to pick up the new Built To Spill. Not only were the RSD albums plentiful, they even had an additional section for "last year's RSD releases."

something something lol at oversaturation.

We stopped in to one quickly, picked up something old and poppy.

Yeah I went to one yesterday - not on RSD - and they still had what appeared to be a full stock of RSD releases. Much like last year, and I guess the year before that.

I really wanted to get something but ended up leaving empty handed. It was mostly just a bunch of overpriced reissues, now the standard for RSD releases, and there was nothing there I absolutely had to have.

My local store has a bin of RSD releases all year round, basically.

That is what everyone predicted, and I said to myself "surely there must be some little fun thing" to purchase. Nope, it was just as Drinky said. It was kiiiinda fun to window shop but yeah, nothing at all that I need or want.

I bought a bunch of stuff direct from Slumberland so that will be my treat for myself/support of indie music.

Yep...I was planning to pick up the 101'ers reissue until I saw that they wanted $37 for it. I don't care what color vinyl it is, not worth it. A bunch of the stores I went to didn't even bother carrying the RSD releases. I don't blame them.

I laughed when I saw a $30 copy of Ian Dury: New Boots and Panties... and the same store had an original in nice shape for $5. I don't mind reissues of stuff that's super rare and pricey, but with so many of them you can grab originals cheaper.

Agree with all above. Vinyl to a point has become (almost) unaffordable to maintain a weekly buying diet. I've gone back to cds in most cases.

I'm about to go back to napster.

While I agree this probably isn't the label's plan, I'd argue that's how it should be. You should be able to go to a record store and find a selection of records you want to look through, not wait in some stupid line to fight like it's black fucking friday. These aren't baseball cards to be traded, they're records to be played on a turntable and there should be enough copies for people to buy at their convenience. (You know, to a point.)

For a moment Target was selling reissue vinyl, they had $35 copies of Bob Marley Legend and Steve Millers Greatest hits. I wonder why that didn't work out for them.

I don't think there's a single person here who would argue against that.

I honestly can't understand how record stores are able to drum up the amount of participation that they have for these things. Good for them, I guess, but I'm not sure if it really is good for them with all the unsold RSD inventory they get left with, even with the big crowds lining up.

I think it works for them. Year 1-2 when it was mostly discounts and sales instead of exclusives I got the feeling it just pushed a month's record shopping into a single day. This brings in unique visitors, to use analytics lingo.

I'm sure that's the idea, and maybe it has helped keep a lot of record stores afloat over the past few years. But at the largest record store here, Criminal Records, the bins full of unsold past RSD stuff just get bigger and bigger. And I'm sure there's plenty more that they don't put out on the floor. The value of most of that stuff diminishes drastically when removed from the rush of RSD speculation. I'd imagine it's less likely to sell than most of their regular inventory, especially with the inflated price tags.

And article from last year on the subject:
http://bandwidth.wamu.org/can-small-rec ... store-day/

The suggestion is that it's actually better for labels than for small stores. Of course a major label rep proclaims it to be the best thing that ever happened, for everybody:
http://www.nme.com/news/various-artists/84089

Then again the owner of Criminal Records is one of the founders of RSD and one of the heads of the company that organizes it so his store may get a better deal on those releases than other stores do. He was supposedly in financial trouble several years ago, though, and there was a "save Criminal Records" campaign going on. I remember mentioning that while in neighboring record store Wax 'N Facts, and one the guys there - possible the owner - gave me a cynical, weary look and said something to the effect of "they'll be fine".

Anyway, who knows. We'll see what happens over the next several years, I guess.