unknown pleasures

This UK seller just listed a bunch of stuff on Discogs at fair prices: https://www.discogs.com/seller/Jacaranda_Records/profile

Plausible there were copies of the sleeve printed in advance? Maybe. Plausible there were copies of the sleeve printed in advance, Tony Wilson set one aside and had it signed by Ian and Ian alone, then knowing it was one of the last - possibly the last - item he ever signed, gifted it to a stranger he met at a seminar? Seems a little doubtful...

Found a nice listing for a Joy Division single signed by Ian Curtis: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Joy-Division-Love-Will-Tear-Us-Apart-Signed-By-Ian-Curtis-Rare-authenticated-/312504643771 It must be rare since it was released after his suicide, and it's common knowledge that ghosts find it difficult to hold a ballpoint pen.

It sounds like his Goodwill is located a few miles west of the late 1980s.

The other thing to remember when estimating the value is you're not going to get it down to the exact dollar or cent. Even if you did, it would be different tomorrow or next week or next year. You just need a close enough approximation to give the insurer an idea of replacement cost. And you better believe regardless of how much or how little work you put into your estimate, if the time comes when you need to file a claim they'll be going over the figures themselves in great detail, especially if you're claiming the collection is worth a significant amount of money. As someone said earlier, photographic evidence is a must, the more detailed the better.

If you have any home or renters insurance you can usually add them as a separate rider. Just explain it to your insurance rep and they’ll get you what you need and tell you what will work - Discogs is the de facto nowadays, I believe. Unless you have a massive collection this is probably the easier, simplest and cheapest way to insure them. Works for anything collectible: comic books, bird calls, lunchboxes, Happy Meal toys, etc. EDIT: Misread that you already went through insurance and you’re only looking to calculate the value. As mentioned, Discogs is the way to go since it does the legwork for you once you input your collection.

Agreed - it’s some Casa Bonita level shit.

I get your argument and totally understand the other side of the coin. I mean, it obviously wouldn’t be the success it is without the scarcity factor thrown in. But taking that to the next level, what’s the deal with all the releases that no one wants, sitting around gathering dust until they’re marked down during the next Black Friday event? Why is some stuff pressed way under demand and other stuff - often times stuff no one is even asking for in the first place - pressed in abundance? Why not make everything a pain in the ass to acquire and change the name to Flipper Appreciation Day, which is only a few degrees from what it already is? To my point, this past RSD I went to one of my favorite local shops around noon to see if a rare used arrival they posted on Instagram earlier that week was still available. They weren’t officially participating in RSD and had none of the exclusives, and when I walked in there was literally one other person flipping through the bins. Normally the place is pretty busy on a Saturday afternoon. How do shops like that feel about Record Store Day? Shouldn’t it be called Record Stores Who Buy Exclusives Offered And Distributed By The Coalition Of Independent Music Stores Day? I’ll admit a lot of the points I’m making are a little tongue in cheek. I stand in line and buy exclusives like everyone else here, and I know the stores that do participate in the event have a great time, both with the day itself and with their bottom line. It just feels like as the “holiday” has grown in scale and popularity, the organizers are having a hard time staying true to their indie roots while catering to the larger shops and major labels, and a lot of fans are suffering in the end. I may be completely wrong, but I just don’t think when the idea for RSD was originally being throw together, folks camping out the night before at Amoeba waiting to buy a 3” record player so they won’t have to shell out triple the retail price for it on eBay was what they had in mind.

That’s entirely possible/probable - I can’t remember if these were listed as RSD first or exclusive - but then why not mass press to begin with and discourage all the flipping and eBay fleecing? (Obviously that’s rhetorical, we all know the answer, but again that’s why I think these releases signify everything wrong with the event. )

I didn’t even know this album existed, and clicked on the thread just to see if it was the same Poe who released Hello...

To me, Lost in Translation and The Crow symbolize everything wrong with RSD. In the case of the former, you have an incredibly sought after, long out of print record that commanded $200+ on the secondary market. Surely those were clues they could have flooded the market with as many as they could press and still sold them? As for The Crow, it had never been released on vinyl and is chock full of those 90s buzz bands that the vast majority of middle-aged men leading the “vinyl revival” crave. Practically anyone you surveyed would mention it as one of the top 2 or 3 releases of the day, whether they were personally interested in it or not; I’m sure they could have done a better job of meeting the strong demand, which came as a surprise to no one. Instead they just feed the RSD hysteria that will cause more people to camp out overnight at Amoeba/Bullmoose/Rough Trade/etc next year. I guess there’s no such thing as bad press...

If you’re a fan of Epitaph and have no appreciation for sound quality, there’s a 3” blind box up on a Discogs for $39.99: https://www.discogs.com/sell/item/930841598 EDIT: That may just be the Bad Religion single, hard to tell from seller’s Comments.

I just looked it up - the double LP versions were “limited” to 1,400 each and the single LP versions were 750 each, so a total run of 4,300. And I think they were all individually numbered!

I think they had four different variants for Bleach in some pretty crazy combinations, but those were released in pairs, not all at once.