"Better Records" website and their business practices as they apply to our hobby*

As far as Port's website is concerned, I have zero interest in buying a record when I am unsure of what country/pressing it is, regardless of the price.

 

But, but, but ... hot stampers!

Still no?

 

Port can't be the only one at Better Records auditioning LP's and determining how good they sound. Nobody has that kind of time.

If you look at even just his weekly email lists, there's lots of LP's on there alone. So if he has a small staff there to help him, do they have ears just like Tom? Are these guys somehow on the same page?

Makes you wonder.

 

Understood. Yet, the thought for me is...if ever I could find some LPs that are hot stampers...THEN I would tend to agree with his findings---if ever I DID sell any great vinyl like those rare ones... I sure would feel guilty over 1/3 of Tom's prices...but that is just my own opinion about it all.

 

I've got to start a new online business, Better CDs, where I can start selling "Ultra-Hot Burners" for $500!

 

Don't give Tom any more ideas.

 

There. Fixed it for you.

Ed

 

I'd like a service called "good enough" records, where they take the current reissues of really good music,
and open them up, and check to see if they're warped, dished, off-centre, or scratched.

I swear it seems like half the records i've bought in the last couple of months are rejects.
Beatles for Sale in Mono? Warped like an ashtray. Gene Ammons from Analogue Productions? Dished like a pasta bowl.
And those are from reputable presses, don't get me started on the rest of the big label junk.
I've got 10 records to send back just from my last few orders. At some point i'm giving up and going digital!

 

Or.....vintage???

 

As a purchaser in the past I'm starting to get outraged at some of these crazy prices, 800-1000 now, but the addition of the dreaded ++++ quadruple hot stamper, which for years had never been previously seen outside of the wild, well that just pushes me over the edge. Feels extra scummy to me.

 

I'm not paying $399 for anything but a sealed original. That I will never play.

For a reissue? Pass!

 

Well, that tells me the stuff is selling. Just amazing to me. It they weren't, the prices would be going down. I would love to hear about a few titles you did buy and truly enjoy! I definitely respect those that feel the service is worth the cost.

I don't know,of a single album I personally would enjoy enough to spend $400 on, but maybe $100 for a select few, which I think is still quite a lot to spend on a used album. I definitely have a few favorites that I have bought maybe ten copies of before I stumbled on a perfectly mastered, beautiful sounding album so I do understand there is a big difference but still, there is a limit to how much value that is. The funny thing is that in principle, his spiel is correct, it just seems ridiculous that anyone in their right mind would feel $500 is worth getting an album that sounds a bit better.

 

You are mighty unlucky - I rarely get dished or warped discs these days and only had one example of bad non-fill in the last year or two. Have had a number of scratches that caused repetitive clicks. I am noticing a gradual improvement in pressing quality over the last year (mostly EU pressings).

 

you can say again. I got another warped record yesterday. 5 out of 6 records i bought this week are warped,
one Beatles Mono, and Zeppelin reissue were the most surprising, as I have at least a half dozen from each of those reissue series and they are perfect.

I'm seeing more warped and dished records that ever, i know it's bad when even Quality Records is shipping bad ones.

 

Cooling cycle: is it so tough for companies pressing 180 and 200 gram (QRP) to let those disks cool off?

 

In the end Tom Port is pretty much just like the Ebay snake oil crew, one that comes to mind is some guy who goes by 'mymusicfix' and markets ho hum reissues and some audiophile releases as very rare, out of print and the best sounding ever etc. That guy only dabbles in contemporary pressings but then there is that other guy who takes scuffy vintage pressings and ultrasonic cleans them finally claiming that they are 'archive masters' or some such because it is the best sounding he has ever heard.
We all know the game in general with resellers, and it is really nothing new in the modern world.
Tom is just at the top of the heap for figuring out the hands down most profitable way yet to sell old records.
His doing it and the fact that people buy them and support him doing so are in their own little way sucking all the fun out of the whole digging process though.
How many of those records will years from now be going up for auction with the 'hot stamper' pedigree, or on the flip side be donated to the thrift store, or at an estate auction for a fair and cheap price.
That aspect is certainly of no one's concern, I'm just pointing out that part of the fun of the hobby is entirely missing for those that purchase a hot stamper site unseen as far as the provenance of the pressing goes. I suppose it could be a little fun to see what you get, but If I bought a 500$ or so copy of the White Album and it were a later non numbered US copy ( I suppose it could be a purple label white vinyl as well..), I would get pretty steamed if a year down the road I hear a '78 UK export white vinyl copy that makes the hot stamper just sound sad.
The fun just doesn't seem to be included when buying from BR, I have seen many well heeled types digging around like most of us and enjoying not only the end result of scoring a good record but also the hunt.

 

That doesn't seem to be an issue with Better Records so much as it is an issue of the Internet. There have been many times where I've read about a great pressing of an album here, gone to Discogs, found the exact pressing, ordered it, and had it within a week.

Sure, it's cool when I'm at a record store and stumble upon a great pressing of a record I'm interested in, but the truth is I could find that pressing at almost any time, usually for a reasonable price, thanks to the Internet.

If you choose to never use the Internet to get a record, good on you. Enjoy the hunt at your local stores. But the lack of the hunt doesn't really apply just to Better Records.

 

Their business practice as I see it - we buy hot dogs, label them filet mignon and mark up accordingly.

 

In a store in Denver last week and the guy behind the counter was talking to a customer about hot stampers - I think the word is getting out and more people are going to buy into this. Reminds me of the coin company's on TV and how they sell common coins for way over value.

 

Maybe he should create a "Franklin Mint Minus Minus" designation?

 

They need to consider "slabbing" these Better Records +++++++ releases the way they do with comic books and preserve them in inert hard cases. Breaking the seal and playing the records would immediately reduce their value.

 

A guy I know who runs a store apparently saw this price online, and now is asking that for his RL cut Zep 1.

 

Next to the astronomical prices, I think the most amusing aspect of Port's business practice is that it is only feasible with huge selling albums. If you want a copy of, say, Kaleidoscope's Faintly Blowing, you're going to have to settle for whatever comes available, and you'd consider yourself lucky to have found one at all. Or, for around the same price, you could go to Tom and buy a marginally better pressing of Rumors that may or may not be bested by a $40 reissue.

Heck, I'd pay a reasonable premium for a decent playing copy of Kate Bush's Aerial, but there aren't enough of those floating around for Tom to amass a hoard of them, searching for one that managed to leave the factory without a pressing defect.

 

To me the most amusing aspect is the epic huffiness of ranting non-customers of Better Records. Apart from maintaining a durable, apparently profitable business with little more than a modest hi-fi set-up and a devilishly golden genius for hypnotic salesmanship, TomPort has an incredible ability to drive sane vinyl collectors bat$hit crazy with irritation.

 

This is actually my biggest issue here. Some of the prices on that site are fairly in line for a curated list of mint first pressings with a generous return policy, but the fact data on the pressings isn't being provided feels intentional; there's no way a guy that caters to the market should be omitting that.