Proposal for getting European releases in the USA

[tactix]

I'm brainstorming ways to get UK and European releases in the US without paying crazy shipping prices. I've hatched an idea to address this that I'm hoping to get some feedback on.
The thought is could we borrow a page from the tape vines that used to happen on newsgroups and cross it with current crowdfunding methods to creat something akin to a reggae record buyers club. If this happening elsewhere or has been tried before please holler so I don't go trying to reinvent the wheel. Essential what I'm imagining are posts in forums like this one asking if people what to go in on purchasing a particular release or suite of realeases from a particular producer or distributer. Ayes commit some portion of funds, say half the cost of retail, upfront. After a set period of time or when a set number of pledges are reached an order is negotiated and placed with the distributer. Once the records are Stateside the remaining funds are called in and shipped out to people who ordered. The difference between the wholesale price + shipping and the agreed upon retail price could be kept by the vine organizer/initiator for their trouble. The goal of the vine would be to keep the cost to the customer the same as the overseas retail price but "free" shipping. maybe it could be a bit cheaper, maybe a bit more depending. What do you think? Would you participate in such a scheme? Looking at the landscape of uk/euro releases right now which are you most coveting but are held back from pulling the trigger by shipping costs ?

[Reggaemusicstore]

My label (Jah Warrior) is now based in the USA so you can get releases direct from me at normal US shipping rates. Contact me if you're interested, I've got limited quantities of some releases which aren't on https://jahwarrior.bandcamp.com/merch

[jb welda]

I just ordered two LPs from Juno, and shipping to California was just a little over seven dollars US. That is pretty darn reasonable. I added a third record, a two LP set, but did not go through with that purchase, had I, it would have only added two or three dollars to the total postage. So there is some reasonable shipping available from the UK/Europe. Just not from Pressure Sounds; last i checked they wanted insane amounts for postage to the USA. If Juno can do it...why can't PS?

one love
jb

[yms]

JB, they want £3.50 to deliver the new Lloyd Parks cd to a uk address. Should be £2.00 very max. I'll wait until it is in stores instead.

[jb welda]

That may be but this was about postage to USA addresses.

Maybe they have a minimum shipping cost that just one cd goes under, and you could order three more for same postage. Just guessing on that though, but I do think its reasonable to charge a bit more for just one item, since the packing and packaging time and material is the same as for more.

one love
jb

[tactix]

Yes Juno is great in terms of price and I'm told Honest Jon's isn't bad either.
Problem is there is lots of stuff Juno doesn't carry. If every thing was as cheap as them I wouldn't be bringing this up.
I did a little survey assuming shipping to Ohio:

http://www.reggaefever.ch
1 12" = 19.65 EUR or 23.25 USD
2 12" = 25.26 EUR or 29.75 USD

http://www.jahwaggysrecords.com
1 12" = 9.99 GBP or 13.50 USD
1 12" = 19.99 GBP or 26.75 USD

http://www.dubvendor.co.uk/
1 12" = 10.50 GBP or 14.00 USD
2 12" = 13.50 GBP or 18.00 USD
3 12" = 16.50 GBP or 22.00 USD

http://dubdefender.com
1 12" = 17.50 GBP or 23.50 USD
2 12" = 25.20 GBP or 33.75 USD

https://www.buyreggae.com/ (for the longest time the only type of delivery was package at 28.00 EUR - they now have registered mail )
1-2 12" = 6.50 EUR or 7.75 USD
3-4 12" = 10.00 EUR or 11.75 USD
5+ 12" = 28.00 EUR or 33.00 USD

https://www.juno.co.uk
1 12" = 3.60 GBP or 4.75 USD
2 12" = 5.60 GBP or 7.50 USD
3 12" = 7.60 GBP or 10.25 USD
4 12" = 9.60 GBP or 12.75 USD
5 12" = 11.60 GBP or 15.50 USD

This list is not exhaustive obviously but from this sample the average price is 14.50 for a single 12" , sigh.
So Juno is definitely an option and I've used them before but right now for instance I want a copy of the Sip a cup/ Hail H.I.M 12"s Jooxie Nice - World of Illusion and the accompanying 12" Matic Horns - Matically - Dubmatically
No dice from Juno or Buy Reggae for that matter. I want them but I'm not going to pay 70 for two new 12" records which is what it would cost me to order from dub defender.

I feel like this happens to me regularly. Am I alone in this predicament?

