At the Pasadena store, we had ourselves a pretty amazing Record Store Day party. Devo’s Gerald Casale was in the house, tasting wine with the staff, signing autographs for customers, and taking photos with fans.

Unlike the real Record Store Day, our event was calm, relaxed, social, and easy-to-navigate.

Meanwhile, at actual record stores, there were lines around the block, scalpers using family members to get around purchase limits, and online queuing systems that forced customers to wait hours for their shot at their record of choice.

I was lucky enough to snag one copy (for myself) of Gerald’s solo release from a store in Chattanooga, TN. Later that evening, I was able to snag a second (for Gerald, who wasn’t given a copy of his own record) after another store in Orange County put their remaining inventory online.

Remind you of shopping for rare whiskey? Because it’s pretty much the same thing. By the end of the day, you could buy any Record Store Day release online for two to three times the MSRP. In that sense, RSD has become almost as profitable for secondary flippers as it has for actual record stores.

We’re living in an era where limited runs of pop culture reference points have become quite valuable; completely changing the intention of those items in the process. The exception has become the rule.

What was once intended as a cool way to reward serious customers and retailers alike has become a capitalistic sport for casual customers who really don’t care about the products they’re buying—which is why I’m generally turned off by both limited edition records and whiskies at this point.

In response, we created a real experience at Mission. No lines, no craziness, just real connections with no limits and no secondary flippers. Just the way I like it.

-David Driscoll