ones that got away >.
tokyobeats
505 Posts
not much of a storyteller myself, but have thoroughly enjoyed some of the stories by strutters over the years, especially mr rockadelic! crazy stuff
we've all had the experience of at least one that got away, and it kind of ties in with record digging stories, yet more specific to the FAIL.....
we've all had the experience of at least one that got away, and it kind of ties in with record digging stories, yet more specific to the FAIL.....
Comments
yeah, there was a store called Ashwoods in SYD and back in 94/95 i was going thru a *cough* electronic music phase when there were tonnes of good modern soul boogie 12s in amongst it all, mad turnover on the regular.....lets just say I missed some grail stuff and have never forgotten!
One of the first stalls had around 6 big crates of records. I guess it must have been over 300 records.
An older hippie looking guy with a batic shirt was pulling records like crazy from that crates when I arrived. He had aready looked through 3 crates and setted around 50-100 records apart .
I immediatly wanted to check out the crates he hadn`t raided before.
He aggressivly alluded me to begin with the crates he had already checked. Unfortunatly there was nothing worthwile
to be found anymore. While waiting until he finished his quest, I asked him to be allowed to look through his picked records.
When I saw them I nearly got a heart attack: All killer rare Jazz, Krautrock & Psych records...I can`t remember the exact titles of the records because I repressed these memories...
When the seller said that each record is 1??? I got totally frustrated. In fact I was so frustrated that I walked away without checking the remaining records the hippie guy left behind.
for a $1.00 (!) at a fleamarket a while ago.
Walked in to a store a week later and saw a guy pay $300 for it
for a $1.00 (!) at a fleamarket a while ago.
Walked in to a store a week later and saw a guy pay $300 for it
1.) About ten years ago when I started to really get into digging, I hit up a local spot on my way home from high school. The homie that worked the counter knew I was looking for braeks and other raers, and pulls out a minty promo of Marlena Shaw's- Spice of Life and says listen to this shit. Listening to California Soul and the drum break I was floored. I looked at the price tag and it was $10 bucks, however for some odd reason I had also pulled a Roy Ayers- Daddy Bug that was also $10. Looking in my wallet, I realized I only had $10, so I had to choose between the two. Needless to say I pulled an Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade type foul, and chose wrong. Still have never found one in the field after all these years....
2.) This one will forever haunt me. About eight years ago I was visiting a friend out of state in Chicago. Went to everyone's favorite store for the first time, Dus**G****e, and just started browsing. After about ten minutes, I looked at the wall and was instantly drawn to the beautiful artwork of a jazz album on the wall. I looked up and saw it was an og Tina Brooks- True Blue on W. 63rd etc. Looked at the price tag and saw it was selling for $150. Seeing that I didn't have that much cash on me, I resolved to go to an ATM and come back and cop immediately. Well you can imagine the rest of the story by the time I came back from said ATM.
The moral of my stories, always make sure your pockets are fat when hunting for records...
Now, i didn't want to buy vinyls (except grails for a buck), because of serious record purchases i'd made, and we had had an argument about, let's say, the financial side of things.
So, i quickly flipped through the dollar bins on the floor, where i pulled a minty Harold McNair s/t (the hipster) LP.
Then i spoke some memorable words like:"Look honey, normally i'd pick this up. Strange cover, strange label, UK jazz". Then to show her i had strong will and i put it back.
Found out couple of months later what i actually pulled. I went back but ofcourse it was gone.
Moral of my story: no need to act tougher than you are to your girl. She knows you are weak for the vinyls. Better make good financial arrangements.
http://www.popsike.com/HAROLD-MCNAIR-RCA-VICTOR-SF-7969-1st-PRESS-UK-1968-LP/370089912146.html
I FUCKED UP
Blacktown Records back in around 1998 had a full crate of Telemusic LPs @ $1 a pop... and like you Jammy, I just bought one because I didn't know what they were.
Sick.....sometimes it's better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission.
She knows I r weekz for the vinylz.
I had a near-miss on Nick Ayoub one time...saw it deep in the stacks for $8...wasn't familiar...let it sit. Months go by and I finally catch wind of it. I ran back confident that it had been snapped up, but thankfully there it was.
my lost, but I'm happy thinking that somebody else is enjoying it.
Looked instersting, but didnt know about it, was in a hurry, didnt have any cash and figured "why put $1.07 on my CC" and left.
Got home, looked it up, criedandcriedandcried, couldnt sleep that night, got up early drove about an hour out of my way, before work, in the snow, to get there when they opened again, it was gone.
Also, just this past summer, had a $4.99 rega turntable in my hands at a thrift, set it down to go use the bathroom, came back and it was gone. Asked all the staff if they picked it up to restock, no dice. We asked the cashier and she said some dude came up with it in a real hurry and left in a hurry to.
