Cheap

[Hadrian Elephant]

As I like to buy records for as cheap as possible I was wondering what types of music/actual records are now a lot cheaper than they were a few years ago.

I'm not thinking of 'so & so got that for a steal on ebay' , more an underlying trend on dealers lists and ebay auctions as a whole.

For example, I know sod all about Library LP's but I've been told that the arse has fallen out of the market. What good library LP's can you now pick up for cheap?

Also what about records that were rare and then someone found a stack of them, thus dropping the price considerably? Am I right in thinking that B.W. Souls is a case in point there? I know this is one where there has been a quantity about for ages, but I haven't got my finger on the pulse enough to think of another example.

I'd far rather buy good records in an unfashionable genre than chase after the hot genre and pay through the nose.

That said, what the hell is the hot genre for record collecting? It worries me to think that it might be Disco 12"s....I hope not

[the bearded one]

Quote[/b] (Hadrian Elephant @ Oct. 26 2004,14:14)]For example, I know sod all about Library LP's but I've been told that the arse has fallen out of the market. What good library LP's can you now pick up for cheap?

i got "delerius music" on mp2000 for about 20 quid a couple of months ago, used to see it going for £100 upwards...now if i could only find eddie warner "progressive percussions 2" for a similar price now libraries are cheap...

[handcorkscrew]

Online especially people are always looking out for the next big thing, IMO this really affects what is really peaking in price. Jazz is my main area and I've noticed certain titles go up and certain titles go down but there's not much of a general trend. It's so hard to predict fluctuations when I'm often up against maybe a half dozen serious collectors worldwide on a record who may or may not be paying attention.

That said, nice Deram and Argo bits are still outside my reach and obscure funky latin and reggae seem to be having a good whack at it right now BUT a lot of classically collectable LPs aren't quite as much so. Wackie's for instance gets funny money! Maybe it's to do with the string of re-releases the last few years. Libraries have gone out of fashion to a degree, the re-releases and compilations of a few years back are out of memory. Producers are still looking for something hot to sample, but it's more about chops and keyboards than grabbing big beat or drama suites.

Just rambling over here...

[tdlt02]

Hadrian,

Disco 12-inchers are well in vogue at the moment, fetching silly money some of them promo only originals. Jazz is always steady in price for the big bits, and Latin is once again hot with collectors, fetching silly money on some of the rare classics.Now If only we knew what would be the next retro big thing!!!

[Nick Cope]

Just goes to show the amount of bullshit that goes on, the canny hypeness of certain dealers and the stupidity of many 'headless chicken' buyers I guess, myself included.

[Lord Thames]

Can somebody tell me where all these cheap libs are then, cos I can't flippin' well find them!

[son of stan]

Quote[/b] (Hadrian Elephant @ Oct. 26 2004,17:04)]I won't even mention northern/modern. Crazy. My mate was selling his copy of Daybreak earlier this year and wanted £300, which I thought was high (and certainly out of my price bracket). Manship auctioned one recently for over £2,000!
The world has gone mad....

Sold mine years and years (and years) ago because I was skint at the time.... I think i got about thirty quid for it!

[emperor tomato ketchup]

Sadly I expect it takes a while for the heat to really go out of the market as Dealers are still wiating to get the big money they once thought they would have. I was gonna sell some early u2 7" singles (they were presents honest) until I saw the miserable amounts they were getting on ebay. Should have offloaded them years ago and now don't feel like selling them for £2-3 each.

I've noticed library lps turning up cheap here in Dublin but they are relatively crap ones. That said a few years ago all the shops cottoned onto them and wanted real money for crappy ones.

[wayne]

Quote[/b] (Hadrian Elephant @ Oct. 25 2004,18:04)]my buying tends to be lead by what I stumble across than actively target.

It's the only way, especially if you're looking for surprises without big money disappointment. Seek out currently unfashionable areas that you happen to like and get rummaging...

Agree with ETK that the library prices are still high on the big pieces, but have definitely fallen on the lesser known things: I don't collect them myself, but have started seeing late 70s - mid-80s Chappells, de Wolfes etc turning up occasionally in charities and at bootsales, which they certainly weren't doing a year or two ago...

