Do some retailers hang on to ltd 12"s to sell later on

[nitrous_mcbread]

But WAR001 was selling for £40, like, a month after it went on sale. You suggest record shops lead a pretty hand-to-mouth existence, but they're not going to go bust if they can sit around for a couple of months and make eight times as much.. so how many copies of something like the WAR series get to retailers? Does Boomkat, being one of the big boys, get - what? Fifty copies? Because that's a potential profit of a few thousand quid right there - and of course, if they hold them back at the start and claim it's already sold out, then the myth and the coolness and the price is only going to increase - hence more profits. Not to cast aspersions on Boomkat - I'm sure they're all lovely churchgoing types who wash behind their ears and put the lid back on the toothpaste...

[thinking]

are you asking me or telling me mate? I work for a 'big boy' record shop, and there are a number of reasons why this stockpiling/profiteering doesn't go on.

I didn't say that record shops are subsisting on a hand-to-mouth basis, but ripping people off like this just isn't as worthwhile as you think, whereas consistent turnover of stock and building of customer base is.

Apart from the reasons I've already stated, pulling a stunt like this would be a surefire way to piss off your existing customer base in one easy move. Also, trying to milk valuable tunes would piss off suppliers and labels, who might decide not to do business any more.


Investment purchases are fine for the tiny/2nd hand shops and private buyers, but I would be utterly shocked if I heard of any well-respected record shop trying this sort of thing.

Even when shops find a box of an old/in-demand release (for example if they found a load of TEMPA001 or something), it's very very unlikely they would sell it for more than the normal price.

[chu]

I think in the current climate record shops would be more concerned with getting rid of stock ASAP, and even then just to stay afloat.

so how many copies of something like the WAR series get to retailers? Does Boomkat, being one of the big boys, get - what? Fifty copies? Because that's a potential profit of a few thousand quid right there

If record shop X get their copies at £4.50 (reasonable estimate?) to make £1000 profit they would have to sell each copy at £24.50 or 25 copies at £49. I think it would be too financially risky for them to hold onto more than 1 or 2 copies of a record in the hope that they could later sell them at these kinds of prices.

[nitrous_mcbread]

pulling a stunt like this would be a surefire way to piss off your existing customer base in one easy move. Also, trying to milk valuable tunes would piss off suppliers and labels, who might decide not to do business any more.

Agreed. And if I suddenly saw 10 copies of WAR001 on Boomkat going for £30 each, I'd think that was well dodgy. But of course, if they do it through a personal ebay account and not through the shop, who's going to know? It's not like the suppliers demand the names and addresses of all purchasers and drive round the country checking up everything's above board...

Maybe it's just the way my mind works, but if I had a large online retailer and had built up a knowledge over the course of time which told me I would make 5 times the money if I sat on a few releases for a few months - well, that's some strong temptation right there, know what I mean?

[thinking]

Maybe it's just the way my mind works, but if I had a large online retailer and had built up a knowledge over the course of time which told me I would make 5 times the money if I sat on a few releases for a few months - well, that's some strong temptation right there, know what I mean?

of course, and I see what you're talking about now - people working in shops buying up stock before it goes on sale and holding on to it for a while....

tbh there's nothing really to stop anyone doing this, although I would think it fairly unlikely.

You're talking about a private individual working in a shop doing something that would prevent a genuine customer being able to make a purchase - bear in mind that people don't normally just buy one record, due the P&P costs, so one record not being in stock means getting an order of several records. If a shop's management got wind of an employee bulk-buying ltd edition tunes, I think they'd sort it out.

The customers always come first in a retail situation - they're a fickle breed and shops try hard to win and retain their custom.