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There are restrictions around the world and it's unknown how long this pandemia will last. Many record labels are closed, new records have been postponed and it's not clear if we even have a market for vinyl soundtracks after this crisis.

I know this is not so important topic these days, but I think relevant here as all of us enjoy records and many of us has to spend time more at home. I'm already getting little bored with my old records and would like to buy something new, but I'm thinking about options.

Do you keep on buying or are you having a pause? Is visiting your local record shop too risky? Do you still buy from Amazon? Are you avoiding Discogs?

Share your thoughts.

I won’t be going physically shopping for records for a good while I should think. That said I’m still shopping online and discogs.

I’m a freelancer and this has definitely caused me to put a hold on some stuff from a purely financial perspective. Fortunately there haven’t been a ton of releases I had my eye on at this time, but I’ve had to skip a few just because I don’t have the extra cash right now.

Interesting times

static14 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 27, 2020 1:32 pm I won’t be going physically shopping for records for a good while I should think. That said I’m still shopping online and discogs.

I have thought about ordering from Discogs too. I think it's better to contact seller beforehand and ask if he/she can actually handle orders and ship them out quickly.

I have no clue if there can be some transit delays when ordering from abroad.

the only logical solution is to use your stimulus money on records y'all.

thankfully, i'm still working. i picked up 1 or 2 grails on discogs and insta sales, but i'm also selling some unwanted records to make up the difference. but overall my spending this month is way down compared to previous months.

i was wanting to move to a new house in the fall, but have to put that on pause just because of the instability of the markets in general.

Only essential businesses are open in Massachusetts, so I won't be going to a record store in the near future. I have slowed down some of my online purchasing, partially to save money during this time and partially, I think, because my routine has been disrupted. But I have been buying here and there.

I've put a hold on buying any new records, my potential income stopping in the next month or two has made me a little weary.

I would not order anything overseas at the moment, many countries in Europe have shut down outgoing shipping. I currently have 5 albums I ordered in January/February that I have no clue if and when I will get. Two of them have shipped but I honestly have no idea if they have left their origin country. One record I received contact from the label saying that they can only ship to the following countries, if you were on the list then email him to ship out but if the country was not listed you had to wait. The last two are pre-orders for April from Switzerland and I have no idea what will happen with them.

There have been a lot of great deals and announced records over the last few weeks but I'm trying to be good and save my money.

As for record stores, I don't believe there are any open due to NY only having essential businesses open. I wouldn't venture out in public more than what I'm doing at the moment for food. I live out in the country side but that doesn't mean that my local shops can't have people carrying it there so I'm just being cautious.

I’m thankful I was able to sneak in that Blow Out purchase. I have that Brian Bennett space ship record at 2HD waiting to be shipped out. I’ll likely never see that one. There is a lot out right now I’d love to have, but like Ink my job is in danger.

I have some movies I had preordered on amazon that are still coming in but that's it. I have placed no order for the past 2 weeks.

Not until stuff is more certain. And international mail has largely already stopped entirely.

I purchased one LP. I'm also going to order the latest Ryder Records release here in a minute as well because I have been hoping for that title for a long time. Thankfully, I am able to wfh and have stable employment, otherwise I would probably not be doing this. I have noted that Japan is still exporting packages via EMS.

I had a record ship out of japan yesterday.

luckily my job is considered “essential” so I’ll be able to pick up the new RR release and hopefully take advantage of the WW sale going on

At the start of 2020 I was planning on limiting my record spending as much as possible because I have some debts I finally wanted to get rid of. I am succeeding in doing that and still able to get all the handmades from RR and BOR. Besides those I wasn't really buying much. Golden Dog I bought and a couple of records on Discogs.
With this whole SARS-CoV-2 virus conquering the world I am contemplating on spending more as a small gesture to support record stores. I did buy 5 records in the WW sale but I don't believe they are the type of business that need my support the most. I simply took advantage of something that sounded as an excellent deal.
In a week or two I might buy more stuff from some smaller stores, although as always it will be though Discogs or a store's own website. I don't have any decent record store in my vicinity.
And there is Soundohm. I love them. Very friendly and brilliant people and in the heart of the storm in Italy. I will keep on ordering records from them at a rate of at least one a month.

So to summarize: I advocate buying more rather than less but from smaller shops or direct from artists rather than from bigger outlets.

ordering/preordering new things i don't want to miss (golden dog, hunter complex) but haven't ordered anything from amazon or discogs/ebay.

Bezulsqy wrote: ↑Sat Mar 28, 2020 2:13 pm At the start of 2020 I was planning on limiting my record spending as much as possible because I have some debts I finally wanted to get rid of. I am succeeding in doing that and still able to get all the handmades from RR and BOR. Besides those I wasn't really buying much. Golden Dog I bought and a couple of records on Discogs.
With this whole SARS-CoV-2 virus conquering the world I am contemplating on spending more as a small gesture to support record stores. I did buy 5 records in the WW sale but I don't believe they are the type of business that need my support the most. I simply took advantage of something that sounded as an excellent deal.
In a week or two I might buy more stuff from some smaller stores, although as always it will be though Discogs or a store's own website. I don't have any decent record store in my vicinity.
And there is Soundohm. I love them. Very friendly and brilliant people and in the heart of the storm in Italy. I will keep on ordering records from them at a rate of at least one a month.

So to summarize: I advocate buying more rather than less but from smaller shops or direct from artists rather than from bigger outlets.

I think this approach makes sense, I will also try to support smaller record shops and order from them rather than amazon.

I sold plenty WW and DW etc. in the beginning of the year that I don’t really listen to anymore so I have some shelf space available.

Similar approach here. I'm trying to support local stores to keep them afloat, record shops as well as others. @Bez is making an excellent point about Soundohm. If places like Soundohm or Rumpsti Pumsti in Berlin had to close, the damage to the experimental music scene would probably be immense. It was alarming to see that even successful labels had to look for additional ways to secure cash flow almost immediately, probably to replace lost revenue from dj gigs and the Utrecht fair.

On discogs, activity appears to have slowed down significantly. Then again, only a few days ago I ordered a newly-listed library record from Marco (Cinedelic) and was almost surprised to learn that couriers there were working as usual. I've also had two people ordering from my modest list on discogs, records that had been listed for months.

I’ve slowed down on buying a little, mostly because I had a major backlog in my “to listen” pile, but a week of quarantine got me caught up. So I’ve started cautiously buying again, mostly from Discogs.

I’ve had mixed results in ordering from Italy - I had two sellers tell me they can’t ship anything out until this is over, and I had two more tell me shipping was no problem, and I ordered and one has arrived, one hasn’t.

I usually DM the seller first to make sure they’re shipping before I order. I just ordered a pile of Synchrofox records from Belgium and they shipped out the next day.