[Gulasch Noir]

What do you think of releases limited to 100 exemplars or something in this insane dimension. I think the only people benefitting from editions under 1000 are experienced and strategical thinking buyers und sellers at e-bay. Is it really the aim of releasing albums to be circulating at ebay at $ 80 a few months after they got released and the only way you can hear them, in case you failed to buy them as soon as they got released is to either pay such crazy amounts or to download them?


I think 2000 copies would be a reasonable minimum, if we don't speak about bands, who just have done their first ever release.

But maybe i have ignored some considerable aspects here and therefore come to the wrong conclusions.

[Glice]

Nah... there are still enough of us out there that buy, appreciate and cherish the limited editions. Although I would say 'ultra-limited would be any number less than 25, but that's me being picky (I have a few editions of 25 or less, mostly from obscure people. I have about 5 editions of one from the artists themselves, but again, too obscure to mention.

[Savage Clone]

1000 copies is pretty damn huge for most of the stuff I buy.
You'd be surprised how hard it can be to sell even 1000 copies of something, even for a relatively "established" underground act. 500-750 is pretty normal, and pressings of that size don't actually sell out as fast as you might think. Mutant Music still has a little less than half of the first Paul Metzger LP, for instance, and he got a LOT of press this past year for his banjo improvisations CD on Chairkickers Union.
For CDs, you get a good break at 1000 copies, but for vinyl I think 500-1000 is what most people do.
In my personal experience, only one of Salamander's albums sold out super quickly, and that was "Birds Of Appetite" on vinyl, which we made 300 copies of, but I don't know if we could have sold more than that in any case. It was our 3rd album.
I think of "ridiculously limited" as being less than 100, like those lathe cut records people make as art editions. I have a few of those, and they are cool to have.
2000 copies is a lot for a minimum, even for more "established" acts.

[Glice]

But then, I suppose if you're talking about a really established artist doing hyper-limited editions, that can get silly - like the My Cat is an Alien/ Thurstmon Moore split - its a really nice artefact, but I can't help but feel that someone's going to stick the exclusive ones on ebay for £1,000's (What were they, like 25 copies or something?)

But yeah, I think for a band to sell 1,000 copies they must be doing pretty well for themselves (in terms of popularity rather than money, I can't imagine you'd take home that much from 1,000 records).

[Savage Clone]

For a REALLY big group, like Beastie Boys or some such, I would say 4,000 is a good size "limited" edition.
As far as ebay goes, if the item is desirable, it's the buyers that push it into the stratosphere, not usually the seller. You can start something at $4.00 if you want to, and if people fight over it, it goes up.
I sold an LP (for my work, not one of my own) a couple of weeks ago for $1,000.00; we knew it was somewhat valuable and started at at $150, but it was the bidders that took the price into deep space.

[Glice]

Yeah; I think ebay has really affected a lot of record collectors really badly. I had a kid try and buy my (original, vinyl) copy of Loveless for £40 off of me (not quite the same scale, I know) and I asked him why he wanted to pay so much; he'd seen it go on ebay for twice that - I gave him directions to the shop I'd seen it in last and he got it for £14. Ebay will be the death of record collecting (although I really should get rid of my placebo 7"s at some point; I'm sure I'd make a killing... set the reserve at £60... piece of piss...)

[Gulasch Noir]

Alright, i concede, that 2000 copies as a minimum might constitute a financial issue/barrier for bands. I'm just a little pissed, that I have relied on online reviews and finally bought an album, which didn't comply with the review, in my opinion. I'd like to have more information and, as far as possible, a listen before i buy an album. Whereas this is possible in many cases, it is not in just as many.

In fact I already see the way out from this dilemma:
1. Earning more money
2. Keeping track of new releases more regular.

[Iain]

It is annoying when super limited things sell out before you've even heard about them but 1000 is really a lot of copies. For a lot of the sort of bands that I imagine you are thinking about 1000 wouldn't be any sort of limited edition because there would be copies floating around for ages.

[Savage Clone]

"Limited to slightly more copies than people who want this album."

[Toilet & Bowels]

this kind of relates to what i was reading in an interview with tom lax about the history of siltbreeze records. he said the reason why he stopped siltbreeze was to do with the label getting locked into a contract where they had to press a minimum of 5000 copies for every record they released, so he ended up with boxes and boxes of records he could't sell. he said the most they'd normally press would be 1000. the upside of this is that a lot of siltbreeze stuff is now dirt cheap.

http://www.citypaper.net/articles/20...9/cover2.shtml

[Savage Clone]

Originally Posted by Toilet & Bowels

the upside of this is that a lot of siltbreeze stuff is now dirt cheap.

-Except for Dead C and Charalambides releases, of course.

[Toilet & Bowels]

Originally Posted by Savage Clone

-Except for Dead C and Charalambides releases, of course.

well the oop stuff is pricey, but there are still 3 or 4 dead c recs on siltbreeze that are in print and cheap

http://www.siltbreeze.com/catalogdeadc.htm