Slipped through the fingers

by **Adam Blake** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:56 pm

Thinking about that Ramases record I sold for 50p (see cover art thread) made me think that maybe that might make a good thread:

What wonderful records have you let slip through your fingers through ignorance or penury (or both)?

Just recently on holiday in the States I found a Charlie Parker 78 - an original Dial "Night In Tunisia". It was $25 and I didn't buy it because I didn't want to have to try and pack it so that it wouldn't break in transit. Now of course I wish I had.

When I was a kid I remember a stash of Specialty 45s in the local newsagents. I didn't know what they were but over 40 years later I can see the top of the pile in my mind's eye" "Diggin' The Moonglow" by Percy Mayfield. If I've thought about them once I've thought about them ten thouand times.

I bought a Troggs and a Manfred Mann album for 50p each in 1971 and sold them at Cheapo Cheapo in Rupert St in Soho for not much more. The Manfred Mann wasn't that great but the Troggs had their version of "Louie Louie" on it which is, of course, the best British punk record ever made.

I saw a stack of Bluebeat 45s upstairs at a teenage party when I was 16 - they'd been left behind by the former tenant. I was too nervous to ask if I could buy them (they probably would have been given to me). Utterly priceless ska from the early 60s.

Any more for any more?

by **Charlie** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 8:10 pm

I thought this was going to be about 78s, when the answer would have been Heartbreak Hotel, which broke.

Of the kind of slip you are talking about, I suppose it was a used Baobab album I left behind in Sandaga Market in Dakar in January, 1987. The stall had six, and for some reason I rationed myself to five. What kind of logic was that?

by **Dominic** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 9:38 pm

I once saw The Desperate Bicycles LP, Remorse Code, in Virgin. I guess I didn't have the cash and of course I never saw one again, except on ebay at Â£35.

I don't expect this to mean much to anyone else, but that's the whole point!

by **Ronald** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 11:19 pm

When I did go to Brussels for the first time looking for Congolese music I found a record shop which also sold a lot of African music on the Sonodisc and African labels, most of which are now collectors items. I did buy only 2 lp's because I saved my money to buy the latest releases in the Musica Nova shop. Having come to my senses three months later I did go to that shop again to buy some more lp's, however when I wanted to enter I saw that the door was locked and that they were out of business, I still regret having not bought more lp's the first time I was there.

by **Barry K** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 5:16 pm

......on to a radiator, the fate of Dennis Wilson and ?Rumbo 45 'Sound of free' his only UK 45 release, I darent guess what it sells for on e-bay etc these days; my copy melted circa 1974....

by **Jamie Renton** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 5:40 pm

Regrets? I've had a few ...

Not snapping up every single one of the budget priced Chess LPs that were easily available in the late 70s. I got a Best of Muddy & an Albert King & Otis Rush for Â£1.99 each + a 99p compilation called Heavy Heads why didn't I get the Wolf, Bo Diddley, Sonny Boy ... ahhh I don't weant to think about it.

I've passed up numerous world releases, due to ignorance, only to wise up later. I remember seeing a whole stack of Franco vinyls on a cheepo stall selling mostly rock at a record fair about 25 years ago. Clearly the bloke running the stall had no idea about the value of the African Gold he'd got on his stall, sadly, at the time, neither did I.

I'm going to stop now. This is getting painful.

Jamie

by **will vine** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 11:29 am

My problem, from an investment point of view, was not that I didnt buy 'em when I saw 'em but, with no eye to what they might become worth years ahead, I "decorated" / desecrated the covers with daft doodles and slogans, rendering them worthless to collectors.

I have never bought records for their speculative value but I more than once regretted selling original copies of now collectable LPs to the secondhand dealer in Letchworth only to go and buy back later pressings an inflated price once I'd decide I couldn't live without 'em.

by **NormanD** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 2:45 pm

Regrets? I think they're long gone now, and I'm not going to drone on yet again about that Gus Cannon LP (one of only five hundred) on Stax.....

With age, experience, and slightly more disposable income you can buy your way out of past mistakes by not letting them get away when you see them now. So, in this spirit - and altering the thread - here's one I did buy, just a couple of weeks ago: a 10" LP on Decca by E.T.Mensah, from 1960. Very good condition, too. I never knew that African music was sufficiently popular in the late 1950s for Decca to have a "West African Series" of issues.

Norman

by **Dayna** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 9:18 pm

I keep feeling grief about all those great Classic 45s my brother & I used to own, that our Grandmother gave us, when we were young kids. There were so many good ones; all Oldies!

I can't remember them all, like Elvis, Roy Orbison & others that at the age we were, we thought they were old, very gradually they disapeared somehow. We never had the wisdom to know how valuable they could have been in different ways. At least my Dad says he still has the old albums I used to listen to... I'd like to get them on something I can play, someday.

I don't own a record player anymore. Gee back in the 70s or 80s, did you ever think there would be a time when you didn't have a record player?

by **ritchie** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 7:26 am

this should n't really count in my 'mistakes file' but I was with a friend of mine 'browsing' thro' a collection in a charity shop. As I was looking through my pile he was looking through his and mine at the same time. I came across some white label 45's in pristine condition. I asked him what they were. "lend me some money' was his reply and he bought them all ....with my money (to be honest I may have bought one or two for the novelty value) Anyway, one was a Johnny Hallyday single that he sold for Â£145 the others he did n't say. I think he gave me the money I lent him (about 2 quid) back.

I've been back to the shop so many times since, looking for 'treasure' I think some people think I work there (I'm only kidding, I'm actually barred from going in!).