Frankie Crocker

I’m inclined to agree with you. The US auctions are not throwing up much at all just lately. The bigger sellers are falling back on poorer condition stock and maybe selling UK slow-sellers on commission. Record stores in the States are closed at present so the crate diggers are not uncovering stock. Some of the best records for sale recently have been offered on Soul Source. There are at least three sellers trickling out the best items in their collections, choice items being offered to fund the purchase of a major want, and loads of low end stuff being cleared out to make room for more.

The maladjusted market has already readjusted itself. One millionaire splashed out and the underbidder found a copy on eBay... The price is back to £350 if everybody stays calm. Tim’s auctions are a strange affair - the rarest of the rare fetch decent money but these are true rarities from Tim’s personal collection. You should monitor the bidding on Pat’s auction items and note where many of them end up. We already have one self-confessed millionaire buyer/collector/entrepreneur/ out there who can out-bid everybody. There are other folk in the music business who should be buying the rare records we are talking about if they have any sense and want to spend their millions on something enjoyable. A mate of mine is on the Sunday Times Rich List and he likes Northern...as it happens, he is not collecting at present. Not every expensive purchase is as daft as it may seem - the money’s out there but regrettably not in our hands.

Not a chance in a million. Some USA chancers with a beat up copy will try it on, but they will be laughed at. Unbelievable there’s a second person who would pay four figures for this record. I doubt anyone would pay £500 for it in the coming months unless he was a Premier League footballer

Well, someone’s having a Good, Good, Good, Good Feeling tonight... This is a £350 record, or it was until now. Gentlemen June usually fetches half on eBay - loads of this one around. Mr Big Shot (Set Sale spot) par for the course and recent reactivation plus demand have nudged this well beyond the £200 mark. Falcons was £30 about 25 years ago - great record and hard to grab but never worth £1,300-£1,400.

Definitely a topic worthy of discussion. I am not sure why eBay have introduced this surcharge. Neither am I sure why it is classed as a VAT charge. UK-USA transactions should not be affected by any post Brexit legislation surely? At a guess, I suspect it is the tax evasion antics of the FANGS that have prompted government to clamp down on the likes of eBay etc who shift their finances offshore to mask profit levels and tax potential. So, as I see it, this 20% is something eBay will keep and maybe, just maybe, give a bit to the government, but I would be doubtful about the whole procedure. The upshot of this charge will be to deter bidders, force bidders into factoring extra charges into calculations, a fall in US sales figures quoted on eBay, Popsike etc and a global shift in record buying. Some will boycott USA eBay sellers and switch buying preferences to UK sellers on eBay, Soul Source or privately when soul nights etc return. Looking further ahead, maybe collectors will fly more frequently to the States on buying trips, record conventions and private business.

Great photo of Shirley here. The picture appears on the front of The Wigan Casino Story Goldmine CD (GSCD51). I am pictured in the crowd photographs inside the sleeve notes, a photo taken close to the time the Footsee picture sleeve image was captured.

A copy might just have sold in Pennsylvania for £800+. The Count has been putting it on eBay for months, discounting a little every now and then. I suspect he’s had an offer he could not refuse so its been removed from his sales list. Someone might have got a bargain as the record was in decent condition.

I’d have taken the Jeanette - still not got one but refuse to pay the going rate in the hope it will dip in value. Great record too. Hayes Cotton is a special case - decent sound but known more for its rarity. I would have tried to negotiate a trade. Rare records are worth more than money - you can trade records you don’t like for records you like.

Hi Steve. Sometimes, as a DJ, you might be expected to buy records that other people like, even when you not fond of them. It’s OK to sell records to raise the funds to buy more records - no shame there. But, as we’ve mentioned, dealers intercepting auction items to hike up sales prices and profits is dastardly from a frugal collector’s point of view.

Yes, the seller hiding his mates’ bids or his other eBay account details or just keeping his business ‘private’ wink, wink, nudge, nudge. ‘Private’ means avoid, steer clear, watch out, something fishy going on...

Fair question. But when you’re in a store in the USA, you sample the first few bars, if they sound Northern, they go in the ‘definite’ or ‘maybe’ piles...let the piles stack up, take the lot and count the cost later. Buying in bulk can be hazardous - in every 100, there will be one cracked, one off centre, a few you can’t get into and hopefully a few that will grow on you. In this case, the sound did not grow on me back in the UK but some of the initial regret has evaporated tonight. The worst regrets I have were when I didn’t buy a record when I could or should have.

