Ever Had Someone Refuse To Sell You 45's?

[Ian Dewhirst]

HI ALL AND IAN D...A COUPLE OF THINGS TO SAY, (1) THE HARDEST PERSON TO SELL TO THAT I HAVE COME ACROSS, WITH OUT ANY DOUBT WAS "PEP" I HAVE NEVER SOLD A RECORD OVER IT'S ODDS, BUT AT WIGAN, PEP USED TO LOOK AT THE SALES PRICE TAKE 5 RECORDS OUT OF THE BOX AND STARTED TO HAGGLE ABOUT THEM ONLY WERE WORTH A 1/4 OF THEE PRICE, I THINK HE USED THIS TECHNIQUE THROUGH OUT HIS LIFE AS A PROMOTER ALSO, LIKE GETTING BLOOD FROM A STONE, A REALLY NICE BLOKE THEE (2) A PET HATE OF MINE, NOT HAPPENED IN RECENT YEARS, BUT IT GOT ME GOING EVERY TIME, AT RECORD FAIRS ALL-NIGHTERS CAR BOOTS AND SO ON. IT'S THE BLOKE WHO BUTS IN FRONT OF YOU WHEN YOU ARE LOOKING AT BOXES, THIS BLOKE WHOEVER HE IS WILL ALWAYS PULL THE RARE RECORD OUT, RIGHT UNDER YOUR EYES, GGGRRR! AND THE ADDY C RECORD WAS NOT A STAIN ON THE MAN AT ALL! HOWEVER I HAVE HAD IT OVER ON MOST! YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT DOPEY DICK FROM WOLVES, YEARS AGO AT THE OLD VIC IN WOLVES HE GOT A DALTON BOYS VIP DEMO FROM ME FOR 6 POUNDS? HAPPY AS LARRY HE WENT AWAY WITH A HOP! & A SKIP! NEXT TIME I SAW HIM HE SCREAMED AT ME & MICK S... IT'S A BOOTLEG I WANT ME MONEY BACK! HE SAID. F**K OFF SAYS I, P**S OFF SAID MICK!..WHAT DID HE THINK IT WAS FOR 6 POUNDS, HE WAS QUITE HAPPY THINKING HE HAD RIPPED ME OF! BUT ACTED LIKE A GIRL CRYING, IT IS A GOOD LESSON TO LEARN, IF YOU AIN'T SURE ASK. REMEMBER WHEN HE SOLD THE BROOKS BROS FOR A FEW QUID...MUPPET... AND IAN I AM AS HONEST AS THE DAY IS LONG! DAVE THE DIPPER KIL

Pep used to lug his regular boxes around everywhere. They were always full of impossibly rare records, all on white demos if I remember correctly. And there was a less than zero chance that he'd ever flog 'em. He wanted people to drool and drool we did LOL......

So I too used to look through his box but I never thought for one moment that his Volcanoes "Rules Of Love" or Little Joe Romans "Lonesome" would be available anytime soon. I just liked looking at 'em.

And I believe ya when you say that you're as honest as the day is long Dave. Any guy that goes by the dual monikers of 'Dthedrug' and 'Dave The Dipper' is obviously worth keeping an eye on!

But whatever you do, don't trust that Ady Croasdel. He's from London y'know............

Ian D

[dthedrug]

That's the inherent fear of someone else's superior knowledge. Every record dealer's curse.

I'm actually glad I never got too paranoid about that aspect. I like to share music so no big deal if my records go to someone who can make better use of 'em. Some records are better off with a new owner rather than festering on my shelves for 30-40 years. So records need to move on sometimes. Plus it's lovely to see records that passed through your hands eventually find an audience.

I've lost count of the amount of times I've taken an interest in a record and it suddenly becomes harder to own BECAUSE I've taken an interest. So that's why I had to develop a more nonchalant, easy going, none enthusiastic stance to buying rare records over the years. And then, when a few deals went my way, people accused me of being a two-faced confidence trickster. You can't win either way......

What I don't get is when I've revisited a shop and the owner immediately says something like, "Well, this time it's gonna cost ya, 'cos you ripped me off last time".

Rubbish. I liberated clearly priced records that he wanted to sell at the time at the price he put on 'em and was happy to sell 'em at. Just because I was lucky enough to to find his shop at my time and expense and buy some of his stock at the price he wanted, how's that ripping someone off?

