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The end of LP collecting????

I don't know about most of you but I am a joe six pack fince kind of guy and it bums me out that I keep seeing prices of equipment becaome more and more rediculous.That's why, say with amplification I ike a companies like Quicksilver,Rogue,VTL etc where just getting a set up that sound sbetter than mid-fi (and of course there budget companies for source compenet and spoeakers) where buying their products does not insult your inteliigence,But being a guy whao over tha past 6 years ghhas amazzes a pretty decent collection of LP's off EBAY the party seesms to be over.Yes we all wish we bought items before we di (Micorsoft in '83) or a split window Corvette jst to store away the wholeLP thing at least one ebay (which dtermines prices at shows and shops) the prices over the past 12 or pwerhaps 18 months has just gotten totally out of hand.Lp's that could get over the couple of years say $60 in mint conditon (like a Prestige Miles) not regularly go for $100..Bassically prices have doubled or trippled in one year.I know supply /demand but the supply has been static but I find it weird that everyone and his cousin finally disocvered Ebay even though it's been a forum for years.Blue Notesin particular have eneded up primarily Japan for quite some time but now the prices have just gobne nuts.Yes a goofd copy of a lowproduction item like Tina Brooks (made propular by the Mosaic set wheu\ic revived (or in fact started his fame-read his bio it was sad a talented guy who recorded as a dideman for a few Blue Note guys like McLean,Hubbard, or Burrell) but he himself recoded 4 LP's for Lyon and Wollf.But sales were so poor with the first titled "True Blue" that the other 3 staid in the can until Cuscuna brought them out on Mosaic.all of a suden copies would reguarlly go for $1500 when 10 yeas before they were bought for $5 in some cut out bin.But now a regular Mobley 1500 series LP will go for $2K.Barney Wilen excellent (Buy it for $8 on CD on Vogue) goes for $2500.And jusyt last week I sawa Sihab Shihab "With The Dabish Radio Orchestra ": go for $1800 pounds.You do the conversion.Iam satisfied with my $25 CD re-issue.But it's all taken the fun out of it for me siunce the priceing ( three or four players WILL get an LP they want no matter what.I guess if I was woth a few million I woulkd be that guy.I am only glad that since 1995 or so with 2 bit K2 [processing CD's are finally soundiong acceptable not terribel like they did for the fisrt fifteen years of "the ultimate media".And some red book CD's sound as good as SACD's.Still there is nothing more depressing than wanmting a say Prestige LP and only having the CD otion (foget the OJC LP's.Re-melt wax combine with re-melt something that has made LP's in general suck sinc the late 60's).Thank goodness for comapines like Clasic Records which have made soemre-0issue using original tapes,stampers etc and in some cases sound as f\good as the oru\iginal LP>And then there are comanies like Mapple shade which use no board for EQ,compression, etc-no board at all just mike to tape.Then there is the Japanese comany Venus whose "24 Bit Hyper Magnum Sound" is incredible either on CD or LP.Take the terrrfic Archie Shepp Ballad LP's like "True Blue","Tru Romance' etc (four in all I think)The Lp's have a great tactile sound and warmth that only Lp's cab provide but of course you lose some of the fdynamic range you get with CD's.And all of this from digital tape so nobody can tell me that LP'scan only sound good with analogue tape-these LP's are great.I stopped running the jazz section of CD stereo equipment store 4 years ago and just before i left did CVD's start to sound "right".SACD's,DVD Audio,BlueLight or other digital formats maybe the salvation for a guy like me.But there some of my jazz Lp's that maybe got pressed in a few hundred companies and I am doubtfull all of them will make it to market.So maybe I should just borrow my freinds trumpet and play taps for my beloved hobby.The groove factor of the cover srt and it's size,finding a clean flat edge preesing with adep grove with "Rudy Van Gelder" and the little "ear mark(swirl) that indicated a fuisrt press well it's a pleasure that isn't going to vcome down the pipe that ofetn and while I like the fact that mire and mre folks seem to be digging the "New Thing" that is now 40 or 50 years old great the recent spike of LP's is just plain depressing.
Chazzbo
chazzbo
qdrone
1,039 posts
 
