J-Lo has obviously never been into collecting rare vinyl if she thinks that statement is really true. The hunt for rare vinyl and the hefty prices paid is not something that is a new issue for the vinyl junkies of the world. Ever since the days of Northern Soul silly money has crossed palms for that hard to find 12″.  So why have I chosen to talk about it now? Well, it just never really affected me that much before. For a lot of my record collecting years I was in college or working crummy enough jobs that didn’t give me the freedom to buy a lot of vinyl, let alone dish out a wad of cash for an old rarity I desperately wanted. Now that this facete of record collecting is within my realm I’m dealing with a mixture of emotions; excitement, confusion and frustration.

A couple a months ago I picked up a copy of MC ADE – Bass Mechanic – a repress, no less, from 1987, the original came out in ’86 – for 10e in the 2nd hand bin  in a shop in Dublin.  It’s a pretty good Miami bass record, worthy of a tenner, but I wouldn’t pay anymore. On returning home I went onto Discogs to catalogue it in my collection and as one does I’d a look at how much it was going for in the marketplace. There were a couple of copies going for up on $50. It’s always nice to see that you’ve found a bit of a bargin, as bins are a great place to find that odd copy of a rare 12″ where the shop owner is oblivious to its rarity. BUT, there was no ignoring the fact that there were also a couple of copies on-line going for the same price I paid. The idea that you can convince people that a record is truly rare just by sticking a bigger price tag on it is a fairly annoying trait. What’s amusing is that the people looking for $50 are seemingly ignoring that the same record can be bought for a 3rd of a price. Are they just going to wait it out till those copies disappear and then snare someone in a year or two? That just sucks.

Ok, I seem to be getting a little riled up over one old electro record that I actually got for a good price but I was using that as just a small example of a bigger epidemic. As any regular readers know, I’m a bit of a fan of Italo. This is one genre where the increased hype over records is simply pricing many people out of owning them, and it’s getting worse and worse.  One example I can give to you is the super rare Ryvon D.J. – I’m Gonna Dance. In 2 years auctions of it have seen it’s worth increase by over a thousand dollars.  Sellers are exploiting the demand for records like this, they will increase the starting price on ebay, or they will add another 50 bucks on to it’s tag on Discogs, compared to how much the last copy went for.

It’s this type of situation that gives rise to the plethora of bootlegs that many have problems with. Can you really blame some people for buying bootlegs when they have no chance of getting a copy of the original? Of course there are labels such as Radius and Flexx who sell official represses for normal 12″ prices. But recently a couple of labels such as I.D. Limited have started repressing rare Italo 12″s and are selling them for 15e a pop. It’s more than admirable that the people behind these releases are going about things the right way, sorting out rights and publishing and packaging the releases really well, but they are going for as little as 15e and upwards to over 20e. In a time when vinyl sales are dipping drastically they are managing to price themselves out of the market.  I know of shops that are wary of ordering them in ’cause they are so expensive and people who shop on-line are hesitant to buy them due to their tag. There are of course some of us who are willing to pay that little bit extra for a quality repress over a shitty bootleg but these records, which have fairly limited runs, aren’t selling out either even though the demand for Italo has never been higher.

If one was to be cynical you could see the higher prices for these new represses as a label maybe joining in the exploitation that has stemmed from some dubious actions from sellers on sites such as Discogs.  If originals are going for inflated prices are they then thinking that they can charge a few more notes for a decent repress?  But this isn’t the biggest crime, and as I mentioned these represses are very good and some of the music they have dug out goes for up on 2-300euros on ebay/discogs etc.

But realistically should the originals be going for such prices? There are quite a few chinese whispers going around about the dubious actions of at least one seller on discogs, where they’ll buy up a  rare Italo record on ebay and then go straight to discogs and instantly throw another 50 or 100 on to what they paid. It’s been suggested also that they could have a couple of copies and sell one for a little less, so they can then ad that extra 50e on to the next copy they put on the market. If you are reading this and you are doing this on a regular basis, please, go fuck yourself. I’m not advocating that old rare 12″s should all go for a tenner, people – including myself – are willing to pay quite a bit for certain songs but it just makes me sad that people are taking the piss out of music fans. I’ve always advocated the idea that you can’t have every record you’ve ever wanted, you should have to fight to create your collection. It would all become very dull if we all had the same music but there is a limit to how much  you should have to fight, and it shouldn’t have to be at the behest of fuckers ripping you off just because they think they can.  Hopefully with the way the world economy is at the moment and people  tightening their belts world wide these sellers trying to bleed people dry are going to be left with stock they can’t push and will have to reduce their prices.  But it’s also dissapointing that this is could be the only situation that will see some of this music become available at reasonably expensive prices, not ludicrous ones.