Have you ever ordered a record and been completely let down when it landed ?? Not in the sense that the music was bad . We've all been there I'm sure . But more like the purchase and or delivery left a bad taste in your mouth . I had one of those experiences today and thought I would ask .
And my story goes ..
Last week I came across an interesting album on bandcamp called Jazz Hop by Gas-Lab & Traum Diggs . This album was really my favorite flavor of hip hop . Dope Jazzy beats , laid back emcee , and a nice atmosphere . They pressed up 25 copies to vinyl , so I said to myself " I'll support this " . I even sent the link to Rchecka to see if he was interested .
My first issue was that it cost $25 for the record (I could live with this ) but it was $10 for shipping a single piece . The producer ( Gas-Lab ) is from Argentina , so I figured that's where the record was coming from at that shipping cost . I was wrong . I never got a shipping confirmation , so I hit up Gas-Lab to see if it shipped and he emailed me back saying he would ask Traum because he was the on who shipped out the vinyl . I got home to find that it had arrived today . The shipping address was from Philly . $ 10 to ship a single album from Philly to Nashville ??? And here's the killin part . It was shipped in a slightly padded envelope

WTF ???? An envelope ??? There wasn't even any cardboard to pack it in or anything . Of course when I open it , the corners of the cover were creased and bent . That is WACK . To some people this may not matter , but it's a big deal to me .


I saw that and I sat it down and walked away . I still haven't listened to this copy yet . I'm worried I will open it to find that it's warped . Hopefully not thought . I've listened to this album several times today through the bandcamp app and love it . As artists , these dudes are on point !!! But I am still disappointed in how my record was packaged and shipped .. I contacted Gas-Lab again and he said he would contact Traum and get this fixed . I'm not sure what this means , but I'll wait it out and see . I hope these dudes get this right from now on because like I said , their music is dope , but if too many people receive it like I did , it could potentially hurt them ..
Anybody else have an experience like this ???

Update : I got an email fro Gas-Lab and he said I would be getting a fresh copy of this album . If if gets here the way it should then that's definitely how to solve an issue !! For now I'm not so pissed anymore ....

Uh, where do I start? Shit packing jobs are becoming more and more common, so much so that I rarely buy vinyl online unless it's a seller or shop I've dealt with before. I'm not sure what would possess someone to think that shipping an LP like that is okay. Nowadays even those white cardboard mailers people use aren't really enough to keep a record from getting trashed en route.

Reminds me of last year when I ordered a record from Sweden...showed up in a flimsy paper thin mailer thing...surprised it wasn't destroyed en route. Contacted the shop/label (which should know better) and they acted like nothing was wrong. Maybe postal workers treat packages over there like fragile eggs, but if something is crossing the ocean and going thousands of miles, it should be packed appropriately.

Anyway, back to your issue. Hopefully it gets sorted out. Whomever is shipping these records is either a lazy idiot or knows nothing about packing records.

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Worked out pretty good for me, I got JB's refuse! Thanks JB!

I get it. When you buy a brand new sealed record you expect it to arrive in perfect condition. Thing is, it's really not hard to package records for mail. Box the thing up tight so it cant move, put stiffeners above and below, make sure the box has plenty of padding on the corners (Dusty Groove's boxes are a good example of that) Tape the thing up super tight with plenty of shipping tape and it'll land perfectly. The process takes less than 45 seconds if you have everything in front of you.

One time long ago on the archaic site known as Gemm (which is now gone BTW) I bought a record from Zimbabwe. Not lying, fucking Zimbabwe. Paid. Waited. Waited a month. Finally tried to get a hold of the dude. No response. 2 months later the album comes in a brown paper envelope with no padding whatsoever. I shit you not the package had sand all over it. Maybe it rode on a camel for 100 miles to the nearest airport, I'm speculating, but sand was all over it. Opened it up and it was perfect.

TLDR: That is the story of how I got Brian Eno's Another Green World OG in perfect condition from Zimbabwe in a paper envelope covered with sand.

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^Funny story about GEMM. I remember buying stuff off that site. Musicstack too.

I also agree with you on Dusty Groove's boxes. Many audiophile labels and stores use similar, oversized boxes with crumple zones on the corners and thicker cardboard so as to avoid damage en route. Those types of mailers should be the new standard IMHO. All those flimsy things that people are using pretending like it's still 1996 or whatever need to fucking go the way of the dinosaur.

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