[ghostfires]

Anyone seen this trash yet...? Apparently now you can pay someone hundreds to tell you what to buy when, and how to flip it. What a fucking scumbag.

http://recordflipper.wordpress.com

You can find him on Instagram too under recordflipper. He refers to himself as "kind of a financial advisor." What a scam. He posted a picture of the 52 album from Jon Brooks, and says it's going for about $85 now. What a fucking lie. It hasn't even hit that price on Discogs yet. Sounds like this is a key scumbag that helps others to fuck us over when we simply try to buy a record.

[philball1974]

That's actually quite funny.

You contact them, get vetted to see what kind of a flipper you are and if your good enough they will let you pay them $800 a year! Genius

[deathwaltz]

This guy

I got into it with him around 18 months ago , blocked and banned him , I did know his name but can't remember , I know we banned him from buying from us though.

[ghostfires]

I banned him on Instagram too. Definitely not going to let him get any ideas from me on what to buy. Fuck him and fuck that.


Good for you Spencer, not putting up with that shit. That is the kind of thing that just frustrates the hell out of me because it can absolutely help in killing the market. And this scumbag will move right on from vinyl to the next wave without a care in the world.

[DISCOSUCKS...]

I've befriended the guy, and advised him to buy up all available copies of the Blues Brothers, Saturday Night Fever and Ghostbusters reissues.

Two birds.

One stone.

Thrown hard.

>:)

[Spun out of control]

The article/blog link is two years old (?) - so probably not worth spending too much time on.

That said, the cynicism of it is staggering.

[DISCOSUCKS...]

That was my first thought....but then you read that as of 2013 it's

"...now been private for six months or so and is, in fact, thriving behind a pay wall.
The subscription fee is now $250/quarter or $800/year, and applicants are screened via a brief questionnaire."

[monsterworship]

Question 1. Do you have $800 to send me?

Sweet, you're in.

[ghostfires]

I think what was more infuriating to read was his mission statement. The only reason I posted, despite the date of the blog, is because he is active on Instagram under that name as links to his blog from his account. My assumption is he would still be accepting money from people...and then probably just trolling around facebook, instagram, and the music review sites for new releases.

It also pissed me off to read one of his followers comments on the blog about getting into flipping black metal vinyl. I'm a big fan of international black metal, and with having to import, plus really small pressing numbers - these records are already hard and expensive to get..but then having a shit bag trying to buy up all he can, then turn them instantly around on discogs and ebay for triple - it makes it so hard to be able to get the music. I know you guys know the flipping thing - it just really sucks to read people being so outright about taking advantage of small markets like this.

[pyrexia]

Ugh. But as long as there are limited runs, there will always be flippers.

[freshoj]

Yup, limited runs, panic marketing (exclusive colorway! act quick!) and junkie collectors = inevitable flipping.

The junkie collectors are often the flippees and the flippers (flipping allows for another fix).

[siforster]

52's being reissued very soon btw

[philball1974]

This guy is clearly a legit business man. Just look at the details on the site.

His contact details recordflipper (at symbol) yahoo (dot) com
and his words of wisdom: Haters, please! Don’t even bother. You’ll get spammed 1000x, I promise.

oh and he also offers sound advice. Check his response to this question:

Q: I was just wondering where the best online Marketplace to sell my vinyl? I picked a couple of extra Melvins albums at a show.

A: I’d say Ebay or Discogs

That kind of knowledge doesn't come cheap. I doubt anyone here would have thought of Ebay or Discogs eh??

I just need to find that $800 now

[freshoj]

I will say that I used to follow his blog before he moved it behind a pay wall, and I will say that he *does* have his finger on the pulse of a handful of very flippable markets.

I am doubtful folks would make their $800 back, but I imagine he easily helps them come close.

(and for the record, I used to use his blog as a way to find new interesting music as he has pretty interesting taste.)

[Macready]

While he does say himself that he focuses solely on the financial aspect of record buying, some of his thoughts on the music itself are genuinely priceless.

'It was back in 2003, as I recall, that I walked into an NYC record store and spotted the album Haha Sound by the British group Broadcast, out on Warp. It called out to me. So I took it home. And I liked it. But looked at in the cold light of day, what is, or was, Broadcast all about, musically? Haha Sound sounds like listening to an early-’60s Petula Clark album while someone is in the room with you playing a video game. The basic formula: take some cute, retro songs sung by a woman with a cute voice, apply a lot of reverb, add noise. Voila! Anyway, I went back and grabbed Broadcast’s first record, still available then, and followed the group until the end (R.I.P. the wonderful Trish Keenan)'

I love the way he briefly ponders Broadcast's sound, before writing off the band's musical value as a mere 'formula', while instinctively going back to the store to pick up more records by the 'wonderful' - and lucrative - Trish Kennan.

