Bitter Creek "Plastic Thunder" quantity found!

[bosshoss]

Here's a question for anyone. What would you do if you had the good fortune to find 500 copies of a similar record. How would you handle the sales, and what price would you charge?

Me - I would contact 9 dealers and offer them 50 copies each at $15 per copy. That's $6,750 bucks easily collected, and without the hassle of making up 500 packages and dealing with refunds and lost or damaged discs. Dealers could charge $30 - $50 per copy, sell half of them easily, get their money back quickly and sit on the rest for a decade. By then they might get even more for the remaining copies.

My method may work for someone living in a remote corner of the globe such as Australia. But what would you do?

 

[MopTopMike]

Here's a question for anyone. What would you do if you had the good fortune to find 500 copies of a similar record. How would you handle the sales, and what price would you charge?

Me - I would contact 9 dealers and offer them 50 copies each at $15 per copy. That's $6,750 bucks easily collected, and without the hassle of making up 500 packages and dealing with refunds and lost or damaged discs. Dealers could charge $30 - $50 per copy, sell half of them easily, get their money back quickly and sit on the rest for a decade. By then they might get even more for the remaining copies.

My method may work for someone living in a remote corner of the globe such as Australia. But what would you do?

But most dealers won't charge that price. more like $100 per copy.

 

[MopTopMike]

I had a chance to buy 300 copies of a really good garage 45 20 years ago. Rather than be stuck with them indefinitely, I opted to go in on a deal where we bought 20 copies and were then able to re-sell them for $150 each.

 

[Perkeo]

I think it's more that he revealed the 500 quantity but still kept the price at the level it should be for say, a 50 copies find. Let's face it, even 250 copies unloaded into the market at ANY price is going to see the value fall to $10 per copy. The remaining copies, well he will have trouble giving them away.

I get that but as MoptopMike said, it's up to him to decide what he wants for it. The price definitely doesn't seem apropriate, but getting rid of them is probably not a priority it would seem. He is being obstinate and rude, but possibly no more than all the collectors telling him he's an idiot and trying to bully him into a lower price...

 

[Don Julio]

never heard this 'til now. Great stuff, especially for 1970.

 

[bosshoss]

I found about 50 or 60 mostly near-mint copies of a very rare soul 45 in the remains of the Fine Recording Studio. It was the Darling Dears on Flower City (Fine subsidiary label). Only 2 or 3 copies were known to exist, and DJ Shadow owned one copy, claiming it was his favourite 45 of all time. I had no idea of the value of the record, so when I listed the Fine discography, 2 or 3 soul collectors contacted me, offering garage acetates in exchange for the Darling Dears. I traded maybe 10 copies total, several copies to one guy in particular. A year later I saw auctions where the 45 sold for $3k plus on eBay. Another copy was in a current auction, already over $1,200. Knowing I had 40 or 50 more copies, I had to make a decision. Do I allow the ripoff to continue, and be a part of it?
Instead, I put a post up on a soul forum alerting everyone to the existence of 50 more copies of the record, and offered to sell to anyone for a reasonable price (I think it was $250 or thereabouts) I sold most of the remaining copies in about 24 hours. Unfortunately some people did try to immediately re-sell the record for $1000, but only 2 or 3 people managed to pull that off before the record fell back to its current value of about $500. It's been bootlegged twice now, so the demand has fallen somewhat.

I did keep a few copies for myself, haha! I'm not totally stupid and selfless.

 

[Michael W]

Here's a question for anyone. What would you do if you had the good fortune to find 500 copies of a similar record. How would you handle the sales, and what price would you charge?

Me - I would contact 9 dealers and offer them 50 copies each at $15 per copy. That's $6,750 bucks easily collected, and without the hassle of making up 500 packages and dealing with refunds and lost or damaged discs. Dealers could charge $30 - $50 per copy, sell half of them easily, get their money back quickly and sit on the rest for a decade. By then they might get even more for the remaining copies.

My method may work for someone living in a remote corner of the globe such as Australia. But what would you do?

I would smash 490 of them and then dribble out the remaining 10, one at a time over the next twenty or so years.

 

[bosshoss]

I would smash 490 of them and then dribble out the remaining 10, one at a time over the next twenty or so years.

Yes! But you'd have to post a video of the smash-up, to prove that you really did it. Laughing maniacally of course.

 

[Michael W]

Actually, I would use them for skeet shooting practice, then throw the rest in a lake, apart from one copy which I would hide inside a piano.

 

[bosshoss]

Actually, I would use them for skeet shooting practice, then throw the rest in a lake, apart from one copy which I would hide inside a piano.

That's brilliant! Creating a suitable legend is so much more important than monetary gain.

 

[MopTopMike]

Several among us have attempted to contact the person with the 45s but none of us have received a reply.
So, no copies will ever be sold from this find which makes all this discussion moot...

 

[MopTopMike]

Regarding the Darling Dears 45:
The soul collector contingent has more subgenres than the obscure 60s sect of garage/ psych / floor-filler dancers, etc.
Soul collectors outnumber garage psych collectors by at least 50:1, which makes prices more stable and consistent even when a super rarity is found in quantity.

 

[gregk25]

Several among us have attempted to contact the person with the 45s but none of us have received a reply.
So, no copies will ever be sold from this find which makes all this discussion moot...

First having people assault you for being stupid, then having others asking you for copies - who can blame the guy for wanting to let the dust settle before making his next move?

 

[MopTopMike]

I never called him anything, I just noted his actions illustrated that he knew nothing about buying and selling collectible records.
I am not on Facebook or any social media.
Regardless, if he wants to make money ( seemed quite eager as inferred from his comment) you would think he'd be ready to sell copies at his asking price. While a few of us would be willing to pay his current price, most everyone would be out if the asking price is raised significantly. At least it would be for me.

 

[bosshoss]

I am not on Facebook or any social media.

Wise choice. i recently tried Facebook and found it to be nowhere near as satisfying as a forum such as this one. On FB, interesting topics last for 24 hours, and are quickly replaced by a deluge of photos of pets, plates of food and worst of all, dumb political pontifications. From now on, it's G45Central for me. It may be boring when there's no activity, but at least it's focused on the coolest music ever made.

 

[Frantic]

Wise choice. i recently tried Facebook and found it to be nowhere near as satisfying as a forum such as this one. On FB, interesting topics last for 24 hours, and are quickly replaced by a deluge of photos of pets, plates of food and worst of all, dumb political pontifications. From now on, it's G45Central for me. It may be boring when there's no activity, but at least it's focused on the coolest music ever made.

The Facebook F.I.G.J.A.M. generation...Fuck I'm Good, Just Ask Me