Overpriced Vinyl

I've always felt that it's important that your personal transportation be as uncomfortable as possible, as well. Makes you better aware of the distance you are traveling.

 

My back hurts like a mother, must be Bakersfield.

 

That's true. It's a very general, very huge measure and it is being constantly -- and has been constantly--manipulated for the past 30 year or so.

People who have to budget for groceries, pay rent, etc., know this intuitively as many of the things they buy have escalated in price yet that never seems reflected in the published official inflation rate.

Also, some prices aren't hiked in some products, but the amounts sold are reduced or substituted with cheaper ingredients -- a standard strategy employed when the source materials begin to increase in cost.

So back to records...is $30 or $40 too much? For me it depends. I nice, high quality Analogue Productions press certainly isn't overpriced in my book in that range. A ****ty digital remaster pressed to vinyl and housed in a cheap, thin cover absolutely is. YMMV.

 

Bakersfield? That's addition discomfort.

 

See post #360, we're going in circles now so I'm bowing out.

 

It's not that simple.

Using that simplest metric, maybe.

But there are other factors that render something more expensive or less expensive. Like labor. That $4 record in 1965 cost about 3 hours of labor at minimum wage in 1965. That $30 record costs more than 4 hours of labor now. The record is actually more expensive now if labor is the measure. If I were a minimum wage earner I would not be buying new records. No way.

Another complicating factor is the customer base. Teens? 20, 30, or 40-somethings still living at home? Is it "expensive" when the customer does not live independently, does not pay rent but lets mom and dad support them? I know my disposable income would significantly increase with no cost of living and new records might look priced fairly at my wage, since I didn't need to spend any of it on anything but luxuries like entertainment.

 

Lp's were expensive 50 years ago. Most people still bought singles. They got cheaper in 70s due to discounting (started by Branson in the UK). Got even cheaper in 80s but quality suffered. Prices started to rise to around £12 over here for a std Lp by the mid 90s. I recon cost of living has near doubled in last 20 years so £24 for an Lp is not out of line in terms of relative expense. That is arguably relatively more than 1980s but you can buy many titles for £16 or less particularly from US suppliers. So on that basis and considering the relatively low volume runs, vinyl is not overpriced providing the SQ / source is up to scratch. The problem is the used vinyl market which has bubbled due to a combination of surge in interest and lack of quality on the market. It's amazing what a surge of Bowie, Prince etc titles appear when prices suddenly shoot up. And what about the apparent surge in DSOTM first pressings on ebay?

 

In the States, LP's went for $3 in the 60's. It wasn't too hard to afford that, even for someone going to school like me. I built a great collection for that price.

 

overpriced vinyl = ebay & discogs

 

Then how does one explain the price of CDs? Which is the exact same price range as when I worked at a record store 1990-1992. The inflation calculator doesn't really work, look at gas, milk, etc. The supply and demand is the killer, and they see demand so they mark up the LPs beyond what is a "reasonable" price music consumers want to pay.

 

I agree about discogs and Buy it Now eBay, but if you are patient, follow searches and ask the seller questions you can get reasonable deals on eBay. At least relatively for me, compared to my local overpriced record store with hardly any selection.

 

Tons of factors. Among them, markup differences and advances in manufacturing. There have been essentially no changes in the manufacturing of records for many decades while there have been big changes in the production of CDs making it much much cheaper to produce them than when they were first released.

I don't think anyone is purporting that everything fits inflation calculators. It is just a general baseline.

 

Almost all vinyl is overpriced.

 

again it does work. the fact that the price of cds is the same as the 90's means THE REAL VALUE OF CDS HAS GONE DOWN.

 

I guess it works only in that it works for me. I only buy records I listen to (I'm a listener, not a "collector") and knowing that based on the inflation calculator this particular kind of item is a better deal than it was in 1968, I'm good with it. Would I like things to be less expensive? Yes and no. Yes because I'm a conscientious consumer and the more I save, the more I can give. No because when things are cheap, the general public over-consumes and uses up too many resources too quickly. For that reason, gas should be $10 a gallon U.S.

 

Sure, double my income first though, would ya?
$10/gallon is a very bad idea.
May as well quadruple all new car prices and insurance also.

 

I've always wondered why a soundtrack CD or LP which likely cost little to make might cost $16.99 while the movie that cost many millions to make cost $9.99?????

hmmmmm.....

 

Your wish is granted! (LOL, sorry- wish I could give you a raise!)

Getting off topic a bit but the difference is that cars and insurance are a money making rackets (if not, then why do not all cars run well for at least 300 to 500K miles and get at least 45 to 50 MPG?) but petroleum is a limited resource that is largely responsible for some of our largest environmental issues.

 

Seriously? 300-500k miles?

Raising the prices on insurance and cars would save our fuel also, right? Cuz no one could afford to drive, just like $10 gas. Everyone would lose jobs, homes, etc.
Who gets to keep the profits from the $10/gallon gas?

 

Gas is one of the phoniest vertically-integrated profit centers in the world.

 

The Endless River 2 x lp is still overpriced at about $35. If it were $20, I would buy it. But I just can't bring myself to pay almost $40 for a mostly mediocre album. And I'm
A big Pink Floyd fan.

 

It's a well put together 2LP with a gatefold jacket. $35 is about right. If you shop around, it can be had for $25 or so.

 

Yes, quite serious about the 300 to 500K miles. Had a used Honda that was over 300K before I sold it off and now have a Toyota Prius that will give me over 300K no problem. I knew a very bright guy in the auto industry who proved to me that cars could run for 500K. He told me about that in 1973.

Good point about asking who keeps the profits from $10 gas. The extra money would ideally go into solving our dire environmental problems, developing energy efficiency, alternative energy sources, etc. Some solutions that would keep people from loosing jobs would be to improve public transit, encourage people to live close to work, ride share, learn to be happy without over-consuming.

Raise insurance prices? No! Not meaning to suggest that at all! My insurance company once paid a woman $20,000 dollars because I tapped, yes, literally tapped her bumper with mine. That is why insurance is so outrageously high (and why I paid more for a number of years after that very, very minor incident!

 

90% of the population doesn't even keep a car for 100k miles. We live in a disposable world.
Hell, mostdont seem to even keep it lo g enough to lay it off before moving on to a new ride.