Frankie Crocker

Where's anybody going to find a mint Judy Street in 2014? The vast majority are in collections and will never be sold. I paid John £200 for my copy over ten years ago so the current price tag is about right for this classic sound. Try finding one at a soul night and I think you'll be disappointed for a long time.

He should have already had plenty of soulful experiences in the womb. Studies show that babies exposed to music prior to being born are happier and healthier. The trick is to to now sit back and hope he finds his way through the maze. He already has a massive advantage in life, living in a soulful household, so sooner or later he should catch on to what is the best music out there. Just keep him away from Frank Wilson and he should turn out Okeh...

Manship #6 puts Joeys Dee at £50, but good though the track is, I doubt if you could sell it for £40 so £35 tops. Missed out on a mint USA one a few months back for under $20 but wasn't too bothered.

I blame Bruce Forsyth and the BBC...

Perhaps we should re-name the upstairs kiosk at Wigan the Boot Room? Keith Minshall must have shifted half of Simon Soussan's product via this emporium. In those days, no one really bothered about OVO as the sound was more important than the format.

I have Russ saying this on a live tape dated 31/4/74, ' anybody want a copy of that, seven quid' - Dana Valery was played at least five times in the main room at Wigan that night.

The £100 bidder with 100% bid activity looks mighty suspicious. The bids are totally senseless given the record has been described as a reissue.

Not sure re all the fine details but you can gift money up to a certain limit annually and avoid capital transfer tax. You can also buy a Will Form and complete it yourself without a solicitor being involved hence saving money to spend on more records...

Ah ha, the asset transfer bequest scenario. Not sure you need to value the collection at all. Better the value is as low as possible to avoid inheritance tax. Better still, gift the collection to the missus seven years or more before you die to avoid death duties. Ultimately, the collection is worth what your family can sell it for after you have passed on - ideally, you would price the items up individually ahead of time, particularly the most valuable, as these are more likely to realise a higher proportion of their notional worth. Records sold in a hurry realise lower prices - always best to sell patiently in well planned lots to achieve optimal revenue.

Frank Wilson - Do I Have To Keep Hearing This Song... Seriously, Brenda Holloway - Reconsider would be my pick of the 30 or so really rare or unreleased tracks in the Motown Northern archives that have been on the circuit for the last decade.

An interesting question but the answer depends on the purpose of the valuation and how mint the records are. If you are planning to sell the collection, you would do well to get 60% of the valuation whereas an insurance appraisal would more flexible according to the coverage you wanted for the premium paid. I would do as Bearsy said and price them up individually according to condition but if they are all mint or VG++ then go with the book price. Alternatively, just list the most valuable sounds say above £100 and value this part of the collection more precisely. Next, estimate how many records fall into categories such as cheap (£10-20), pricier (£25-50), valuable (£60-90) and do a ball-park calculation for each category. If thinking of selling, the collection can then be treated as a set of smaller collections with different re-sale conditions applying. Hope this helps.

Carl - thanks for the rapid response. Redemption awaits you, just attend a few soul nights and all will be forgiven. Despite the proliferation of small venues ie clubs, the rare soul scene essentially remains underground and the masses are unaware of it - this is how it evolved, and ideally, will remain. Northern Soul is for the tiny minority who seek it out so let's keep it from going mainstream. The tape dated 31/3/74 kicks off with the Olympics 'Same Old Thing' followed by Velvet Satins, Devonnes, Lee Andrews, Gwen and Ray... then ends with Junior Walker 'I Ain't Going Nowhere'.

Carl, Man of you to own up. You are evidently a soulful guy but you can achieve this state of nirvana at any half decent venue every weekend in Britain. Keeping The Faith means just that, not smearing it across the TV screens because you reckon you are 'better than the person next to' you. The BBC was out of order dressing the presenters as clowns and to get a young soulie do a backdrop for a biscuit was dog-training at its demeaning worst. You all looked stupid in the wrong setting and should be ashamed for dragging the scene down a notch. This weekend I shall be celebrating my 40th anniversary of starting the journey at The Casino by listening to a live tape made that night in March 1974 - appreciating good soul music is a personal thing, best expressed in the clubs where it is rooted and in the company of fellow soulies, hopefully something that won't change. On this occasion, you let your 'media head' over-rule your 'soulful heart' and and exposed the scene to ridicule...

My World Was Empty Without You...

Not aware of this seller but am interested as I collect Texas labels. Houston is a poor city for finding records but a few years back, there were reputedly tons in storage. Given the importance of the recording industry there, it is odd that more records haven't emerged from Houston. Bud Harper has cropped up a few times lately but via different sellers.

Feminine Ingenuity...sublime soul with a hint of Detroit, awesome music...

As featured on the One Show, Wednesday 26th March 2014...

World Champion floor work if you don't mind... Personally, If The Shoe Fits, then wear it rather than trashy trainers...How foolish does this youngster feel I wonder?

Well, I heard Bob and Frank and Al, but where was Marvin? At least with Dobie and Sandy etc the sound track was true to the 1970's. I think the presenters made total idiots of themselves so the soulies came across as just plain dumb by comparison. Not impressed with Elaine's contribution despite the nice dress. There were a couple of good dancers in the background but plenty featuring in the clips need to put in more 'bedroom mirror time'. At least the film promises to be worth seeing but the One Show feature will have done nothing to appeal to an outside audience. The three segments all made for uncomfortable viewing so the less said the better and maybe folk will soon forget this pointless episode.

Likewise. The tension's building. In fact, I'm so excited, I've put my brogues on to join in with the dancers...

Have you considered Ruby Sherry on Take 6? Superior flip namely Please Don't Go AND it's on vinyl rather than tinny styrene. Not sure of current value but seldom seen for offer and mystifyingly rated worth less than Ruby...

Big C? Time waster. Chancer. Attempted fraud but rumbled through stupidity. Had the decency not to crack the record deliberately. No wonder honest dealers/sellers lose faith in a business where transactions should be fairly straightforward most of the time.

Fair points. Popsike is not the perfect database but it is starting point in establishing a record's scarcity. Check out Fortson and Scott for example.

Tim Brown did an article for Record Collector getting on for 20 years ago - the list has barely changed apart from Danny Moore. He also put a wants list in Discoveries magazine roundabout then. Both of these are worth tracking down but until you see them, Manship's Million Dollars of Rare Soul is a great place to start. Remember, the rarest records have yet to be discovered in some cases. Some serious record-hounds like myself are sitting on the identities of potentially rare records and we are not about to disclose them. Go to Popsike and if there is just the one copy auctioned, it will be rare: two copies makes it particularly scarce etc. Get yourself a copy of Jeff Beckman's 'Soul Harmony Singles' and if the record you're considering isn't in there, it's probably rare. Finally, ask Butch if you can thumb through his Playbox or talk him into revealing a few cover-ups and listen to what he says...

Spot on Smithers. Pete and Sue are beyond criticism. Paul Mason was the guilty culprit, a media whore without a foot to dance on. Now we have another media nobody trying to drag Northern Soul into the open where it does not belong. Shame on any show-offs for even contemplating this prat-fest. Once upon a time, the BBC was a fine institution - now it has become a lazy, corrupt, self-serving shambles not worth the license fee. Do the dancers have the conscience to boycott the One Show - I would like to believe so but I very much doubt it?