Frankie Crocker

Finally the real music lovers come to their senses and realise vinyl is a better format for listening to. The apparent vinyl shortage does not seem to have impacted upon the new issue businesses judging from the proliferation of re-packaged oldies. The growth of vinyl records could stimulate production of record players so that's a positive development.

Agreed. Some UK sellers are living on Planet Zanussi. Maybe the the original owners passed on leaving collections to greedy, grasping offspring who know nowt...

Loadabollocks... Getting sick of dealers relisting records that failed to realise previous stupidly high auction figures. Getting pretty sick of greedy scaredy-cats who want us to buy their stuff with starting bids in excess of $5,000. Memo to USA dealers - price your records right and we’ll buy them in a hurry; rip us off and you’ll lose a loyal high-rolling buyer.

Soooo Soulful. Thanks for posting.

It’s all been said before... Would love to own the Honey Bees - worth every penny. I do own half a dozen of them however, as they are jolly fine tunes and a great addition to any collection.

Totally predictable. And it won’t sell at that price, but it might look good in the ‘shop window’. Makes you wonder what deals are going on ‘under the table’? When one dealer’s records are often another dealer’s ‘auction wins’, sooner or later, punters will spot the unrealistic prices, potential inflation, records not selling and give the whole merry-go-round a big miss.

Thanks for posting as usual. This was virtually a Set Sale evening. Common records in the main, selling for what they should go for. Just the odd rarity in the batch. By following John’s weekly auctions, you do at least have a good idea of the new stock he’s just had in. I guess that once a dealer has committed to having a weekly auction, they have to pad it out with common collectables to maintain interest. Anyone know how many copies of Dream Team have been sold in recent years? You get the impression there are still dozens out there.

Thanks for posting as usual. Your contributions are always well thought through. Picking up on the point you referred to regarding session musicians travelling to Philadelphia. In another recent Soul-Source thread, I said the Peanut Duck recorded at the Virtue Studio, sounded distinctly Detroitish. This got me thinking that footloose musicians maybe travelled from their home city to contribute to recordings in other cities. Although the Detroit session men were kept busy, I suspect an opportunity for them to record elsewhere arose when they were on tour.

Should have bought Dave Charles from Pat Brady for £200 all those years ago. Back then, £200 was a lot to pay for a record; so, I blew £200 on a soul pack of 100 records instead. Huge mistake. With hindsight, I dearly wish I’d bought Dave Charles, but I ain’t gonna blow that sort of dosh on an £800 record.

‘Tis the season to be jolly. Manship’s Mints are very tasty. Better than those After Eight ones. They are called Mint records as they make John a mint hence the saying, ‘well and truly minted’.

Could be, Chalky BUT it’s pure Detroit in sound. Don’t know who the band were but it sounds like Detroit’s best players were in it.

Raw Detroit. A really dirty, Detroit number. Best played to a drunken floor at a Christmas party perhaps. I love this tune; poetry to my ears. If you know the Detroit sound, this is simple, entry-level, Northern Dance Music, but for the connoisseur. Sure, it’s not perfect, but some maestros put it together. The vocal is insane, but so too is dancing the night away when you’re off your trolley.

I’ll take the vinyl boot off you... Keep the styrene one as it plays through perfectly

The Gwen Owens had a nasty skip. Surely that would be off-putting? If the white demo plays without skipping, surely it’s worth waiting for a copy to come up for sale. Guess I’ll stick with the styrene boot bought in 1976.

Maybe? Time will tell... Will look good in the online shop window, but the mark-up won’t tempt many. But, if I was a millionaire and didn’t have a copy of Cecil, I would splash out on a nice mint-unplayed one.

Hi Floyd. This is a really useful piece of information. I am on the mailing list, but do not recall Cecil in the last three years, but there may have been the odd one that I completely forgot about. Popsike reveals four mint copies sold in recent years, but only one clearly sold by paperstax. So, has a load turned up? Who found them and where? I think a lot of record dealers and collectors would be interested in hearing the facts.

Some of these prices didn’t change much in the last week. I guess flogging Set Sale records like Lonnie Lester, Sheila Anthony and Harold Melvin appeals to a few, but they’re just not auction records.

A desperate impulse purchase. Darren obviously has to make something on the transaction, hence the high price for the grade. Now, if the (original) seller of this particular disc was the person who actually won the Manship copy recently, that could be seen to be smart business, especially if the record was acquired for a small sum a long time ago.

It’s all a bit hypothetical as John Manship doesn’t have copies of the Four Voices or the Soulettes currently up for auction... Don’t forget, the Four Voices has two very good sides, with some people possibly preferring ‘With A Lonely Heart’. Records with two sides should really command bigger price tickets at auction. For the record, I won my Four Voices in one of John’s auctions a long time ago. It was a top-all-bids offer that cost £1,200. My Professionals cost $3. A second Professionals cost $100 but went in a cash/trades deal that netted the Silhouettes on Good Time.

But if the box was big enough, maybe it wouldn’t have fallen off the lorry in the first place, or the driver might have spotted it before driving off. In any case, the theoretical inner box should have been an 8 inch by 8 inch cube chocker- block full of cardboard stiffeners, making the contents virtually indestructible.

Don Gardner should have been packed in a box in a box in a box... Why put a record in a thin packet that can be run over by a lorry when you can put it in a BIG box??? These scans of cracked records are traumatising...

I thought auction records were removed when the winner paid? Maybe the winner(s) have still got to pay up? Maybe there’s another explanation...

That’s more like it. Much more plausible.

Very doubtful. Records pressed back then were put in 25 count boxes, cartons of four 25 count boxes, and sometimes in boxes of 200. It would be extremely difficult to lift a box of 500, let alone 1,000. Still, it augments the legend just a little bit. I know a Detroit dealer who made contact with a local record wholesaler 10 years ago, who allegedly had all the rarities but wouldn’t allow anyone in to look over them. To the best of my knowledge, he still hasn’t had the stock reputed to be in the warehouse. And so the quest to find dead stock of Cecil Washington continues.

Well, what a night it’s been. The final sales price was not as hyped up as some predicted. Many thanks to all contributors to the thread - your thoughts certainly made for a more interesting auction. Big, big thanks to Andy Rix for his contribution. When people look back over this thread in years to come, they will be amazed to see the lengths some collectors went to, and the important information unearthed along the way. And to my particular interest in Cecil Washington... Yes, I have a copy so I wanted to see the Manship value rise. I also have a spare copy in my trades box, but I think I’ll sit on it a bit longer until the right record comes up for sale. Please, no offers or PM’s on this as I don’t want to lock the thread. Like a lot of us on Soul Source, I’m in it for the records and the music, the money’s just incidental.