Tool released their first album in about 13 years called Inoculum about 2 weeks ago. Usually I don’t buy CDs, but this one was special because it was a) it’s been 13 years, b) it’s a limited edition and c) they have a middle aged fan base now with money. When they first announced it on 8/7, it was readily available on Amazon and I even pre-ordered 10 copies at $45 a piece. A few minutes later, I didn’t want to deal with the hassle of returns and so decided to cancel my order. Two days later, Ebay listings:
A few days later on 8/9, Target stocked them for a bit and it was sold out within minutes. I was luckily enough to order 10 copies from Target for pre-order. After that a few more smaller stores had some like Merchbar and Rasputin. Then Amazon Canada got a few copies up. The CD was supposed to come out August 30th. Then on 8/30, Target re-stocked and I was able to get another 10 copies there. Before 8/30 though, I had sold my 10 pre-orders for about $90 gross each.
Then Tool’s own site restocked about 25K copies, so the market will surely take a dip. However, Tool said that they weren’t going to print anymore, so it’ll be interesting to see how the CD does over time. I’ll keep a few unopened for shits and giggles to see how it does around Christmas. And btw, it’s not just a regular CD; it’s got an LCD screen and speakers. Check it out here.