Wheelers And Dealers

[Dave Baldwin]

Mark's One Stop in Goldmine was the source for many garage 45s quantity finds: Soup Greens, The Endd, X-Cellents among others.
He had the Dovers-She's Not Just Anybody for $12 one time (unfortunately not a quantity find , when I called he said he just sold it)

I kinda liked Frank Merrill's system of filling orders. Even if you got his list late you'd get something good off your list. (Though later he would auction off records that he had too many requests for)

I could never get anything from any of the Texas lists. By the time I got them everything good was gone though you could second tier records like the Countdown Five, Homer, Brentwoods, etc

Mark E. was a unique character. I think he sold me a mint Brogues 45 for $5 or so when I lived in the Bay Area and bought from him. I also remember that he had an entire dresser drawer full of mint Blue Banana 45s w/ps back in 1982. I'd wager that this drawer was the source point (directly or indirectly) for most everyone on this Forum who has a copy now.

I lived about ten minutes from both Mr. Hanners and Mr. Shutt back in the 70s and 80s, but even I missed out on a few choice things that disappeared almost 'instantly' (lol). I did pretty well overall though.

 

[Jim]

Mark's One Stop in Goldmine was the source for many garage 45s quantity finds: Soup Greens, The Endd, X-Cellents among others.
He had the Dovers-She's Not Just Anybody for $12 one time (unfortunately not a quantity find , when I called he said he just sold it)

I kinda liked Frank Merrill's system of filling orders. Even if you got his list late you'd get something good off your list. (Though later he would auction off records that he had too many requests for)

I could never get anything from any of the Texas lists. By the time I got them everything good was gone though you could second tier records like the Countdown Five, Homer, Brentwoods, etc

Frank Merrill was fabulous to deal with, my ex wife and I also made sure that most people got something off of our lists of extras.

Living in Holland I mostly missed out on the Shutt/Hanners top 45's though the second tiers I did get are now also in demand and still highly loved by me. That's the days before internet for ya

And if I compare the old private mailing lists and Goldmine ads with eBay etc I still think the before internet days were so much more enjoyable....

Of course that's an old fart's opinion

 

[bosshoss]

The first rare record encounter I made was on a trip to the USA in late 1976. I was buying records for my record store White Light Import Records in Sydney. So I guess I was a dealer of sorts. I was 21 years old, and White Light had just switched from selling normal rock records to PUNK only. To us, punk meant Stooges, MC5, Flamin Groovies etc...this flyer made about 8 months later shows what we were selling...

http://www.g45central.com/posts/WhiteLight1.pdf
http://www.g45central.com/posts/WhiteLight2.pdf

But we also sold some original garage 45s. The trouble was, I only knew about the existence of a fraction of one percent of what is now known. This was more than a year before Pebbles Volume 1 came out. Shadows of Knight, Standells, Elevators, Seeds, Blues Magoos, Sonics, Question Mark etc. was the entire known garage punk universe to me. And it's not like we were totally ignorant. We knew more about it than most - there was probably less than 10 people in Sydney who had any clue about the extent of the teenbeat/garage phenomenon. Lee Taylor was one of them, and Peter Bliek was another. We were fortunate to have Lee working at White Light and he guided us in our transformation, especially pointing us toward 60s garage. But Lee didn't come on the buying trip, unfortunately.

While on the 1976 buying trip, I called in on Rather Ripped Records in San Francisco, among other stores. I can not remember what I bought there, but I came away with a pile of vinyl I could barely carry. I didn't drive then so it was back to the hotel on a bus. I can not remember how many record stores I visited, but it was quite a few, and I bought up every garage punk item I could find. I was just wandering around SF and LA, finding stores full of old cut-out LPs. I remember walking up some stairs and finding a massive stash of LPs filling the entire floor of the building, and 45s as well. But I only bought the Sonics, Standells, Elevators, SOK etc. I can't begin to imagine what I left behind out of pure ignorance. It all went into shipping cartons and was sent back to White Light in Sydney via air freight. Later I heard the customers and staff descended on the boxes like a pack of hungry rats. Everything was gone by the time I got back to Sydney. I can't even remember what I sent.

 

[soundog III]

http://www.g45central.com/posts/WhiteLight2.pdf

Great Flier(s), a real time trip. Quite like the feral R. Norvegicus closing in on Hell. Not to worry, living on L.E.S. he was surely no stranger to their ilk.

Nor was I, as my subterranean shop closed early every evening as the rats took over the basement and hallway connecting to the Mexican restaurant next door after midnight just as soon as the enchilada gleanings were unceremoniously deposited to ripen for a day or two until being hauled curbside for pickup.

This brief notice from a 1989 Japanese guide to the NYC music scene reveals a bit of the atmosphere. Not much garage on offer as anything good never made it to the racks. Regular buying trips to Europe and Japan in the eighties kept us topped off in 60's EP's and pic sleeves though it was mostly OOP 70's punk that was in demand at the time.

 

[bosshoss]

View attachment 4425

Those are seriously nice record storage shelves.

 

[bosshoss]

An interesting, but spotty source for 45s were the old Metro Music catalogs.

