Is RSD a capitalist elite club?

Record store day. As a record collector, I used to love record store day. I had never actually gone until I started dating my boyfriend back in 2011. He had a bigger collection and was more into the technical side of collecting where I was just there for my favorites and didn't really care about the exclusives and such.

As time has passed, he has thrown in the towel for collecting and I have kept up with it, but, still never cared much for the side of collecting where people need certain pressings and colors and exclusives, I just buy what I like without caring if it's a first or limited press.

So, I've attended 2 actual real life record store days, one was when I was 17 and worked at this place called Utopia (it's essentially the child of Spencer's and Hot Topic) and they sold vinyl at their bigger of their two stores, so my boyfriend and I decided to go. The second time I went I barely even attended because I went for the title fight/touché amore split and they had sold out of all 3 copies they got when I got in.

So, my point in this entire post is, is record store day just a capitalist elite scam to make people feel like shit?

To answer this, let me explain what record store day even is. The entire idea behind it is for people to support local record stores and in return get exclusive records to add to their collection and get to brag about it for the rest of their life. Now, the idea is really cool, but my thing is, people don't typically care about what shop they go to, they just want the record. And the thing that also is terrifying, most record stores are only given 3 or so copies each of every record on the list. Most people won't remember that mom and pop record shop they bought their exclusive at, they just want their record and that's it, unless you're a collector.

My town has 2 record store and thats it on the entire island. Most stuff I have bought online. (We don't talk about the paramore records I lost 5 hours of my life online for) so really if bands sell their exclusives online, you're defeating the purpose of giving business to small shops.

My other gripe with record store day is the elitist mindset of owning an exclusive. Now for people like me, I don't think I'm the worlds greatest record collector for my exclusives, I just really like paramore and they happen to have done 2 RSD exclusives. And RSD also brings my biggest enemies: record flippers. Record flippers are these assholes who buy these $20 records and flip them on eBay for $300. And these poor music fans PAY THE MONEY BECAUSE THEY LOVE THE BAND! Rarely we see the collectors buying these flips, it's fans who just love the bands and want the record and don't even care it's exclusive.

RSD started out with a really great mission and I absolutely think everyone should support local business’ and buy records from stores rather than online (unless the small business has an online shop) but it's turned into a way to leave out fans in the cold because record collecting has become such a stress ridden hobby.

So, I don't hate RSD, I still buy the records by bands I love, but not because they have a shiny sticker that says “RSD exclusive” on it, but because I want the records my favorite bands put out, and I hope at some point people get that and follow it because if I see another record being flipped for 300% markup, I will lose my fucking mind.

Here's a list of the 15 "best" independent record stores across the world.

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