Least Collectable Records of All Time

It's like all of their listeners woke up one day and realized they were...dorky? Passe? I'm not sure those are the right words, but obviously loads of people realized Hootie wasn't cool. Or very good, for that matter.

1 copy of the pretenders first album

&

1 copy of "Mr Blue Sky" (or whatever it's called) by Electric Light Orchestra

The long-term result of this was that a huhe block of shelf-space in the shop stockroom would be taken up with mint-condition copies of these albums.

I haven't worked there for ten years, but when I look in the shop now, there are still copies of these albums on the shelf, still with pgices written on the inside of the cover in my writing. So, these are my nominations.

I suppose a supplementary question would be; which super-collectible record has fallen the furthest, value-wise? I haven't been in the "business" for a very long time, so I may be wrong, but I'll tentatively nominate Kula Shaker's first ep, and a whole bunch of stuff by The Primitives (I'd probably buy the latter, BTW, but I'm really, really sad)

x0x0x

Charity shops also have tons and tons of classical stuff that apparently can't be got rid of. My guess is it belonged to the recently deceased whose offspring have inherited what they want and carted the rest off to Oxfam. Some of it is quite good, but I get the impression that people who listen to classical music don't normally spend afternoons flicking through dusty records. My Dad's gradually offloading his vinyl onto me and replacing it with shiny new Deutsche Grammophon CDs from Tower.

According to my second-hand record shop contacts, used classical vinyl, on certain labels is a hot property. He showed me a secret list, which he wouldn't let me look at for more that a couple of seconds, of the stuff that fetches BIG money (IE 90-300 quid). Most of this stuff, he said, can be picked up in charity shops by the knowledgeable sort. It sounds like WAAAY too much hard work to me, but there y'go....

x0x0x

For the CD-era stuff, it's instructive to look at what people are trying to unload at www.half.com - copies of Grave Dancers Union and REM's Monster and such going for a quarter.

There's plenty of disco-era stuff that's been in discount racks for 20 years, stuff from when record stores could return as many records as they wanted to the distributor, and would just go crazy with it. The Captain and Tennille record where the girl is wearing nothing but a towel is always one (or 5 or 40) of 'em.

Can't speak for vinyl, but in the used CD racks, the candidates vary wildly. Sometimes I'll come across Skid Row in droves, other times Vanilla Ice, still more Marilyn Manson.

Also, the last Hanson album. That's another one I just remember that just won't ever go away.

I wish I had that "valuable classical LP" list, although I'm not sure if I'd have the patience to look at all those albums critically at every thrift store that I went to. BUt still, looking at some of them I can't help but believe that they're worth something to somebody. THe packaging is often quite nice and I figure that if they put that much effort into that end of it, think of what the music is like. I wish I liked classical tho. My dog likes it. I put it on the radio for him when I go to work.

Another least collectible - The Thompson Twins (any of their albums). 10p in any MVE.

1/ forgot about Styx

2/ CD singles are commodities utterly devoid of fetish value or aura and have zero collector appeal -- true or false?

3/ people who've worked in record retail, especially used/second-hand obviously know dark and dirty secrets about the music industry... it must also be pretty tough retaining your love of music in that environment... music must start to seem like this muck.... i lasted three days in Record and Tape Exchange (back when it was called R&TE) before being judged lacking in executive potential (ie not hard-ass enough to give shit money when people bring their stuff in) and a lot of the people who worked there were like ghouls -- easily the most cynical folk i have ever rubbed shoulders with

4/ cut-outs -- the US equivalent of remaindering, but for records. corner snipped off is the giveway (correct me if i'm wrong, americans, i'm not fully naturalized yet)

5/ that trading in old vinyl for CDs thing is another Least Collectable sub-syndrome , happened with Dire Straits-type bands in the Eighties... and classical music massively... classical vinyl is definitely the lowest of the low, you can pick up Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony especially when it's by the Warsaw Philharmonic or something, for 10 cents... but i will always look through a pile of classical cos only the other month i found a Takemitsu LP for $1 across the street

I wish I could find it though.

I don't know much about CD singles (I own a grand total of 2 of them), but I would assume that the ones with non-album tracks would have some sort of collector appeal. Especially since they have a short shelf life.

Patrick is right about CD singles -- extra tracks could darn well mean goodness (or merely an impulse towards completism, something I can easily suffer from).