[jb welda]

yeah man most of those prices are insane. Doubles the cost of the record, and if you are only ordering one at a time, its murder.

looking at those prices i wonder how Juno gets away with charging so little. Their prices for the records themselves are right in line with what i expect so its not like they are profiteering there. If they can do it, how come the others can't? The mystery of the ages.

one love
jb

[MulatuAstatke]

Yes Juno is great in terms of price and I'm told Honest Jon's isn't bad either.
Problem is there is lots of stuff Juno doesn't carry. If every thing was as cheap as them I wouldn't be bringing this up.
I did a little survey assuming shipping to Ohio:

http://www.reggaefever.ch
1 12" = 19.65 EUR or 23.25 USD
2 12" = 25.26 EUR or 29.75 USD

http://www.jahwaggysrecords.com
1 12" = 9.99 GBP or 13.50 USD
1 12" = 19.99 GBP or 26.75 USD

http://www.dubvendor.co.uk/
1 12" = 10.50 GBP or 14.00 USD
2 12" = 13.50 GBP or 18.00 USD
3 12" = 16.50 GBP or 22.00 USD

http://dubdefender.com
1 12" = 17.50 GBP or 23.50 USD
2 12" = 25.20 GBP or 33.75 USD

https://www.buyreggae.com/ (for the longest time the only type of delivery was package at 28.00 EUR - they now have registered mail )
1-2 12" = 6.50 EUR or 7.75 USD
3-4 12" = 10.00 EUR or 11.75 USD
5+ 12" = 28.00 EUR or 33.00 USD

https://www.juno.co.uk
1 12" = 3.60 GBP or 4.75 USD
2 12" = 5.60 GBP or 7.50 USD
3 12" = 7.60 GBP or 10.25 USD
4 12" = 9.60 GBP or 12.75 USD
5 12" = 11.60 GBP or 15.50 USD

This list is not exhaustive obviously but from this sample the average price is 14.50 for a single 12" , sigh.
So Juno is definitely an option and I've used them before but right now for instance I want a copy of the Sip a cup/ Hail H.I.M 12"s Jooxie Nice - World of Illusion and the accompanying 12" Matic Horns - Matically - Dubmatically
No dice from Juno or Buy Reggae for that matter. I want them but I'm not going to pay 70 for two new 12" records which is what it would cost me to order from dub defender.

I feel like this happens to me regularly. Am I alone in this predicament?

No idea how Juno do it so cheap.. With Royal Mail 1 12” packed well is £8.50 I think. Would love to know other reliable cheap shipping options if people know!

[skunkride]

Juno sell a lot so they probably have some global shipping deal with the post.

BTW Honest Jons have very good shipping rates as well, i always compare both of them when making an order.

[Reggaemusicstore]

Juno sell a lot so they probably have some global shipping deal with the post.

That will almost certainly be the reason why Juno can offer lower shipping prices - they're a much bigger company than any of the others so they'll have the buying power to get deals for lower rates which just wouldn't be available to companies with a smaller turnover.

[edgar]

last i checked they wanted insane amounts for postage to the USA. If Juno can do it...why can't PS?

one love
jb

Most likely PS is doing everything by the book as it's an officially UK tax paying registered company.. meaning they have to pay VAT , import duties etc... they include that in the shipping cost.

I can imagine there are a lot of smaller webshops, that never do that (till they get caught by HM Revenue & Customs)

Juno has probably organized it a bit smarter... like a lot of electronics webshops are on paper located in swiss or Isle of Man whatever country/place and pay less or even none VAT.

[yms]

last i checked they wanted insane amounts for postage to the USA. If Juno can do it...why can't PS?

one love
jb

Most likely PS is doing everything by the book as it's an officially UK tax paying registered company.. meaning they have to pay VAT , import duties etc... they include that in the shipping cost.

I can imagine there are a lot of smaller webshops, that never do that (till they get caught by HM Revenue & Customs)

Juno has probably organized it a bit smarter... like a lot of electronics webshops are on paper located in swiss or Isle of Man whatever country/place and pay less or even none VAT.

I doubt that, they're just expensive for shipping full stop

[jb welda]

Yes just expensive for shipping full stop indeed.

I was not aware that quantity bought you better postal rates. Maybe in the UK things are set up different and you can indeed buy better postal rates if you do sufficient quantity. I do not think that is so at all in the usa unless you qualify for bulk postage, and a massive quantity of random shipments do not qualify as such. So as far as I know there is no such break for quantity here in the USA. Amazon or WalMart or other giants may be an exception that I do not know of, and don't think Juno does that kind of quantity.

