Rough Trade Suspends Used Vinyl Selling Program After Backlash
On Friday, Rough Trade launched FlipVinyl, a service on their website for the UK market where people could sell used records. The backlash was brisk when records worth hundreds were priced at less than ten dollars; Rough Trade first doubled down before apologizing and suspending the enterprise after one day of operation.
Aside from valuable records being priced insultingly low, a lot of albums were worth even less than a dollar. In an initial response to criticism, Rough Trade tweeted, “Please note! We appreciate this service won’t be suitable for everyone’s needs i.e. those seeking to maximize collectible items. However for anyone looking to trade casually for a quick turn-around i.e. to make space, then this could well be a great solution.” FlipVinyl still operates in Germany, where it was founded.
This morning, they announced FlipVinyl would be suspended and issued an apology: “It’s clear based on feedback from a number of customers that we made wrong assumptions and that people viewed this service as inappropriate and saw us as profiteering,” they wrote. “This was not our intention, however we understand and appreciate these criticisms and take full responsibility. As a result, we are going to suspend the service to give us time to reassess. We’re very sorry for this mistake.”
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