False. In the area of dance/r&b/hip hop the singles almost always include remixes that are never found on the album.

In Toronto I would always run into April Wine, The Guess Who, Chilliwack, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Triumph, Kim Mitchell, Max Webster and Rush, as well as the requisite Journey and Foreigner sides. Someday someone will find a musical use for these things, I hope. And by that I don't mean Sloan's current output.

that fat boys record with chubby checker seemingly MUST be on display in any animal welfare shop window, by some kind of law.

Can I get an AMEN?!

I mean... Bread. WTF? Every American I know says that they can remember their parents having loads and loads of Bread albums in their collections, but can never remember a note of what they sounded like.

That Whipped Cream album... eeek. I have a friend who used to make a point of buying every single copy of it he came across and sticking it in the back of his van. By the time he left Canada, he had literally hundreds of them. I think he was planning on making some sort of... art out of them. To this day, I'd love to know where they all are. I'm just imagining a storage locker somewhere in darkest Manitoba, a lease which has expired, and a clerk going in to clear it out, and confronting... 2000 copies of a Herb Alpert album!!! ARRRGGHHH!!!

myself and a friend once listened to about seven hours of ombined herb alpert and james last, something from which I did not easily recover.

in my local charity shop, bananarama and NKOTB 7"s seem to be readily available as well...

Bill

....music must start to seem like this muck....

Well, hark at the pot calling the kettle black, mr musick journalist!

I think this is probably a case where the Londoner's experience differs from that of us provincial types. Up here in Newcastle, we'd get, like, two DJ/writer/music biz types coming in to turn their freebies into ca$h, maybe something like once every two months. I'm guessing here, but I think I'm right in London, you'd get that many an hour. It did make me cynical about the record companies' "chuck it at a wall and see what sticks" policy. I remember that the great majority of what they'd bring in would be absolutely worthless failed chart pop wannabies which you couldn't even shift for 50p for 5. Of course you'd have to buy it all (and later put it into the skip) just to get the tasty/saleable promo items. It would piss us off doing this as rarely as we did, so I can't imagine what it would be like dealing with it on a daily basis. As an aside we did once get a snidey phone call from a plugging agency. The boss told them to fuck off!

The other thing that it made me cynical about was "collectible" items. After 3yrs of working there, I'd just about lost interest completely in the "collector" side of being into music, and it's never come back. Give me a properly-mastered CD over some overpriced vinyl anyday, especially when one is into obscure prog, when there are a whole lot of albums trading for fifty quid and upwards, consisting of one fantastic and far out track, and a whole bunch of shit filler. Of course, it is pretty good to pick up stuff you'd missed out on getting at the time - I've still got the "Rabbi Joseph Gordan" single, and a complete discography of Girls at Our Best.

However, as far as being a fan of music goes, working there was fantastic. Anything that came in that we hadn't heard - onto the turntable it would go. Working there broadened my music taste beyond measure.

I've never worked in a new record shop, but from people I know who do work in such places I've learned that record company reps are outrageous gossips. All of the "music biz rumours" I've heard have come from that source. Much of it is quite believable....

Anyway, I have a question for you, Mr Reynolds. I should point out that I probably don't share much with you as far as music tastes go - probably just about nothing actually. However, I do enjoy yr writing a lot, so this isn't some kind of crypto-dig, right? I'll also throw this one out @ Mr Sinker, and Mr Parkes, if they're reading. I'll paraphrase the quote above:

people who've written for music periodicals, especially the inkies, obviously know darker and dirtier secrets about the music industry... it must also be pretty tough retaining your love of music in that environment... music must start to seem like this muck....

So how do you keep your enthusiasm? Especially after doing it for years.

x0x0x --

Getting sent lots of free records is not as much of a boon as you'd imagine.

But the music-as-muck comment was based more on being a punter wading through all this stuff in record stores--extrapolating from that muck- sensation and imagining it must be hundredfold if you actually spend all day working in record shops. Also I get sent one copy of stuff: handling dozens or hundreds of copies of the same thing must touch on Walter Benjamin/Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Production territory (which I've never actually read i must confess)

Dark and dirty secrets known to the second-hand record retailer -- I was thinking more on the lines of huge-selling records that are then returned en masse by disappointed fans. The cultural flops behind the statistical smashes, if you get my meaning. Mind you if you work at Music & Video Exchange in London you could probably build up a fairly good picture of which recordbiz executives/DJs/journalists are feeding chronic coke habits by flogging their promos the day they get them.

