What's the point of limited vinyl issues?

Hugh Freaking Dillon · September 2010

I was wondering.......I'm not much of a vinyl collector, except the annual singles, but why would a band who has such a dedicated and far-reaching fan base only release limited runs of some vinyl releases? Benny Hall comes to mind. I find it kind of odd that they would only release 2000 of them, knowing full well the demand would actually be exponentially higher. I've never understood the rationale of a "limited" product.

Any insight?

youngster · September 2010

They like to see us bitch and moan.

dimitrispearljam · September 2010

youngster wrote:

They like to see us bitch and moan.

Lost In Ohio · September 2010

99% hype.
1% ripping faces off. (Anyone who tried to get tickets to MSG gets this reference.)

demetrios · September 2010

That's the beauty about limited edition & collector editions items. Die hard fans that know about the releases get a chance to pick up something that is rare & something that won't be mass produced for year's & year's so you won't find it in 5 dollar bin boxes @ your local gas station. If you keep manufacturing the same item/product for year's & year's where is the fun? Plus it would cost the companies lots & lots of money to keep producing the product while knowing/finding out that tons & tons of the made items are still on the shelves collecting dust for year's & year's. A huge lose of money for the company. What's the point on making thousands & thousands of copies if they are not gonna sell out? That's why they make a limited run of these products. First come first serve. Not everything out there that say it's limited or collectors editions sell out fast like Pearl Jam & many other artists do.

Hugh Freaking Dillon · September 2010

well, they could do it on an as-ordered basis. say for Benny "2000 pressed now. next order placed 6 months down the line" and so on. 2000 copies of that was ridiculous. they could have pressed 20,000 and sold them out. by that time they KNEW what the demand was going to be like, and they still only pressed 2000.

honestly, it doesn't really bother me as I don't really collect vinyl, I just think it's kinda stupid. I mean, really, what do you classify as a die-hard? I spend a LOT of time on here every day and I STILL miss stuff.

demetrios wrote:

That's the beauty about limited edition & collector editions items. Die hard fans that know about the releases get a chance to pick up something that is rare & something that won't be mass produced for year's & year's so you won't find it in 5 dollar bin boxes @ your local gas station. If you keep manufacturing the same item/product for year's & year's where is the fun? Plus it would cost the companies lots & lots of money to keep producing the product while knowing/finding out that tons & tons of the made items are still on the shelves collecting dust for year's & year's. A huge lose of money for the company. What's the point on making thousands & thousands of copies if they are not gonna sell out? That's why they make a limited run of these products. First come first serve. Not everything out there that say it's limited or collectors editions sell out fast like Pearl Jam & many other artists do.

2-feign-reluctance · September 2010

the answers have to do with things I don't understand much about but that every tom, dick and harry has an opinion on.

demetrios · September 2010

The Ben vinyl was available @ 3am Eastern Time June 20th 2004 and didn't sell out till around 12pm. 8+ hours it was available. If you said you spend a lot of time here then there would be no way you would of missed this release when it was on sale in the 10club goods section. It was talked about & it's release time of sale day's ago on the Pearl Jam boards.

20,000 copies would be extreme for a live concert colored 4 vinyl box set.

Paul David wrote:

well, they could do it on an as-ordered basis. say for Benny "2000 pressed now. next order placed 6 months down the line" and so on. 2000 copies of that was ridiculous. they could have pressed 20,000 and sold them out. by that time they KNEW what the demand was going to be like, and they still only pressed 2000.

honestly, it doesn't really bother me as I don't really collect vinyl, I just think it's kinda stupid. I mean, really, what do you classify as a die-hard? I spend a LOT of time on here every day and I STILL miss stuff.

demetrios wrote:

That's the beauty about limited edition & collector editions items. Die hard fans that know about the releases get a chance to pick up something that is rare & something that won't be mass produced for year's & year's so you won't find it in 5 dollar bin boxes @ your local gas station. If you keep manufacturing the same item/product for year's & year's where is the fun? Plus it would cost the companies lots & lots of money to keep producing the product while knowing/finding out that tons & tons of the made items are still on the shelves collecting dust for year's & year's. A huge lose of money for the company. What's the point on making thousands & thousands of copies if they are not gonna sell out? That's why they make a limited run of these products. First come first serve. Not everything out there that say it's limited or collectors editions sell out fast like Pearl Jam & many other artists do.

2-feign-reluctance · September 2010

nice supporting evidence D!

Hugh Freaking Dillon · September 2010

I wasn't a member when Benny was released. I was just using that as an example. And no, I don't think 20,000 would have been an extreme amount. Look at the demand now. People pay 20 TIMES the intial value. That means 10 times the amount pressed isn't hard to fathom.

demetrios wrote:

The Ben vinyl was available @ 3am Eastern Time June 20th 2004 and didn't sell out till around 12pm. 8+ hours it was available. If you said you spend a lot of time here then there would be no way you would of missed this release when it was on sale in the 10club goods section. It was talked about & it's release time of sale day's ago on the Pearl Jam boards.

20,000 copies would be extreme for a live concert colored 4 vinyl box set.

Paul David wrote:

well, they could do it on an as-ordered basis. say for Benny "2000 pressed now. next order placed 6 months down the line" and so on. 2000 copies of that was ridiculous. they could have pressed 20,000 and sold them out. by that time they KNEW what the demand was going to be like, and they still only pressed 2000.

honestly, it doesn't really bother me as I don't really collect vinyl, I just think it's kinda stupid. I mean, really, what do you classify as a die-hard? I spend a LOT of time on here every day and I STILL miss stuff.

demetrios wrote:

That's the beauty about limited edition & collector editions items. Die hard fans that know about the releases get a chance to pick up something that is rare & something that won't be mass produced for year's & year's so you won't find it in 5 dollar bin boxes @ your local gas station. If you keep manufacturing the same item/product for year's & year's where is the fun? Plus it would cost the companies lots & lots of money to keep producing the product while knowing/finding out that tons & tons of the made items are still on the shelves collecting dust for year's & year's. A huge lose of money for the company. What's the point on making thousands & thousands of copies if they are not gonna sell out? That's why they make a limited run of these products. First come first serve. Not everything out there that say it's limited or collectors editions sell out fast like Pearl Jam & many other artists do.

What's the point of limited vinyl issues?

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