Beatle collectors can hug a nut
The_Hook_Up
8,182 Posts
Im ebaying a shit ton of still sealed beatles records, and the messages from bidders/potential bidders is driving me up a fucking wall. Everyday 20 or more messages asking for the most nit picky minutae. "what is the number ot he left of the such and such", "does the riaa symbol have blah blah blah"...you would think these were the only records in the world worth owning. I know beatle collectors are the most annoying but they are driving this dude crazy at the moment. Cant wait either for all the chargebacks and shit over these records, "You said the Capitol logo was a little off center and angled at 3 degrees, but I just got out my protractor and it is 5 degrees! I want my money back!"
Comments
they are scum of the collectro earth
can you just ignore them?
Well, if these were my personal auctions, I would, but these are auctions for the shop and shopowner man expects me to answer all messages and post them on the auctions, so I gotta comply, unfortunately.
Just rub some of this on your computer screen and you'll be fine:
and more Nuts:
http://www.beatlesbutchercover.com/
On a serious and perhaps related note, there was once a Stanley Crouch comedy album on eBay I had wanted to listen to and maybe use. It was on Flying Dutchman, and I had asked what pressing it was, since Flying Dutchman had been distributed by a number of different labels throughout the years. To be honest, I had hoped it was one distributed by Atlantic/Atco. The response I got was something to the effect of "do you want this or not? Tell me the information you want to know and stop dicking around". After that response, I believe the seller of that album was perhaps none other than Stanley Crouch himself.
beatles collectros - how tame is that shit.
You should hear him "playing drums" on those David Murray records.
I used to hate him, until I realized his entire careeer is comedy.
Who's worse???
One also has to consider that all of the quirks we have as collectors came from them, and what we don't know, they've mastered for decades. As you mentioned, there were re-releases, which means label variations. Capitol had what, three to four different pressing plants at one point, and when demand was greater than supply, they would actually import pressings from Canada. This is significant for those especially in the mid-west, where it is said Canadian pressings were plentiful. To add to the confusion, sometimes a pressing plant in Virginia that used one style of font/lettering on their labels would slap on a label that may have been done in California, which of course doesn't match with the triangle stamped in the matrix on the B-side, which doesn't match because Hugo wasn't working there at 4:24pm on Thursday, March 22, 1966.
Second pressing, third pressing, buying an album from the country of origin, the mastering engineer adding reverb to the vocal in track 5 Side 2, but every label variation meant a different mastering engineer who tweaked the reverb differently. I didn't know until recently that there's a certain Electric Light Orchestra album where every world pressing is different, since there was a request for a particular song to be mastered a certain way. Add to that the different lathes and cutting machines and...
I don't know, I find all of that interesting. At least with a soul or funk 45, you can bet on ONE pressing plant, maybe in a quanset hut. Even with hip-hop, there are variations on where a record was pressing, especially major label stuff in the mid/late 80's. After the early 90's or so, the only concern was whether or not it was a stock or promo label. I don't hear too many people asking does this pressing of Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) come WITHOUT the nick?
Antique store owners who put $50+ on G- Pickwick Elvis records.
(Only redeemed if they have JK and Co. in the 10 for a dollar bin.)
Hard to say. It seems Elvis collectors are for the most part satisfied, but they're getting older too. They had to have Lilo & Stitch boost his image in order to bring his music to a younger crowd. I think most of the holy grails for him have been found, but... hey, today is Elvis' birthday. Eh.
It seems interest in The Beatles gets stronger, and while there's a great demand for their music to be made available digitally, you have collectors who are not looking for what they might have passed up, but new fans who look at their records not only for investments, but know that often times those first pressings are the best way to hear their music.
It was discovered recently that the Canadian CD's of Rubber Soul[/b] and Help![/b] were the original UK masters and not the remastered version that EMI approved of when they started making the CD's. A lot of fans who knew of the original CD's didn't like the compression, but then discovered that when the Canadian division of Capitol/EMI did the CD's, they somehow obtained the original masters. Now that it's known, people were ordering from Amazon Canada and going crazy. IMHO, it does sound better.
Add to that the Pink Floyd fans who want a certain version of Dark Side Of The Moon[/b], especially one of the early Japanaese Toshiba editions that may need pre-emphasis.
At least with being a Melvins collector, you only have to deal with the different color variations of certain records, like the "With Yo Heart, Not Yo Hands" 7" EP on SFTRI.
My vote goes to people who bring in copies of "Moody Blue" by Elvis, pressed on blue vinyl, and think they have some priceless Elvis memorabilia.
I love that these idiots are the primary "competition" at my spots. Therefore, I always try to reinforce their myopic obsessions. More terds and jazz for me.
