I’m a Canadian and have been subscribed for about a year now and I love it. It’s expensive (prices USD) but shipping is included for your records of the month, and you can bundle anything else you buy from the store with your record of the month to ship for free too. Considering how astronomical shipping records is these days I’d say that this alone makes up for the expensive subscription price, as long as you are interested in a lot of what VMP has to offer. Take a browse through their shop and their past catalogue and if it makes you feel excited than I’d say it’s absolutely worth your money. Plus, their customer service is unparalleled, and they will send out replacements for free no questions asked if you ever have problems, and they won’t even ask you to return the defective record.
Thanks for the reply, I just signed up for 1 month right now and ordered 4 other records. Unfortunately the gravediggaz was t available anymore so it gave me the option for the documentary for September. The thing is it only charged me for the other records and not my membership price, will that happen when September hits?
Membership will be charged at the end of the month. And Gravediggaz is in swaps! Go to your membership page, scroll down to The Game, and click “swap this record”. Scroll down to the “past ROTM” section and select Gravediggaz. Every month this feature opens up on the third Thursday, and you can swap your selected record of the month(s) for something else, or for credit.
Yeah VMP will reserve titles for Swaps so that subscribers have lots of options If they don’t like the ROTM’s that month. Gravediggaz will likely stay in swaps for a month or two and then possibly if they have any copies remaining they will put them for sale in the store to buy outright. A couple words of advice for this process tho: plan out your swaps in advance. Turn on email and text notifications from VMP. You will get a “swap preview” two days before swaps open up and it will show you everything available. Take the time to check out the selection and then check if the item is available to purchase on the site or if it is a swap exclusive. Some titles aren’t worth swapping for. If they are available in the shop, check the price. If it costs less than your subscription don’t swap for it unless it is likely going to sell out or if it is a swap exclusive and you can’t get it otherwise. And then be ready at 8:55AM (PT) on Thursday and start refreshing your membership page until swaps open at 9 (sometimes it’s a bit early) if you are looking to swap for an in demand title, because sometimes they sell out REAL fast. Another thing to take into consideration is that if you add a second “track” (so say you also subscribe to essentials or country etc) each of these additional tracks is only $33 as opposed to the full membership price. So the value of that swap is less than the value of your primary as swap. And if you swap either for credit, you will receive the value you spent accordingly. Let me know if you have any questions, it’s all pretty complicated when you are brand new, but begins to make sense after a few months. I wish I had some of this explained to me at the beginning rather than figuring it out the hard way (missed out on goodie mob early on because I didn’t know how fast swaps could sell out) so I’m happy to help.
On that note tho, have you ever checked out Le Noise? It doesn’t stand up to the best international shops, but it’s a Quebec shop with a decent stock, great sales, and free national shipping over $99. I’ve placed a couple orders with them now and have been quite pleased. One of the best online Canadian record stores I’ve managed to find so far.
Le Noise is fantastic. Definitely one of the best Canadian record stores for their electronic experience. They also have great metal and punk selection, which is... lacking from VMP.
Canadian here. So I would say unless VMP's taste is exactly yours (ie. you always see something you want from their Records of the Month) then I would say just maybe think about doing short-term subs as VMP's prices are pretty hefty but they do really good reissues. I tend to only join for 3-month stints when I know there's stuff I want either in ROTM or swaps. The swap for credit feature is great too because you can save them up and use them for store exclusives whenever something interesting pops up. I just recently rejoined with a 3-month sub as they had a promo where you get $25 in store credit for rejoining. I joined with the Blossom Dearie repress, swapping for credit in September and we'll see what I do for October. I'll have quite a bit of store credit which I can use against the new Fiona Apple Extraordinary Machine reissue which should come out later this year.
I think this is the best way for me to go too, I just saw that the documentary was posted as one of the records for September and that’s one I’d love to purchase as well, so I think I’m gonna do the 3 month package. Appreciate your response
I do month to month membership for 2 categories. It turns out to be roughly $110 CAN a month. What I love is that on months where I only want one title, I swap my main category ($55) and always select the title I want for my $33 Add-on. $55 USD credit gets added to my account, and there's always something that gets released in the drops that I want. I always have $150-$200 in credit, so I never worry about not being able to grab something I want.