Yes, rather surprising. My particular interest stems from having a copy, but I wondered if it was the same as the one quoted in the Manship Priceguide. I regretted splashing out $2-300 about 15 years ago but now I’m thinking I should try harder to like this record.

The Private bidders have shivved the number up, but surely nobody put in a genuine bid. Hopefully someone will refer the case to eBay.

Magnetics currently at $787. All the bidders’ identities are hidden for a Private reason, probably because there is something to conceal

Further research on Popsike and Soul-Source shows copies with identical labels and release numbers. From this, it looks like there's only the one version which prompts the question of what was the Manship Priceguide referring to?

Just wondering whether there are different variations of the release currently up for auction 6/1/21. I Need Your Love/Two Wrongs Don’t Make A Right is listed in Manship’s Priceguide #7 at £300 and quotes the release number as ds1036. So, are there two versions of this release with different matrix details in the run-out, or is there just the one version? Any info out there would be appreciated.

Thanks Chalky. I was thinking along the lines of 70’s Emidiscs being cut on 7 inch acetates at 45 rpm so when 10 inch oddities appear, what was the cutting standard? The more I look at the acetates in question, the more baffled I am. The recent one also has significant edge damage like the previous two but they all look different suggesting someone has got hold of some old, damaged discs... Mike’s point above points to details that anyone would question.

Alarm bells now ringing. I smell a rat. Apologies to anyone I might have mislead earlier. The seller could explain the provenance to help clarify matters. Another thing puzzling me is how can a 10 inch disc play at 45 rpm when a 7 inch record would (in contrast to a 12 inch playing at 33.3 rpm)?

Hi Keith. If you’ve not yet decided on a cover photograph yet, could I suggest you opt for a collage of membership cards, patches and record labels. I do not think a single cover photograph would do justice to your project - a range of photos would certainly enhance the contents, but many of the high quality ones out there have been used in earlier publications. Is the publication date known yet? Looking forward to seeing the book on sale.

Very noble of you. You would have been justified had you paid a large sum for it in the first place. A commission sale should ideally return the original outlay but the risk at auction is you can actually lose out.

I’ve only got the yellow demo...has anyone got a black felt pen I can borrow to colour it in? A mate of mine had the orange release of the Detroit Executives on Pameline so he coloured it with a green felt pen for a joke...well he’s not laughing now as it’s selling for £100

Doni Burdick and Soul Communicators achieved four-figure status having crept up and up, year after year. Not seen the Patti Austin release on a black issue very often. These are all top-drawer sounds and essential records for serious collectors. David Gage went for a much lower price than Manship’s Priceguide figure. Virtually unknown records like this suffer from lack of exposure and therefore limited demand. I suspect this was the copy offered on Soul Source but nobody took the plunge. Had I been the owner of this rarity, I would have kept hold of it. I was surprised it was not withdrawn from the auction given the minimal interest shown.

The whole haul has an eclectic look about it. The range of acetates suggests an interesting variety of sources. There are Emidiscs present that might set alarms ringing. The two disks in question look like studio test presses and at 8 inches diameter, not a 70’s knock-off. Someone has paid a hefty sum for the Washpan disk so were convinced it had potential value.

Thanks for the heads up. I’ve just checked the red labels on Popsike and they indicate Jet Set as the B side. In Manship #6, both demos and issues have the same B side, Jet Set. There was some controversy about the B side as I can remember taping it for someone to clear up a problem. Pleased to see that it has appreciated in value so £275-£325 appears to be the current price range for a mint copy.

They both look totally legit. Sadly, the pair look like they are delaminating on the run-ins with the lacquer missing. The turntable looks a bit naff so the stylus may be worn? That said, to auction a disc like this in the hope it will fetch good money, the seller should attempt to explain the three skips; are there noticeable nicks or gouges causing the problems? If the lacquer is actually missing where the disc skips, this should be made abundantly clear. Some skips can be fixed easily so if there is scope for this, it could be indicated. This could be a bargain-buy, especially if the disc is OK and the turntable is at fault, but who would be willing to spend big to find out?