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Records So Cheap It's Like You Stole Them


kriss
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Mellie and I have been working through our 7" collection over the last several days and just now, I pulled out a copy of 'Freak' by Silverchair. Having dug it out of a 50 cent bin several months ago, we listened to it a time or two and then filed it away - I did a quick search on Discogs for the copy we had (clear red - promo copy) and it turns out: http://www.discogs.com/sell/list?release_id=546183&ev=rb

Atleast once or twice a week, we find records like this in our collection where the value is exponentially more than what we spent on them. Surely you guys have tons of stories like this. What are some of your favorites?

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I sold my gaslight anthem - sink or swim on black vinyl for $790 a few months back. I paid nothing close to that for it.

I've also got less than Jakes - mouldy cheese, and mouldy birthday cake. I paid $10 for each of them about 12 years ago and was pissed off I paid that much. Now they sell for about $130

Ive got a lot of old less than Jake records(when they didn't completely suck) that I should probably get rid of

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the skateshop at my campus is closing down this week and they were selling a bunch of crap for cheap. They had a bunch of copies of the volcom pearl jam 7" that was released for the 10th anniversary of "Ten." Ended up grabbing 3 and checked the bay later that day. those suckers were selling for $40+. Might throw em up on there soon but hell who knows, i got friends that might like em..

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I don't have any good stories behind them but I have found plenty of records for a small fraction of what they sell for on the usual outlets (eBay, Discogs, Gemm). Here's a few that come to mind:

Deftones - 7 Words 7" (Blue) - $2

Hum - Hello Kitty/Roar, I'm A Tiger 7" - $8

Hum - The Pod 7" - $4

Autolux - Live at KEXP 7" - $2

Failure - Pro Catastrophe/Dipped in Anger 7" - $5

Gamma Ray (QOTSA) - If Only Everything 7" - $5

Lush – Rupert The Bear (Promo flexi) - $7

Lush - Lit Up (Fan club flexi) - $4

No Knife - Drunk on the Moon - $2.99

Shiner - Splay - $10

Sunny Day Real Estate - How it Feels/Bucket of Chicken 7" - $4

Desert Sessions - Crawl Home 7" - $2

Desert Sessions - Vol. 3 10" - $8

Quicksand - Divorce 7" - $1

Cave In/Gambit - Split 7" - $3

That's just a few that come to mind. Found tons of other great deals but just can't remember em all. My post sucks though because I don't really have any cool stories behind them. Just random luck on eBay and luck at the local shops. It's become harder and harder for me to find steals out here in Sacramento with all the research shops can do on the internet.

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Mellie and I have been working through our 7" collection over the last several days and just now, I pulled out a copy of 'Freak' by Silverchair. Having dug it out of a 50 cent bin several months ago, we listened to it a time or two and then filed it away - I did a quick search on Discogs for the copy we had (clear red - promo copy) and it turns out: http://www.discogs.com/sell/list?release_id=546183&ev=rb

I have the exact same record, although I paid $1 for it. Didn't know that it was that valuable!

Here a few of mine that I can think of off the top of my head (paid no more than $10 each)

http://www.discogs.com/Smashing-Pumpkins-Widow-Wake-My-MindA-Song-For-A-Son/release/2492961

http://www.discogs.com/Jimmy-Eat-World-One-Two-Three-Four/release/2885544

http://www.discogs.com/Jawbreaker-Samiam-Jawbreaker-Samiam-Split/release/1970465 (autographed by Sergie)

http://www.discogs.com/Mineral-Gloria/master/287309

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I agree that that's often the case (Blindside's self titled on eBay for $500, etc) and honestly I figured the prices for the Silverchair 7" were a fluke. A quick Google search turned up a few forums of (really overzealous) Silverchair fans who were discussing this particular 7" and talking about how they'd spent a comparable amount on copies for themselves (one linked an eBay listing with a BIN of 20 saying that it was a really fair price). Most people would look at a $50 listing for that 7" and laugh but find the right SC fanboy or girl and it's sold. This doesn't mean anything to me because I'm not selling it but it's a cool thing to feel like you potentially pulled one over on an uniformed record shop who just threw it in with their scraps.

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Tell All Your Friends, first pressing, on light blue for $10.

And while I didn't get it cheaply, I bought a copy of MAnic Street Preachers' 3rd 7", Feminine Is Beautiful for 100 pounds, which was the going rate at the time in 2005-ish. In the 8 months it took me to pay off that purchase, the price had doubled. The one that was sold on ebay in 2006 went for 195 pounds.

At the time the exchange rate was around $2 to one pound.

SO yeah, even though i spent $200 on this record, I DIDN'T have to spend $400. And by now, the most recent ones on popsike are about 257 and 285 pounds each. Those were the only two sold this year.

