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

fuck the world

“When you attempt to engage them in basic conversation about the item they are buying and even the most basic literal reference to said record goes over their head; they’ll typically nod with a blank stare or repeat what you say enthusiastically like a parrot but have no idea what you’re talking about,” says UGHH owner Aaron Wetjen-Barry. “Trying to sound cool because they read about it somewhere easy like Pitchfork.”

UGHH indeed. OK, I'm a weirdo but fuck you, bcz when strangers talk to me my brain blows a fuse; you could say something about my favourite most nerded-out-on band and I would still nod and go "yeah... yeah" and then run away and not be, like, throwing out the hot record nerd banter "oh I prefer the 4-track demos the bassist's previous band did before they were signed and split up after one backwards-rotating 10" EP that was only ever reviewed in that one obscure paper 'zine, but I'll buy this anyway because it's on 200g vinyl" or w/e

Look, there are hundreds of records participating in Record Store Day this year, and there’s not a single sentient human being who’s going to know about all of them. Don’t be afraid of asking a music-savvy friend or a record store owner about a group or album in particular – just be damn sure you’re listening to the answer.

hey I (used to) love buying records I don't know anything about but RSD is a very poor day to do this because everything is way overpriced, but have fun buying a £35 LP by a band you've never heard of. also there is a queue a mile long and nobody wants to hold your hand and answer questions

plus I have rarely received a more helpful answer to "do you know anything about this record I've never heard of with a weird title in the £1 bin" than "I dunno man, it had a weird title and none of us had heard of it so we put it in the £1 bin"

cosigning the "congrats on not being mentioned in that article"

Yeah, well played, Scott.

cory tell me a funny story about this ddude

looks like VNYL has some competition

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

"do you have that Noel Redding album where it looks like he's fucking a cow?" lmao

Cory how much was the Wham! record?

I used to have some Voodoo Glow Skulls on vinyl. Can't remember how I got it or how I managed to get rid of it.

did I donate it to a library or something?

http://graphics.crucialattack.nl/covers/Voodoo_Glow_Skulls_-_Who_Is_This_Is-CD.jpg

i think the wham was $12-18

Vine-Al's got friends who are into Suffocation and Master's Hammer. WKI in his store but not buy anything.

loll

Is 28 bucks too much for a link wray's self titled record? I fucking love that album but don't want to get ripped off

thats a good deal

Averages $45 on discogs, so yeah, even deflating for Internet ridiculousness that's a pretty good price. Wish I had bought it the last time I saw it for $9...

co-sign on that, great record

would snag that record for $30

k will do asap. thanks yall

Link Wray's never a bad buy.

Advice please!

I bought some records on Discogs from a guy who used to run a very hip record label. I live in the UK and had the records shipped to my friend's house in America. When my friend visited a month later, she brought the package, and I discovered that one of the records he sent me - the most expensive one, in fact (though only $25) - was the wrong record. He just sent me another album by the same band.

So I emailed him and explained what happened and that I would return the wrong album when I was back in the States in a month, but would still like the one I ordered. He wrote back saying "Weird. Don't know how that happened. The one you wanted is long gone. I'll refund the cash." That's all he said and that's all I have ever heard from him.

It's been a month and I've emailed him four times saying "tell me where to send the wrong record back to" and giving him my PayPal details and he hasn't replied again. According to his Twitter he's on tour, though I think he's constantly on tour and this is just a PayPal refund thing so that shouldn't matter I don't think.

I've never given bad Discogs feedback. I've had shitty transactions, but they've mostly been dealt with before having to give feedback - like, the person has refunded the money or apologized profusely and said "please don't leave me bad feedback."

The guy I made the deal with seems to have an iffy reputation, and all the feedback stuff on his page involves him getting into a fight with the person who left him negative feedback.

What should I do? Thanks!

Can you initiate an "item not as described" dispute on PayPal? It's kind of tough because you got something and he obviously wants you to be stuck with the wrong record and disappear; this type of personality (ignore-ignore-ignore and then get toxic when you leave them negative feedback) are super fucking annoying.

