Crazy Priced Vinyl On EBAY

I'm confused by this. The track on the Myspace page has the same title/artist name as the single being sold on eBay, but the singer is female and the track doesn't sound to me like it was recorded in 1983 (sounds more like late 1990s). Also, the account given on the eBay auction page doesn't match the more detailed account given here:

http://alansrobinson.150m.com/past9.html

(There's no mention of any female singer)

Sorry, the way I presented that was a bit misleading. The eBay page and more extensive web page account DO more or less match, give or take a few minor details. But there is no mention anywhere of any female singer. Yet the 1990s-sounding Myspace track with female singer singing in what sounds like Scandinavian accent has the exact same song title and artist name as the record being sold on eBay and apparently recorded in 1983.

Must be totally unconnected and just a coincidence that the band name and song title are the same.

Unless they are trying to offload unsold singles to Syd stans.

I wondered if it was some kind of low level scam to deliberately fake an obscure early '80s DIY release, i.e. actually recording and pressing it up and pretending it was done in 1983. I concluded that it is probably genuine. But, as you say, the stuff about what a DJ or local newspaper reviewer said could be completely made up.

There are some recordings of this Cookie character on YouTube and he sounds nothing like the person singing on the Myspace "Summer Days" track so I think that is a red herring.

the track on the myspace has vinyl rip characteristics (crackle at the beginning) so i dunno, not really that impt

yeah looks more like a weird coincidence

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-TOMMY-JOHNSON-ALCOHOL-AND-JAKE-BLUES-RIDIN-HORSE-PARAMOUNT-1250-VG-/300969625287

One of two known copies apparently...

Yeah, I've been following this. Funny to think how the guy almost let it go for $4000 to a sneaking collector that picked up on the fact the seller didn't know what he had.

Not sure if it is necessarily 1 of 2, did you deduce that from the fact that someone in the questions mentioned digital copies seem to come from the same source? The price definitely suggests that it's one of two (for now) but was there really only one other known to exist before this one?

sneaky*

the only known copy belongs to Pete Whelan a longtime collector.

78 quarterly used to run a monthly feature called THE RAREST 78S in which they detailed who had which blues records and in roughly what condition. Not 100% complete and definitely not accurate anymore, but it gives a pretty good idea which records are, in fact, the rarest.

not just blues records -- also country records and jazz records.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/DinosaurDiscs/78+Quarterly+No+7.pdf

you can read here about Whelan's low-grade copy, and another copy sighted by a collector who was unable to acquire it from a "nutcase" in Cleveland..

Wow! So do you know of any collector circles right now clamoring about this?

well, people are very interested in watching it! the consensus seems to be that it's better than the other known copy, condition-wise, and that it could go for some ridiculously astronomical amount. i'm hanging out in jersey again this week with some collector dudes at yazoo HQ and i'm sure this will be a topic of conversation.

So this storage locker the seller says he acquired this from... I wish there was a way to track the history of that collection. Must have been a collector of note?

i dunno man. some people are just hoarders! it seems like the storage lockers are this guy's? and his wife is making him clear them out? he's certainly got some other good 78s up though. there are definitely people out there who collect outside of the normal collector networks..

i love that he's charging $4 for shipping.

Yeah, like with baseball cards "Sold for $79,999 + $2.50 Shipping"

well, people are very interested in watching it! the consensus seems to be that it's better than the other known copy, condition-wise, and that it could go for some ridiculously astronomical amount. i'm hanging out in jersey again this week with some collector dudes at yazoo HQ and i'm sure this will be a topic of conversation.

― ian, Monday, September 23, 2013 12:52 PM (28 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh yeah?? Listen to some "My Garden State" during your trip. I'll be nearby (childhood home) until Wednesday.

I didn't get to read the article yet- does it mention how many are thought to have been originally pressed?

i dunno man. some people are just hoarders! it seems like the storage lockers are this guy's? and his wife is making him clear them out? he's certainly got some other good 78s up though. there are definitely people out there who collect outside of the normal collector networks..

