Sunday, November 30, 2014

Broken Dreams of eBay Auctions Lost...

   BidsPrice

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VERY VERY RARE! Vintage Detroit Pistions Belt Buckle 1969!

(Reserve Not Met)
Your max bid: $22.00
3
$15.49
+ $4.98
shipping


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4
$113.50
+ $3.85
shipping


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GORDON NEWTON- DETROIT ARTIST CASS CORRIDOR
Your max bid: $800.00
The seller relisted this item.
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$2,500.00
Buy It Now
or best offer


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The Five Kinetics/ Snow Children Lp. Rare 60's Rock. VG...
Your max bid: $300.00
The seller relisted this item.
--
$1,500.00
Buy It Now
or best offer
+ $4.00
shipping


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3
$45.00
+ $3.40
shipping




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16
$22.72
+ $3.00
shipping




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6
$89.88
+ $4.00
shipping




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7
$94.00
+ $4.00
shipping


























1. My Detroit News belt buckle broke last week. I've been searching for a suitable replacement. Wonder what the reserve was on this one.

2. My compulsion of buying Michigan records has somehow dipped in to unknown metal 45's. This sounded better than most.

3. Art for walls. I bought a piece from the same Newton series (inspired by athletes in the Summer Olympics...1988?) last year for less than half my offer here. Still denied. It'd be nice to turn a pair into a diptych.

4. I usually don't go for garage LPs (too hit-or-miss) but the Upper Peninsula's Five Kinetics have a lively one here, especially their cover of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators' "You're Gonna Miss Me"

5. Universal Sound is a Detroit-area label. I will buy just about anything on U/S if it's cheap enough. I knew absolutely nothing about this record (didn't even search out sound clips) and apparently it is considered somewhat desirable by others.

6. This thing went unsold for at least three consecutive 7-day "Buy-it-Now" offers for $10. It was on my watch list the entire time. I cannot explain why I would just let it sit there for such an affordable price. Still dying for a copy of the Deltrons "I Found My Baby in Bad Axe" on the same label. Lost two last year and it still hurts.

7. Sound Patterns, like Universal Sound, is a Detroit-area label that I always am keen on exploring. Goodsite is good fuzz. I've seen this around before, but I'm fairly certain all copies are promo-styled black and white labels. Of all the Sound Patterns label variations, I believe this is the only release with the boring black-and-white label.

8. This record turns up fairly frequently and Archer invoices show at least 1000 copies being pressed...presumably 500 with blue labels and 500 with gold, although the gold labels are far more scarce. Price has been all over the place on this one...Popsike shows as low as $39 back in '09 while as high as $198 back in '11 (an auction I believe I was the second-highest bidder on). Furthermore, take a look at all the copies that show up on Popsike...they're almost always BEAT. Why are almost ALL of the blue label pressings ring-worn within an inch of being usable? Was there something in the ink that made these wear exceptionally easy? Were these played like crazy...this hit as high as #3 on a local chart in February '73, but did that actually translate to sales? Or wear? Sometimes a record is just a record. Other times it's an invitation to countless unanswerable questions. Those are the records that captivate me.































4 comments:

Anonymous said...

THIS is brilliant and fun—sorry to know you lost these but it's a fascinating look inside the auction mind of Cass Records' head honcho. Now get back to putting out some new records, Ben! Where the hell are those Soledads Swank keeps mentioning?!?

Anonymous said...

some of these are way too expensive......at least for the average bloke.....

Anonymous said...

Someone has that buckle on BIN ($32)at the moment.

Anonymous said...

agree, Universal Sound label always worth checking out.