Am most happy about the fall in exotica prices, myself: all that Martin Denny, Enoch Light, Yma Sumac etc seems to be getting much cheaper, and fairly plentiful, after going through a few years of inflation. I guess prices will fall mostly on the less scarce things, though, as with Jazz, say, there's probably always going to be enough hardcore collectors after the rare bits to keep the prices high...

As for the next hyped area, who knows? I'm hoping the bottom falls out of the prog-folk and pop-sike areas soon, as there are way too many I still need going for £££...

[emperor tomato ketchup]

Quote[/b] (wayne @ Oct. 26 2004,18:03)]I'm hoping the bottom falls out of the prog-folk and pop-sike areas soon, as there are way too many I still need going for £££...

Don't hold your breath on that. Its definitly still fairly hot and new compilations will only add to the heat for a while. The only thing holding it back is probably that some dealers don't realise there's a new market for collectable folk music.

Though the double reissue of the Comus lp seems to be back on the market. I'd had it on order with Forced Exposure about 18 months back and suddenly they tell me its in.

Theemans' prediction that 80's funk will take off is probably where to put your money if you fancy speculation on rising investments.

[wayne]

Quote[/b] (emperor tomato ketchup @ Oct. 25 2004,19:17)]

Quote[/b] (wayne @ Oct. 26 2004,18:03)]I'm hoping the bottom falls out of the prog-folk and pop-sike areas soon, as there are way too many I still need going for £££...

Don't hold your breath on that. Its definitly still fairly hot and new compilations will only add to the heat for a while. The only thing holding it back is probably that some dealers don't realise there's a new market for collectable folk music.

Yes, and there are also still lots of great LPs that haven't yet got onto the collectors' radar, so can still be found cheaply enough: Malicorne, Karen Beth, Design, etc etc. And let's not be too grouchy: like with the exotica, easy and OST craze in the mid-90s, these fashion cycles do see lots of great stuff you'd never have seen anyway being reissued and comped: Christine Harwood, Vashti Bunyan, Linda Perhacs etc all out on reissues again, just as so many rare & great OSTs got put out a few years ago...and I wasn't going to be kicking many of those up for a quid or two each BEFORE they got fashionable!

[sermad]

Trust me libs are very very cheap at the moment. Ive seen ones I used to sell for say £80 down to about £30. Or even less. Even the big titles have suffered. The chappell with scrabble was a £150 record and I saw it for £50 a few weeks back.

Folk funk will always be expensive as these lps tend to be the ones the folk/prog guys want anyway. I always ask my progressive dealers about Christine and they've all been looking for it for years and years themselves. I think this will stay pretty constant as the younger guys get on it.

The japanese really do drive the markets and I've noticed them get into disco 12's in a very very big way. The guys at utrecht selling maxi 12's always do a cracking trade. They want really strange italian and french disco too - which is a pain because thats the stuff I'm into at the moment - Big moogy/synthy percussive stuff.

[emperor tomato ketchup]

Quote[/b] (sermad @ Oct. 26 2004,18:42)]The japanese really do drive the markets and I've noticed them get into disco 12's in a very very big way. The guys at utrecht selling maxi 12's always do a cracking trade. They want really strange italian and french disco too - which is a pain because thats the stuff I'm into at the moment - Big moogy/synthy percussive stuff.

So is there any hope to get my money back on all the awful disco 7"s I've bought in my earlier french trips. Before I gave up as so many of them were just a little too cheesy.

I agree that the psych folk thing is a "problem" insofar as it appeals to a number of different collectors markets thus driving prices up. But was Wayne says for those of us happy with reissues it can actually be a real blessing.

[sermad]

Well the progressive/psych/folk scene has got to be the most bootlegged out of anything. Pretty much any holy grail piece has been done by now. They've had a good 20 years at it!

[jammin]

What about Ska or Rocksteady ? Did it ever really go for
big money ?
I know some of those jamaican 45's are pricey now but what about a few years ago ?

The Al trahan 45 used to go for big money before
a few turned up from somewhere. mind you it's still quite pricey
when you think about it.