>Of course you'd have to buy it all (and later put it into the skip)

Oh I thought Music & Video Exchange did this lowest level thing with the stuff that woulnd't shift even in the bargain basement, of selling 50 LPs in a lucky bag for 5 quid or less---which people would actually buy not knowing what was in it- for the thrill or something. I was actually going to ask if anybody had ever bought one of those bags.

One thing that amazed me about M&V E was that they would actually take people's used blank tapes... and you'd very occasionally see seedy old guys buying them, to record over.

Darker-and-dirtier secrets known to music magazine people... i reckon most of the dirt on bands/the industry siphons through to the general public pretty rapidly. But you can certainly acquire insights into the machinations and thought-processes of magazines that you might rather not have acquired. How covers are chosen. Deals where exclusives on one artist are given as package deal along with one page feature coverage of no-hoper acts on the same label's roster. There's a lot of cynicism for sure.

Here's one dirty secret that was a surprise to me anyway. Did you know that magazines like Rolling Stone and Spin expect 70 percent of the copies they put out there on newstands to be returned? 30 percent is a pretty decent ratio of sold to unsold. 40 percent is doing really well; 60 percent plus is phenomenal, once in a blue moon (Cobain dying, that sort of thing). Most of the editorial energy in that kind of monthly magazine is devoted to who's going to be on the cover, because a few percentage points improvement in sales rates affects the whole ad rates for the next year. So if you take a risk on a cover, and it sells 26 percent, that's disastrous -- because there's only 11 other issues that year to recover. (With a weekly like NME, doing a 'flyer'--a risky cover-- is less dangerous cos you've got that many more issues per year to recover a shortfall with.

I was actually quite shocked to discover that 70 percent of the magazines were just printed to be mulched. But I imagine the shit- sticks to shit-thrown ratio in the record industry is even worse.

Regarding Benjamin -- it's been a while, but I recall getting annoyed by it for some reason. I think it's because what at the time must have been a more insightful conclusion seems, well, so outdated. Then again Benjamin tends to strike me in general as somebody who's been made into a patron saint more for his end than for his observations, but I'm sure someone like Mike or Josh would have something to say about that. I think I'm also jaded because his stuff always gets put on Reserve around here and is apparently never read at all. So maybe I'm just annoyed at Prof. Alex Gelley and his barely-touched requests. ;-)

AllyC96 is so right about Ricky Ross. Wish I'd thought of it first. But how could I have done, when he thought of it before me?

Second-hand copies of the first - only? - Strawberry Switchblade LP are ten a penny in Rye, Sussex, UK.

By ABBA? That album is *great*. I wish it were so plentiful here so that I could stock up. ABBA's greatest hits LPs are likewise hard to find, and it took forever to find _Waterloo_.

It's interesting to see the national differences here. In Chicago, disco and ABBA are becoming harder and harder to find. The same with K-Tel's: for a while no one wanted them, and I managed to accumulate about fifty of them, but now I never see them. The same is happening to easy listening - Enoch Light and all that.

Now, when I comb the bins, I see a lot of seventies singer- songwriter, a little Broadway, a shitload of classical, a buttload of dance 12", and always that damn "First Family" LP. I'm not even seeing 'ol Herb that often anymore...When I lived in Lincoln, Nebraska, I feasted on country and fucked-up preacher records. I found *every* Dionne Warwick sixties LP - still in the shrink wrap. No one wanted that stuff, and it's *their* loss.

I think CD singles are not collectable cos they never really seem to age, so you don't get that thing of them being well-used like old records.

You could try stamping on them or polishing with a pan-scourer. But seriously, well-used records aren't collectable (in the sense that serious collectors prefer mint condition, or as near to that as possible). As for CD singles they are very collectable for the reasons stated earlier - rare remixes and bonus tracks that are otherwise unavailable. This is something I've discovered through selling stuff on eBay - eg some old Aaliyah CD single from the early 90's (picked up from a bargain bin for 0.50 GBP, sold on eBay for 16.00 GBP).

I spent several years in retail, split between a big chain and a small independent, but I very very briefly worked for one particular small chain that opened my eyes to something I had never seen before: In their main warehouse, which shipped to all of their stores, they had their bunker of used discs. Scattered along the wall, I could see hundreds of used copies of big name records that were weeks away from release. Each copy had a promo stamp on it. No layoffs at any of the distributors had occurred recently at the time. "I don't want to know how..."

