Ian, Be thankful you are. I've been collecting for a few years, and I don't remember ever seeing a collector stack vinyl like that... In fact, where I come from that's tantamount to rape and assault! Regardless of the titles, just that photo alone would send me away screaming....that, and no gradings(sold *as is*--right!)and no honest listing of what's included. That the reserve has already been met proves something Barnum once said, but I'll leave it at that... ED
The bid is at $400-something now. At 40 cents/per, it seems the risk is minimal. The only way you'd get burned is if they're all thrashed--which I suppose is a real possibility. . . .
There's one more problem: the cost of shipping. 1K's worth of Lp vinyl weighs a freakin' ton, and unless you live close to the seller, boy o boy, think of the freight... There would have to be some Very Special Pieces in there for me to even give it a second thought, but I have a suspicion it's no accident some Elvis covers are shown, and not much else. And I don't see anything rare. That's the type of stash that, if I find it at some dump of a flea market or Goodwill, I give it a quick going over, but usually it's all beaten up. And even if this stuff isn't in *bad* shape, that photo just drives me crazy. If I were going to sell that amount of plastic in bulk, that's not the photo I use to put across what a great buy it is. But, somehow, there seems to be a real bid on it. ED
Oh yeah. Don't get me wrong--you won't find MY name among the bidders. It all looks like junk to me--probably "electronically processed stereo" Elvis titles. Looks like garage sale stuff that you or I might, if we were passing by, get out of the car and check out. And after 1-2 minutes hop back into the car and continue on.
Also, if you notice who's bidding, there's one mega-eBay seller who put in the first bid maybe thinking there'd be enough to warrant taking a chance and reselling a bunch at a profit. But even HE didn't pursue it beyond the first bid [though who knows, he may be lurking and will snipe at the end].
Looks like a bargain - as long as you take the time to resell on eBay (starting at $9.99 each)! Someone will make a pile of $ on this, I'll bet. And don't forget, you just have to grade them to eBay standards (everything is near mint. After all, the records are still round, ain't they?). For vinyl collectors here ~ a warning: Watch to see who wins this stuff. If the buyer suddenly becomes a seller who has a lot of 'mint' LPs for sale - avoid that seller like the plague!
When the local used LP store has their semi-annual 3-for-a-buck sale, I can buy 1000 albums for less than $400 - and choose the ones I want!
Yeah, in my younger days, when I was eager to build the Lp collection into something to be proud of. I found out quick enough the best thing to do is be very, very selective--forget *collectibility*, CONDITION is everything--and never buy something just because it's worth more money than something else, but by all means pay a fair price if it's something you really want. It's also instructive that the world's most trusted, leading sellers--John Tefteller, Les Moss, Val Shively, others--most are also collectors themselves, not just dealers. If they saw that photo on eBay, they'd either laugh or cry--probably both! ED
I went to this guy's record sale in town awhile back and he had a full garage of LP's all stack like the one in the photo. It was all crap as far as conditon goes of about every record that he had. Covers that looked like they'd been in a tug of war contest with a German Shepard (and lost), grit on nearly all the vinyl, lost of water damaged titles, well you get the idea. I went there probably with way too high of expectations, but I had heard he was a big time collector for years. He no doubt was still hanging on to whatever good stuff he bought over the years, but to try and sell a garage full of crap like that, even at 3 for a dollar, what was he thinking? I couldn't wait to get the hell out of there.
What would scare me off is the sellers *sold as is*. That means satisfaction is NOT guaranteed. Besides if you wanted to return them the cost of postage back to the seller would be killer!!! You would be better of just to eat them, and the seller knows that.