― ian, Monday, September 23, 2013 12:55 PM (31 minutes ago)

Yeah I think he bought up a locker somewhere and if so what a find.

my "1 of 2" source was that well known purveyor of truth Twitter, but what ian says seems reliable.

Yeah I wasn't saying you were wrong! I was just curious. It's fun to learn about these rarities.

oh sure, no offence taken! can't remember the account it came from now...

evan -- there's no note in the article about numbers pressed; there ARE usually company ledgers that indicate how many were SOLD, however. things that were not sold were destroyed and recycled -- during WW2 there were "shellac drives" where people would donate their old records to be repurposed for the war effort! strange but true!

alas, i don't think the ledgers with sales info are available publicly on the internet. they probably reside either with individual collectors or in a library collection somewhere.

Hmm! Well I guess I'd have thought there'd be some story behind why this particular one is so scarce.

well, it was the depression. and a lot of folks didn't have money to buy records, and record companies were pressing fewer records than before. it just probably didn't sell many copies!

Then I hope someone treats us to a digital rip from this copy! Looks super clean.

more speficically -- this record was recorded 12/29, just after the stock market crash, and probably not pressed and shipped to stores until a bit later -- those were hard times, especially for black folks with limited money to spend on entertainment.

The winner speaks!
http://www.fuse.tv/2013/10/why-i-paid-37100-for-one-record

Wow:

I traveled to South Carolina the night before the auction was over. I was that confident that it wasn't going anywhere else other than home with me. I checked into a hotel at 7 P.M. the night before it was over and e-mailed the seller and said, "I would like to come over and have a look at this before I make my final bid." He wrote back, "Nope. I'm definitely afraid of going outside the house with this thing. I don't want anyone knowing my address. You wouldn't believe what types of scams people have been trying to perpetrate on me with this record. Someone wrote me from New York City saying the record had been stolen from him and they wanted it back immediately. If you end up the winner, I'll meet you somewhere."

ian, fess up!

hahaha NOT ME MAN.
i only try to scam ppl out of rare hillbilly records.

$2000 for a mint orig copy of The Hissing Of Summer Lawns? gtfo

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MITCHELL-Joni-Hissing-OF-Summer-Lawns-75-ORIG-NM-NM-EX-Play-Graded-/251449088561?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item3a8b889a31

LOL

odd that his other items are reasonably normally priced. is there a crazy priced vinyl on discogs thread?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/EXTREMELY-RARE-MONSTER-ROCK-YUME-BITSU-ANDREW-RIEGER-OF-ELF-POWER-LIMITED-ED-500-/120968347334?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item1c2a467ec6

That's insane. 500 copies, and not even in NM condition. I'm guessing the four watchers are just people watching to see if anyone actually bids on this. I don't know the record, but is there any precedent for that starting bid? Surely "one of the guys in Elf Power" is alone not enough to command such a price. Or is it?

There are 10 copies for sale on discogs between £6-12!

Discogs, once again, proving to be the better place to buy vinyl online.

Just sent the seller a query as to whether, for that price, this album comes with an audiophile-grade turntable to play it on.

Fwiw at least 'Be Afraid' is one of the nicest tracks of Yume Bitsu.

this one is crazy as apart from the ridiculous price, the seller doesn't even have a copy yet but is counting on picking one up on record store day.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/William-Onyeabor-What-12-Double-LP-Vinyl-RSD-2014-Record-Store-Day-/331174768770?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item4d1b8df082

http://www.ebay.com/sch/shoeskate05/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc

Look at all of the "sold" listings of the same RSD 2014 items...

someone clearly wants to be sure they get a copy of the glow in the dark ghostbusters 10".

that dolly parton coverart is pretty dreadful ..

I hope this person can't get hold of all these records he's already promised (and sold!) to other people.

Holy shit why are Jack White tickets that much?