Yeah, ever since Thes wrote the post about how Double K would love to read and talk about music biographies that's what I've been reading. So would love to hear some suggestions. And man, how great would a Thes One autobiography be!?!

I just started a book about the history of punk rock in the Bay Area called Gimme Something Better, and next up is the Beastie Boys Book. There's a new J Dilla book coming out that I've ordered too. Oh and I also recently read an awesome book called In Defense of Ska by Aaron Carnes. (Ska is my first love).

But after reading Thes' post, I wondered if he or KK ever read (or would be interested in) the book by NOFX: Hepatitis Bathtub and Other Stories. I'm a huge NOFX fan and I loved it. But even though they're in completely different genres I see a lot of similarities between NOFX and PUTS. For one, I'd say they are the 2 best and most successful groups that were able to stay 100% independent. And two, they're both from LA and lot of the NOFX book is about the LA underground music scene. So even though it's about different genres, and NOFX is a little older, I bet there's a lot for the 2 groups to relate to. (Plus, to me hip-hop, punk, and ska/reggae are all just rebel music anyway so they're not really as different as they might seem).

The reason I didn't post a review on here earlier (i.e. when the album came out) was because I honestly didn't like it very much and didn't want to be negative about it. But with time passing and listening to it more, and especially now given Double K's death, thinking about how difficult this album must have been for both of them to make is beyond comprehension. At the time, their retirement was presented as them settling down and not wanting to got through the rigors of an older touring band (Thes putting it more on himself). But, and I'm speculating here, it seems like it was actually more because of Double K's declining health. I remember seeing them in Berkeley in 2018(?) for their 2nd to last show ever in the Bay Area and Double K looked super thin. I had assumed that was a good thing, maybe not.

Anyway, I was originally not a big fan of Sincerely. While I thought it had a few great songs (Effects of Climate Change, We Get Around, Family Ties), overall I wasn't impressed. I wanted more for a final album. (And then Thes put out the Sincerely EP and I liked those 4 songs better than a lot of the songs on the actual album). But after listening to it more, and with the passing of KK, I have a new perspective.

What helped was reading the incredible book Go Ahead In The Rain: Notes To A Tribe Called Quest by Hanif Abdurraqib. I'd highly recommend that to everyone here. In the book, he talks about Phife's solo album Ventilation (one I always liked) and how it was viewed as a failure at the time it came out. I didn't start liking Tribe until well after they initially broke up so I didn't get to see any of this in real time. But apparently a lot of people didn't like it, and maybe for some of the same reasons I didn't initially like Sincerely, The P. Abdurraqib went on to compare the public's reactions to Phife as if he were Bill Buckner letting the ball roll through his legs to lose the World Series (though, of course, that by itself was not why the Red Sox lost). But that in reality, the Ventilation LP was more like Willis Reed coming into the 1970 NBA Finals for the Knicks while on his last leg, barely able to walk, and hounding Wilt Chamberlin defensively on the way to a Knicks victory. I think that's a much better analogy for Sincerely, The P as well. Putting everything they had into a last album, an album made more for the fans than anything else, an album full of sincere heartfelt emotions, and a fitting end to a championship run. It's still not my favorite album of theirs, but I appreciate them so much for making it. Their history wouldn't be complete without it.

It looks as though my theory about the cheaper prices in Europe having anything to do with eliminating overseas shipping doesn't hold up if there's copies on amazon.com in the US for <30$. I reckon it's all but certain there was a middleman/distributor involved, but of course you're right and it looks like they somehow purchased the "leftover" copies at a significantly discounted rate (dumping price) compared to the original 40$ retail price. That's really not a good look. Their profit margin ought to come from buying in bulk, saving on shipping costs, etc. and getting a reasonable distro discount, not from paying 50% or less of the initial retail price. :-|
I do think creating a network of select stockists/retail partners generally makes sense for everyone involved and is a win-win-win situation (compromise) that ideally enables everyone (artists/labels; shops; fans) to buy/sell at reasonable (= fair) prices. I'm more than happy to support directly whenever possible, even pay a little extra if I know it goes directly to the right people, but I'm not down with paying 20$+ for international postage so the artist can make an extra buck or two while the rest goes to line the coffers of postal companies who've been giving anyone other than domestic customers the finger for the past 15-20 years by doubling and tripling their international rates for no good reason.
In order for this to work there needs to be more transparency and integrity though. There's no point in dealing with retailers/resellers if they decide to jack up their prices/profit margins and labels need to stop promoting everything as "limited" "special edition" and so forth if they're looking to get the most out of their releases. You can't have your cake and eat it, too, at the expense of fans/customers who are currently being told one thing today ("x copies only") and the opposite tomorrow ("instant repress with bonus tracks" etc.)!

Like I said before, I'm fairly certain supply and demand will balance out sooner rather than later, resulting in a relatively robust median price/market "value" for the album, but this might take a while. What we have at the moment is further proof of what Thes said about the way fandom/online followers translate into actual sales. Only a small percentage actually put their money where their mouth is and buy/bought the record.
(People really need to stop using discogs as a price guide BTW, especially if they don't understand the finer points! Even the sales history and median prices only give you a sense/ballpark figure at best of what anything is worth because they don't properly reflect condition or short term supply&demand.)

*rant over*

SImple truth is that I purchased copies (as I often do) for a bunch of people here in the UK to keep the price per copy down due to the extortionate price of international shipping. My frustration was down to one of the buyers telling me that they now didn't need a copy as they were able to purchase for far less locally which alerted me to this issue of pricing.

