Rough Trade shuts down vinyl selling platform after criticism for “insulting” prices

Rough Trade has taken down its vinyl selling platform FlipVinyl following backlash over its “insulting” prices. The company has also issued an apology, and says it is reassessing how to move forward.

Powered by Rough Trade, the scheme was launched on 2 August and allowed people to sell their records “in a flash” through the FlipVinyl company. Rough Trade described FlipVinyl as the “fastest-growing second-hand vinyl buyers in Germany who have revolutionised the way to sell vinyl online”.

Through FlipVinyl, users could search their records and get a price instantly before packaging them up and sending them off to get paid, but many criticised the very low payments they would potentially receive, even for rare or sought after albums.

One user wrote on X, “One of the rarest and most sought after Beatles albums will not even net you £50. This site is a joke.” Another said, “Take my £3.57! Might be able to buy a Tesco’s meal deal with that”, along with a screenshot which showed Tool’s Aenima LP listed at such price. Replies have since been turned off.

Rough Trade closed the platform and shared an official statement on 3 August from its managing director, Lawrence Montgomery, after the backlash. The letter takes “full responsibility”, and apologises for the “mistake”: “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.

“This was not our intention,” it continues. “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.”

Last year, it was revealed that vinyl sales in the UK had reached their highest figures since 1990. Vinyl LP sales have been consecutively rising for 16 years, and following a 2.9 percent improvement in unit sales in 2022, the market in 2023 had increased more than four times as fast with an 11.7 percent rise to 5.9 million units.