My local stores (Moldy Toes in San Clemente and Factory in Costa Mesa) seem to be doing good or better. I know Factory is doing MORE business since Covid, because he moved a lot of sales to Instagram and he sells tons of stuff through that, that he didn't do before.

METALLICA

EXCLUSIVE COLORED VINYL COMING SOON TO WALMART

Dec 8, 2020

2021 will be kicking off with a load of new colored vinyl coming to Walmart stores across the U.S. The Black Album and Hardwired...To Self-Destruct will be available alongside remastered versions of Kill ‘Em All, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, and ...And Justice for All in new and exclusive colors while supplies last.

All six albums will hit Walmart store shelves on January 29, but stock is limited. Reserve yours today by pre-ordering directly from Walmart.com. https://www.walmart.com/m/deals/metallica

Those are pretty cool, but I'm good with the box sets of KIA through AJFA, just waiting for the reissue of the Black Album, I'm guessing next year for the 30th (!) anniversary.


Just picked this up, my first NIN on vinyl, sounds nice!

I see these colored vinyl exclusives just about everywhere now. Are these things catching on, or will this just be another fad that fades out? Are people collecting these like blu-ray.com guys collect slipcovers?

All of these colored vinyl editions does feel like putting new hats on Malibu Stacy.

That said, I might be tempted to buy these. I already have multiple copies of each of the first three Metallica albums (old 80s pressings of the Kill, Ride, and Master, in addition to the deluxe boxed sets of those three plus Justice). Don't have Black or Hardwired on vinyl, though.

I do like the way the colors match the covers.

Yeah, at least the vinyl colors complement the cover art. When the colors are completely nonsensical to a record release that's when they lose me (e.g. the cheerfully colorful "pinwheels" that the vinyl for the new Death releases look like, those look ridiculous for those titles ) There are some collectors out there that hunt down color variants, I'm thankfully not one of them, I just want the vinyl to sound great, not look pretty.

Yeah, I buy the one that compliments the cover but I've never double dipped just for a different color record.

I know the new X album has color variants, I just picked up the first one I saw in a store. I certainly won't be buying another copy just because it's a different color. That's money I could have spent on a different album altogether.

I have Blue (2000), Green (500), White (400), Red (300)...I'm only missing Yellow (200) and the black regular edition.

I have about 4-5 copies of Los Angeles as well...

Got a decent original pressing you're willing to part with? haha. I got one for like $25, and I think someone used it as a frisbee. I know I could just buy a reissue, but there's something about the old, all-analog versions that I enjoy more.

My LRS put out a ton of really good original stuff on Black Friday, and he had original Slash pressings of Los Angeles and Wild Gift. I have both already, but looked at the price of LA and it was $55.

Mine is signed by JD and Exene.

The Porterhouse pressing is supposed to be the best. I have a Newbury Comics version of it that I haven't opened (splatter version). I would like to find a sealed Porterhouse regular copy and have that as a playable. I still play my Slash and a new Fat Possum pressing.

Has anyone here in the states had any experience ordering vinyl from Amazon UK? I have plenty of experience ordering from Amazon in the states and receiving records shipped domestically in everything from plastic bag mailers to being double boxed, but I was just curious about how Amazon UK packaged records for overseas orders.

Not quite, I have ordered from UK sellers where Amazon UK fulfills the orders, and they have arrived in the standard LP cardboard mailers. With domestic orders from Amazon, that mailer box is usually packed in a larger box, but with orders from the UK that would really increase the size, and therefore shipping cost, of the package so it makes sense that they just stick with the mailer box itself. They've always arrived in perfect condition, but obviously YMMV.

I have had a shitty experience once. I ordered The Wall, and it was literally just the album, with a packing sticker on it, dinged up on its way to me. Shrink wrap coming off, magic marker on the actual packaging.

Yikes! Was it from a 3rd party seller?

Either way, that'd definitely be going back, if I received it in that condition.

Thanks for the responses. I have been getting records in the flimsy plastic mailers with no cardboard from Amazon lately, and it was just making me curious before I placed an overseas order.

I had that happened to me with a Amazon Marketplace order. Record was listed as like new, but sent to me with the shipping label on the front of the album cover and with the gatefold taped shut. Every corner was been and the seam was split. Amazon refunded it to me and told me to keep it. The record played fine, but it took forever to clean the label off the front and it damaged the cover further (which wasn't that big of deal given the condition it arrived in.)

I ordered the 40th anniversary set of the Ramones Leave Home from
amazon.de. It took about two weeks which is really quick. I’ve had orders take three times that long. I’m really surprised it arrived undamaged as it was just thrown in an oversized box.

I had a chance to buy a still-sealed copy of Leave Home (not sure which pressing, but not a recent re-issue, definitely a 70s or possibly 80s copy) a few years ago at a record store and I didn't. Think they wanted like $40 for it. Still kicking myself for that.

Nice. I actually prefer the 70s and early 80s repress when Sheena was included on the track listing. First US press didn't have it. I recently got a replacement copy for $20 of the 70s repress in NM -- my other copy was VG with too much crackle.

I have all those double cd sets that came out a bunch of years ago. It sucks they stopped with Too Tough To Die. Halfway to Sanity is one of my favs. Would have loved to hear bonus tracks from that.
I held off on these 40th sets for too long and Leave Home and Road to Ruin went out of print. Had to pay a lot more for those than I wanted. I got the other three sets from Target during its b2g1

Based on this little conversation I tossed my Leave Home on the TT tonight. Not too bad, a bit of crackly, should give it a spin clean next time I'm doing a batch. But it's also a bit harsh-sounding to me (yes, I know, it's a 70s punk record) so I'm probably better off not having spent the money on that sealed copy. They definitely improved production by Rocket to Russia and Road to Ruin.

The Marky albums are the ones that get played less at my house. I’m usually listening to the first three and the three with Richie.
Thats not to say the Marky era isn’t good. I just can’t stand that guy and it’s hard for me to look past it.

Quick question: What's the best way to remove a smudge from a record? I bought the record below at a pawn shop for $2 and it sounds great with the exception of skipping in Crystal Blue Persuasion due to a smudge on the record.

Just try dish soap and water (distilled if you have some handy) and a microfiber towel