I've been a music lover all my life,I was the guy who collected records when I was in junior high. I have close to 18,ooo and I would venture to say I have listened to at least 90% of them. The jazz albums I purchased in lot was done as an investment because I already had most of them already. You have to realize this was around the time the internet was becoming a reality and Ebay did not exist. I figured if i bought a record for 3.oo I could sell it for ten but now with ebay it's what the market will bear. I still buy records having just purchased a couple of Simply Vinyl copies of the The Band and Swordfishtrombone at 20.oo a piece. I will put them in my collection after I listen to The band because it is my favorite album buy them. The swordfishtrombone will stay sealed because I had a friend who used to work for Columbia and gave me a lot of propmo of Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen and others. A Simply Vinyl record that is out of print at 20 dollars is I think a worthy gamble that in ten years it may be worth 40.oo Who knows they could reisssue it or some one else may do it better. It's a crap shoot
jyprez's avatar
jyprez
241 posts
 
You may be right Opalchip, LP's at a few hundred dollars may not be a wise investment. When I pay that, or any amount for an LP it is to play it not to look at it as an investment. I can't comprehend spending hundreds for an LP just to think it is too valuable to risk playing. But actually, I think LP's are a good value, even at their current high cost. If I spend $10 for a CD and then listen to it once only to find it uninvolving, it is actually ten times more expensive than spending 100 for the same recording on a high quality LP that I find so involving that I enjoy it a ten times a year for ten years. And no, the LP will not wear out. I have many LP's from the 50's as well as my college days that must have been played many 100's of times and still sound fabulous. It's all a question of taking care of them. My objective is to collect only 500 - 1000 excellent copies of the best jazz LP's from the 50's to 70's and play the heck out of them. I don't need 10's of thousands - who has the time to listen to them? If they cost an average of $100 or so each, I don't really care as I have the money and they are so much better than the CD's that it seems a good value to me.
Would I like a high resolution digital format to come along and offer me the same quality at $10 per CD? - you bet but it will never happen. Beter snap up those LP's while they still exist because you'll never see their like again!
chazzbo OP
1,007 posts
 
GEEZ LOUISE YOU GUY"S!Listen I know typos are annoying and distracting but anybody reading my post must have known it was not only an issue of passion but my lack of brevity/editing was due to some manic state.I didn't mind some suggesting decaff but some of you seem so PO'd I guess I have to clue you it was written in a slightly manic stae (do to insomnia and nothing chemical in this case).But cripes I feel some of you will be critical of prose style at some pint.But thanks to all the folks who pointed out that while Mosaic may have nixed wax there has been a renaissance in re-issues and as I said in my post CD's now sound better.Lastly as one member pointed out I should show a little less consumptive eny and maybe a little more humility in that in some cultures a family of four will pay for food what a Bartney Wilen mint "Tilt" is worth ($2500-I bought the re-issue two years agho for $60 now it almost always goes for $100.But truth be known the $8 CD is put out by Vogue/Gintanes and availible on Ebay for $8 is just fine.My hope is the folks at Classic will keep the Blue Notes coming and Schema/rearward will keep pumping out $25 copies of double Lp's like Sihab Shihabs or Johnny Grriffin's LP's.And I guess it is just envey when I wonder are Calrke/Boland's "Music For The Small Hours" or "Jazz Un Bahnhnhoff" REALLY worth $500 to $800????.Lastly sorry for the folks who had to endure the scattered content delivered with admittedly little editing (not to mention brevity).But man some of the compaints it was like I kicked your puppy or took your last meal money.While I know typo's are annoying-SO Sorry!Tnaks to those who looked at the contetnt and made me appreciate what I had and what is availible.P.P.S.for those of you who got so touchy about "right to buy LP's as speculative commodity" I agree with you Lp's are just a commodity.So take what ever profits you have made from these sales and while writting a check to Jeb Bush 2008 and and another to the R.N.C. hoping WIC and Commuinty Colleges can get cut further (along with the current round of taz cuts with our defecit)so you can buy $2K per meter cables for your $300K system chuckle at my envy that I am such a loser as to have written this whiney missive in the first place.
Chazz
r_f_sayles's avatar
r_f_sayles
872 posts
 
It would seem that with all the new high end turntables, cartridges, and phono amps being bought out there today people might be looking for something to play on them.
It also makes sense that as more and more people get back into analogue play back and find out how superior it is, they might start looking for vintage vinyl.
I buy for listening pleasure and I also speculatively purchase for resale.
Right now my record collection value is growing at a greater rate than my 401K, so how foolish is it to invest in something I know and enjoy?
Why am I as a collector and appreciator (listener) some how exempt from doing what record companies and record stores have been doing since the beginning of their time?
I buy, sell, trade, horde...Lps. Oh ya and Listen to them a lot.
Happy listening!
judy426
228 posts
 
Chazzbo, dump the politics. Nobody's interested and this is the wrong place anyway. Save it for your ACLU meeting.
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