The joke of collecting special editions

[lars]

Recently Reverb.com had some special edition cast iron Plumes and Blumes Earthquaker pedals that supposedly went on sale on their site. The things sold out so incredibly fast that there wasn't even time to look at the official listing! No doubt there will be second-hand ones that will pop up soon on Reverb for 3X the price as soon as people start getting them in the mail. I wasn't interested in buying one, but it is ridiculous how frantic "collectors" go after these things just to try to make a quick profit off something that really is no different than the original sound-wise. Do they just sit at their computers all day hitting the refresh button with 300 custom searches lined up? So the reason to own one has nothing to do with playing guitar. It's just the old ticket-scalping routine.

[jessenator]

Bots. Same thing with the purposefully (probably) limited quantity of Nvidia 5090 flagship GPU. Even system integrators didn't get the numbers they'd normally get/need —back on topic: people use bots to snipe whatever they hear about. It's only gotten easier to do with AI these days. Some sites (like B&H Photo) protect these purchases with several layers and a queue system, but it won't be long before that's a non issue. Anyway, that's for artificial and non-advertised-as-limited-edition types of shenanigans in the PC building space.

As for pedals...

I won't lie, I've felt that kind of FOMO almost every time, but usually just never had the money, or it just sold out—even in the time before bots were common.

But anymore I just don't see the point. Maybe something about life after 40. In my internal logic it's: am I putting this on a glass case to flex on dinner guests? Am I giving MTV Cribs style tours of my pedal board? Am I actually using it?

The Lizard Queen limited edition was kinda neat with its old school EHX Muff big box, but other than that ...traces of the circuit happened within a day or so, and we were on to doing what we do best.

And back to other markets, look at the beanie babies craze in the '90s. Look at comic collecting in the '90s. Collectible card games. It's about profit and speculation. But maybe they really did make a few to make them special; to make their customers feel special.

Maybe that's what it is: being special. And giving into the FOMO is worth it to them.

[jimilee]

There were only 100 each of them and they were cast iron. That's absolutely ludicrous. It's just insanity. From experience, it's hard to sell limited editions. For more than you paid for them as well. I guess you gotta wait 10 years to flip them.


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[lars]

In my internal logic it's: am I putting this on a glass case to flex on dinner guests?

Flex on dinner guests. I'm going to remember that phrase because it perfectly describes the motivation behind stuff like this. LOL!

There were only 100 each of them

I'm impressed you were able to find that piece of information! Reverb's email only said "limited time", not "impossible-to-get-one limited quantity". But it explains why they sold out before anybody could even look at them. I seriously just wanted to see the listing and hopefully get some views at different angles of a unique cast iron enclosure. The listing went down so fast we didn't even get to see any of the original pics! Hopefully Catalinbread will jump on board and make some limited edition pedals in enclosures made of bread. They will go like hotcakes....

[jimilee]

In my internal logic it's: am I putting this on a glass case to flex on dinner guests?

Flex on dinner guests. I'm going to remember that phrase because it perfectly describes the motivation behind stuff like this. LOL!

There were only 100 each of them

I'm impressed you were able to find that piece of information! Reverb's email only said "limited time", not "impossible-to-get-one limited quantity". But it explains why they sold out before anybody could even look at them. I seriously just wanted to see the listing and hopefully get some views at different angles of a unique cast iron enclosure. The listing went down so fast we didn't even get to see any of the original pics! Hopefully Catalinbread will jump on board and make some limited edition pedals in enclosures made of bread. They will go like hotcakes....

Saw it on the EQD YouTube.


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[lars]

Saw it on the EQD YouTube.

I didn't even think to look on EQD's YouTube channel, mainly because there wasn't any YouTube link in the email Reverb sent out.
That tracks. Why would they want to bother putting a link to the very pedal that was available exclusively on their site? That would be too logical!

[lars]

Several listings of these pedals have started showing up on Reverb, and sure enough, they're asking ridiculous amounts, as much as $550 for one that sold! I think the most interesting thing I've found is that this isn't the first time EQD has made the Plumes in a cast iron enclosure. A while back they made some extremely limited green ones. One of those sold for $749.
So I'm guessing they're not done doing the whole cast iron "limited" releases. What a racket.

[jessenator]

If there's a person who will pay it...

A while back s friend was talking up his Dynamic Overdrive, and I got curious. But only did I find the schematics, but I found a ludicrously priced listing for one.

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Not the same thing as limited edition. It is it? If it's limited by the production. I guess the EQD situation is just engineered scarcity.