Frankie Crocker

Absolutely gobsmacking... Went for more than three times the usual amount. Buyer must have unlimited amounts of dosh to blow on records. Great tune by the way.

A few nice, affordable US 45’s, conservatively graded. PM to reserve please. Payment via PayPal, buyer to cover fees. UK postage £2.50 or £7.50 depending on below/above £50 insurance; overseas postage by arrangement. Thanks for looking. Shirelles-Look Away-Scepter VG++ DH £25 Jimmy Delphs-I’Ve Been Fooled Before-Carla VG++ unplayed store stock needs cleaning £30 Sherwoods-Ice Cream-Kapp WD M- £30 Sean Taylor-Too Late To Turn Back Now-Magic Touch WD Ex small ink mark on both labels £30 Richard Brown-Sweet And Kind-Steeltown VG++ blue label £20 C L and Pictures Talking About My Baby-Kirk VG- label stains £25 (Obscure but soundbites on YouTube and Popsike).

Ah ha... Outsourced low-wage labour reading off a card, passes for customer-service in bonus-oriented corporations. Well shabby.

You were lucky to be able to contact eBay and deal with a real person. eBay are THE problem. They impose the VAT. They factor in extra VAT on postage charges. Is there any evidence this US TNC pays taxes after diverting revenues via tax-havens? Some US dealers have found a way around the eBay imposition whilst others do not seem to be able to disconnect. Switching addresses has become increasingly complicated, and after one cancelled sale, I managed to amend my primary address to the US, preventing the falling through of another sale. US dealers must be getting fed up of this restrictive practice, so let’s hope they complain to eBay and things might change?

All the Price Guides are now out of date, and that's what they were, simply a rough guide, not a price-list. Each time a rare record sells nowadays, it fetches more than the previous copy, supply decreases further so prices rise. On John's website, the condition of auction items makes a huge difference to the final sales price but there’s the assurance you are buying from one of the world’s top dealers. That’s why you see ultra-rare records like Paulette up for auction on John’s site.

Thanks for posting as usual. Sparkels worth more than this, such a great record, virtually priceless, don’t expect to see many of this one up for sale in the near future. Kenny Carlton also a quality sound, hard to find in nice condition, someone will be mighty pleased with this purchase. Some really good records up for auction in the next few weeks so more PB’s expected. Full marks for John for livening up Wednesday evenings.

Some decent sounds. PM to reserve. Payment by PayPal please, buyer to cover fees. UK postage £7.50 fully insured: overseas postage by arrangement. Thanks for looking. Barbara Lynn-I’m A Good Woman-Tribe DJ VG++ £175 Orlons-Envy(In My Eyes)-Cameo VG WOL on reverse (Thanks & name) £60 Original Bluebelles-You’re Just Fooling Yourself-Rainbow Ex one small label stain £90 Sonny & Phyllis-I’ve Got Something On My Mind-Soft VG+ couple of scuffs £100 Delcos-Just Ask-Sound Stage 7 WD VG+ £75 Gwenn Stacey-Ain’t Gonna Cry No More-RCA Ex one small mark WOL on reverse (name in black so barely noticeable) £50

A small but select batch of good sounds. PM to reserve. Payment by PayPal please, buyer to cover fees. UK postage £2.50 insured up to £50 or £7.50 insured up to £500; overseas postage by arrangement. Thanks for looking. Commodores-The Zoo (The Human Zoo)-Mowest WD VG- £20 Edwin Starr-Time-Gordy VG++ £75 Contours-Just A Little Misunderstanding-Gordy M- £25 Stevie Wonder-Ain’t That Asking For Trouble-Tamla VG+ DH £15 Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell-Two Can Have A Party-Tamla VG++ £15 Temptations-(Loneliness Made Me Realise)-Gordy VG+ few light marks £15 Temptations-Check Yourself-Miracle VG+ few light marks DH £30 Miracles-Save Me-Tamla VG+ light marks £15

What an awesome piece of music journalism this is. Great photos, interesting summaries and handy links to the records. If I was in an airport right now, I’d buy a copy of Rolling Stone for the flight. Articles like this remind us what a phenomenon Motown was back in the day, and of course, going forward, every single day on the radio, all around the world. I think a Motown Top 1,000 would be entirely possible, and we would still be hearing lesser known tracks, familiar to later generations. For me, the Detroit years were the best; Motown went in a new direction as Berry headed for La La Land. Detroit era, early ‘60’s were the formative years; 66-69 was the vintage period when copyists all over the States tried to emulate the Motown sound, and hey presto, here we are, fans of the off-shoot music just looking over our roots. When this Covid thing is behind us, get yourself over to Detroit and visit the Motown studio - it is a humbling experience whatever’s on your Top 100 list...

...and TV adverts with BBC currently using an instrumental version to plug itself. I’ve got the Eddie Foster boot, the UK reissue and purple vinyl test press so admit to liking it a little. It certainly was great back in the heyday, and is worthy of its place in folklore.

Hi Tim. I’ve fallen a bit behind then. I’ll check them out on Amazon later, thanks. By coincidence, I just ordered a book from Amazon 10 minutes ago after steering clear of them for two years after they charged me for Prime which I did not want.

