Quote from: bogskaggmannen on January 21, 2011, 07:20:54 PM
The most logical would be that distributors all over the world would make benefit through this, as ordering for example one LP directly from a label would be extremely expensive (both right now and even more expensive in the future) - at the same time, in reality, it feels as if distributors actually take less than they did some years ago, if at all.
I would think this is simply related to the costs and abundance of releases to choose from. Distributor asks himself, should I buy this, or focus on something else. There is plenty of choices.
Sometimes when band or label has complained about distributors not buying their stuff, I ask when did he buy the stuff last time. There are a lot of people who have bought nothing for ages, yet hold illusion that their stuff should be bought.
In this topic we can see the level of shipping, which in deed applies also for wholesale order. When I know, that I can't wholesale LP for less than 7-10e (depending on pressing) and I know postage on top of that is probably not less than 3 euro per copy, even in big shipments, most likely higher.. I could ask who would buy wholesale LP for 10-15 euros and think they can actually add slice of profit AND another shipping and find customer who pays 25-35 euros for LP? About the same as to order direct from label.
I guess this leads to situation where most is done out of favors and out of passion for the genre. The more expensive item I have in distro, the more likely is that it is sold nonprofit or even for loss. Which obviously is dull way to run distribution. Some choices have to be made, and I guess I'm skipping all the box sets in future...
In theory, it would be amazing for person who runs a shop/mailorder, if there would be some central wholesaler, where you can actually purchase items for decent price. If one could contact wholesaler where get reasonably priced releases, just 1-2 each but pretty wide range of new stuff that comes out, it would make sense. Same for punk for example. One sees lack of good punk LP's and 7"s everywhere, since it's all scattered into shoebox "labels" and then some slightly bigger distributor lists are filled merely with emo LP's priced at 9$+shipping level, ending up costing 15$ each before you've added tax and your cut.. I guess this is probably valid for everything.
But can you blame someone not wanting to become the dumping ground of deadstock? Taking large quantities of titles you may know nothing, and hoping warehouses full of merch will eventually go into hands of customers and shelves of retail shops. Sending out money for 25 LP's and then selling 2 during first year, heh...
Every distributor and label, as far as I know, has more supply than demand. The stocks keep growing and piling up, more and more all the time. And once in a while some discount sales are applied. Last summer, I guess in USA, there was 3-4 months in a row, when you could but noise CD's for 1$ each. Yes. I mean 10 cd's for 10$ was it? Troniks, RRR, Hanson,.. Surely good way to move your dead stock and get people hear your less popular releases, but probably underlines the value of normal noise release is sometimes just whatever gets it out of your hands. In such situation 8$ wholesale seems out dated concept, hah..
