That’s according to an update owner Bill Daly posted on the shop’s Facebook page Thursday. Daly says he is looking into a new location for the record store because of poor conditions at 2116 18th St. NW.

“There have been issues with our building that have progressively gotten worse that I will not elaborate on,” Daly writes. “I work very long hours in this space and it has come to light that some of the existing problems are affecting my health.”

The proprietor says he recently turned down a long-term extension on Crooked Beat’s lease because of the building’s issues. “… even with efforts to remedy the problems with this old building, the attempted repairs have not been sufficient and the issues continue to persist,” Daly writes.

Crooked Beat Records, which also runs a record label by the same name, was once one of four record stores in Adams Morgan. Neighbors Red Onion Records and Joint Custody both moved to U Street NW. Smash Records still operates on 18th Street, less than two blocks north of Crooked Beat.

According to his Facebook post, the shop owner is considering a move to H Street NE, or possibly Northern Virginia if he can’t find affordable space in the District.

Daly did not immediately return a request for comment.

Top photo by Flickr user Rick Phillips used under a Creative Commons license.

That’s a big increase from 2013, let alone 2008, when Record Store Day debuted with just a handful of special titles. Is this getting a little bonkers?

“It’s out of control,” says Neal Becton, who owns D.C. shop Som Records. Some business owners say Record Store Day records are too expensive and too numerous, and stores risk losing a lot of money on records that don’t sell.

This wasn’t how Record Store Day was supposed to be. The twice-annual event, which takes place April 19 this year and on Black Friday, was started to help support record shops. It makes special records exclusively available to independent brick-and-mortar stores to drum up business, and it’s been quite a hit, at least judging from the lines that form outside of stores on the big day.

But in a Washington Post story about the event last year, Red Onion Records owner Josh Harkavy was quoted as calling the event “Record Label Day” because of a perception that labels are its true beneficiaries. That sentiment hasn’t changed. Crooked Beat shop owner Bill Daly says some of the vinyl slabs are so costly, no one is buying. “Customers balk at a certain price,” he says. He cites a 2013 Nick Drake release that, at nearly $40 retail, barely moved from his shelves—even though Drake is a reliable seller at his store. “It stiffed, basically,” Daly says. He bought 40 copies at $27 a pop, and still has two dozen left.

Most shop owners would tell you that Record Store Day is more about exposure than making money, because the profit margins just aren’t that high. But it’s also considered a must-do. Buyers mob local stores to buy the day’s special reissues, fancy pressings, and exclusive recordings, which can help generate new customers and move regular stock in addition to the exclusive stuff. For those reasons alone, some owners wouldn’t even consider not buying in. “You kind of have to,” says Becton. “It’s our busiest day of the year by far.” Johnson Lee, owner of Joe’s Record Paradise in Silver Spring, agrees. “It’s definitely the best day of the year, as far as sales.”

But Daly says he’s still holding on to between 700 and 800 Record Store Day releases that never sold, and he expects to add more to the pile this April. The Crooked Beat owner says he ordered copies of about 400 Record Store Day releases this time. But come 2015, he’s cutting back. He says he plans to purchase no more than 150 RSD titles next year, because there’s no way he could sell all the stock he needs to turn a profit.

“It’s going to bankrupt the store,” Daly says.

For what it’s worth, Record Store Day co-founder Michael Kurtz agrees. “I don’t think we’ll ever go above 450 [releases],” he says in a phone call from Los Angeles. It’s just too much for the stores they aspire to help. “Most of them are mom-and-pop stores, and that’s a lot of money that they have to pay out.”

Shops don’t have to buy all 438 releases, of course. Not all of them are even available to every store—many are extremely limited runs, and some are only available regionally—and owners can pick and choose which ones they think will do well. Kurtz says most small businesses focus on between 200 and 300 titles. Becton is even more selective: He says he ordered around 100 this year. Lee says he ordered about $5,000 worth of stock, and doesn’t expect to actually get that much. But Daly is a heavy buyer—last year, he claimed to have purchased more RSD vinyl than most shops on the East Coast—and as the Record Store Day list grows, he becomes more worried. “Every year they keep adding more and more,” he says. “It’s just the greed of the major labels.”

