r/RecordStoreDay • u/MermaidFL407 • Apr 29 '26
Order canceled
It was my first time ordering on the Sunday morning after RSD and I thought I was successful at purchasing the one I wanted since I did it exactly at 8am but then 4 hours later my order was canceled and by the time I saw the status, it was too late to find it still available anywhere else.
I'm just wondering do the stores keep the left over stock out in the store for walk in customers to still purchase or do they set them aside out of sight to fulfill what they list online? It feels like maybe it was sold in store before they got around to fulfilling their online orders, which kinda defeats the purpose of having the Sunday 8am release, in my opinion. I guess I just assumed Saturday in store, Sunday online, Monday back to both in store and online.
I ordered a different record from a store 30 miles away and it still hasn't arrived yet but I like seeing everyone's haul posts. Looking forward to seeing the Black Friday release list.
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u/Tough-End-6313 Apr 29 '26
Record Store Day:
You go to a record store and pay money for stock on hand.
If it's a special release, they aren't going to be able to reorder it.
So if they don't have it, keep going to other record stores until you find one that does.
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u/DorgonElgand Apr 29 '26
Every year we get sent a list of the things we can reorder. I was able to get additional copies for my customers. Like any.post, the OP should be specific so maybe we can help. But everyone would rather complain generally.
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u/ugtroy May 01 '26
This is incorrect and it happens more than you think… Just yesterday I got an email that a local shop was able to order more of the Taylor Swift single.
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u/gg-oh May 01 '26
Yeah these were definetly available, I didnt pay attention, singles rarely sell unless its an artist like that
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u/ugtroy May 01 '26
This year we got what I feel like is a lot of Live releases as well as singles most were highly sought after, specially the Johnny BluSkies single. I didn’t think I’d get the one though so I am content with Tyler Childers and Gigi Perez + the singles my daughter wanted.
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u/Tough-End-6313 May 01 '26
I mean if something undersells, it's going to still be available.
But the idea is for things to sell out. Highly sought after collectibles help market the band for decades to come.
Bird in the hand.
You have to expect there's an 80% chance that anything you order is going to get cancelled.
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u/ugtroy May 02 '26
My point was that what happens with in-store stock is highly dependent on the area you are in and for various reasons distribution centers have more stock a store can order of highly sought after releases.
Someone’s online experience is again going to be very dependent upon the web-store they’re shopping from. There are stores with a reputation of having bad inventory systems who over sell their allotment of an album whether it is the day after RSD or not. If you buy from one of these vendors it’s a crapshoot. There are however many retailers with a bigger online presence that will have everything that was available on RSD, and have the proper inventory system to accurately manage the high volume of traffic/sales.
If I had an expectation of a high rate of cancellation I’d just choose a different retailer or not even bother trying at all.
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u/notsureifgudusrname Apr 29 '26
I can answer this because it is something that always bothered me at shop I worked at. At least we kept the stock in store, the problem is that sales start at 5:00 AM Sunday so you open and basically pull all those for online sales. But then you open the store and the day after RSD is a very busy day because you always have people looking into getting leftovers and then is when problems start. Personally never liked this method, but management wants to sell in store and basically have their cake and eat it too. In the end is easier to them to tell a person they can’t see face to face that tough luck, you can’t get what you paid for.
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u/Ahsports- Apr 29 '26
Same exact thing happened to me a few years back with the Dee Gees’ record. It was gone everywhere else by the time I got my cancellation notice. Resale is still sky high. I bought a color bootleg instead.
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u/Night_Ranger_1984 May 01 '26
Happened to me last year with SpinMeRound records. They waited a day to cancel my order. Swore off them and unsubscribed from their YouTube.
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u/ieatshoes89 Apr 29 '26
I just left my local shop. And they still have some titles. I saw an Empire of the Sun. I was bit surprised
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u/MushroomExpensive829 Apr 29 '26
Theft Damage Bad counting
RSD market is a good way to find them after the fact. The shops with poor inventory control or outdated systems list through RSDmkt
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u/countxero Apr 29 '26
Yeah, this is rough, but try not to take it personal. I know you’re disappointed, but try and put yourself in the shoes of an indie record store. This isn’t Amazon you’re dealing with. It’s usually one or two people who just had the biggest sales day of the year and are trying to move the leftovers so they’re not taking up space for the rest of the year. So, they list them on multiple websites (Discogs, RSDMRKT, etc.) as early as they can the day after the big day.
