The Bootleg Stigma

[paup-ine]

After reading the Sweet sherry thread got me thinking about the old style bootlegs which i have loved over the years and recently sold.

Thinking that OVO is the best, I parted with some old, trashed, battered boots that I had from the start. Now I am sorry, cos I feel I was led into thinking that having those were wrong, OVO was the only way. I should of thought for myself instead of parting with such loved oldies, even though they were trashed. I should of been a bit more individual in my decisions. They may be rubbish to you, but part of my past & memories.

What have you parted with bootwise or other that you thought had a stigma attached to?

[Guest Bearsy]

i have tried to part with every bootleg i own but no one wants them, i wish i never bought them in the first place but then i didnt know the difference of what its like to own the real thing and to me every penny spent on them was money wasted when i could of bought something of the same value but the real thing, i know a couple of mates that wont part with theirs cos when they bought them they thought they was the reall thing and now have an attachment to them which i supoose over 30/40 years is an easy thing to do

[Supercorsa]

I have got quite a few boots from when I attended scooter runs in the 80's. I wouldn't sell them as they hold memories to me from that time, when I was younger. One that sticks in my mind is the Nightbeat EP, containing Tony Clarke - Landslide, Billy Butler - Right Track, Chubby Checker - At The Discotheque & Jimmy Soul Clark - Sweet Darlin'. Within the past few years I have obtained originals of all these, but I will not part with that EP for all the tea in China!

[Pete S]

Nearly all my own records are boots, I can't afford to keep originals as I sell them for a living, I would never, ever sell my boot collection, there's 37 odd years of my life wrapped up in those 45's.

Records come and records go, I've had thousands and thousands of originals, some of them mega-rare, but I always come back to my box of favourites, be they reissue, UK 70's, pressing, whatever

[Pete S]

i have tried to part with every bootleg i own but no one wants them, i wish i never bought them in the first place but then i didnt know the difference of what its like to own the real thing and to me every penny spent on them was money wasted when i could of bought something of the same value but the real thing, i know a couple of mates that wont part with theirs cos when they bought them they thought they was the reall thing and now have an attachment to them which i supoose over 30/40 years is an easy thing to do

Should have offered them to me, I'd have bought them

[paultp]

I regret selling my "advance pressing" 70's bootleg of Reconsider and possibly Lou Pride but that's about it, didn't really have many boots tbh.

My missus has a box of records she bought in the 70's which I will not sell for her because they are part of her life history. I sneakily add one or two of her favourites to it now and again. I recorded them all onto her ipod for her when I bought it for her a couple of years ago.

[Matt]

Nothing wrong with boots but I don't like to hear them played out at events. The originals often cost far too much to own. Before CD's buying boots was one of the only ways you could play your favourite tunes at home whilst dancing round the kitchen! I don't tend to buy boots unless they are cheap at a bootsale and you can sell them on to fund my addiction for originals! There are so many good compilation CD's which can be bought easily today to be heard at home.

[John Moffatt]

i have tried to part with every bootleg i own but no one wants them, i wish i never bought them in the first place but then i didnt know the difference of what its like to own the real thing and to me every penny spent on them was money wasted when i could of bought something of the same value but the real thing, i know a couple of mates that wont part with theirs cos when they bought them they thought they was the reall thing and now have an attachment to them which i supoose over 30/40 years is an easy thing to do

Hi mate, interesting that you can't sell your bootlegs. Like most, I suppose, I collected a load of boots in the 70s, 'cos I didn't know any better. Nowadays I'm trying to replace them with originals, where I can afford to. The point is that, being mainly well-known tunes, I can sell my boots every time, but if I list a few not-so-well-known originals, they just gather Ebay dust. I have barely sold an original in months, either on the web or from a box at events. Perhaps if I put them out at £1 each they might go, but I've got my doubts even then. Very strange.

[Steve L]

Sold all mine that I'd had from the 70s a few years ago and haven't really regretted it.

Having an original 1960s pressed record in my hands means much more than the nostalgia associated with the old bootlegs even though I had em for 30 years.

I've managed to replace some with originals but it wont be possible to replace them all (Tomangos, Salvadors etc) unless I win the lotto!

[Guest garysoul82]

I have got quite a few boots from when I attended scooter runs in the 80's. I wouldn't sell them as they hold memories to me from that time, when I was younger. One that sticks in my mind is the Nightbeat EP, containing Tony Clarke - Landslide, Billy Butler - Right Track, Chubby Checker - At The Discotheque & Jimmy Soul Clark - Sweet Darlin'. Within the past few years I have obtained originals of all these, but I will not part with that EP for all the tea in China!

Ive still got that EP myself.I think i got it at the skegness scooter rally in 83.Im sure it plays on 33 rpm.

[Guest MrC]

Nothing wrong with boots but I don't like to hear them played out at events. The originals often cost far too much to own. Before CD's buying boots was one of the only ways you could play your favourite tunes at home whilst dancing round the kitchen! I don't tend to buy boots unless they are cheap at a bootsale and you can sell them on to fund my addiction for originals! There are so many good compilation CD's which can be bought easily today to be heard at home.

I totally agree.

I have a couple of 70s/80s boots which I've picked up for next to nothing, and they are of things I couldn't hope to afford at the moment, and even though I wouldn't ever play them out or even leave them in a box I took out, I do enjoy playing them at home, I don't like CD's particularly, but do tend to buy them, then rip them to my PC and play them from there, but it's not the same as puting an actual record on the decks and cranking the volume up.