Thomas Funk

MopTopMike said:
Tom Funk's prices are no longer way of line, based upon the prices I see for 45s in those Facebook sale groups.
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Grading vs Pricing is still out of balance. Some of those Facebook sellers tend to be a bit overpriced, off course that's just my opinion based upon seeing Unrelated Segments' 45s priced at 500 plus. :screwy:
 
For the most part very expensive, but occasionally his price for something you are looking for may be ok. It's crazy how many obscure things he has that I need. Or it was, until I bought a large stack of them recently. I have probably bought way over 100 expensive 45s from him over the years. He still has about 100-150 that I need, but even I am not willing to pay up to 15 times the fair price he paid for it in an online auction (which you can often see by checking popsike). Self respect comes into it at that level! Mainly the ones I have refused to buy are graded vg-, but priced like a mint record. His grading is usually great, but I do not trust his vg-. It could be anything, maybe a pleasant surprise or maybe as bad as g minus. His vg+ and vg are extremely good.

Every so often I go through TBM looking for ultra obscure '60s garage 45s that I don't have, do a search, and sure enough in the whole world there is just ONE available, and Tom Funk has it, at some eye-watering price. But he has it and no-one else has it. He is extremely well-researched and wins a lot of obscure garage 45s online that no-one else (except MTM) knows about. Obviously with the sole intention of re-selling them at a huge profit. These days I say good luck to him. He's cannier than anyone else in the business, and for that I guess he deserves the reward. Personally I coudn't do it, I wouldn't have the nerve. But no-one is forcing me to buy from him, it's just another option.

His delivery and packaging are great, but he won't combine multiple purchases. That makes it even more expensive for me, because his postage charges are very high, and there's always just one record per package. Opening his packages is another challenge!
 
Thanks. The litmus test, I guess, is whether he can successfully command those prices, given supply, demand and the resources of the target audience. I just bought a record from him for $1300, but I'm a little late to aspects of the collecting party, and figured I might well never see it again.
 
undertheclock said:
Thanks. The litmus test, I guess, is whether he can successfully command those prices, given supply, demand and the resources of the target audience. I just bought a record from him for $1300, but I'm a little late to aspects of the collecting party, and figured I might well never see it again.
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All the best to you in your quest. I hope you get a lot of fun and satisfaction out of your purchases. The records you buy will last forever but the cost will soon be just a memory that fades...
 
His inventory of records is staggering and unrivaled. As for his pricing, one only needs to research popsike and/or gripsweat to get an idea of a records value based on it’s scarcity versus it’s demand.

For example, a scarce record that sold for $60 in 2010 may now be worth $180, if not more. This is because the market has grown more competitive, and more and more of these rare records are locked into collections.

There are certainly many records in his catalogue which will likely never come up for sale again, so I certainly understand the need to splurge every once and a while.
 
His inventory is only extensive because of his high prices! As for unrivaled, many other sellers have turned up more and better records, they just don't put outrageous prices on them.

Once there is a sale, that sets an often unrealistic benchmark for the next copy. Discogs is filled with sellers of a similar nature, waiting around for wealthy people to drop $398.98 for a single that may be rare, but really is not so remarkable. Hey, I'm raising my prices too!
 
In the mail order days, he would place a large order from a list. Then he would take ages to pay because he would try to presell as many of the singles as possible so he wouldn't have to lay out any of his own money.
He was pulling that on me on a list I did in the early 90s. Every time I called, Tom had a different excuse for his delay (car, house, car & house).
Finally, I told him I couldn't hold his order any more, and he miraculously came up with the payment.
His final excuse was that he had a partner on the purchase who hadn't come up with his share of the cash, but he would lay it out himself
 
Heitkotter77 said:
In the mail order days, he would place a large order from a list. Then he would take ages to pay because he would try to presell as many of the singles as possible so he wouldn't have to lay out any of his own money.
He was pulling that on me on a list I did in the early 90s. Every time I called, Tom had a different excuse for his delay (car, house, car & house).
Finally, I told him I couldn't hold his order any more, and he miraculously came up with the payment.
His final excuse was that he had a partner on the purchase who hadn't come up with his share of the cash, but he would lay it out himself
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Who was his partner....WAGNALLS!!!????:biglaugh::biglaugh::biglaugh::biglaugh:
 
When I visited Barry Wickham for the first time in 1996, he had two white boxes full of garage 45s, all "on hold" by Tom F, who promised payment. Wonder if he eventually came up with the funds to buy them all, I saw a lot of big ticket 45s in the boxes.

To be fair, Tom's reluctance / refusal to lower prices over time if items do not sell is religiously followed by many other sellers.
I've always asserted that if someone truly wants to sell collectible records, they should adjust the prices accordingly (most often, to lower them if the initial asking price is not achieved via auction or private sale). Otherwise, they are just hoarding, so why bother trying to sell in the first place?
 
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