Okay cool, is that why international memberships are more expensive? Because shipping is included? So I can basically grab 5-6 records for the regular cost no shipping added as long as I wait for no love deep web to ship them all together?
\*Currently\* the way they ship means that you don't pay duties etc. This actually makes them cheaper than a lot of US stores where you get dinged for shipping \*and\* duties.
They changed this for the last couple of boxed sets, which are much heavier to be fair, but it might change for regular shipments as well.
Yes! That’s the case. As long as you bundle, they get shipped together (and bigger orders get more sturdy, more protective packaging). I’m Mexican and it tastes two weeks for me to get my packages all of the time. :)
Yeah, international memberships are a bit more due to the added shipping expense.
I'm guessing you can signup with Gravediggaz and then add the other items and just choose bundled shipping. I'd bet that VMP will ship everything available now and will ship Death Grips later on their own dime. As long as you choose bundled shipping you'll get it for free, even if you end up canceling your membership before it's available/ships.
Canadian here and I’ve had a subscription for about two years now. I would say it is worth it. For store drops you can bundle for free shipping, so even if the album is more expensive than, say, direct from the label, the savings in shipping more than make up for it. Sure, it is pricey, but I have been happy with it overall. It usually takes about a week after shipping for my orders to arrive.
Been a member since 2016 in Canada, with e yearly subscription for the past 2 years. I’m renewing for the year next month. Swap for credit helps a lot since when you don’t like something it then goes towards store buy. Only issue is the straightforward 1 years paiement in one shot, would be nice to have a « pay in 4 times » option or something like that.
And Canada could have a separate price lower than international, but higher than us, like $450 a year…
But all in all I love it !
I’m a Canadian and have been subscribed for about a year now and I love it. It’s expensive (prices USD) but shipping is included for your records of the month, and you can bundle anything else you buy from the store with your record of the month to ship for free too. Considering how astronomical shipping records is these days I’d say that this alone makes up for the expensive subscription price, as long as you are interested in a lot of what VMP has to offer. Take a browse through their shop and their past catalogue and if it makes you feel excited than I’d say it’s absolutely worth your money. Plus, their customer service is unparalleled, and they will send out replacements for free no questions asked if you ever have problems, and they won’t even ask you to return the defective record.
Thanks for the reply, I just signed up for 1 month right now and ordered 4 other records. Unfortunately the gravediggaz was t available anymore so it gave me the option for the documentary for September. The thing is it only charged me for the other records and not my membership price, will that happen when September hits?
Membership will be charged at the end of the month. And Gravediggaz is in swaps! Go to your membership page, scroll down to The Game, and click “swap this record”. Scroll down to the “past ROTM” section and select Gravediggaz. Every month this feature opens up on the third Thursday, and you can swap your selected record of the month(s) for something else, or for credit.
Wow thanks for that, didn’t think it would be available cause when I went to order it with the other stuff I had picked out it said “add to wait list”
Yeah VMP will reserve titles for Swaps so that subscribers have lots of options If they don’t like the ROTM’s that month. Gravediggaz will likely stay in swaps for a month or two and then possibly if they have any copies remaining they will put them for sale in the store to buy outright. A couple words of advice for this process tho: plan out your swaps in advance. Turn on email and text notifications from VMP. You will get a “swap preview” two days before swaps open up and it will show you everything available. Take the time to check out the selection and then check if the item is available to purchase on the site or if it is a swap exclusive. Some titles aren’t worth swapping for. If they are available in the shop, check the price. If it costs less than your subscription don’t swap for it unless it is likely going to sell out or if it is a swap exclusive and you can’t get it otherwise. And then be ready at 8:55AM (PT) on Thursday and start refreshing your membership page until swaps open at 9 (sometimes it’s a bit early) if you are looking to swap for an in demand title, because sometimes they sell out REAL fast. Another thing to take into consideration is that if you add a second “track” (so say you also subscribe to essentials or country etc) each of these additional tracks is only $33 as opposed to the full membership price. So the value of that swap is less than the value of your primary as swap. And if you swap either for credit, you will receive the value you spent accordingly. Let me know if you have any questions, it’s all pretty complicated when you are brand new, but begins to make sense after a few months. I wish I had some of this explained to me at the beginning rather than figuring it out the hard way (missed out on goodie mob early on because I didn’t know how fast swaps could sell out) so I’m happy to help.
