No need to put any hats on m8, it's a good discussion. And your view sums up the UK northern scene from the Burnley perspective. The lack of a truly regular upfront venue pushing new sounds does have an influence on creating demand for new northern records. But that's only a very small part of the collecting scene now, as we all know.
Without wishing to 'diss' the oldies brigade either (I can do that on other threads ) Ian makes a good point about many of the northern oldies on 45 not being wanted anymore - unless they are trophy 45s (or Butch has reactivated them) which is kind of where I was coming from. There is clearly a big demand for certain records (Tomangoes, Ty Karim being two examples from the last week, and you can add Eddie Parker, Del Larks, Salvadors etc to that list) but the majority of oldies - nah - you see the same records in boxes from one year to the next.
But collecting has always been about far more than just northern.....and when I said the "old rules" have changed I was referring to the globalisation of soul record collecting - with perhaps increased interest in all sorts of other styles and genres, replacing traditional northern "demand".