There's an antique store around here where they had a copy each of 1962-1966 and 1967-1970. Not on Apple, but the 1976 Capitol label variation. Massive ring wear, and the covers, well, both albums are gatefolds and each part was not attached. In other words, when you opened the cover, you could hang the inside on your wall. Inner sleeves were either beaten up or not there. $40 each. Fortunately that day I found a Little Sister 45 ("Someone's Watching You") on Stone Flower for a dime, so all was not lost.
That's true. I'm a diehard Beatles nut, and I let my collection go years ago. I figure in the time I'll find a SS copy of "Sgt. Pepper" for a dollar, I can have every jazz album Atlantic released from 1960-1974.
I just can't hear the big difference between various Sgt. Pepper pressings where supposedly the Hofner sound is more out front. On the other hand, the difference I hear between a black label mono and a red/white/green stereo Atlantic jazz record is so obviously different and better throughout every aspect of the recording.
You sound poor.
...and white.
That, and the fact that they're both mixed differently, and depending on when they were done. At least in pop music, mono was a priority up until the late 60's. Jazz had experimented with stereo since the mid-50's, although for a lot of collectors, the mono pressings are desirable partially because those labels catered to stereophonic and didn't feel a need to cater to the "old ways". You go to a label like Classic Records:
http://www.classicrecords.com
and see high quality audiophile pressings of albums in mono. It blows me away, because I know there are a lot of high muckymuck collectors who refuse to "go to the bad side of town" to a thrift store, to find albums that are (sometimes) common to us: all of those mono pressings on Verve. I used to avoid mono, but now I'll consider it when it comes to certain albums.
I didn't know until recently that for someone like Bobby Darin, when he recorded his albums, the microphone placement would be different when he recorded in mono and stereo. This means you're getting two completely different recordings if you find one album in mono and stereo.
Or take Sly & The Family Stone. A lot of you probably know that Epic will be releasing a number of new remasters this year, different from the Legacy editions that came out in the mid-90's. Those were okay, but the masters were No-Noised, which means it was compressed. With the new remasters on the way, there will be quite a few unreleased songs and alternate takes. But collectors in the know are asking "how about the original mono mixes for certain singles?" Most of us were raised on the stereo mix of "Dance To The Music", but collectors and diehard fans know the best mix was the mono mix, found on the 45. Same goes for most of his singles on Epic in the 60's. Will they make those mono mixes available again? Who knows.
"Dance To The Music" was a huge hit, so finding pristine copies might be difficult.
I just hope they release that chipmunk version of "Dance To The Music" that I've yet to hear.
Part One: The Beatles had just 13 (or so) lps on Capitol. 16 songs on VJ. That's about it for the Beatles in America. So if you were to collect the music it would take about a week. Beatles collectors are not into that, it is their life. To that end they have found endless ways to distinguish various pressings. This is a good thing because they need ever variation of Rubber Soul. There are something like 12 1st press variations of Rubber Soul, stereo and mono from 6 different pressing plants. Or something like that. There is a BIG EXPENSIVE book that details all the variations. In fact there are 3 books, one for VJ, One For Capitol LPs and one for Capitol 45s.
Part Two: Beatles records are common. Very Common. Very Very Common. There is currently 2829 Beatles record auctions on ebay. Compare that to 686 James Brown records. 1 Boscoe auction.
Part Three: Currently your auction of sealed Beatles records falls into the antique store category. By listing potentially very valuable Beatles records without even bothering to mention which pressing plant it is from makes you and your auction armature. They don't need you, there are 2816 other Beatles auctions to look at.
One of the late 20th Century's great performance artists.
You realize that if this exchange comes to his attention, he's going to track both of us down and administer a beatdown, right?
That, and the fact that the graphic refers to that SS thread last year about Mr. Walt.
I don't remember what the topic was on, but it may have had to do with one of the videos where he's being interviewed with Evil Dee (could have been the Deep Crates[/b] DVD, could have been something else). I'm not sure what lead to what, but in the discussion it mentioned how Mr. Walt looked a bit like Stanley Crouch. Which lead to the graphic being created.
I don't remember if it had to do with Evil Dee being "more public" and Mr. Walt being "reserved", I don't remember.
I've always had respect for both Evil Dee and Walt, and while I don't agree with a lot of Stanley Crouch's views, his writings are always interesting. He'll talk about how essential Wynton Marsalis is, and how Coltrane post-1961 is a piece of shit, and not care. I guess knowing him as a writer first, I wanted to know what his comedy album was about. One day I'll track it down.
sure, theyre unbelievably common, but all those stats prove is that anybody 5-95 "knows" that beatles LPs are worth $$$$$