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Ebay
sellers: do you want to put up the prices of the records you sell? Then list
them in a way that will excite the interest of RC’s staff. All of us
have been the bridesmaids on some high-ticket items lately. And we don’t look
good in a dress. The editor of the Rare Record Price Guide, Ian
Shirley, and myself are vying for the title of “King of the Number Twos”. No,
not in that way (an understandable mistake to make). We both frequently
turn up as the second-highest bidders on eBay items. Sometimes we’re repeatedly
the second-highest bidders on particular
records – we bid on an item, rank second in the list of bidders when the items are
sold, having bid considerably more than the third, erm, ranker, so we bid on
the same record in another auction later, put our bids up, but lose out again.
It’s our role: we raise the price for the winner without ever winning the
record. Everyone’s happy. Mostly. This is what I don’t like about eBay: most
items don’t have a Buy It Now price. Go to a record fair or a shop, there’s the
price. Pay it or not. Simple, innit? With an online auction, you put in your
bid, come second, and think, “If only I’d put another few quid on it, I’d have
got that.” But that’s not the case. For all you know, you might be bidding
against a premiership footballer or Lord Sugar (who, I
am told, always bids thousands for anything recorded on an Amstrad word
processor). The point is, you don’t know what the winner bid. He or she
beat you by a few quid, but for all you know, their maximum bid might have been
several thousand pounds more than yours. They may not even be a real bidder;
they might just be a wrecker, doing it for twisted fun. What’s really worrying
is that this even matters to us. I’ve got lots of records. So has Ian Shirley.
In fact together, our collections number in double figures! But like the
shepherd, searching for the lost member of his flock, or the fisherman with
hands outstretched, we want to catch the one that got away. Here’s a song for us.
Been
beavering like a, er, beaver
on the new issue. (The people we rent RC Folly from are wondering why
we’re building a dam
across the office out of pencils gnawed into points.) Pink Floyd’s
acetates! Pretty Things interview! UK Decay’s history! Northern soul – from the
beginning! Beatles books – from this year! Zior – from Hell! Alice
In Chains – from ’merica! Norman Watt-Roy – from just around the
Block! And the tale of Clouds, who aren’t from the sky but many wise
folk had astronomical hopes for them. Plus, a whole lotta stuff, as Robert Plant once
nearly sang. The new RC’s out in two weeks’ time… assuming I get on with
it.
Thanks for reading.
Have a great week,
Ian McCann, Editor Record Collector
In the curent issue...
Britain Rocked Before The Beatles: Taylor,
Fury, Wilde, Kidd…
New Wave Of British Heavy Metal: The movement that
sharpened metal, plus collectables
US 60s pop idols, Zappa sidemen, hip-hop’s go-to sample guys, The
Turtles
The Association: Where
harmony sounds met psych…
Magma: Prog, space-rock… or
just mad?
Plus
The Moody Blues,
Charles Bradley,
Belinda Carlisle,
Hawkwind,
Black Sabbath,
Giorgio Moroder,
Bing Crosby,
Scott Walker,
These New Puritans…
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