If you're looking for pricey Record Store Day exclusives, 's Wax Trax is not the place to be this year.
— Matt Sebastian (@mattsebastian)
Wax Trax Records in Denver will not participate in Record Store Day this year, according to store owners and signs posted on the business. , an editor at the Boulder Daily Camera and Times Call, on Monday.
The store has been excluded from this year’s Record Store Day after selling an exclusive album before the designated date of the event in November, according to Wax Trax co-owner Duane Davis. Wax Trax was contacted by the Record Store Day organization after Record Store Day in November and told they could not participate on the April 18 event. As such, Wax Trax cannot sell any exclusive Record Store Day releases.
“I’m sorry we’re not part of it, but I’m far more sorry for the folks who show up who have been coming in for the last few years,” Davis said. “They’ll be sad that we won’t have the stuff they’re hoping to find.”
The Record Store Day organization asks every business involved to sign a pledge to not sell exclusive items early, not to open at midnight, not to offer pre-orders or holds and to not inflate prices beyond the organization’s set range.
“The reason we have these rules and the reason some people think we’re too strict is that we’re protecting the reputation of what we’re doing,” said Record Store Day co-founder Carrie Colliton.
About three to four stores violate this pledge each event, Colliton said, and are told they cannot participate in the next Record Store Day. This means these stores are not listed on the Record Store Day website, they can’t use the logo, they can’t promote the event and they cannot sell exclusive RSD releases.
These stores are welcome to return for the next Record Store Day event, Colliton said.
“I hope they come back, I really do. They are taking it all really well. Stores like that are why we’re doing this,” Colliton said.
Though the day is typically a booming sales day for independent record stores, Davis isn’t worried about missing out on the profits.
“Well itap a very good day, but in the long run, one day out of the year isn’t going to make a lot of a difference,” Davis said. “Itap bad for us in what goes on between us and our customers.”
A sign currently hangs on the Wax Trax door that reads: “We got cross-ways with their rules and are sitting out this year.”
In 2014, Wax Trax’s Dave Wilkins’ told the Denver Post about the gold mine that Record Store Day can be.
“Almost all the Record Store Day releases are on vinyl, and while we sell everything in sight on that day, we sell vinyl five-to-one over CDs,” Wilkins . “Our sales have been up year-over-year for the last 12 years and the majority of that is due to vinyl.”
