Getting too much money for your records, C or D?

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Every once and a while, when I'm not lazy, I'll post some of my collection up on eBay. I always make the starting price more than reasonable. I'm more concerned with making sure the records in question find nice homes than in making a bundle.

But every so often, a bidding war will begin and someone will end up offering me what seems an extravagant amount for something I don't think quite deserves it. I feel guilty when this happens, like I should offer a discount to soften the blow. For example, someone paid $150 for Songs of the Mediterranean (Folkways anthology compiled by Henry Cowell), and $70 for The Painted Word by Television Personalities.

Has this ever happened to you? What do you make of it?

― Amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 16 January 2003 21:24 (twenty-three years ago)

$70 for The Painted Word?! Wow.

When the New Radicals were on the scene, I found Gregg Alexander's solo disc, Intoxifornication, at the used cd shop for cheap. I threw it up on eBay just to see what would happen. It sold for $90. I immediately went back to the shop and bought the other three copies (which each sold for between $50 and $60). I spent $20 up front, and made approximately $250 after all was said and done. And I felt no guilt of any kind.

― paul cox (paul cox), Thursday, 16 January 2003 21:31 (twenty-three years ago)

A friend of mine found several private-press Charles Mingus LPs in upstate New York for $8 each, and resold them in NY for hundreds apiece. (However the hundreds spent on them was probably justified, unlike the $70 for the TVPs record I mentioned above.) He wrote an article about it for a record-fetishist journal, I forgot which.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 16 January 2003 21:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I want me some of that action -- so i'd let them pay whatever the market will bare. But, if you feel guilty, instead of offering a discount, maybe you should just send along a bonus album.

― christoff (christoff), Thursday, 16 January 2003 21:34 (twenty-three years ago)

(I meant to write that he resold them in NYC.)

― Amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 16 January 2003 21:37 (twenty-three years ago)

I think I mentioned in a previous thread the $60 someone paid me for a Maow single (early Neko Case band, not Cath Carroll). That's just absurd - Neko was the drummer, for gosh sakes!

― mike a (mike a), Thursday, 16 January 2003 21:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Seems fine to me, though I get slightly skeptical about people who enjoy doing this on purpose. But that's s bias due to Bad Man during record store days who would put items on hold, post them to eBay, and then come back to actually pick up whichever ones got the highest markup.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 16 January 2003 21:38 (twenty-three years ago)

He wrote an article about it for a record-fetishist journal, I forgot which.

Wax Poetics??

― JasonD (JasonD), Thursday, 16 January 2003 21:48 (twenty-three years ago)

Ya, that's it.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 16 January 2003 22:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i once did a check on ebay to find the most expensive items, then spend an afternoon chugging round some shops to find 'em.

Picked up an out of print cd by some twat from the moody blues at a second hand shop for about 7 dollars, after seeing go for over $300.

listed it on ebay, and some fanatic from latvia bid $320 for it, then he wrote to say that that this was one of the best days of his life ( i resisted the temptation to say the same thing ! )

not bad for an afternoon's work...

PS. No guilt. I had done the guy a favour.

― Jack Battery-Pack (Jack Battery-Pack), Thursday, 16 January 2003 22:11 (twenty-three years ago)

i once sold an EP from an australian band (something for kate) for $200 AU, that i bought for four or five bucks when it came out (and at the time, I didn't think it was worth the money at all! hahaha silly me!)

― Mil, Thursday, 16 January 2003 23:19 (twenty-three years ago)

I got $30 for Songs: Ohia - Protection Spells.

Unfortunately I bought it for $30.

― , Thursday, 16 January 2003 23:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Classic of course. Most collectors are aware of how stupid they are with money.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Friday, 17 January 2003 00:37 (twenty-three years ago)

The thing thats really stupid is that most of these people should know where they would be able to get these records cheaper!! But hey if you really want to give out an astronomical amount of cash for a record or cd that you can get form 10-15 bucks in a store, feel free.

― brg30 (brg30), Friday, 17 January 2003 01:24 (twenty-three years ago)

normally i won't look on eBay for a record until i've exhausted all other channels (or unless it's common as muck and then likely to be dirt cheap on eBay)

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Friday, 17 January 2003 01:28 (twenty-three years ago)

Nabisco:

Shit, you can probably still get Maow from Mint Records. I think Neko sings one song on it though. Cheez, I hope you took their money, because anyone that stupid doesn't deserve a fair shake.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 17 January 2003 03:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Friend of mine sold the Funky Superfly record on eBay to some German dude for $300. He bought it at Jazz Record Mart in Chicago for $1.99.

Another friend of mine makes his entire living selling rare funk 45s that he finds in Chi-town for $1-$10 to British dudes for thousands of pounds.

― hstencil, Friday, 17 January 2003 03:57 (twenty-three years ago)

I've always admired people who could do that. John Fahey made some of his living toward the end of his life by finding obscure classical LPs in Salvation Army, etc. stores and selling them to collectors. I guess he had a lot of time on his hands.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 17 January 2003 06:46 (twenty-three years ago)

I fell really bad for every dummy who's paid more than $10 for the Hated's "What Was Behind" LP. And some dummies have paid more than $50 for it. Madness.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Friday, 17 January 2003 10:44 (twenty-three years ago)

I fell really bad for every dummy who's paid more than $10 for the Hated's "What Was Behind" LP. And some dummies have paid more than $50 for it. Madness.

Some of these dummies are my friends.

In all seriousness, though, at least that's an LP and not a single. I know people who have paid hundreds for Youth of Today/Gorilla Biscuits/Judge etc. records. I once saw a test pressing of a Judge LP go for over $1,000. Ridiculous.

― Ian Johnson, Friday, 17 January 2003 23:47 (twenty-three years ago)

i am one of those dummies who payed more than $10 for 'what was behind' though i certainly did not pay more than $50 for it!

the discography needs to come out soon!

― daniel malin, Friday, 17 January 2003 23:49 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't think thet are that stupid.
Most of the time it's rare stuff that goes for hig prices.

― , Friday, 17 January 2003 23:50 (twenty-three years ago)

a friend of mine told me he saw an european gig only shellac 7' go for $1000 on ebay. I believe him but i don't want to.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 18 January 2003 15:57 (twenty-three years ago)

NO Shellac song is worth $1000.

― paul cox (paul cox), Saturday, 18 January 2003 16:55 (twenty-three years ago)

correction: no song is worth $1000. there's no excuse for spending that kind of money.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 18 January 2003 16:57 (twenty-three years ago)

i just thought this auction was funny. dude bid himself up $100, apparently for no reason

http://cgi6.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=2500172817

― ron (ron), Tuesday, 21 January 2003 07:01 (twenty-three years ago)

oh maybe there was a reserve on it, huh

― ron (ron), Tuesday, 21 January 2003 07:02 (twenty-three years ago)

eleven months pass...

Jim is my ebay twin.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 5 January 2004 15:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I did this twice.

Saint Etienne I love to Paint, first time bought £20, sold £340
Second time bought £50, sold £320

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 5 January 2004 15:44 (twenty-two years ago)

oh i love this thread!
c´mon give us more!

― Jens (brighter), Monday, 5 January 2004 20:58 (twenty-two years ago)

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