Frankie Crocker

I agree Richard. I’m struggling to remember if I even saw a copy. The current action on this record reflects several sellers parting with their copies rather than a hoard coming to market. On the subject of the Austin Record Convention, there was relatively little there in the way of decent Northern Soul and the few choice 45’s were priced sky-high to reflect recent auction valuations: only one dealer had top rarities but at eye-watering prices, another had a box of scarce collectables at unrealistic prices, whilst a couple of dealers had the odd item or two that could be sourced on eBay with a bit of patience. The highlight of the Austin Show was catching up with the collectors from the UK.

Ah, but a barometer stretching back 20 years. Love it or hate it, eBay is a reference point that guides savvy collectors. Trouble is, it’s not a totally comprehensive listing of all auctions on the planet.

If you look at the 100+ Goldmine CD’s, there are probably 2,000 or so uptempo classic Northern tracks compiled - subtract a few hundred as they’re duplicated then add on well known tunes not compiled and that pushes the figure closer to 2,500. This figure excludes classic Motown tracks that were the template for the uptempo sounds to follow in the prime years of 1966-1969. There are many poor uptempo tracks on the B sides of classic records but I would be inclined to ignore them as we’re really trying to enumerate excellent/very good/good/fair sounds that would be collectable. You sometimes hear about collections of 50,000 or 100,000 records but these will have RnB, crossover, Modern, beat ballads, mid-tempo etc but classic uptempo Northern will only constitute a small proportion of these mighty large collections.

Someone snagged a bargain with the Chi-Lites on Blue Rock. I’d have put ‘She’s Mine’ as the first track of the soundbite as this is a brilliant sound and twice as good as the one featured in the blurb.

I always thought Northern Soul was an underground scene confined to dark basements. Whoever thought it would be a smart idea to have a pratt's disco on the back of a lorry, should have given it a bit more thought, then scrapped the whole idea.

Baffled as to why an Esther Phillips demo should go for four or five times the going rate of an issue valued at £100-125?

I bought the record for the other side about 24 years ago. I must have sampled the Stanky side and ruled it out as I didn’t bother writing this title on the cardboard sleeve. I would hazard a guess that Stanky started getting spins at some point in the last decade but I don’t know precisely when.

Jay D. Martin was the surprise of the night fetching more than double the going rate. Several records were flops and would’ve made more on eBay.

For those not in the know, the main entrance to the Casino is where the chap in the light raincoat is standing holding his shopping bag - the doorway was barely two people wide, and when the soulies were admitted, one half of the door was in the shut position hence the huge crush to get in. Behind the Empress sign was the Beachcomber, a free warm-up venue opened up whilst the main hall was being prepared for the Allnighter.

And now there’s one on Manship’s auction, it’ll be interesting to see if it achieves four figures. Agreed, £800 is excessive even before eBay postage and taxes are added in.

I’ve now worked out why Manny has record auctions - this way, he has free publicity on Soul Source. Apart from Rita and The Tiaras which was obviously an auction item, just about everything else went for a set-sale price. Ted Wilson went for less than expected, so someone had a bargain.

Henry’s prices are very fair and reasonable. Too many British sellers think they can achieve maximum eBay prices for records they paid peanuts for. If buyers are patient enough, their record wants will come along sooner or later.

The Majestics on Linda DJ actually sold for £934.01 Today, Henry Atkinson’s sales list had an issue and a DJ copy for sale at £425. Buying records on an auction with a global audience can seriously damage your wallet.

The promo on Linda isn’t worth £800 although someone felt the need to pay that much for a copy (plus all the hidden taxes). The purple issue on Linda is much scarcer. Rampart white demos are styrene so possibly less desirable. The blue Rampart issue featured at the start of the thread is the scarcest variation, but presumably on styrene? Factoring in the David and Ruben green issues and white demos on Warner Bros vinyl means there are six ways of owning this tune, and what a truly great sound it is too.

Maybe we’ve entered an era of ‘semi-instrumentals’ with the likes of Manny Corchado and Gentleman June Gardner being two of the biggest tunes in recent years? I put ‘Ton Of Dynamite’ in that category, but in truth, it felt like a vocal back in the day. None of the previous posts mention Mike Post or Travis Wammack, two of the biggest instrumentals of the 70’s. Super-fast dance music for serious dancers. There’s still a place for soulful instrumentals these days - plenty of top tunes have a great backing track on the flip eg Al Wilson’s ‘Help Me’, Saxie Russell’s ‘Psychedelic Soul’ to name but two brilliant pairings.

I hope you’re gonna treat the handbag brigade to 6 by 6...now that’s what I call a proper party-starter.

All you need to do is win a record then the message flashes up. I don’t know if eBay have published this new tactic. I got the new message at least twice when competing for records a week so ago, but not all the records I won. As mentioned above, instead of instant confirmation of the winning bid, the message informs the bidder calculations are taking place and to refresh the page to see the bidding history.

A recent eBay innovation involves them not stating ‘You Won This Auction’ but instead saying hold on while we calculate who won or words to that effect. This seems mighty odd. Yes, a last second collision of multiple bids could need sorting out. On the other hand though, this action gives eBay more time to act in their own interests...

Yes and Jack Montgomery and Danny Wagner...the words ‘Set Sale’ come to mind...

No, these two copies were different. John’s went up first. Then the second one popped up giving bidders the option of dodging the inevitable premium price John’s would go for. Tonight’s price for Chuck just proves some people have plenty of money and are prepared to spend it on rare records.

Hi Billy. Hope you’re well. I guess you missed the white demo on Steve Jeffries web-site hence your request. Just checked again and couldn’t see it so presume it was snapped up at a bargain price... Not seen a gold issue for quite a while so good luck in your quest mate.

Don’t know who the person is, but like you, I’m curious. I don’t think they own the records as they are generally ‘nice’ scans rather than a mixture of used labels. I’ve read some of the comments posted on YouTube but there is nothing to suggest who puts up the sound-clips. It looks like someone has set out to create a channel that has a sizeable following that could possibly yield a small financial return. Throwing the cat amongst the pigeons, it could be several people called Brian, Colin, Malcolm and Ignatius but I have no proof of this...

I used to have records delivered to my work address until I retired, but this was more to do with safe delivery with someone on reception to sign for them. The only time a delivery ‘failed’ was when someone in my block of flats stole the record from the postbox. Always best to tell your partner what you’re spending so they can see the assets appreciating and the estate growing.

Not seen one for sale for a long, long time. A really good sound and well worth searching for. Be prepared to pay whatever it takes to win a copy.

As were many of the records that now sell for three or four figures. I sold a copy with the help of Soul Source on 15/11/18 for £70 plus postage. Yet again, John achieves a stupidly high price for a common record.