Record Collecting Culture...

If you can’t find a good supply of records at charity shops and car boots, there’s always Discogs. It is undeniably a fantastic service. You can get almost any record you want, so it’s great for new stuff or if you need one record to complete collecting an artist. But, and it’s a big but, buying from Discogs lacks a big part of the collecting experience for me; surprise. It’s clinical or transactional. There are two basic groups of collectors; people like me who see it as a whole lifestyle and those who see it as plain and simple collecting. They’re less concerned with the culture of it and are just in pursuit of the records they don’t have.
I do understand that point of view and fair play to you if that’s the way you want to do it. But to me, it’s so very much more. It’s the surprise of finding something somewhere you didn’t expect to find it. Out of context record collecting is so good just because you don’t expect it. Which leads me to another aspect; anticipation.
You know what it’s like, the missus says, ‘I’ll just nip into Marks and Spencer for some of that ham we like.’, And you say, ‘OK, I’ll see you in the charity shop in 10 minutes’. She doesn't want to stand there while you thumb through loads of records so fingered that they’ve gone furry, only to find nothing. It’s a task best done with a record collecting pal, or preferably on your own. You know chances are, there’ll be nothing… but there just might. And that hope is all you need. There’s always hope. Imagine life without it. No existence at all. And that feeling is even there when entering a good secondhand record shop, but is diluted by it being a record context. The thrill of not knowing what you might find in the most unlikely places drives me on and no matter where we are, I’m always on the lookout.
So further to that and to inspire you to dedicate your life to collecting, I present my 8 most unlikely finds...

8. The Strawbs - Just a Collection of Antiques and Curios
Their1970 live album was just sitting there in a St. Johns Ambulance charity shop. There were three racks of records. All Sound Of Music and Jim Reeves and this. God knows how it got in there and how long for, but it was in perfect condition. Mine for £3.00

7. John Martyn - London Conversation
This and the next record were found in the £2.00 box at a record fair as it was packing up. If you’re familiar with such situations, I said ‘can I just have a quick look through the two-pounders, mate?’ And there it was. A mono copy of his 1967 debut worth £300. I assumed it was a mistake, but no. I don’t know how or why but he took two whole pounds for this and two pounds for…

6. The Incredible String Band - The Incredible String Band
Their debut which often sells for 200 or higher. The dealer must have known. Maybe he was in a good mood or perhaps he thought both were unplayable but both play perfectly. Whatever it was, I bagged both for four quid and went home happy.

5. The Kinks - The Kinks
I was in my natural habitat; a large field of people selling absolute crap, from a mural made from lentils to a burnt frying pan. Ah it was car boot nirvana. I was wandering aimlessly not seeing anything, when I spied an original copy of The Kinks debut album in pristine condition on a table. Now, the fella must have known it was valuable as he’d priced it at £10, which, as anyone knows, is a small fortune for a record at a car boot. But it sometimes goes for £150, so a tenner was nothing to me. I greedily grabbed it and handed it over. He was delighted but not as much as me.

4. Canned Heat - Canned Heat
Another car boot and a fella had a box full of goodies. Loads of Rory, Albert King, KGB, ( remember them with Mike Bloomfield) Airplane, TYA other less rare blues stuff. It was my dream scenario; a hippy collection for sale. At the back of the box was this. A mint UK in Stereo. At least £50, more likely £100. I bought about 30 albums off him. £150 the lot. So it was about a fiver.

3. Jefferson Airplane – Greasy Heart / Share A Little Joke (With The World) 7” promo single
This isn’t valuable but it excited me greatly. And I came across it in strange circumstances. We were driving through a small village in Norfolk. Chocolate box stuff, when we passed by an old fashioned junk store. Records aside, I bloody love a junk store. So we pulled over and went in. I think the owner lived in there. It smelled weird, like sweaty wax. Anyway, I saw an old filing cabinet, a wooden one, which is a great thing, I think, pulling the drawers open. Inside one was a pile of singles, bigger than I could hold in one hand. And they were all 60s and 70s promos. Of which this was one. I nearly shat myself but tried to remain cool. ’How much for the singles, mate’ I said, expecting some exorbitant figure. ‘I don’t really know. They’ve been in there for ages. Fiver the lot?’ I couldn’t get the money out quick enough. There were 20 records, all in pristine, almost unplayed condition.

2. Wishbone Ash – Wishbone Ash
Another car boot but this time it was in a dark, shadowy, underground car park. Quite a threatening atmosphere with loads of poor Romanians selling anything they could purloin, poor buggers, including salt and pepper pots clearly taken from a cafe, along with one of those squeezy tomatoes you put tomato sauce in. They must’ve been desperate. Anyway, in one corner, a fella had his boot open and several big transparent plastic boxes in the back, full of records. I got that familiar surge of excitement. It was another dream come true; the record shop owner who had closed down and was selling off his stock. He had taken out all the really rare stuff but left plenty to snaffle. At £1.00 each, I bought 150 records including a pink and red ‘dogbone’ of this. A first pressing. Not super rare - maybe £25 on a good day but a nice surprise on a bleak day.

1. Pete Brown & Piblokto! - Things May Come And Things May Go, But The Art School Dance Goes On Forever
This sells for anything from £100-£200 and as much as £500. Someone had donated it to Oxfam, who clearly knew it was valuable but had only priced it at £30. That’s mine. I snaffled it. I kid you not, there were collectors coming from all over town to look at it. I was 5 minutes ahead of a dealer, who was crestfallen to see me there, already holding it.
So don’t give up, something great is always out there, happy collecting to you!

Related Tees...