I'm having a Beatleg remix special on the PM blog today, so it seems a perfect time to drop these two lovelies in as part of the occasional 'Stress Down Friday' series..
And should you fancy a few more tunes that help you more breeze more easily - why not grab my Lazy Sunday mix which features 'A Day In Tracy's Life' tagged at the tail end..
eBay now cobblers - it's official (well according to the comments in the last 'bay related post) - but when the online auction house was worth pitching in and listing on, real deals could be easily had, and without tooting my own bugle too much - I managed a quite lively run on the 'bay.Here's a few of my greatest hits and some bits still waiting in the wings...
Best sales
A set of 11 Guns 'n' Roses records I deliberately listed these on the very same weekend that G n'R's Greatest Hits album was released. All that free publicity, promotion and renewed interest sent the sale price sky high - including £250 for one import that cost me £5.99.
BOY 1981 Catalogue Even now almost anything interesting from the original punk period will get you top price (it wasn't merchandised like other youth cults, the gear wasn't made/expected to last and the best of it is now locked away in private collections) - paid (I think a fiver in '81), and sold for £150 in 2004. - you can see a few pics here.
Too Many Remixes volumes 1 - 8 When bootleg remixes first exploded onto the scene in 2002, I collected and compiled the best booties from the net (pre-broadband too), burnt them to CD and listed them eBay as 'Too Many Remixes' - riding on the back of Soulwax's 'Too Many DJ's' album title. Caused a fuss on a few forums, but stayed a regular seller for some months.
David Bowie - Midnight Special 1980 Floor Show A still unreleased Bowie show from 1974 and the final Ziggy appearance with the Spiders, I downloaded a copy via WINMX for myself, but soon realised if I wanted a copy - other Bowie fans probably would - made it a double VCD with other rare TV appearances and included period pic's on the sleeve. A bread a butter 'buy now' seller which shifted a healthy amount copies every week.
On the sub's bench - bits to be sold
Starlust - Fred and Judy Vermorel (1st edition) For some unexplained reason this collection of genuine fan letters to Bowie, Robert Plant and I think Shakin Stevens, edited by the Vermorels (who a have a Pistols/McLaren connection) and has become highly desirable. I bought my copy (first edition) for 50p back in the eighties from a Charing Cross Road overstocks shop.
Up They Rise - Jamie Reid (1st edition) Another Charing Cross bargain book shop bonus, paid 99p for it in the early ninties and goes for over £100 now.
John Lennon Ltd Edt print Framed extremely limited edition print approved by the Lennon estate and signed by Yoko with COA (only available in the US, but I had it shipped over).
Burns Flyte bass guitar Only a handful of these concorde inspired guitars are in circulation Gaye Advert played one and Marc Bolan had a 6 string version - I picked it up for a snip at the Bass Centre, but doubt that I'd actually ever sell this piece of rocking retromania....
Marc Bolan - London Boys, Marc and his Burns Flyte(I find it eye-watering to watch the moment at 02:05 where he launches the guitar from the podium)
Is it just me or has eBay really become as dull and dreary as ready-to-drop donkey? Rewind just a few years and the 'Bay was an online goldmine. A twenty-four hour rolling cyber bootsale of bargains and 'Buy Nows' (to the point of a groaning postie moaning at me "not you again") perhaps the greatest golden nuggets were the 'not strictly legit' ones - live recordings of fave bands, and not officially endorsed DVDs (or VCDs) of long deleted films - but the clampdown on cheeky treats like these is one reason why eBay has become as stale and stodgy as cold old porridge. And how do the auction house action force manage to monitor for cyber scammers and schemers so thoroughly with the heavy level turnover of items listed at any given moment?
Now there's only ever a handful of bits on my watch list, even less on my win list and none of these have that last minute 'must-have, pulse-pumping, countdown (like the Sex Pistols box set I unwittingly outbid Piley on after employing one of his last minute bid tips - whoops!)
There is an interesting bidder beware spin-off though. Reflector Porn, a stealthy way for show offs to literally put the goods on the barrow and parade their wares - Piley's got a great piece on it here..
And don't even start me on selling - I haven't listed in over a year. Listed below are my five last buys - but what where your last or best bargains bagged via the 'Bay?
Mock Tiger Fur Guitar Strap
2x Witches Hat guitar knobs (volume & tone)
Leather Guitar Strap Splattered Union Jack
Ukulele cowgirl / Record Girl Pinup Pin up guitar decals
Epiphone Les Paul Custom
That's three of my last five buys right there....
Whaddya mean mid-life crisis? Just because I'm trying to clone my own Steve Jones Sex Pistols guitar
I’ve been doing a spot of loft bothering lately. Digging through boxfuls of vintage goodies and golden oldies – annuals, sticker books, scrapbooks - but more importantly a mighty stash of music mags Smash Hits, Flexipop and assorted oddities like Zig Zag (with a fab feature on Soft Cell’s pervy ol’ Sex Dwarf video) and Noise. It’s an almost sequential run that starts around ’79 and fizzles out around ’84 ish…
The issue below contains a cracker of a nugget – a guide to the Sheffield scene written by Martyn Ware of The Human League, at the time of publication the League have recently signed to Virgin, ABC are still known as Vice Versa and Def Leppard have just been picked up by Phonogram.
I'll scan it in at some point, but until then, any ideas about the incomplete crossword ? No hurry I’m only 29 years past the deadline to win that fab cassette recorder…
I'm having a Beatleg remix special on the PM blog today, so it seems a perfect time to drop these two lovelies in as part of the occasional 'Stress Down Friday' series..