Superior knowledge must be major irritant to dealers. It's hard to keep on top of everything and new scenes develop all the time so I guess there's a natural paranoia on an ongoing basis. It was exactly the same in the 70's with second-hand record shops and market stalls, where a healthy atmosphere of mutual suspicion would be routine between dealers and customers. All part of the rich tapestry etc, etc.........

Ian D

HI ALL "IAN" I WOULD NOT TRUST MYSELF LET ALONE, RECORD DEALERS, WITH THERE "IF THERE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SCENE AND THE CONDITIONS OF BUYING THE RARE STUFF OF THEM" IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN THAT WAY SINCE 1970, THOSE WHO COLLECT THE BIG STUFF, HAVE BOUGHT THERE WAY INTO THE SCENE, BUT THE REAL UPPER CROWD , KNOW FULL WELL THAT IF THEY SELL UP THEY HAVE A STRANGE PACT WITH THE RECORD DEALER TO SELL THERE RECORDS BACK TO THEM FOR HALF THE PRICE? THE TOP DEALERS WITH THE RARE STUFF ARE INA CLIQUE OF THERE OWN! AND NO THE GAME IS BASED ON NOT TO SELL THE BIG ONE, BUT TRADE IT FOR 2 RARE RECORDS THAT ARE NOT BEING PLAYED MAKING DOUBLE, ON THEM AT THE RIGHT TIME, THIS IS THERE LIVELIHOOD, BUT HONER AND LOYALTY THING IS DAFT, I HAVE SEEN IT TO MANY TIMES, OVER THE YEARS, ANOTHER RANT IS THE SLOB WHO WORKS IN THE SECOND HAND RECORD SHOP, AND EVEN WORSE THE BLOKE WHO SPENDS HIS LIFE IN THERE, TO KEEP HIM COMPANY, WHEN YOU WALK THROUGH THE DOOR, HE SAYS "YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN HERE 2 WEEKS AGO? I HAD A 100 REGGAE LP"s AND A BOX OF RARE BRITISH" C**T. I DON'T WANT TO NO! WHAT YOU HAVE NOT GOT, ALSO IAN YOU NO WHO I AM, WE HAVE MET OVER THE YEARS, UNLESS THERE ARE TO IAN D DAVE

[harpo1]

Pep well what can i say, wierd fellow, buying records from him was an experience, promoting with him aaarrrrggghhhh

But it was Ian who really pointed me in the right direction, honed my taste, and i had some amazing stuff off him.....too good to think about, wish i'd kept 'em.

And then theres Helen....love her.....many never got past that outer shell, a true friend

Miss 'em both

ph

[Guest Northern PhanTom]

Pep well what can i say, wierd fellow, buying records from him was an experience, promoting with him aaarrrrggghhhh

But it was Ian who really pointed me in the right direction, honed my taste, and i had some amazing stuff off him.....too good to think about, wish i'd kept 'em.

And then theres Helen....love her.....many never got past that outer shell, a true friend

Miss 'em both

ph

"Fatty Arbuckles" "Stoke"?

Tom

[Ian Williams]

Ian Dewhirst

That guy's been frustrating buyers for the last 30 years.

I've been arguing with him for that long anyway. The conversation usually went something like this:

Me: "I don't suppose there's any chance of looking through the stuff in the back room and behind the counter is there".

Guy: "Well, how it works here, is you tell me what you want and I'll see if I've got it".

Me: "Well, unfortunately I collect stuff that I don't already know, so I don't know what I want until I see it."

Guy: "Well, I guess you're out of luck then".

Me: "OK. That's a shame though 'cos I've got $10,000 burning a hole in my pocket......"

Guy: "Well, what do you want then"?

Me: "I don't know until I see it"

Etc, etc, etc, etc.........

Had the same conversation with him in '77, '87, '97 and '07. Last time I went in he offered me the lot for $250,000 and I said "it's a bit late now...."

Ian D

EXACTLY the same thing and conversation happened when me and Steve Harry went in around 8 years ago.

We felt so intimated and unwelcome that we left after about 10 minutes!