I think it must be that Juno can afford to drop a little on the shipping and make it up on the costs of the item times their large quantity of sales. Its actually a nice sales tactic, I hardly notice I can get the item a bit cheaper elsewhere, but of course the post is gonna be more. Even there I am surprised at Juno, I was pricing records there and elsewhere (Amazon etc) and they (Juno) pretty much always had the best price plus the best postage deal. Which is pretty strange because records (and other consumer goods) typically cost more in the UK and yet Juno outprices even Amazon on at least some things.

one love
jb

[danielmak]

I only buy CDs so I'm not much help with the recording buying club idea but I have two observations, which may or may not be useful. First, I can't see how any company gets a deal on shipping based on volume. If I remember correctly from a small company I worked at in the early 1990s, we purchased a postal meter and got a slight break on total cost, but in general it seems that all rates are the same. Maybe, as was posted above, there are choices specific companies will make about shipping costs based on total volume of orders.

Second, another option might be to create a partnership with someone in the UK where you trade shipping. For example, let's say there are records you can get in the US at a better price than those same records would cost in the UK. Your shipping partner pays for the records and has them sent to you. You buy your UK records and have them sent to your partner. Then you send your partner's records to her/him and s/he sends to you. Of course, this type of thing would only be useful in situations where the shipping costs are way higher to the US (and for your partner, costs are ridiculous to the UK). Because you now have to build in the domestic shipping costs with the total shipping costs. But if the record shop/distributor is charging insane costs and your partner can get decent prices, this might make sense. Moreover, if you are both buying the same records, you might get discounts on the records themselves by purchasing multiple copies of the same release. Again, this might be way off but I figured I'd throw it out there since I've done something like this with football DVDs and trading partners I have who live in areas where postal services are really poor.

[daniel]

Yes Juno is great in terms of price and I'm told Honest Jon's isn't bad either.
Problem is there is lots of stuff Juno doesn't carry. If every thing was as cheap as them I wouldn't be bringing this up.
I did a little survey assuming shipping to Ohio:

http://www.reggaefever.ch
1 12" = 19.65 EUR or 23.25 USD
2 12" = 25.26 EUR or 29.75 USD

http://www.jahwaggysrecords.com
1 12" = 9.99 GBP or 13.50 USD
1 12" = 19.99 GBP or 26.75 USD

http://www.dubvendor.co.uk/
1 12" = 10.50 GBP or 14.00 USD
2 12" = 13.50 GBP or 18.00 USD
3 12" = 16.50 GBP or 22.00 USD

http://dubdefender.com
1 12" = 17.50 GBP or 23.50 USD
2 12" = 25.20 GBP or 33.75 USD

https://www.buyreggae.com/ (for the longest time the only type of delivery was package at 28.00 EUR - they now have registered mail )
1-2 12" = 6.50 EUR or 7.75 USD
3-4 12" = 10.00 EUR or 11.75 USD
5+ 12" = 28.00 EUR or 33.00 USD

https://www.juno.co.uk
1 12" = 3.60 GBP or 4.75 USD
2 12" = 5.60 GBP or 7.50 USD
3 12" = 7.60 GBP or 10.25 USD
4 12" = 9.60 GBP or 12.75 USD
5 12" = 11.60 GBP or 15.50 USD

This list is not exhaustive obviously but from this sample the average price is 14.50 for a single 12" , sigh.
So Juno is definitely an option and I've used them before but right now for instance I want a copy of the Sip a cup/ Hail H.I.M 12"s Jooxie Nice - World of Illusion and the accompanying 12" Matic Horns - Matically - Dubmatically
No dice from Juno or Buy Reggae for that matter. I want them but I'm not going to pay 70 for two new 12" records which is what it would cost me to order from dub defender.

I feel like this happens to me regularly. Am I alone in this predicament?

No idea how Juno do it so cheap.. With Royal Mail 1 12” packed well is £8.50 I think. Would love to know other reliable cheap shipping options if people know!

I have mentioned it on here before, but Juno and Honest Jons probably make back some of the postage cost because they charge the same to their overseas customers as they do to their uk and european customers (which includes a 20% VAT/sales tax). VAT isn't payable for overseas customers, which means the mark up is essentially higher so the postage prices must be offset by this to an extent. For comparison, other vendors like dub vendor and copasetic recalculate the prices (without VAT/sales tax) when they sell to overseas customers.

Also, Juno uses fairly basic mailing sleeves to ship their records. I've never had any problems, but they are substantially more slimline than, say ernie b's or anything I have ordered from Japan.