I hate even thinking about these stories, but its fun to share the pain.
The one that I wince at was passing up a whole box of sealed copies of a local latin lp that is still pretty under the radar and goes for $200 when it pops up (which is hardly ever). i bought one copy in worse shape for $5. actually if i could go back to that day in january 2008 with what i know now, i could have done it so much bigger. for sure i flipped right past some amazing stuff.
i still make mistakes, didnt grab that skated james mason for $2 last august. passing up stuff i should have gripped is just the nature of this, i think its always going to happen and i try to just accept it. with the stuff i passed up back in the day i just recognize that there is a learning curve with this and especially at the beginning no one just first arrives on the scene knowing everything that is good and valuable.
Hide it close to the back of the section, but not too far back because the records put all the way to the back always garner interest from those who lurk.
So I came back to the boutique about 3 days later to see if the record was still there. I was shattered. Shattered, I say. I saw it not where I thought it would be the last time I thoughtfully put it there. I looked in the neighboring sections. Nothing. And for the next few months all I could do was envision the record with an Italian composer wearing a yellow sweater. I think it was Bussotti, but I'm not too sure of it.
one dollar?wow, that's painful man, but yeah it's all relative..
Oouch. DGA does take plastic for future reference.
we have a painful winner!
my regrets is trading in african records for 8$ a piece that would now be worth hella scratch
close second here. 3 years ago, a near mint lovelites lp for 8 euros in the shop down my street. i even had it in my hands twice, didnt bother to pick it up, as I jedimindtricked myself that it wasn't what I thought it was. And this after reading reynaldos review of the record. one of my darkest record hunting moments, when it all came down on me what I had left there. Of course it was gone when I came back after some time....
This is also for the What Will Happen To My Records When I Die thread.
One day at a record show back in 1991 or so I saw an old man with an Astor Piazzaolla t shirt.
I went up to him and said "I think Piazzolla is a fucking genius". We might have been the only 2 people at the show who knew who Piazzolla was.
We started talking and became record friends.
The guy was French, a close personal friend of Piazzolla's, the most obsessive tango collector in the world. He had owned a store in Paris from the early 50s until the mid 80s. Sold only Opera, Tango and American Jazz. Specialized in 78s. When Piazzolla first moved to Paris, as a student, they were roommates.
When he died 2+ years ago I posted here and linked to his story.
http://blog.oregonlive.com/lifestories/2008/08/life_story_edouard_pecourt.html
I do not, or have not, done widow calls; "hello I hear your husband died can I buy his records".
She did email me the news, and I sent condolences, and again to rsvp to the memorial service.
Apparently other people did make calls and have been hounding her for years now.
She decided a few weeks ago to call me instead.
She had already sold his 3,000 cylinders.
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/pecourt.php
To UCSB who are digitalizing them. You can read more about him and listen to cylinders if you follow the link.
Records can be sold to libraries.
She sold 25,000! 78s to a famous classical 78 collector. I also noticed Teffteller was selling some of them, so maybe they did a joint deal.
But what he really collected was tango. Every audio, video, print format; film, tape, vinyl, cd, book, magazine, spanish, english, french, japanese... for 50+ years.
I was not offered the tango collection. A number of institutions are attempting to raise enough money to buy the collection.
I was offered the non tango lps and 45s. 7,000-9,000 records.
First thing I see are about 75 mint 1950s French 10" chansons. Very cool, but no real value.
More than half the records are classical.
Lots of jazz, but no post swing artists. Almost none. About 12 Carmen McRae records.
No Miles, no Dizzy, no Coltrane, no Brubeck...
I find one Blue Note. A 10" Mead Lux Lewis.
About 100 Bixbiderbeck lps. 150 Ellingtons, 75 Louis Armstrong, 50 Count Basies...
But mostly random thrift store oddities.
No rock and roll, except 2 mint Cash Sun eps, and 2 mint Laverne Baker on Atlantic eps and a handful Ike and Tina Turner 45s (not mint) and a dozen French Elvis Picture sleeves. Thats it for the whole 7,000+ records.
Those 45s and a box of unplayed early jazz and blues records on Biograph and Folkways are all the value I find.
There is tons of cool stuff, some valuable, like a small stack of heavy metal shape discs and 78rpm picture discs.
But mostly oddities, like 100s of South American folkloric 45s and 100s of Sonoramas. What am I supposed to do with those?
My bid was awful low. Fortunately I know THE classical guy and bring him back.
The classicals are just like the stuff I saw. Cool, but nothing of great value, and lots and lots of the wrong pressings of common stuff.
I am sure that his really good jazz and classical is hidden somewhere in the massive tango room.
We are able to double the bid. But she doesn't like it.
She found someone, I can't imagine who, that out bid us.
I wish I could have had some of those, but being spared the headache of thousands of turds is greater than the heartache of losing the collection.