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last year my dad was in charge of pricing stuff for his church rummage sale and he told me i could meet up with him at the church before the sale starts so i could look through the records. he had them all priced at 10 cents each and i ended up with a bunch of beatles albums among other things. i probobably ended up with 12 records and just gave him a $5 and told him to keep it haha

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Just picked up MC5 "Kick Out The Jams" first pressing with tan label, the uncensored version, for $5.00. This is a $60 record all day long, if not more.

Grabbed Green Day's 39/Smooth on green for $2.50 ten years ago. Sold it for $250 a few years back. Wish I kept it, but I was broke.

Bought the White Stripes Big Three Killed My Baby 7" on red about ten years ago for $5.00. Sold that for a $200 BIN the same week.

Gang of Four Entertainment test pressing for $30. Worth at least $200 if I had to guess.

Marilyn Manson's Mechanical Animals for $6.00 several years ago. Worth $75-100 now.

I'm up more than I'm down, that's for sure.

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Just picked up MC5 "Kick Out The Jams" first pressing with tan label, the uncensored version, for $5.00. This is a $60 record all day long, if not more.

Grabbed Green Day's 39/Smooth on green for $2.50 ten years ago. Sold it for $250 a few years back. Wish I kept it, but I was broke.

Bought the White Stripes Big Three Killed My Baby 7" on red about ten years ago for $5.00. Sold that for a $200 BIN the same week.

Gang of Four Entertainment test pressing for $30. Worth at least $200 if I had to guess.

Marilyn Manson's Mechanical Animals for $6.00 several years ago. Worth $75-100 now.

I'm up more than I'm down, that's for sure.

I can't even find a normal pressing of Gang Of Four's Entertainment! for less than $30.

The highest turn around I've had on a record was Gaslight's Sink Or Swim on black. Paid $8 for it.

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We had a discussion about flipping things on DF a couple weeks ago. This is the greatest hits of my post:

I bought a dude's collection for about $2 a record (bought 80ish LPs and 7"s) and I kept things I wanted and sold these other ones to pay for the lot. Some of those sold for:

Bright Eyes There Is No Beginning To The Story LP - $42

Kid Dynamite - Kid Dynamite- 1st Press Clear Red - $47

Owls - Owls LP -Self titled - $42

Lifetime - Hello Bastards LP -1st Pressing Purple - $54

Minus The Bear - Highly Refined Pirates LP - $41 (Regret this one!)

Went to a garage sale of an old rocker DJ and picked up 20 or so records for about $2.50 a piece. Some of the were:

Bathory - "Bathory" (US press, so not as valuable, and was scratched, but I still got $30 for it)

Celtic Frost - "Emperor's Return" - Traded it along with some Blink to a dude in Japan for some Shelter and Youth of Today.

Sodom - "Obsessed by Cruelty" - Again, scratched. Sold it on VC for $35.

There was a guy selling his collection and I picked up a bunch of stuff from him. Bought this record on a whim and turned out to be valuable:

Cecil Taylor – “Looking Ahead” (Orig. Contemporary Mono Issue) - $75 record)

And the best thing:

Had a guy in town looking for records to decorate his home studio with. I gave him some junk and sleeves I had with no record. Eventually, got to talking and asked if he had some things to sell. His bandmate was selling things, and he had me come over to look at them. He was asking a buck for each. I found a copy of the Beach Boys album "Smiley Smile". This album came after Pet Sounds in 1967. I was going to keep it because I'm a fan of Brian Wilson. Well, it turned out that the record was a mono promo copy. I bought it for $1, sold it for $135 at a record show.

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I too, found a copy of Mechanical Animals at one point for under $10 but I passed it up not realizing the value. Been kicking myself ever since.

Copies of Entertainment can be found for typically under $20 if you don't mind getting the Rhino reissue that came out several years back. http://www.insound.com/Entertainment-Vinyl-LP-Gang-of-Four/P/INS26323/

I actually have a story really similar to Jeff's in terms of buying someone's large collection. The dude was moving out of town and just trying to liquidate his stuff immediately and ended up giving me around 50 LP's for what amounted to about $4 a piece - stuff like Blink's Enema and Dude Ranch, Say Anything Is A Real Boy sealed, everything Jack White has seemingly ever done (including the triple gatefold Raconteurs), The Blue and Green albums by Weezer, Stink by The Replacements, the entire Murder By Death discography (including the Who Will Survive 2x10") etc. I seriously made off with a ton of great stuff.

Even though the total haul for all 50 or so records was something like $200, I only paid half of it in cash as I bartered the other half in meals (he had recently gone vegan and wanted food for convenience in the last week before he moved, so jumped at my offer when I told him I was a vegan chef).

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