Clueless Springsteen lp auction!

http://page.auctions.shopping.yahoo.com/auction/76750569?aucview=0x13

I especially like how the seller thinks that "Tenth Avenue" and "Freeze out" are two seperate songs!

At least they admit they don't know what is meant by the Script cover

 

Hilarious!

What a "find!"

 

When I was Dj'ing at the Hawk 'N Dove on Capitol Hill in the early '90s I had a semi-intoxicated Marine buy this very album off me for $20. He couldn't believe I was spinning vinyl and that I had what surely must be a rare collectible just sitting there. When I turned around to get it for him I had to quickly remove the $3.00 price tag still on it from the used store.

Ere

 

Freeze out!!! I love that song!! Is that the one with the drum solo at the beginning? By The Surfaris???

 

No, no! That's the one Dylan recorded with the Hawks! They must've pulled the wrong tapes from Columbia's vaults!

 

In the description it says "this will make a great gift"....

nothing says I love you like a used record!

I just realized I have this in my box of records.......maybe mine is the "script" title cover!!!! $1000!!!!!

 

Okay, I'm stupid. What exactly is this rare "script" cover?

 

No clue!

 

whats an "Amish girl" doing with all those rock albums

 

Here it is:

 

Tim, so what's the deal with this? Is it an original issue or import?

 

I'm not Tim, but it's an early pre-release promo version, before the artwork had been finalized. Very rare and highly sought after by Bruce collectors.

 

I'm not Tim either but I found this here.

"Original US advance promotional issue (COL PC 33795), 1975: Gatefold picture sleeve with no inside/rear text and different, script-style title lettering on front; thus also known as “the script cover”. Same catalogue number as regular US stock and subsequent promotion copies. White “Advance Promotional” check labels (some with handwritten song titles, some without); all discs were pressed at the Pitman, New Jersey Columbia plant. Also included a special outer envelope, a postcard-sized insert listing all song titles (with “Meeting Across The River” still listed under its original working title of “The Heist”) and a stapled set of typed lyric sheets. One of the ultimate Springsteen rarities; fully intact copies are virtually impossible to find."

 

Heck, what's an "Amish girl" doing with a computer (or a phone line for that matter). Maybe she runs an online dating service. "Lonely Amish girls are waiting to meet you now"

 

reechie and OcdMan filled in nicely. Thanks guys.

 

Gosh, you guys know everything! (And I mean that sincerely, with awe, and not sarcastically)

 

Never heard of such a thing. I've seen ONE promo of Run and it was a title sheet pasted on the front, and it was a normal red label issue.

Sure does look odd in it's "original" form.

If the LP he/she is touting is worth $1,000 then we're all rich and can go home for a long vacation.

 

not me...I still can't play The Rain Song!

 

Take a look at the picture, though, and you'll see that her LP is clearly NOT the "script" version...

 

It isn't, of course; that 'script' version really IS rare. Ralph Steadman--who did the drawings for various Hunter S. Thompson articles in Rolling Stone--was commissioned to do the 'script' design, but for no real reason, it was tossed for the more generic version that sold millions. The Lp itself, however, unless it's a WLP, is essentially worthless, since they're all basically the same. The cover, in this instance, is everything.


ED

 

Right, which makes it kinda dopey to even mention the "script" version when that's not at all what's for sale...

 

This of course, points out a problem that has plagued the record collecting hobby for years. As useful as record price guides are (with a special tip of the hat to Tim's work), it's really frustrating when someone who doesn't do their homework, or is looking to make a quick buck off of what's in their basement, mis-uses them. This certainly isn't the first time we've seen someone expecting an exhorbitant price for a common item after seeing a listing for a more rare version in a price guide.

It's also frustrating when people expect, and even demand, to get "book price" for their items after seeing an estimated value in a price guide.

How many worn, beat up copies of Meet The Beatles has someone shown you, expecting to start a retirement fund on its resale value?

 

Tell me about it!

The worst is those rare times when record collecting seeps into mainstream media reports. You'll hear about some seemingly common album selling for tens of thousands of dollars, but the media will conveniently neglect to mention that it's for a super-limited variation that hardly anyone has (or if they do, it's counterfeit). Then I get dreamers with dollar signs in their eyes contacting me ... and I'm the one who has to give them the bad news. For example, several years ago a non-record collecting magazine reported on Paul and Linda McCartney's Ram album and wrote that it could be worth thousands of dollars ... neglecting to mention that it's only the MONO promotional version that is in that league.

The next worst is when collectors assume all their records are in "mint" condition. I have ample evidence from my own experience, and that of hundreds of collectors, that most records are NOT "mint" or even "near mint" or even "very good plus"/"excellent." THAT'S why those prices seem so inflated. A certain part of the market WILL pay good money for CLEAN, LIKE-NEW records. Most records in the used market are NOT clean and are NOT like new.

The next worst is when people assume they DEFINITELY have the rarest and most valuable version, often without noting that there are multiple listings of the same record, each with notes underneath that explain what to look for. "Oh. You mean that a 'picture disc' has the picture on the entire record? Never mind..."

And the next worst is treating price guides as if they were divinely inspired, inerrant and infallible. Though we aim high, they are none of the three, and the prices in them should not be considered "chiseled in stone." The prices in price guides are RETAIL oriented; they are NOT what dealers would pay for the albums. At best, a dealer will give you 50 percent of book value, and that's only for truly big-ticket items. For common records in less than pristine shape, you'll be lucky to get anything for them from a dealer.

So what do I see as the main purpose of price guides? In a word -- Information.

Even if you DON'T care that your albums might have collector value, my guides also include complete U.S. discographies for the artists who are listed (unless there's something I don't know about).

And even if, in your experience, the prices are off, you at least will see that certain records are more rare or more sought-after than others.

Being an informed buyer means you're less likely to get a pittance for records that a dealer knows he can turn around and sell for a lot more with a phone call. Also, you're less likely to treat certain otherwise common records with a jaundiced eye; who WOULDN'T like to happen upon an innocuous-looking copy of Yesterday and Today at a yard sale for a buck or two and realize it's really a second-state Butcher Cover? Or on an otherwise ordinary copy of Hot Rocks that, armed with the knowledge of what to look for, is actually the rare original version with the alternate takes of "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses"?