I'd say look into PayPal, maybe leave a simple, unemotional negative feedback explaining the situation in detail and in the future carefully check feedback before ordering. Maybe try one last email first and tell him that you're going to do that if he doesn't give you a refund and reiterate that you're happy to return the album to him.

Yeah I think if you raise a dispute on Paypal you won't even need to return the record to get a refund.

I think you have 45 days to file a dispute though so I'd get on that if it's been over a month already.

Thanks, yeah, I've passed my statute of limitations, as it were, with PayPal.

I suppose I'll do one more email and float the idea of negative Discogs feedback; we'll see. I hate the idea of having to "threaten" negative feedback - it just all seems to petty and lame - but the whole transaction has been irritating. I really suspect he sent the wrong record on purpose and hoped I would not make a big deal about it because it's a similarly rare one (but that I already have!!!)

Thanks

Maybe with Paypal, but you can raise dispute with your bank or credit card.

Yeah, your credit card or bank will often have a longer time limit for initiating a chargeback than PayPal, so if you paid through one of those look into it. If you used a PayPal balance you're probably out of luck.

I think Paypal is a lot more than 45 days now?

180 days apparently: https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/paypal-safety-and-security

ignore-ignore-ignore and then get toxic when you leave them negative feedback)

oh god, i hate these fucking people.

you should never let the statute of limitations with ebay or discogs or paypal expire because you're waiting on a seller to respond to you. that's what they (the seller) is /hoping/ will happen. my rule is that if it's been more than 72 hours and a seller hasn't replied to a concern or a complaint, i assume they are AWOL (or stonewalling me) and i use the available official channels to get my money back.

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Wow, OK - thanks a lot. I've just emailed him and said "it'd be great to get this resolved - I don't want to do a PayPal dispute or anything headachey so please refund via my PayPal or whatever's best for you." I'll report back!

And I'm going to stick with amateurist's rule from now on.

It's also annoying in that I've probably bought 75 records this dude has put out over the years!

Totally curious who this is now.

lol is it mike simonetti?

i guess superior viaduct guy

oh wait he hasnt been around long enough.

lol if it was tmu - hes notorious

was my first guess also

suspect YRIML might want to err on the side of discretion for now though

lol simonetti was my 1st guess too

haha i have stories about that dude

superior viaduct guy wears tasteful scarves; totally decent dude, though the records in his physical store are overpriced imo, but so many things in the Bay Area are overpriced imo

we all have stories about him - he used to post on the old southern lord board

i have friends who had bands on his label that got ripped off big time by him

superior viaduct guy is totally nice but like i dont understand why he reissues some of the stuff he does like.. does that alice coltrane i can still get from impulse for $20 need a reissue? or that fantastic planet soundtrack that you can get for $15 at amoeba need a reissue with exactly no additions?

just seems like a weird vanity thing to throw money around and say "i put this out" but i guess there's tons of label doing that now like all the horror soundtracks shit jeeze..

i totally agree. my biggest beef with his reissues is how he reissued the Branca Ascencion record with the original mastering job which wasn't very good, rather than the re-mastered version that came out less than 10 years ago iirc but IT WAS ONLY ON CD!!!

yah exactly wtf? like what's the motivation on these releases? just to like have your name be involved with some classic album somehow? otherwise bless him for all the rare sf punk and getting devo to tour the hardcore stuff i guess.

there's definitely this move to reissue "everything" on vinyl and sell it for $20, whether it's worth it or not. bummed i missed that devo show

cory, do have an opinion on the vacation store in the tenderloin (just thought of this after watching yr video)

there's definitely this move to reissue "everything" on vinyl and sell it for $20

this is like 2/3rds of the stock at 1-2-3-4 Go!/Lost Weekend now

i'm not into burger records ppl

some of the bands on it are ok ... used to share a practice space with one or two ... they practiced a lot

i wish i could be fancy like whoever owns that wombleton store in LA. they take fancy record buying trips to europe and then come back and sell them for fancy prices. so fancy!