Vinyl pressing help please

[BigRedX]

One thing to watch with the lower cost pressing plants is that their packaging and shipping tends to be very poor.

We had our last LP (500 copies) pressed by MPO through Mobineko. When the records arrived the "pallet" they had been shipped on was smashed to pieces and the boxes used were so flimsy that nearly every one had sustained some damage that extended through to to the contents.

Luckily for us, because of the nature of the packaging we wanted for the album it was cheaper to get everything except the pressing done elsewhere and for it to be assembled by ourselves. Only two of the actual discs themselves had been broken but nearly every single one of the black paper sleeves that they shipped in had to be replaced.

We did get a discount from Mobineko and replacement sleeves, but that added another 10 days to the production time meaning that for some gigs on our tour we had no copies of the album to sell as all the good ones had already gone in pre-orders.

Had Mobineko done the full production including the printed sleeves, we would have probably had to reject the whole order.

If the presentation of your record is important to you, then I would ask how the finished discs are packaged up for shipping before placing an order.

[wizzywiz247]

Thanks guys for the info a friend of mine did mention about packaging and they recently had their vinyls pressed the packaging was a bit cheap. We just got a sample from duplion seem's legit quality of the printing looks and feels very nice

[BigRedX]

Thanks guys for the info a friend of mine did mention about packaging and they recently had their vinyls pressed the packaging was a bit cheap. We just got a sample from duplion seem's legit quality of the printing looks and feels very nice

I was talking about the materials used to pack and ship the final product rather than the record sleeves themselves. It doesn't matter how good the printing and the stock used to make the sleeves is, if by the time the records actually reach you they all look second hand already because the shipping boxes are so flimsy that they offer next to no protection to the product within.

Having said that, check that your samples are of the same spec as the sleeves that you are ordering. I've seen several companies that send out very nice looking samples but on closer investigation these are a more expensive upgrade to the standard sleeves.

[Martin Walker]

Good points there BigRedX!

In the past I've had CDs shipped out in boxes each of 500, making them very heavy and likely to be manhandled by gorillas en route. My preference is for each box to contain 100 CDs to make them more manageable without having to use a wheel barrow or several hefty friends at the delivery end

Having said that, one company did ship a CD order to me in boxes of 100 as requested, but heavily taped and then shrink-wrapped together with a wooden pallet (the whole assembly had obviously been placed into the vehicle by a forklift truck).

The courier expected me to somehow take the pallet as well as the goods, but I insisted they be separated - I took all the 100 CD boxes, and left him with the pallet

Martin