Or this nugget, from a piece on whether or not to invest in J Masics' Heavy Blanket LP:

'Cons: It’s an instrumental record. Listeners love lyrics, why I’ll never know. But they do.'

Wow

[deafmetal]

Here is another ebay flipper to avoid at all costs: palus-36h7qn9oy

[freshoj]

The recordflipper started following me on instagram last night and sure enough, his IG account is posting a very nice eclectic mix of vinyl.

[antimax]

Unbelievable! Flipping the flippers. Crazy.

[jgibbs4053]

What do you guys consider flipping? I've seen a lot of people sell albums on here above cost.

[texasvinyl]

It is an interesting question. Perhaps even screed-worthy!

The math generally doesn't work out, in my humble opinion. Example:

Pet Semetary -- Let's say I buy two copies from Mondo's site, retail price $35/ea. I sell them for $50 each, or $54.50 with shipping. They cost me $41.68 each after tax and shipping.

For each $50 sale, Discogs will take $4.36 of the $54.50 (8%), and Ebay $5.45 (10%). Paypal will take another $1.88. USPS media mail cost is $3.17, and this is assuming $0 cost on the LP mailer box. Also assumes $0 cost on packing tape which has gotten pretty expensive, more than $5 a roll. So if they were eBay sales, that's $88.00 net payment for two LPs that cost me $83.36 -- a $4.64 (5.6%) "gain" assuming I pay myself $0 to box up the LPs, address the boxes, & drive to the post and ship them.

Point is, that's a pittance of a net gain, and that is selling a $35 record for $50. Most records just don't sell for $50+.

I think what is most off-putting to people is stuff like buying up copies of a hype title and listing them as pre-orders on ebay for really big markups. So maybe that is the real flipping. That and lining up at 2am for Record Store Day, buying all the most limited/hyped titles and immediately listing them for huge markups on ebay.

For this I think the buyers deserve at least some of the blame, especially the ones paying really stupid prices. Let the flippers eat the inventory cost...especially with retail prices as high as they are it won't take much for anyone speculating to get wiped out in a bubble.

As far as titles that are not new releases? Market value is fair game, why not? I have records that cost me $45 new that now sell for just a fraction of that amount, and I have records that cost $20 new and now sell for $60. There are also occasionally things from my collection I will list at high prices on Discogs because there's no listing fee or time limit. They're things I don't want to sell but for X dollars I would gladly box up.

Collini Out. (Any Californication fans?)

[freshoj]

well said @texasvinyl

we are all complicit in this insanity.

[philball1974]

I'll be honest and say before joining this forum id never heard of flipping.

Like i've said before everyone has the right to buy what they want and do with it want they want. If you can make money off rare vinyl then you should. Nothing is free in this world.

I looked through the record flippers blog, and to be fair to him, he seems to know music and is just speculating on what he thinks will be valuable. Hired hand was a good call!

If you are a record flipper then I guess you are speculating just as any other investor. I have shares in things, some I've lost some of won, people just take that risk with music.

[NathanLurker]

I respectfully disagree Phil. A flipper isn't only speculating. He's actually extorting. He's not buying something because he speculates that it's gonna have value. It's not like buying a house, restoring the house, repairing it and making it better then reselling it with profit. It's not taking a chance in a market.

a flipper puts himself in the position of power to extort exorbitant money out of the buyers.
Consider this. When I bought the "Inception" soundtrack on amazon when it was originally released, it costed me 20$. a year or 2 later, a dude sends me a message, and says he'd like to buy my copy (which wasn't on my "to sell" items list, it was in my collection) if I was willing to part with it. at the time, I realized I wasn't really listening to it often, and I wasn't collecting soundtracks hardcore-like. I said sure, checked the market, realized it's value, made a profit. I sold it a mere 100$, which was less that half of what it was sold for at maximum discogs sale price. it was still 80$ more than what I'd paid.in that scenario, the intent wasn't to extort.

it's all in the intent I guess.

I do agree with you Phil that everyone has the right to buy what they want. But cutting off a buyer from buying an item on day 1, in the intent to extort him of excessive money by reselling it the very same day on ebay, in my book is douchebaggery.

[DISCOSUCKS...]

^ Thanks for (so eloquently) saving me the effort, @nathan.

Can't we all just agree and live together in Flipper-Douche-Loathing harmony now??