eBay can be nervewracking sometimes...
The person who bought my records didn't pay me for a good 3 weeks after the auction. But, he did pay me. So, I have 54 lbs less vinyl in my place right now. What's next? --JB
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
Follow Up II
Hey, the Dick Clarks sold! Got $300 for the collection (well, half the collection. There were two shows that I actually have copies of). I'm glad that paid off. Considering I paid $12 for this half of the collection, not a bad return on investment, even if it wasn't the thousands I thought I'd get for them. --JB
Friday, February 18, 2011
Follow up
Interesting. I got a note from someone who was watching the Dick Clark auction, and asked if I would be relisting the collection. Since someone's interested, I relisted them; the auction ends next week.
Meanwhile, I had a tough decision to make. I have about 190 remaining commercial LP's (down from almost 400 some years ago). They really needed to be reduced, leaving the most valuable ones and tossing the rest.
My criterion was this: if you can download it on iTunes, and there's nothing else special about the LP, out it goes. I ended up tossing all but a dozen of them. Bill Cosby, Tracey Ullman, the Go-Go's, The Who -- gone.
What I kept, though, were irreplaceable -- Promo copies of albums, LPs that were never released to CD (Americathon soundtrack, anyone?) Even a couple of test pressings!
What will be harder, and I haven't done it yet, is going through my Barry Manilow vinyl collection. For a few years, I would grab any copy of a Barry album I saw in a garage sale bin or a discount rack, just because I couldn't bear the thought of his music being tossed away. But -- I now have 9 copies of Barry Manilow II, and just about every other vinyl release of his. That's a little much. I will have to sort them for the absolute rarest ones (I have two promo copies of his original 1st album on Bell Records, for instance).
This is not for the faint of heart... --JB
Meanwhile, I had a tough decision to make. I have about 190 remaining commercial LP's (down from almost 400 some years ago). They really needed to be reduced, leaving the most valuable ones and tossing the rest.
My criterion was this: if you can download it on iTunes, and there's nothing else special about the LP, out it goes. I ended up tossing all but a dozen of them. Bill Cosby, Tracey Ullman, the Go-Go's, The Who -- gone.
What I kept, though, were irreplaceable -- Promo copies of albums, LPs that were never released to CD (Americathon soundtrack, anyone?) Even a couple of test pressings!
What will be harder, and I haven't done it yet, is going through my Barry Manilow vinyl collection. For a few years, I would grab any copy of a Barry album I saw in a garage sale bin or a discount rack, just because I couldn't bear the thought of his music being tossed away. But -- I now have 9 copies of Barry Manilow II, and just about every other vinyl release of his. That's a little much. I will have to sort them for the absolute rarest ones (I have two promo copies of his original 1st album on Bell Records, for instance).
This is not for the faint of heart... --JB
Monday, February 14, 2011
Setback
So, 10 long days of waiting while I put 1/2 my Dick Clark Collection for sale.
No bids.
So, I have a bit of a dilemma: on the one hand, I know these discs are valuable. Someday, I know I can get upwards of $10K for this collection. On the other hand, the pragmatic side of me is saying 'you can't sell them, therefore they are worthless'.
I would hate to dump these, and a few years from now be kicking myself for letting go of a fortune. On the other hand, to have hung on to worthless plastic since 1994 would be just as awful.
There's still some time on this one. I'm going to put them back in the closet, and see what else I can reduce in my home. --JB
No bids.
So, I have a bit of a dilemma: on the one hand, I know these discs are valuable. Someday, I know I can get upwards of $10K for this collection. On the other hand, the pragmatic side of me is saying 'you can't sell them, therefore they are worthless'.
I would hate to dump these, and a few years from now be kicking myself for letting go of a fortune. On the other hand, to have hung on to worthless plastic since 1994 would be just as awful.
There's still some time on this one. I'm going to put them back in the closet, and see what else I can reduce in my home. --JB
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Big Surprise
Just proving that there's so much in this world I know so little about...
I finally (finally!) got up the nerve to sell my old comic book collection! Problem is, I'm not a DC reader, or a Marvel reader. I don't do Spider-Man or Green Lantern or any of that, I could care less about the X-Men.
I read Warren comics. Between 1964 and 1983, the put out (among others), Creepy and Eerie, two of the finest horror comics ever made. Over the years I had collected quite a few of them, and had gotten to the point, about 15 years ago, that I had to make a decision to either finished the collection (I had about half the known issues at the time), or give up and sell them.
Years and years later, they were still sitting in a trunk in my closet. This year, out they go!
Problem is, I know nothing about comic books, other than the fact that certain issues of certain comics are quite valuable to collectors. I had about a dozen of the really good issues of Creepy and Eerie among the 113 issues that I put up for sale, but other than Creepy #1, I didn't think anything else would be considered particularly valuable. So, I would have been thrilled to get any money at all for them, just to get them out of my place.
I started the auction the day after my birthday (Dec 27), no minimum, and (crossing my fingers), no maximum or "Buy it Now" price. I hit the "post" button, and we were off.
My first bid was for $3.00. I figured that would be all I'd get. I check on it again just before New Year's, and it had gone up to $10! Whoa, cool. Still didn't expect anything big.
Right after New Year's I got a note from the then-highest bidder (at $20.00), who offered to buy it for $50 if I stopped the auction right now. I thought it was a generous offer, so I looked to see if it could be done. Well, Meg Whitman didn't become a billionaire by letting sellers come and go as they chose: I was there for the duration. Sorry, chum...
I felt bad about the decision for about an hour, when the bid shot to $42!, the next day it was over $50!
