Friday, October 19, 2012

Is it me, or is it them ? What's with record prices?

While trolling eBay I recently stumbled across a couple of albums that I've previously owned and sold.  I'm not saying these were the exact albums I sold, merely I've owned copies of these items ...   In itself that's nothing special, but here's the funny thing - all of these LPs are musically pretty lame, yet they're being listed on eBay with hefty price tags.   Yes, U know you can ask whatever you want for an item on eBay (there are scores of insane asking prices out there), but as mentioned, these three caught my attention.

Ultra Violet's self titled 1974 album - Yes, I know she was part of Andy Warhol's extended family and has carved out her own career as an artist.  That doesn't mean her solo album is any good.  I bought my copy for $5 and could barely sit through it.  If you thought Yoko Ono's early solo efforts were painful, try this one.   Anyhow, copies occasionally show up on eBay with the most recent copy going for a stunning $910 (great to know I sold a mint copy for $100).  Here's a detailed review of the LP:


http://badcatrecords.com/BadCat/ULTRAviolet.htm


This one's even funnier - "Los Perdidos"  This was early-1960s frat rock effort by a much of guys from Pennsylvania.  Mildly entertaining, but nothing exceptional.  In fact the band members would probably have collective heart attacks to see the asking price for their 1963 album.  eBay shows this one as having sold for $2,000.  I'll admit to having some doubts about that price.  Once again I apparently was a little off in the costing department as I sold a mint copy for $250. For anyone interested, here's a detailed review of the LP:



http://badcatrecords.com/BadCat/PERDIDOSlos.htm


And the third one - The Royalaires.  I know this one's insanely rare and shows up in one of Hans Pokora's books with a five star rarity rating, but it was also insanely dull.  I bought my copy for $50 and sold it for $200.  A copy then showed up on eBay for $3,000, though the price eventually fell down to $1,800.  I'm not sure it actually every sold.  Again, for anyone interested in knowing a little more about this one, here's the review:

http://badcatrecords.com/BadCat/ROYALAIRES.htm


The goal here wasn't to showcase how selfish I am for not having sold these for much higher prices, rather to underscore rarity doesn't necessarily equate to quality, or pleasure.   Three LPs at almost $1,000 a pop ...  you could buy a lot of "Rubber Soul" LPs, or APple STore downloads for that kind of cash.


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