SD
Mixed feelings about VMP
I have very mixed feelings about VMP. On one hand, I love the production quality of the majority of their releases, especially when it comes to their records of the month. The devil’s in the details and they make sure to pay attention to every single detail, and I appreciate that given the premium prices that they charge. On the other hand, as they've grown bigger, it seems like they've stopped caring so much about their customers’ music journey and started caring almost exclusively about their bottom line. Lately, there have been many production errors and delays in shipping while prices have gone drastically up, and they seem focused on trying to drain every last cent from the fans. For example, they will repress an album by a big artist after growing demand from fans, but instead of just making that album available for purchase on its own, they’d bundle it with another record from that artist that hasn’t been selling as well. And the thing is, most of the big fans who asked for this repress in the first place, already purchased that other record before, so now they are forced by VMP to purchase it again in this $100 bundle so they can have the original album they wanted to get. On top of that, if you are not a member, they will charge you $9.95 for shipping but then ship via USPS’s Media Mail service which is the cheapest and slowest option and doesn’t cost more than $4. I was a member for some time, but honestly, their selections are very much all over the place and more often that not don’t feature records that I want/need in my collection (let alone for $43) which makes it hard to justify the monthly splurge. Overall, I appreciate the effort they put in the quality of their products (for the most part), but I wish they didn’t indulge in these sneaky schemes to overcharge their customers. I understand vinyl is an expensive hobby, but it really doesn’t need to be as expensive as they are making it.