and overall temperament might be accurate

He is described as a "serial entrepreneur"

the idea sounds fun. honestly hard to get past the name.

foul name

I'd be nervous about finding enough vinyl to meet the quota that I'd actually want but I guess it must really be a treasure trove...?

nope, nothin but lawrence welk and feels so good, far as the eye can see

Bed N' Buyer's remorse

they're a long established discogs seller with about 10k records listed. prices are not bad for london:

https://www.discogs.com/seller/Vinyl.Pimp.London/profile

i first encountered them through the record sweep series on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS53xtCgzRE

most expensive thing they have from my wantlist is an original white label of this for £85 (which is way more than i'd want to spend on it, but call that one the cost of the hotel for the night i guess):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv8fS3Nt1S8

only 2 from my wantlist. guess I'm not staying there

tbf that's hardly the point of digging

it is indicative of whether or not they cater for your tastes though. they are dance music specialists really, they mostly get stock through buying dj collections iirc

skot was saying on the record store thread that his brother used to do overnight lock-ins at his store, so it's not a new idea, apart from the bit about giving people a bed

a few years ago some guy bought like 500 LPs and 12s off me cos he was stocking up his vinyl guest house. hope he wasn't planning on selling them for money though, cos they really were complete dogshit

Don't worry he abandoned the guesthouse idea and shifted his energies to a more breakthrough concept called "vnyl.org"

a lot of my best scores had been because the owner "specialized" in something that wasn't of much interest to me, and therefore neglected what i found interesting

the whole point of digging is that it's fun because of the uncertainty of what you might encounter

and if their entire collection is already listed on discogs then it doesn't seem very fun to me

a lot of my best scores had been because the owner "specialized" in something that wasn't of much interest to me, and therefore neglected what i found interesting

Ha yes, that is very true! But you can't always count on finding good things in those stores, and if there's a £250 minimum spend at stake, you do need some sort of guarantee that you'll find a fairly substantial chunk of things you're into

i've known a couple folks who have done overnight lock-in/sleepover digs and must confess i've never really understood the point, aside from the fact that they were DJs who kept overnight vampire hours anyway. if it was done up like a really cool space where you could hang with your friends and listen to records all night i can see it being fun, but this "hotel room" just looks like a mattress on some lofted plywood and a couple cheap chairs in a corner, plus you can't play music after midnight? no thanks.

if i wasn't completely broke i'd definitely be into it. rummaging through 10,000 records that you've mostly never heard before, no real time pressure and you can bring your own beer? i'd be like a pig in shit tbh

it sounds really fun in a dorm sleepover kind of way, i’d definitely enjoy taking drugs and doing this if I could also listen to the records

My 17 year old coworker told me yesterday she spent $100 at Goodwill and I was like right on, hope you got a nice coat or boots or something. Then she told me she bought a “Grease vinyl” for $30.
Goodwill in on the grift!

$30!

Thrift stores are vinyl grift stores now. My local has all their LPs at $4.99 -- it's the cheapest in the area. But it's all dollar bin fodder.

$30!!! I had to zip my lip

That's an actual crime being committed

onfg

sorry OMFG

Sealed early pressing, I hope.

you guys haven't heard Grease? proto-punk band from Milwaukee, only released one record privately in '76, $30 is a steal!

For $30 I'd want a hot stamper so hot the vinyl's melting on my turntable and running into the mechanism.

It's electrifyin'