I HAVE A GOOD PROBLEM can you help me? (RRR)
Phill_Most
4,594 Posts
A Japanese random rap collector is offering me about $1500 for 2 OG copies of the Phill Most Chill "On Tempo Jack" record. Yes, this is good but why is it a problem, you ask? Shut up and let me finish. See, I'm down to like only about 5 or 6 known copies left (I am hopeful a few more will be found buried deep in my collection somewhere, but at this point I kinda doubt that's gonna happen). So my question to you- should I sell or should I bank on the hope that the going rate of random rap will continue to rise with time? I'd like to think that any record that's in demand and is truly RAER will not depreciate and hopefully will continue to rise in value, but with the fickleness of hip hop fans I definitely have my doubts. How many copies would YOU hold onto? Or would you just sell them all if you're able to get $750 a pop? What would Soulstrut do? Weigh in on this plaese, I trust your advice. THANKS. 
Comments
I would tell him that these are coming from Da man himself and you want $1750. Then I would sell.
You'll still have at least 3-4 left. So, I would seriously think about it. Then take that cash and put it in ur kids college fund. Let compounding interest do its work!
I'm guessing hip hop dudes be getting phone calls all the time from Japanese heads looking for their records!
PS- Roger if ur reading this... GIVE ME COPIES OF D*a*a
Peace
T.N.
i'd only keep 3. ...and I agree w/DOR...get a higher price (SS factor has kicked in since posting)
Unless someone puts out a reissue, which in this case would be under your control, right? Or maybe it has already been reissued?
How many did you press
How many are you sure there are in circulation
When was the last time a copy popped up that wasn't from you
$750 isn't that much in terms of a record... who knows 10 years from now what it'll be worth.
another question, how do bootlegs play into the potential future value of this?
Just a side question. Do you know at all if this record was serviced?
It has already been reissued. The reissue sold (and is selling) well for a random rap reissue. The price of the OG has only gone up since it was reissued. The top Ebay sale went for I think about $560 or something. I have since sold a number of copies privately for more than that amount ($600 to $700 and now this latest offer).
I think I am gonna take the $1500. I just don't wanna be like the dudes who are like 60 years old with people knocking on their door trying to get their record and they don't even have a personal copy left,
No more logic in the record game?
He didn't mention that he edited a song off the reish
But that may not have anything to do with those prices
Any ideas? Cause if you say yes, I need to make a roadtrip somewhere...
You never stated if these were sealed/promos/etc.
Also, did he offer $1500 straight up? Or was this negotiated?
If he offered $1500, I would ask a bit higher. Why take a first offer?
But yeah, after selling those 2. I would hold off. You dun wanna be asking someone on ebay 10 years down the line not to buy ur record cause you dun have a copy and you would like to own one again.
As has been mentioned here recently, Japanese collectors would likely consider autographed copies LESS desirable as the condition has been compromised.
Nah, wasn't serviced. It was basically just a do it yourself, throw it out there and see what happens deal. Only 300 or 500 pressed, only maybe 100-150 (I'm guessing here) put in a couple of stores in Philly and Harrisburg PA, possibly also NYC and Washington DC area. Your best bet at finding one actually might be in Harrisburg PA, up in somebody's crib. All the rest were thrown out in the trash or given away to family / friends / bums on the street.
All sealed copies are gone, either sold or thrown out. The last copies I have are all opned but still in NM to VG++ condition.
No, it wasn't his first offer. Seems like the $1500 (actually a little less than $1500) is the most he can afford, though.
But what if I then get an offer a year from now of $1000 for one copy? That's what I'm really wondering, if youse collectros think this random rap schitt is a temporary thing or will interest in these records stand the test of time?
BTW, for those who may have missed the article in Grandslam a couple of years ago, here is the full story on this record (complete with some info that didn't make the magazine article)...
The real deal story behind the Phill Most Chill record is that the label, In Effect Records, was originally supposed to be a front for a NYC-Washington D.C. drug operation. You hear thug rappers today talking about all those NYC Uptown drug dealers from back in the days, and I even think in the movie "Paid In Full" they make some reference to getting some connects down in D.C.... well, my brother was actually one of those D.C. connects who was doing his thing and making crazy money doing business with those cats. The money was flowing lovely, it was no thing whatsoever to press up some Phill Most Chill records.
Now, I'm not saying any of this to try and front like I was involved in any of this- I wasn't down with that whole drug thing back then and I'm not now either. I was just a guy who thought he could rap and wanted to make a record! The only reason I even went along with it was because I hoped that we could have success selling records and make enough money that my brother would be able to get out of the drug game. When he made it clear to me that he wasn't going to stop dealing regardless of what happened with the music thing, I kinda lost my enthusiasm about the Phill Most Chill record.