[Mick Howard]

Got totally p****d off one night at the 100 Club (mid 90's) when one well known wheeler/dealer refused to sell me a copy of Slowly Moulding which he had in a box along with a few other nice bits and pieces. The really galling thing was not half an hour has passed since I had asked him how much he wanted for it and he gave me a price!!!!!!! Why the f**k did he bring the tunes with him if he wasn't selling them? Perhaps he had a special clique of buyers and I wasn't in that circle......

Mick

[Goldsoul]

Amazed no one has mentioned WAX TRAX in Vegas -come folks get the craic going lol!!

I was the first guy to hit Richie in the nicest sense of the word.

I found great stuff at his home in Brooklyn in the 70's.

Since then he has become a world authority with a reputation to match.

He was definitely not a problem back in the day.

Edited May 16, 2010 by The Golden 101

[steve]

ha ha...beat me to that, happened loadsa times to me in 80's and early 90's..think some people just like to show off what they've got!

Or they could have just got it themselves from another dealer, lol

[Mattbolton]

Conversely,

I was trying to purchase a 45 off Henry Atkinson some years ago (at above going rate but I was sick off missing them at the right price).

I had well over half of the amount in cash (say £80) and offered a guaranteed cheque of about £30 for the balance.

After trying to convince him that the cheque wouldn't bounce (apart from the fact that the guarantee card covered up to £100) he still refused to accept as "he didn't know me" (which was crap since I'd bought a few things off him in the past).

So I told him the following. "i'm Joe Dutton, and you'll know me in future as the bloke who'll never buy another record off of you, you miserable cnut"

And I never have.

I remember about 8 years ago being at the Ritz allnighter and Anna saw a copy of Cashin' In in Henry Atkinson's box. It was £20 (when it WAS £20!). We scraped together our cash and literally had £19.50. Which meant, as usually was the case, missing breakfast.

He told us he wouldn't sell it to her. A 20 year old female soulfan. 50p short. I told him he was a tight fucker and have never locked eyes with him since.

I mirror your sentiment Joe. A right miserable cnut. I hope he's a pound short one day for live saving drugs.

[Dolly13]

The best ones ever was those people who used to let you look through there record boxes in record bars, and when you pulled somthing out they`d say OH NO THERE NOT FOR SALE wtf was all that about then

A stupid bloke at the 100club used to do the exact same thing, the last time he done was with a Jackie Beavers tune not spoke to him since

I had to laugh one night when he got his comeuppance, some geezer I knew, got the fella all excited about a record he had in his box for sale, then out the blue he shut his box walked of and said "sorry mate not for sale" not to you anyway...,lol

[Pete S]

I remember about 8 years ago being at the Ritz allnighter and Anna saw a copy of Cashin' In in Henry Atkinson's box. It was £20 (when it WAS £20!). We scraped together our cash and literally had £19.50. Which meant, as usually was the case, missing breakfast.

He told us he wouldn't sell it to her. A 20 year old female soulfan. 50p short. I told him he was a tight fucker and have never locked eyes with him since.

I mirror your sentiment Joe. A right miserable cnut. I hope he's a pound short one day for live saving drugs.

You don't get anywhere on this scene without being nice to people. It's no big deal doing favours for people, whether that means giving them a record they can't afford, letting them pay months later, starting funds to save peoples houses whatever, but it all comes around and that's why people always help me out when I'm in trouble, and that's fairly frequently! 50p??? I'd have let you off that AND made sure you'd got money for breakfast!

[dean jj]

In a shop in New Orleans many years ago the owner had one deck for lp's and one for 45's...that didn't work. When I used the 'wrong' deck he threatened to shoot me but after I explained the technical fault was as nice as pye. From a selling point of view the worst three types of customers are: 1] have a load of records saved but never send the money-especially with new releases which can loose there attractiveness after a few months and you have to wait a decade or so untill they are indemand again. 2] play something to someone they didn't know, they buy it, then complain bitterly six months later that another dealer has it cheaper. How did they know about it in the first place? These people are usually DJ's. 3] stand on the stall/shop asking endless questions about record values and related information without spending a penny. These are the same people who get all misty eyed about my old shop when I know they never spent any money in it. If all that sounds harsh then here is an equation for you: knowledge = mortgage.

PS. Arriving at a record fair with John Anderson was always fun-all the dealers got the vapours!