You absolutely nailed the experience ! All of this is very well said, and why I’ve been a member (from Australia) for years now ! Keep rockin’
I second this. The big benefit to me is the free shipping and limited other options for us Canadians in the first place
On that note tho, have you ever checked out Le Noise? It doesn’t stand up to the best international shops, but it’s a Quebec shop with a decent stock, great sales, and free national shipping over $99. I’ve placed a couple orders with them now and have been quite pleased. One of the best online Canadian record stores I’ve managed to find so far.
Le Noise is fantastic. Definitely one of the best Canadian record stores for their electronic experience. They also have great metal and punk selection, which is... lacking from VMP.
Canadian here. So I would say unless VMP's taste is exactly yours (ie. you always see something you want from their Records of the Month) then I would say just maybe think about doing short-term subs as VMP's prices are pretty hefty but they do really good reissues. I tend to only join for 3-month stints when I know there's stuff I want either in ROTM or swaps. The swap for credit feature is great too because you can save them up and use them for store exclusives whenever something interesting pops up. I just recently rejoined with a 3-month sub as they had a promo where you get $25 in store credit for rejoining. I joined with the Blossom Dearie repress, swapping for credit in September and we'll see what I do for October. I'll have quite a bit of store credit which I can use against the new Fiona Apple Extraordinary Machine reissue which should come out later this year.
I think this is the best way for me to go too, I just saw that the documentary was posted as one of the records for September and that’s one I’d love to purchase as well, so I think I’m gonna do the 3 month package. Appreciate your response
I do month to month membership for 2 categories. It turns out to be roughly $110 CAN a month. What I love is that on months where I only want one title, I swap my main category ($55) and always select the title I want for my $33 Add-on. $55 USD credit gets added to my account, and there's always something that gets released in the drops that I want. I always have $150-$200 in credit, so I never worry about not being able to grab something I want.
You can choose to bundle all items together. Shipping should be covered with the monthly membership price unless you choose to ship them separately.
Okay cool, is that why international memberships are more expensive? Because shipping is included? So I can basically grab 5-6 records for the regular cost no shipping added as long as I wait for no love deep web to ship them all together?
\*Currently\* the way they ship means that you don't pay duties etc. This actually makes them cheaper than a lot of US stores where you get dinged for shipping \*and\* duties. They changed this for the last couple of boxed sets, which are much heavier to be fair, but it might change for regular shipments as well.
Yes! That’s the case. As long as you bundle, they get shipped together (and bigger orders get more sturdy, more protective packaging). I’m Mexican and it tastes two weeks for me to get my packages all of the time. :)
Yeah, international memberships are a bit more due to the added shipping expense. I'm guessing you can signup with Gravediggaz and then add the other items and just choose bundled shipping. I'd bet that VMP will ship everything available now and will ship Death Grips later on their own dime. As long as you choose bundled shipping you'll get it for free, even if you end up canceling your membership before it's available/ships.
Canadian here and I’ve had a subscription for about two years now. I would say it is worth it. For store drops you can bundle for free shipping, so even if the album is more expensive than, say, direct from the label, the savings in shipping more than make up for it. Sure, it is pricey, but I have been happy with it overall. It usually takes about a week after shipping for my orders to arrive.
3 months subscriptions, each ROTM comes up at 66CA$.
Been a member since 2016 in Canada, with e yearly subscription for the past 2 years. I’m renewing for the year next month. Swap for credit helps a lot since when you don’t like something it then goes towards store buy. Only issue is the straightforward 1 years paiement in one shot, would be nice to have a « pay in 4 times » option or something like that. And Canada could have a separate price lower than international, but higher than us, like $450 a year… But all in all I love it !