Kurtz quibbles with the idea that labels are to blame. “I think that’s just a lack of knowledge,” he says. He contends that many artists and labels don’t turn a hefty profit, if any, on Record Store Day. When bands record new material just for RSD releases, that costs money, he says. Manufacturing small numbers of records instead of big pressings is extra costly, too. Then shipping the vinyl from place to place—well, it all adds up, Kurtz says, and plenty of bands take a haircut.

“The bands are doing it to help the stores,” Kurtz says. “Most [Record Store Day titles] are sold for less than they cost to make, and [shop owners] just don’t know it.”

Still, small shops have good reasons to be more selective about which Record Store Day releases they buy: The stock is nonreturnable, and some of it can depreciate rapidly after the event. The key to winning Record Store Day may be to do what Becton and Lee do: Buy a little, and increase your chances of selling all of it in one day, even if it means some folks walk out empty-handed. If stores buy everything they think their customers want, they could wind up with heaps of overstock that they simply can’t push out of the door.

“That’s kind of what happens on Record Store Day,” Daly says. “It’s a roll of the dice.”

“We sell a lot of local bands,” Daly says. Out-of-towners tend to ask for them. They make the usual requests for Dischord releases and classic go-go, of course, but they want the newer stuff, too—and as far as Daly is concerned, younger groups aren’t meeting demand.

“Newer bands seem less exposed,” he says. They’re on Bandcamp, Facebook and Tumblr, but they’re not in stores. “They’re missing a whole audience who just want to buy vinyl.” That audience is growing, as sales have shown, and Daly thinks more local bands need to take advantage.

So Daly is going to stop just selling records, and start making a few of his own. He’s starting a new record label, Crooked Beat Records, and he’ll release its first 7-inches for Record Store Day on April 19. Both releases will be from bands with D.C. ties: Local band Möbius Strip and Daly’s own Insurgence DC.

It won’t be Daly’s first time running a label. He had one years ago—Crisis Discs—but he put it on hiatus when he went into the record-store business. In the ’90s, Crisis Discs put out 11 titles, mostly punk bands from Georgia and Crooked Beat’s home state of North Carolina. In the early ’90s, Daly released one compilation, “Starter,” that did well at the time. It included some tunes from The Violets and Mercyland. “Starter” was Daly’s best seller, and he says he still sells copies to this day.

After Record Store Day, Daly will start work on what’s basically the D.C. version of “Starter.” The store owner wants to release a double LP sampler of new and recent D.C. music. He’ll formally announce the compilation in June, and ask bands to submit their music for consideration. “It will give bands five to six months to get their acts together and record some songs,” he says. He’s aiming to get nine or 10 bands on the comp. He’s not sure if it’ll be rock- and punk-only, or a broader mix; it depends on the submissions, and what he thinks Crooked Beat can sell.

Beyond that, Daly wants to get into reissues. He’d like to talk to some record labels who own the rights to old music and see what they’re willing to share. He wanted to reissue old material from D.C. stalwarts Trouble Funk and the deceased Chuck Brown, but he says he talked to the involved parties, and they weren’t interested.

That’s too bad. But still, younger bands might be thrilled to hear that there’s a new label in town sniffing out their music. Daly, too, sounds energized by the new project.

“I’ve been talking about it for the last seven years to my wife,” he says. Finally, last summer, he said, “I’m gonna do this now.”

Due to a reporting error, this blog post originally said that Crisis Discs’ “Starter” compilation included a song by Bob Mould’s Sugar. It did not. The compilation featured a song from Mercyland, who shared a member (Dave Barbe) with Sugar. The post has been fixed.