Keb, not doubting your accounts regarding the 7 Dwarfs 45, but it has been my experience when investing NS 45 originals vs boots that there is a lot of chicanery and falsehoods that are taken for gospel as accurate, when, in fact, several examples are anything but.
Regarding the 7 Dwarfs - the only copies I ever saw (and I saw a LOT of them in the USA) are the super-thin / label off-center pressings. I bought one in a batch if 45s from a US dealer in 1981. It reeked of being fake, an idea that came to light when I met a collector who was 20 years older than I at that time - he had a perfectly centered, deep yellow label 7 Dwarfs on Ideal with dark black print. And it was only in VG condition. He said he found it when digging at one of the Pittsburgh, PA record shops many year earlier. This collector has since passed on, but he had amazing 45s, including many Texas garage 45 monsters. (R.I.P BE)
Other than this copy, I NEVER saw this thicker press, deep yellow label F/W pressing until one of my collector pals found a 7 Dwarfs band member in the early 90s. According to him, only 200-300 copies were pressed. He said that he had 5 or 6 left in his closet, and he only wanted to part with one copy of the 45. The copy he sent had perfect centered labels, but with dark black print. When we compared it to the off-center label pressing, it was not the same, obviously. Going by my experience, the off-center label 45s outnumber the centered labels. Now, I would not be surprised to find that centered label pressings exist which are also boots. These would have the black text not as sharp / sort of "faded".
I don't claim to be an expert on the NS scene in the '70s, but based on conversations with some long time collectors, and logic regarding pressing plant codes, there were a few guys other than the shyster Simon Soussan who would take an original pressing and make new pressings BUT pass them off in their sales or mail order lists as originals. Everyone was eager to purchase scene hip 45s in the mid 70s, and how would anyone know different variants, pressings, etc? You were at the mercy of the seller!
I am still amazed that some NS collectors claim the Alexander Patton Capitol label stock copy 45 that has the title on 2 lines is the "boot pressing". I had found 5 copies sitting in a Massachusetts warehouse from a guy who bought out three AM radio stations on the east cost (MA and NH). All had hand written radio station dates on the labels, with the title printed on two lines - a Scranton PA manufactured Capitol label pressing. According to the grand poohbah Manship, such pressings are bootlegs unless the title is printed on a single line space (actually the west coast pressings).
Also, in the first edition of Tim Brown's price guide, he has a pictoral array of "oddball NS pressings". Many of these are 1970s repressings / boots. I know for a fact that I got burned badly 15 years ago, buying the Age Of Bronze 45 on Guava, "I'm Gonna Love You", it was the thin vinyl yellow label pressing from Frankford Wayne in PA - had the hand-etched F/W in the deadwax. This pressing is truly a '70s boot made to be passed off as an original pressing in the '70s. I have no idea who the culprit was but the only original is the styrene brown label ZTSC Columbia custom pressing. Yet, NS collectors are a stubborn bunch, when you try to tell them they have been buying and filing boots. Manship will protect NS legend above and beyond telling the truth - he's got an agenda.
There are lot of these F/W 45s repressed in the '70s. I think some enterprising guy here in the states took the 7 Dwarfs 45 and had a bunch repressed and passed them off as originals. I'll bet there are at least 1,000 of the off-center labels out in collections. The drummer for the 7 Dwarfs claimed to have never seen these pressings when the 45 came out in early 1968.
The modus operandi of the northern scene is to protect "legend" even if it can be proved as false. Especially when it comes to valuable 45s. How about the Frankie Beverly Rouser 45? That HAD to pressed in the early '70s in a limited number and sold as a collector issue, a bonafide fake to be presented as the "pre Fairmount" release. Unless someone can present documentation from the fall of 1966 that shows Fairmount acquired "Because Of My Heart" from an independent pressing, well, you won't convince me that Rouser 1017 is an authentic 1966 pressing.
There are other examples of these pressed after the fact 45s that are commonly accepted as originals, but I am boring the hell out of the G 45 crowd as it is!
