Latest additions to my vinyl collection include U2 30th vinyl edition. Clean copy. No issues US Best Of clean copy no issues Bowie legacy 2 lp set perfect Depeche Mode speak and spell and broken frame 12 inch box sets. Perfect Gary Numan the pleasure principle. Vinyl perfect. Artwork arrived bashed up, replacement ordered The Beatles 67/70 blue 2 vinyl set. 1st one arrived with bad visual damage lp 1 side 2 track 1. Ordered replacement same issue in the same spot on the replacement.
Had Wings Best of from Amazon perfect and quiet Gary Numan Telekon 2 lp set arrived today artwork perfect vinyl has bad scratches on side 1 track 1, play tested and it’s very noisy right where the damage is. Soft cell the art of falling apart- artwork arrived bent and crushed, inside cases also badly damaged, vinyl seems ok
I had three packages just arrive today from Juno. Going all the way from the UK to Canada, they all arrived without any damage despite the thin mailers. Same with all previous shipments I've had from them. Then there's Amazon.ca which can't seem to deliver me an undamaged record despite their warehouse being just three hours away from me... I would say about half of my Amazon returns are due to their poor packaging.
I had Men at work business as usual MF version arrive today, sealed and badly scratched, so bad infact it jumps. Ordered a replacement. Ordered Billy Idol Idolize yourself best of vinyl, both copies jump on track 2 side 2 Flesh for fantasy, vinyl has a visual dent, it’s also very bad pressing, noisy as hell. Very hit and miss for me lately.
I also wanted to add... I recently received two Monster Magnet records, on the Napalm Records label via Amazon. For both, the vinyl was actually placed (in its inner sleeve) between the gatefold sleeve rather than inside the pocket. This meant it did not bang around inside the cover and cause seam splits during shipping. I wish other labels would take this common sense approach.
Amazon us is no better, Amazon uk for some reason deliver both perfect vinyl,and undamaged artwork. Just in my experience.
Hmmm.... I feel that’s just luck you had careful handling on the way. Amazon are generally oversized mailers so if you drop them, it doesn’t always affect the contents and I’ve had little issue with Amazon. A drop with a Juno mailer and it’s ruined. There is little protection there.
I have nothing against turntables. I was just trying to say that vinyl quality has been a long running issue. One I solved by going CD. I like vinyl but just got fed up with the quality issues.
Correct it’s not Most of the vinyl I have got lately has been perfect, just a few examples of bad quality control will not put me off.
Just won an ebay refund dispute from a seller with a “no returns policy.” I bought an 80’s Dutch pressing of Abbey Road that actually had some creases in the vinyl causing the record to skip. Can’t say I’ve dealt with this before but it sure made for nasty skip. Of course the seller claimed it played “just fine” on his equipment.
I too had bad "luck" with Amazon - to the degree that I will no longer order vinyl from them. I'll do cd's, but I'm ordering less of those anyway. I returned more warped vinyl and bent sleeves in six months of Amazon than I've done in a years' ordering from eBay and Discogs - in fact, zero from every other source. That said, I seem to remember a lot of crappy vinyl buying experiences back in the day though, too - goes with the territory, though buying used NM/M- seems to alleviate most issues. Everything I've received from members here has been stellar without exception - my new go-to source.
I got an extremely dished copy of the Feist, reissue of the month from Vinyl Me Please, which was a disappointment. GZ Vinyl pressing. Guess they're still cooling them too fast to be getting this kind of defect. Shame places don't actually take 3.5 seconds and QC them before putting them in the inner sleeve. VMP was good about sending out a replacement, but the whole thing seems like a waste when this kind of product is going all over the globe, ending up in the hands of customers, having to do it all twice.
I have avoided GZ Vinyl product like the ‘plague’, for many years. However, recently I took a chance on the reissue of U2’s ‘Achtung Baby’ and Ry Cooder’s new album ‘The Prodigal Son’, both pressed at GZ Media in the Czech Republic and I have been very pleasantly surprised! Both albums are really well pressed and it confirms to me that there are different ‘tiers’ of quality from this manufacturer. GZ can very obviously press excellent records based on these two albums but my theory is that ‘cheapskate’ labels will not pay the going rate for this quality and the consumer ends up with the consequences of that. In life you get what you pay for, regardless of what it is you’re buying. That is the only conclusion I can draw from this? I bought both records following positive feedback here on the forum. I recently purchased the complete reissue series of the FELT albums from Cherry Red and am awestruck at the superb quality of these records. They are beautifully pressed and very well mastered and sound great on my set up. On the other hand my EU pressing of Paul Simon ‘In the Blue Light’, marketed as a high quality pressing falls short of that due persistent ticks and pops. As far as I can ascertain the Felt and Paul Simon albums are both pressed by Optimal. So quality at Optimal is variable to say the least. Many members here report dissatisfaction with Optimal vinyl.
At,least with Amazon they have a great return policy. Example I had a piece of vinyl last week the cover was slightly bent, side 2 lp1 had damage, i order the replacement cover perfect, lp2 had damage, so I was able to create a decent copy from both versions, sad it’s needed but I love vinyl, so it’s worth my effort,
I have a love/hate relationship with Optimal pressings, of which I have many. When done right, they're great, but i've received a lot of dished or edge-warped copies, far too many for a plant that thinks they're doing high quality work.
I've had both near-perfect and relatively poor pressings from Optimal. Lately, I've encountered at least three records from Optimal with audible scratchy surface noise in the right channel that sort of comes and goes throughout the record, but almost always happens at the beginning of at least one of the sides. Cleaning does nothing. I wonder what it is that causes this?
Thus, the very reason I stopped my VMP subscription...2 returns for the Fugees, and 3 returns for Black Sabbath. Even replacement copies were warped, just not as severely. Very frustrating and a shame. Hated that I had to resort to cancelling what I thought would be a really cool experience .