I have three editions. They came out over a short period of time. I’ve never compared them against each other, side by side: they differ in various ways though. Every now and again, I thumb through one or another just to jog the memory or add a title to the ‘wants list’. They are really fine books, nicely presented with good graphics. I look forward to the forthcoming edition in the hope it features some of the latest discoveries that have received dance floor acclaim up and down the country, not just in the North.

Good news Kev. A welcome addition. Can you please put Frank Wilson at number 500, right at the back in small print, thanks?

It’s all a blurr looking back 44 years, but the sounds were pretty good with 60’s newies and 70’s crossover popping up all over the place. Has anyone got scans of Blues and Soul adverts to remind us?

Can anyone confirm how many copies of Marvin Gaye were pressed? I read 200 somewhere but not sure. I thought all copies were in a picture sleeve but I guess some may have been discarded by DJ’s filing in white card sleeves. Cliff Nobles is a tough record to find these days and is a great sound too. You won’t find too many in soul packs today, or thrown off the stage at Allnighter anniversaries...

Four Perfections has crept past £600 and £700 in recent years. Cliff Nobles is a more recent spin, probably overlooked in the 70’s due to the artist being well known on a common label.

Usual thanks for posting. Four Perfections sold for a tidy sum - a top-drawer classic, and worth every penny. Thought Marvin would go for a higher amount...

The coloured stars relate to the seller’s rating. This reflects their level of eBay activity and can be analysed to check on the number of transactions and withdrawn bids. The star rating gives an idea of what sort of competition you are up against so it can be used to shape a bidding strategy. The numbers and letters with dashes in between mask the bidder’s ID but they can change making it trickier to monitor the winning bidder.

You were wise to decline the fake offers. The Second Chance offer is a scam as the price is determined by the high fake value rather than the lower third bidder’s figure. On the subject of the record under discussion, the bids are clearly suspicious so I would advise not getting involved. Look at other records the seller has for sale - there are only a couple bid on and one has a Private Bidder. If there were several good records up for auction, you would probably see Private Bidders shilling on all of them.

Private Bidders are bad news. I drop out of the running when they appear. I avoid bidding when they are the first to bid. When you think about it, what is the Private Bidder actually trying to conceal? They are an aberration on what should otherwise be an openly acceptable system. The masked ID’s used by eBay should be enough to hide bidders’ details so why allow Private Bidders? The Private Bidder is the fly in the ointment, the person best placed to rig the auction and push prices up without any intention of buying. eBay’s allowance of Private Bidders taints the system and promotes criticism - the very fact that we are discussing the topic tells you there is something very wrong with Private Bidders...

Trends goes for a tidy sum putting it beyond the reach of most collectors. Great sound, the group’s best by far and massively in-demand. The rest of the auction was slightly underwhelming though the Velvelettes made me blink twice.

Yes Steve. Several times. I’ve been waiting to pounce. One of my earliest favourites, right out of my price range in 1974. I have two variants but there’s always room for another one...

When the early Price Guides appeared, some record dealers were motivated to dig deeper into their basements and attics unearthing nice stock - that was a short, but sweet period. Later Price Guides contributed to price inflation but some US dealers stuck with early editions so buyers had bargains. Nowadays, Popsike and Collectorsfrenzy mean there are no bargains, but savvy dealers stockpile the rarer stuff - these are the stores to visit and revisit, trip after trip. It’s always worth taking a Price Guide such as Manship #5 or 6, so if you find a record that’s not in the book, it could be worth keeping hold of.

Hi James. You have missed the boat on this. The days of returning from the States with hundreds of records are long gone. Sure, there are common records going cheaply, often in unplayed condition, but you can buy those from UK dealers. Much depends on where you go, and the the record stores there. Most have been picked over so regularly, there is little to be had, but you can always hold out for that one item crate-diggers have overlooked. In 1996, I brought back over 500 records from Detroit, Chicago and places around - I carried 200, put 200 in the suitcase when it was a 70lb luggage allowance and the Mrs put a few boxes in her hand luggage. The weight alone makes it a difficult proposition. When the volcano went off in 2010, I was stuck in Texas for an extra week after touring around for a fortnight - that was a great delay as it bumped the haul up to over 300 records, a large proportion of which were duplicates to sell on - it takes a lot of time to find large numbers of records. These days, you are lucky to find 50-100 good records in a fortnight visiting ten stores in five cities. You could achieve similar on eBay and UK websites in a month, but it would only be a fraction of the fun. Top tips for travellers would be to visit any newly opened stores ASAP, chat to the store owners and discover the local contacts, jump at the chance to go to a collector’s house if invited, carry 100 old sleeves marked at 50 cents that look like they came from a yard sale or antique mall and walk through the Green Channel like you have nothing to declare. Be prepared to find little or nothing, but have a great holiday, clock up some miles, see the sights and any records found are a bonus.

Manship Guides, hands down. The prices are now academic but give a relative indication of record scarcity and demand. Manship 5 is good to travel with as it has info on bootlegs. Manship 6 is a bit thinner, on heavier paper but nice to have at arm’s reach for quick reference. Manship 7 is a thumping great hardback tome, fully expanded to include LP’s and with an interesting set of collectors’ contributions at the end. I have only bought the one Essential Guide but it contained some records that did not feature in the Manship series. I have a full set of Manship's books and strongly recommend them for identifying records regardless of prices.