Limited Edition pre-orders: love 'em or hate 'em?

[ffcal]

Merzbow has a 18 LP boxed set called "Merzbient" that was limited to 222 copies.  It's a pretty insane looking box that retails for around $400.  A clerk at Amoeba told me they had sold several copies.

Forrest

[drone on]

Is it signed and numbered (zero?) hahahaha  ;D

[SunDummy]

If you act quickly, you'll get number -1.

:P

[fugasiyokonda]

Just got an email about a new Ishq release.  Considering I just spent $20 on a new Ishq disc which came out last week (on his own label, Virtual), in addition to a boatload of other music, my wallet hasn't had time to recover.  This release is called "Lyght" and is a 100-copies CDR, which does not get released until 12-21-2012.  I have two issues with this one: why only 100? you know it's gonna sell out in about 3 days...Plus, why would I pay for something nearly 2 MONTHS in advance??

The release in question was on Txt records , they are specifically a limited edition cdr label and yes they sell out super quick.

From speaking to matt / ishq / virtual ( as i want a copy also ! )  it seems the label txt hadnt realised how popular it would be and matt presumed they were doing 200 cdr ( as mick chillage album was 200 ) Matt also said  his own virtual releases now dont sell much more than 150  over a 2 year period and so he figured there would be plenty )

He feels it was underpressed himself now.

His view was that limited edition is fine to a point as long as it allows a window of 6 months to a year for people to buy a copy but on this occasion it went wrong .

I spoke to matt about advanced payment  / pre orders and again he said personally he doesnt agree with it but its how txt do things and again he didnt realise this was their plan and would have asked for another method had he known.

the whole limited edition thing is tricky.

Personally as a collector i love them , i missed loads that sold out but thats where discogs is fun , i found many this way but yes its also got its downsides.I like limited stuff as i collect and love rarities.Its questionable on some level but isnt life.

The subject of labels releasing limited editons , keeping back copies and then selling them is a good one.

One famous ambient label i know did this in the early days of ebay with a distributer for the label selling multiple copies of rare deleted albums at £100 or more for years until it became odvious what was going on.

[drone on]

Thanks for your interesting and informative comments.  :)

[drone on]

PS: What was the famous ambient label you mentioned above???