There I was a few months back, driving around in my car at work and listening to Some Girls' LP 'Heaven's Pregnant Teens', smashing the crap out of my steering wheel with my air drumming, probably pretending I was Wes on stage in some shitty club raging on the mic. In no uncertain terms, I was having a good time.
When this album came out in 2006, I could in no way be classed as someone who collected vinyl (I think I owned 2 records - XcanaanX / TSUA split 7" and Misfits Collection 1 if you were interested) so I was quite content with just owning this on CD, and the ripped mp3's have sat happily on my iPod since then. Having as much fun as I was in my car, I was again reminded of the fact that I don't own this incredible album on vinyl. In fact, I didn't know anything about its vinyl release. This, as it has before, saddened and sickened me in equal measure, and it was time to put it right. So I sidled up to eBay (2nd press seems to be available from the label Three One G but I wanted a 1st) and asked of it "Some Girls Heaven's Pregnant Teens" and was greeted with the following prices.
Ok then. Maybe I won't be putting this right just now. I saved the search and waited to see what came my way. And other than a few re-listings at these astronomical prices, not a lot happened. Until recently, when someone who lives right here in England decided to sell his copy, a 1st press on White (like the ones above) with a starting bid of £5. Someone matched that bid, so I upped it to £5.50. And then..... AND THEN..... I won it. For £5.50. Just like that.
The pregnant corpse-paint nun artwork might not be to everyone's taste, but I think it's fucking brilliant. This is Some Girls' only true full length they did and it's rough, punk, heavy-as-balls noisy and I love it.
The only thing I'm not sure of is the pressing amount. There's a thread on the labels forum here where some guy asks about pressing for Three One G vinyl and gets an answer from the label themselves. 2000 pressed apparently, which must be true. But 2000 is a relatively big number for a 'rare' pressing, and doesn't really explain why all the ones listed on eBay are set at about a million pounds. I obviously understand that sellers will set whatever price they want in the hope that someone will buy it for that price, but for 5 or 6 separate listings all within the same high price range? That value must of come from somewhere. I either got a lucky bargain, or the seller didn't really know what he had and failed to set a reserve, or those other guys are lunatics. Either way, I've got one. On a side note, I did a genuine LOL reading that thread, how the guy posted a question and then complained "Jesus this place is dead" when he didn't get an answer quick enough. "You've really contributed with your 3 posts" is a brilliant reply from some other dude. "I didn't realise I was stumbling into a wasteland" shoots back angry pressing info man. So much hostility in forums, never a dull moment.
You know this record is still available in their store for like 13 bucks. This must be why you got yours so cheap, and why those high priced versions don't sell. I guess the real question is why are there so many high priced versions. Here's what I think...
ReplyDeleteMost, if not all, of those people have no idea what that record is. So to price a record that don't know, they have to search current listings and completed listings to find out what it's worth. Current listings could show a very high priced version, and completed listings could show none. Therefore there's no info to go by besides the current high priced listing, so they list it high as well. Remember these ebay store people have no idea what they have. They also have no interest in researching every single record in their distro. They're looking for speed. Get the listings up, and move on to the next one. So if the first person lists the record for 50 bucks, the next person is most likely going to list it for that much or more depending on their feedback compared to the feedback of the person they took the price from.
That's the most likely scenario. But there's other possibilities. One is an old selling trick that most buyers don't know about. The trick is that users make fake high priced listings on dummy accounts, then list the actual item on their own account for less money. Meaning they might put a Some Girls album up on an account for 100 bucks, then list one on their account for 50 bucks. 50 bucks is still a complete ripoff, but if you don't know what it's worth, the $50 one seems like a steal and you jump on it. If you look at those listings they go from like 60 bucks to 150. So that scenario is possible. The other possibility is users are selling other people's items. This happens a lot on amazon used. Here's how it works. A seller with a lot of positive feedback will contact a seller with low feedback and tell them that they will list their items on their account for say 20% more than they have them for. Then if someone buys one, they will contact the seller with the actual goods and have them ship the items to the buyer, then pay them the listing price. This nets the bigger store 20% without having to do anything. I probably just blew your mind. If not, then read this article about how that second possible scenario could go horribly and hilariously wrong if automated by unsophisticated sellers http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/The-perils-of-automatic-pricing-on-Amazon-1351782.php
I assumed that the press that is still up for sale at 31G is of the Aqua-blue 2nd pressing, I fancied grabbing a 1st press if I could so that's why I turned to Ebay. Interesting theories on the listing prices, quite pleased this blog has some Nick Mango vinyl science on here now :)
ReplyDeleteI read the article and followed it to the blog that picked up on the million dollar book farce. Quite fascinating / crazy to read the theory that the higher priced seller possibly doesn't even have the book, and his higher price reflects the fact that he would have to buy it in once people had been attracted to his profile. I can only assume this happens with not just books, and I wonder how many times a frustrating 'order pending' status is because the dude is trying to buy it himself.