(237) PRICING OLD RECORDS

If you're buying an old record from an e-Bay or other auction Internet site, or a record collector's store, you may wonder how a fare price is achieved. Of course, how much the buyer wants the record and is willing to pay is the most important thing. Here are some things to consider.

First of all the most difficult thing to find is the MASTER recording, which is the recording records were pressed from.

Then, DJ copies are the most rare. That's because these records were pressed to go out to a limited number of radio stations and DJs in comparison with the numbers pressed for initial sales, and in response to selling.

There may have been very few pressed, just for a region that a label did most business in. There may have been a few thousand pressed and sent out across the country, or to England to radio stations. Sometimes the version of the song, based on response to this pressing, was changed in the final press. This is like when advance- copies of a book are sent out pre-publication, trying to generate some press.

Then there is how many records were made which is of course is linked into how they sold. Just as with a best-selling novel, you're bound to find copies of Gold Records at garage sales and thrift stores, because so many were originally made.

With time, of course, records are worn out, or thrown out, or destroyed. So the number of records out there is really an unknown.

Last but not least is the quality of the recording - the condition of the plastic all these years later. Mint is usually a barely or never played record - no visible or audible scratches or skips. A record in a jukebox usually got hundreds of playings. How do you know? You have to play it. Like today's CDs sometimes a problem with the sound quality isn't readily visible.

Condition and the existence of original paper jacket, especially if it remains in cellophane or plastic, are also important. So if you find a mint condition copy of "Lonesome Love"/"Tiny Spaceman" in it's original color jacket, it's valuable. How valuable? Well, that was the VERY FIRST COLOR JACKET ON A 45 RPM record ever. (Elvis' was the second!)

Wes and Christine