During the tail end of one of my 80-hour weeks, I threatened to obtain every known copy of the first Candlebox record in order to save the planet from being overrun by them. ("These small objects will one day suffocate each and every one of us." "Softball fields will be built on piles of this record.") That record went multi- platinum, did it not? Despite that, I am positive that twice as many promos were pressed and sent to retailers.

i read SR's mention of this thread in retromania, amazed that it's been 10 YEARS since this was revived. maybe there was a similar thread on the subject?

i see this fuckin' gino vannelli album every time i rifle through a stack of discarded LPs

don't get me started...

Oh, please start! I almost always see either a Firestone or Goodyear Christmas comp in every box of used shit ever. Which reminds me:

http://www.christmaslpstocd.com/

RASA - Everything You See Is Me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE2ChQjyLv0

Krishna disco

http://internetfm.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/sadler-ballad_of_green_beret.jpg

yeah what IS up with the rasa record? how many could they have sold? they are in every thrift store. maybe they gave them away on the street? that could be the answer.

rasa record is errywhere, it's true. probably a promotion?

how weird is it that those copies of thriller briefly sold for like 30 fuckers a pop

I don't think I have ever seen that Rasa record before, could it be an East Cost thing??

Firestone Xmas is OTM

I also see tons of Streisand, Baez, Klemmer, Scaggs, that white Phoebe Snow LP, god I try to block them out of my memory. Sometimes when I am at regularly frequented thrift stores I want to pull all of the Streisand etc. so it's actually worth looking through next time.

i bought a streisand record for maria a couple weeks ago at the thrift store. her crazy t.v. special one with the electronic stuff and the sitars and kitchen appliance orchestra. nice copy too.

I see Dan Fogelberg records every single time I shop for used vinyl. Mostly Phoenix, but a few of the others are fairly common, too.

i went to the thrift store today and ooooooooof. every record you don't want. lots of them. hundreds. kind of uncanny in a way that that many records in one place could be so unwantable.

here are the ones I remember seeing the most:

ELO - Out of the Blue
Huey Lewis and the News - Sports
Phil Collins - No Jacket Required (whatever the "Su-su-sudio" one is)
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Tons of ABBA, everywhere
Saturday Night Fever
Meatloaf - Bat out of Hell
Boston's first LP

psychedelic furs - forever now

that Rasa is kinda dope actually. if it's "everywhere" on the East Coast I've never noticed it.

to be fair, i spend half my life in thrift stores.

In the non-alphabetical vinyl bargain section of Music & Video Exchange in Notting Hill there used to be a sign, "Would customers please ensure that a copy of No Parlez by Paul Young is placed at the front of each row at all times".

The one I always see is Boney M - Night Flight to Venus

Comedy records from the 70s

james last and nana mouskouri records rule the thrift store bins in my town.

Out of the Blue doesn't count unless it still has the cardboard folding spaceship thing in it

Broadway cast version of Sound of Music soundtrack.

http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=1294694

i always see a ton of Judy Collins records

Weird I was about to post the sound of music but went with 70s comedy records instead xpost

All of those really popular cast recording soundtracks of the era can also be included.

Sing along with mitch

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/be/DirtyworkRS.jpg/220px-DirtyworkRS.jpg

Even sealed, with a cool sticker, not worth much.

Used LP dollar bin (Boston Edition):
https://img.discogs.com/sj9Nud9CzJRylvPPHaXZ5hOD7W4=/fit-in/150x150/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1583869-1293911401.jpeg.jpg
https://img.discogs.com/OmwAlSMcXTu8ajjp6uZlp9JZ5jc=/fit-in/150x150/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1315780-1376244600-3265.jpeg.jpg
https://img.discogs.com/k970oz8yeSe6FP4PC200eg4yfi0=/fit-in/150x150/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1838597-1424807505-8380.jpeg.jpg
https://img.discogs.com/MDynMiwt4haZSRGskBCvfcNeHRQ=/fit-in/150x150/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-395838-1331854480.jpeg.jpg
https://img.discogs.com/t65IARSKTW-K2R6UtW0y0r41m5k=/fit-in/150x150/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-4473017-1365866463-6178.jpeg.jpg