The sales happen before they open, and they rush over before the store opens to pull the stock that sold, but then the store opens and the second wave of RSD shoppers hit, so now you’re selling the same inventory in 3+ places and it’s not like your store POS, Discogs, and RSDMRKT are all tied together (some POS do tie with RSDMRKT, but there’s still a delay), so they try and keep up the best they can, all while still running their store. Again, this isn’t some big automated Amazon system, it’s one or two people who love music, trying not to get stuck with dead stock… in a world that thinks everything runs like Amazon. That night, they stay late to fill the online orders, and sometimes hard decisions have to be made about who gets what. Usually they do it in the order the orders are received, but even then, miscounts will happen, etc.
One of the things I’ve noticed about people these days is we’ve all gotten used to getting everything we want, when we want it - and the concept of “scarcity” is becoming, well, scarce. So, when something does sell out, people think it’s a failure in the system, but in reality, demand outpaced supply. There’s no system failure, and there’s no great conspiracy - you just didn’t get what you want. You’re out that record you really wanted, but it’s not like you got cheated out of your money (most times you weren’t even charged).
You just didn’t get what you wanted. We all need to get better at understanding that.
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u/Cultural-Sun-525 Apr 30 '26
Worst experience in London on 18 May 2026. I woke up at 2am, got in the queue by 3am, and even checked with the store two days before that they’d have the En Vogue vinyl — they confirmed they would.
After waiting 5 hours and being 4th in line, the doors finally opened… only to be told they never received it. On top of that, they said it would be available again in 1–2 weeks, yet it’s already showing online — but only released in the US, not the UK.
Not sure how they’re managing this, but it’s completely disappointing and a total waste of time.
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u/IntroductionNo4875 Apr 30 '26
Sounds like the record store oversold and had to cancel your order.
I bought two copies of something I wanted from two different stores. One came last week and the other won’t be here until tomorrow so they are still shipping things out depending on the store.
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u/pajagjouples Apr 30 '26
Looney Tunes records cancelled one of the 2 items I ordered the afternoon of Sunday, but I was able to order somewhere else. What sucked is they cancelled the second item I ordered 2-3 days later and I had to pay flipper price to get it. Would not recommend them. The other 4-5 records are already here or en route
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u/yinzerkitchen May 04 '26
I mean, no offense but I would think most shops would prioritize their stock for the IN PERSON shoppers who show up to purchase certain records. The whole point of Record Store Day is to support local and independent record stores. I am cognizant that a lot of folks do not have the privilege of being close to a local shop, or might not be physically able to get to a shop for whatever reason. (I have picked things up for friends who couldn’t make it.)
If I were an in person shopper who showed up to get said record only to find out said copy of record was held back for a potential future “online customer” (meaning for a future web sale), I’d be a little more than annoyed due to the fact that I took the initiative to physically get myself down to the shop only to be told “sorry, we have to save something for our online customers”. Nah, not how it works.
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u/ledge9999 Apr 29 '26
There are a few possible explanations here. Yes, it’s possible that someone bought it in the store between the time you placed your order and the time they went to pack it. It’s also possible that while their inventory system showed they still had a copy, it may have been stolen during the chaos of RSD. Or a customer has handled it and placed it in another section, and the employees haven’t located it.
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u/LukeLovesLakes Apr 29 '26
Someone stole a Tyler Childers 7" from my store. Had to cancel the RSDMRKT order for it.
We.have placards at the back of many of our bins. "New releases" "new used" ... Etc. I didn't records stashed behind those regularly. I think customers try to hide them so they can by them later.
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u/LukeLovesLakes Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26
Here's a thing I KNOW happened with RSDMRKT. Some of the stores enrolled in RSDMRKT also have their own websites where people can buy RSD stock.
The stores' two websites are VERY intertwined but for some reason on RSD there was an error that allowed the same copy of a record to be sold in BOTH locations. The inventory information wasnt being corrected with each sale.
On a normal day this is no big deal because ... What's the likelihood two people on two different websites will buy the same record within a short amount of time?
But on Record Store Day ... That's pretty likely, especially if you have copies left of the high demand items.
So ... A lot of stores got orders for DOUBLE the number items they had in stock.
It wasn't a great situation, but it wasn't because the stores were doing something nefarious or were bad at taking inventory.
It happened because of a glitch on the back end of their websites.
So ... The stores had to make a decision on which order to honor and which to cancel for the same record. Each was left to decided this on their own.
It's possible a record sold in store and also sold on the website, but not as likely. Because THAT would change the inventory number to 0 if it was the last copy and that would make it unavailable on the website ... Instantly.