I ended up buying Metro's leftover stock when he closed down. He called it his personal stash, items that he saved under the counter over the years. There were about 250 45s, from what I remember and I paid a flat price of $30 (or $35?) each. That was a fair and reasonable price at the time. Some standouts I remember from that stash were a mint copy of The Cicadelics on Psychadelic, mint copies of both Stolen Children 45s on Tomahawk, and a vg Sloths (without pic sleeve). There were other great ones, but the overall standard was not as high as those standouts. I still have the list somewhere (buried in boxes of junk).

 

[cracker]

what about modboy2

 

[bunter]

The first rare record encounter I made was on a trip to the USA in late 1976. I was buying records for my record store White Light Import Records in Sydney. So I guess I was a dealer of sorts. I was 21 years old, and White Light had just switched from selling normal rock records to PUNK only. To us, punk meant Stooges, MC5, Flamin Groovies etc...this flyer made about 8 months later shows what we were selling...

http://www.g45central.com/posts/WhiteLight1.pdf
http://www.g45central.com/posts/WhiteLight2.pdf

But we also sold some original garage 45s. The trouble was, I only knew about the existence of a fraction of one percent of what is now known. This was more than a year before Pebbles Volume 1 came out. Shadows of Knight, Standells, Elevators, Seeds, Blues Magoos, Sonics, Question Mark etc. was the entire known garage punk universe to me. And it's not like we were totally ignorant. We knew more about it than most - there was probably less than 10 people in Sydney who had any clue about the extent of the teenbeat/garage phenomenon. Lee Taylor was one of them, and Peter Bliek was another. We were fortunate to have Lee working at White Light and he guided us in our transformation, especially pointing us toward 60s garage. But Lee didn't come on the buying trip, unfortunately.

While on the 1976 buying trip, I called in on Rather Ripped Records in San Francisco, among other stores. I can not remember what I bought there, but I came away with a pile of vinyl I could barely carry. I didn't drive then so it was back to the hotel on a bus. I can not remember how many record stores I visited, but it was quite a few, and I bought up every garage punk item I could find. I was just wandering around SF and LA, finding stores full of old cut-out LPs. I remember walking up some stairs and finding a massive stash of LPs filling the entire floor of the building, and 45s as well. But I only bought the Sonics, Standells, Elevators, SOK etc. I can't begin to imagine what I left behind out of pure ignorance. It all went into shipping cartons and was sent back to White Light in Sydney via air freight. Later I heard the customers and staff descended on the boxes like a pack of hungry rats. Everything was gone by the time I got back to Sydney. I can't even remember what I sent.

This "hungry rat" scored this one !
I still have it, dug it out last week after moving house.

 

[bosshoss]

This "hungry rat" scored this one !
I still have it, dug it out last week after moving house.

That's great Peter! I should have noted that White Light customers and G45 members bunter and MichaelW would have to be counted as 2 more of the "10 people" in Sydney who were clued on obscure '60s garage, way back in 1976.
It was actually more than 10 people, because Radio Birdman already did a major job in raising the garage-consciousness of Sydney via their live shows and rabid following. But the main focus was more on Stooges/MC5/Dictators/Alice Cooper/Blue Oyster Cult. '60s garage beyond the bands included on Nuggets was still largely undiscovered. I remember the day Pebbles 1 came out. White Light got 2 or 3 copies in advance of release because we were dealing direct with Greg and Suzy Shaw. I remember being shocked that so many unknown classic garage tracks existed. Enough to fill an entire LP!!

 

[Dave Baldwin]

I ended up buying Metro's leftover stock when he closed down. He called it his personal stash, items that he saved under the counter over the years. There were about 250 45s, from what I remember and I paid a flat price of $30 (or $35?) each. That was a fair and reasonable price at the time. Some standouts I remember from that stash were a mint copy of The Cicadelics on Psychadelic, mint copies of both Stolen Children 45s on Tomahawk, and a vg Sloths (without pic sleeve). There were other great ones, but the overall standard was not as high as those standouts. I still have the list somewhere (buried in boxes of junk).

Much like the tortoise in the fable of the 'tortoise and the hare'...I arrived there first.

 

[Dave Baldwin]

Those are seriously nice record storage shelves.

Best storage system I've ever seen for 78 rpm records...better The Smithsonian Institution Storage
Annex from what I've heard.

 

[gregk25]

Best storage system I've ever seen for 78 rpm records...better The Smithsonian Institution Storage
Annex from what I've heard.

Likely better records in B's basement, too.

 

[Dave Baldwin]

Likely better records in B's basement, too.

LOC recently purchased a pre/post-War collection of original Cajun 78s and 45s that an old buddy of mine
had (best on the West Coast for sure). Bussard had some heavies in great shape, but this cat had everything.

 

[chas_kit]

Anyone remember a guy who would occasionally sell garage 45s at the Portland, OR shows around 2001-2002? Not a typical dealer, and he'd only bring a couple boxes at a time.

 

[captainsalty]

one shady figure i remembered recently was this guy on ebay selling obvious trash lots with ONE super rare item "coincidently" featured in the heap of garbage. i think everybody agreed back then it was a fraud, but he sure must have spent a lot of time throwing together those lots. didn't save any info like a screenshot of his misdoings though.

then there was this great day when the G45 number 1 (at that time) was found (denise & co). a massive thread unfolded (i guess titled "denise found: here go the holidays) and it was super fun. if i remember correctly the guy selling the record did not have a clue what he was holding in his hands.