Right now I listen to the songs and they sound dope to me, but back then I just wasn't satisfied with the sound. Plus I felt at the time that the record was dated- It was 1988 but "On Tempo Jack" I recorded in 1987 and "Out To Kill" was from 1986. All my boys kept telling me, "yo, that shit is dope, you gotta put it out, man!" I did "That Girl" in '88 just so that I would have something that was more current. But this was all happening during the greatest era in hip hop history... everytime you turned on the radio, there was a new joint by people like Big Daddy Kane, KRS, Biz, EPMD, Kool G Rap, Public Enemy, Rakim... yo, it was crazy! I just felt like going back to the drawing board all the time, and I really didn't try too hard to push my own record.
I remember we went to a station in Philly, I won't mention which one, but we tried to get them to play it during their mix show. The female on-air personality took it in to the dj, then came back out and said they weren't feelin' it. Then she very subtly hinted that she could get it played if I hooked her up with some compensation- she didn't come right out and say "pay me and I'll play it", but it was real obvious what she was getting at. I wasn't gonna play that game so I jetted. The thing that got me was while I was at the station they were debuting De La Soul's "Plug Tunin'", and everybody was going crazy over it. My reaction was "what the fuck is THIS shit??? They're buggin' over this but they won't even play my joint???" I didn't understand "Plug Tunin'" at all when I first heard it. But that's what I was up against- I felt like times were changing and my shit just was not up to date.
Another memory when we first pressed the record up was a show we did opening for The Dismasters and Freak L, I think it was at the Uptown in Philly. We slid the dj's copies of the record when we first got to the spot, so they were cutting up the beats for "On Tempo Jack" and "Out To Kill"... man, that shit sounded so ill! There was this dance crew on the floor, and as soon as those beats came on they started dancing real wild, getting hyped up. But when I performed "On Tempo Jack" later that night, the crowd just stood there emotionless. Not booing, not cheering- just staring blankly. I'd seen that happen before to big time rappers, but I still was upset by that shit. That just made me feel even less interested in trying to make something happen with the record. It didn't even dawn on me that people just didn't know the record and that's why they had no reaction- people want to hear shit that they're familiar with! But nevertheless, the damage was done in my mind.
No more than a year after we pressed up the Phill Most Chill record, the people who financed the record went down hard- my brother included. Dudes had to do some serious jail time, and any hopes I may have had of making things happen with In Effect Records were now totally finished. Luckily things eventually turned out cool- my brother paid his debt to society, got a new lease on life and is now doing well for himself. And I went on to become The Soulman- check www.worldofbeats.com for the details if you don't already know what's up.
Other pertinent info:
All of the songs were recorded at my house on a little Tascam cassette 4 track. The beats were done on a Casio RZ-1 sampling drum machine- you couldn't even truncate your samples on that! All I could really sample were the kick and drum sounds, there wasn't enough time to sample anything longer than that. I chopped the hell out of the "Ashley's Roachclip" drums on "That Girl" and replayed it in my own way- I don't know if anybody was really even doing that back then. Any longer samples you hear aren't samples at all, I just flew them in from the turntables and tried to keep everything on time manually.
Even though I shout my man Scratchmaster Rob's name a lot, I actually did all of the scratching myself. Nothing great in comparison to the legendary Philly deejays who were killing it back then, I just tried to give it that true hip hop flavor as best I could.
I mixed the songs at a local Philly studio to try to improve the sound, but the only improvement was that I was able to throw a little reverb and echo on the songs where needed. Overall, the sound quality was better when I mixed it at home on my 4-track!
We pressed up either 300 or 500 copies of the Phill Most Chill record, I forget which. I still had a box of them sitting in my closet for years, then when my wife and I moved to our house in 1997 I was so tired from moving my whole collection of approximately 20,000 records that I just started throwing some of them away. Yep, you guessed it- a whole box of Phill Most Chill 12"s got tossed.
Another record I was on back then was by my man Jollirock The Black Prince. I wrote two songs that he recorded for his e.p., "Don't Miss Me" and "For The Love Of You", plus he threw on another song I' d recorded, "Woman To Woman". Both the Phill Most Chill and the Jollirock records went for over $100 recently on Ebay, so keep an eye out for them.[/b]
The private collectors (especially from Japan, in my experience) don't seem to mind dropping more to avoid the eBay route. I was offered $1200 for a copy of Phase & Rhythm 'Brainfood' and I know that a copy of something equally as rare/well known (but still pressed up in a healthy sized batch) sold for a fair bit more than that recently. The late '80's/early '90's hip-hop market still seems pretty healthy for the minute.
Still, with the amount that have sold for top dollar over the past years, the number of people out there who are willing to pay that amount and don't already own it is dwindling.
Let us know what you decide to do!