I get all of points and agree, PL70 has had a long standing hookup with HHV and it would make no sense to ship copies from Europe to US and back. That said, copies in the US are far cheaper than the puts site and Amazon.com (and UK) are selling it direct (albeit I'm sure that they would be via a distributor). Whatever the reason, I still think it's 'not a good look' to be able to buy from Amazon at a fraction of the price of supporting direct.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put you on blast, tar you with the reseller brush or anything of the kind as I know you're a good guy and longtime fellow P fan. I'm surprised at the vehemence of your reaction and you accusing Thes of intentional wrongdoing/profiteering however (Can you prove any of it..?) when we both know full well things like these are more or less par for the course with "limited" and "exclusive" releases nowadays:
Artists and labels will try and sell as many copies as they can directly (usually at premium/increasingly outrageous prices) pressuring their fans by claiming their releases are "extremely limited" and/or "exclusive" to a certain (= their own) shop, bandcamp page, etc. only to make any remaining copies available to regular stockists shortly thereafter (= once the initial wave of sales is over and it becomes increasingly inconvenient/less lucrative to continue selling directly), which often works out being a good bit cheaper (especially if you happen to live in a different country than the artist/label and can buy locally rather than internationally later on).
For what it's worth I completely agree with you that this is decidedly messed up and usually at the expense of hardcore fans who end up paying considerably more than they ideally would/should have (even if it's "just" for postage, which the artist doesn't make any extra money from).

I'll go a step further playing devil's advocate stating that Thes would have received complaints regardless of how he handled this release:
We know him to be a DIY perfectionist who by his own admission has trouble delegating or outsourcing bacause he doesn't trust anyone else to do things up to his own standards (and has been burned in the past relying on others), so I believe that is the #1 reason why he wouldn't/couldn't do things any other way.
In this instance he ended up supplying more (= too many; I'm guessing ~2000 total) copies of the record than there was a demand for, resulting in the "leftover" copies you're now fussing about. If he'd pressed up too few you'd have people asking for/demanding an immediate repress which would be equally undesirable. (I wouldn't be surprised if this more or less balanced out over the coming years though. Contrary to popular misconception previous releases/albums did not sell out quickly or overnight either - e.g. I seem to recall it taking at least 6-12 months to shift all 2000 copies of 'Highlighter'.)

Then there's the international (re-)distribution of the record to consider:
The LP was pressed by GZ in the Czech Republic (same as the last 3-4 records), meaning all copies sold directly via puts.band had to be imported to the US and those headed back to Europe or other destinations had essentially made a round trip being re-imported by the time they touched down in the UK, etc..
I have it on good authority that copies sold by hhv here in Germany apparently weren't sent to the US though and supposedly came directly from GZ (directly across the border in Czech). This might account for the lower prices within Europe to some degree? I honestly couldn't say what kind of percentages/discounts we'd be looking at though + I can't speak to any additional bulk/distro cuts that might have been made in order to shift "leftover" copies either.

Which brings us to those selling the record cheaply now:
I'm also not happy about copies ending up with Jeff Bezos and his paragons of inhumane work environments (if anyone hasn't read the various exposés on how amazon treat their workforce you might want to brush up on it before placing your next order) but some quick research reveals amazon.uk are the only ones stocking/selling copies directly. All other copies in the marketplace are being sold by private/3rd party sellers. I have difficulty imagining Thes dealing with amazon directly or vice versa, so those copies probably came from some distributor?
And is it possible amazon even showing any interest in selling the vinyl in the first place might be a side-effect of the #putsmatters digital preorder campaign you mentioned, putting the physical album on their radar via the great interest in digital sales..?

Anyway, I feel as though I've already rambled on way too long (as usual) but figured I'd weigh in in hopes of adding a bit of perspective.

Forget international shipping, Thes charged $40 plus shipping yet Amazon has it for $27.79 with free shipping. He sold off a lot of copies to distributors for a fraction of the price & must have known that they would be put up for sale at a lot less than he charged his direct fans. In the UK, a number of places have it up for sale at around £23 or $29. Take into account the distribution cut plus US to UK shipping and Thes must have offloaded these for something like $15 (or less).

Thes asked us to buy the mp3's to help raise the profile of the final LP when many of us wouldn't have bothered. Thes charged a very high price for a newly manufactured LP and we obliged. I was happy to buy it direct as it was reasonable for me to assume (given the independent 'til I die rhetoric & previous PL70 releases) that weeks later copies wouldn't be available worldwide for nearly half the price (and on Amazon!). I can't think of another release where something similar has occurred.

There is probably good reason for the way it has worked out, but in terms of looking after his supporters & in my opinion, Thes f***ed up on this occasion.

Po and I bought our LPs together on the same order while I was visiting in London. We had everything sent to my house in Utah and I then shipped Tim's LP, CD, and Tape to him via USPS the cheapest way possible; 1st class priority. All I'm saying is it cost well over $20, without tracking... To get tracking almost clocked in at over $100!

Infer what you will about the situation but with everything you know about Thes do you really think he intentionally ripped you off? Really? Did you buy 10YOTO? Did he gouge us lapdog fans then? He could have made bank off those but chose not to so I struggle to see your point of him deliberately ripping off his biggest fans and supporters.

I respect your opinion and want to keep it civil, we are all here for the same reason... Love of music.

Peace and 1Love