I know a couple of the founders of Record Store Day, and a current Project Manager. To me, RSD has lost its focus. What started as an event to save Independent "Mom and Pop" new and used vinyl shops, similar to "Black Friday" for major retailers, has now become a cash grab by the labels by intentionally limiting the supply of highly hyped releases and charging ridiculous prices for those scarce releases. The sad part -- MANY of the releases are never opened, much less played. They are bought by groups who camp out at the stores, and immediately turn around and sell them for double, triple, or higher prices to "collectors" who couldn’t give a shit about the music, they are banking on it being an "investment".
I stopped attending RSD years ago when the music fans began being replaced at the front of the line by "scalpers" -- just like the current system for trying to buy concert tickets anywhere but the small venues all around the Country. Ticketmaster "bots" guarantee that the best seats are gone within 2 minutes or less of when the ticket sales begin. Then, 5 minutes later, every ticket reseller site on the Internet have the best seats relisted for sale at 5 times face amount or higher. That’s why I only go to clubs that have capacity of 500 or less. It’s the only way to see a live concert for under $30. I fear that the Record Store Day is almost that far gone...I hope I’m wrong.