This Saturday marked the third annual Record Store Day across the globe. The day gives fans of independent music a chance to go out and plop down some money at their local independent record store of choice. I have not only been a huge fan of this occasion each year, and have gone out of my way to let you know about it, let others know and also drop a big chunk of change at my local store as well.

Today, in the aftermath of the biggest record store day yet, I have a handful of opinions about the event as it stands, and how it can be improved for next year and moving forward in general. I came to this conclusion when I got home from hitting up a couple of record stores here in the Austin area on Saturday. Now, I should mention before I make this observation, that I did not wait in the long lines as stores opened this year and spent less than usual due to my current financial state. I do not want to come across as a bitter record nerd who did not get the items he wanted and complaining.

I jumped on the web and headed over to ebay, because as most collectors know, stores will add items from RSD there the day of for people that don’t have a store nearby. In addition, people that do wait in those long lines and grab whatever they can as fast as possible will post their finds on ebay pretty quickly as well.

I searched for a couple items I wanted to grab, and was really shocked at the amount of price gouging that was going on. I mean, 160$ for a copy of The Hold Steady RSD exclusive? Over 100$ for the Beastie Boys white label item? The Wilco Kicking Television box set going for double its retail price?

I don’t know about you, but that takes some of the luster off of this special day.

Sure, I know that people have every right to buy an album for 25$ and immediately sell it off to someone else for 200$. I know that people have nothing holding them back from rushing into a record store and grabbing every exclusive without even looking to see what it is. I know that people get multiple copies of some exclusives at stores (although some stores are now only allowing one per customer.)

So I guess my question is this. Is Record Store Day about exclusive items and their resale value or about supporting your local independent record store? Sure, you could make the argument that less people would show up and spend if there were lets say, an extra thousand copies of that Wilco item out there. But I know that the stores I went to later in the afternoon, after all the most sought after stuff was gone, were still jammed with people that were happy to rub shoulders with fellow vinyl nerds, eat some food or in some stores, see a live performance.

If this is indeed a problem, how can we fix it? I say we because lets be honest, the consumer controls things here right?

And just to clarify, if nothing changes, I will still continue to support Record Store Day. It’s too great of an idea and response in general NOT to love it and the frenzy that surrounds it. I guess that’s why it’s a bit of a love/hate thing for me. Is it that way for anyone else?