I'll never be good at the stock market, because my gut was telling me this was topped out. I didn't check the auction for a few days, just to give myself a break from disappointment. I needn't have worried: I checked the auction yesterday, and it was up to $95! I was astounded, I had no idea these silly comics would be worth anyone's time or money.
Today was the final day of the auction. When I woke up, the bid was up to $205!
By lunchtime, it was over $300! I could barely concentrate on my work, wanting to peek in and watch the auction. I finally gave in at the last 10 minutes.
14 seconds before the end of the auction, someone put in the final bid: $361.78! That's over half what I paid for my computer! I'm thrilled, but astonished that it sold that well.
I wonder what I'll get for my Dick Clarks? --JB
I finally (finally!) got up the nerve to sell my old comic book collection! Problem is, I'm not a DC reader, or a Marvel reader. I don't do Spider-Man or Green Lantern or any of that, I could care less about the X-Men.
I read Warren comics. Between 1964 and 1983, the put out (among others), Creepy and Eerie, two of the finest horror comics ever made. Over the years I had collected quite a few of them, and had gotten to the point, about 15 years ago, that I had to make a decision to either finished the collection (I had about half the known issues at the time), or give up and sell them.
Years and years later, they were still sitting in a trunk in my closet. This year, out they go!
Problem is, I know nothing about comic books, other than the fact that certain issues of certain comics are quite valuable to collectors. I had about a dozen of the really good issues of Creepy and Eerie among the 113 issues that I put up for sale, but other than Creepy #1, I didn't think anything else would be considered particularly valuable. So, I would have been thrilled to get any money at all for them, just to get them out of my place.
I started the auction the day after my birthday (Dec 27), no minimum, and (crossing my fingers), no maximum or "Buy it Now" price. I hit the "post" button, and we were off.
My first bid was for $3.00. I figured that would be all I'd get. I check on it again just before New Year's, and it had gone up to $10! Whoa, cool. Still didn't expect anything big.
Right after New Year's I got a note from the then-highest bidder (at $20.00), who offered to buy it for $50 if I stopped the auction right now. I thought it was a generous offer, so I looked to see if it could be done. Well, Meg Whitman didn't become a billionaire by letting sellers come and go as they chose: I was there for the duration. Sorry, chum...
I felt bad about the decision for about an hour, when the bid shot to $42!, the next day it was over $50!
I'll never be good at the stock market, because my gut was telling me this was topped out. I didn't check the auction for a few days, just to give myself a break from disappointment. I needn't have worried: I checked the auction yesterday, and it was up to $95! I was astounded, I had no idea these silly comics would be worth anyone's time or money.
Today was the final day of the auction. When I woke up, the bid was up to $205!
By lunchtime, it was over $300! I could barely concentrate on my work, wanting to peek in and watch the auction. I finally gave in at the last 10 minutes.
14 seconds before the end of the auction, someone put in the final bid: $361.78! That's over half what I paid for my computer! I'm thrilled, but astonished that it sold that well.
I wonder what I'll get for my Dick Clarks? --JB
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
What to do, what to do...
What do you do if you have a collection of something so rare that even collectors don't know it exists?
About 15 years ago, I was with my (then) wife in, of all places, Roswell, NM. If you have the chance, don't -- it is so not worth the trip. Two main "museums", devoted almost entirely to interviews with people who think they saw something back in 1947 -- not a shred of evidence.
After that disappointing trip, we ducked into a nearby antique/collectibles/general junk shop to see what they had. Looking around the various tables, we were both thinking that Roswell needs to be scratched off our list of places to ever go again.
Then my foot hit something under one of the tables. I peeked under the table cloth, and there were about 4 milk crates filled with record albums, all with plain white sleeves and no jackets. I pulled one box out, slipped up a disc and checked it out.
It said, in gold letters, "Dick Clark -- Show #34".
Quickly flipping through the other boxes, all the disks said the same thing, only with varying show numbers, going all the way to about #285. As I have no poker face at all, I summoned the wife to broker a deal for the crates, and we arrived at $25. We loaded them into the car and drove off like we had just knocked over the First National Bank!
Over the next few hours, I checked out my new acquisition: over 300 hours of two radio shows by Dick Clark, one called "Solid Gold" (no relation to the 1980's TV show), and one called "Dick Clark's Music Machine". Finally getting a turntable again, I listened to a few dozen of the shows: Solid Gold was no mere title, it was a true description of what is on these discs. Interviews with Rock Royalty, like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bo Diddley. Current early 1970's music by Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd and Barry Manilow. A whole history of Rock, and I had hundreds of hours of it!
According to some of the play sheets, which were still included from the radio station these were originally lent to, these shows pre-date "Rock Roll & Remember" by a good 10-15 years. If you try to Google "Dick Clark Solid Gold" or "Dick Clark's Music Machine", you come up with paltry few sites that even mention them. On Dick Clark's own websites, these shows aren't even listed in his body of work! How am I going to sell these things if Dick Clark himself doesn't make mention of them?
A few years ago, I did sell one of the shows on eBay, that contained an interview with Chuck Berry, and got $80 for it! The collection has already paid for itself.
So, I've got about 290 hours of these shows on vinyl. If I knew of a serious collector of radio shows on vinyl, I could probably get a pretty penny for them. If I try to sell the shows one at a time, it could take months, or never.
As of now, they have sat on my shelves for 15 1/2 years, taking up space, worth essentially nothing. Part of me wants to just toss them into a dumpster. What to do, what to do? --JB
About 15 years ago, I was with my (then) wife in, of all places, Roswell, NM. If you have the chance, don't -- it is so not worth the trip. Two main "museums", devoted almost entirely to interviews with people who think they saw something back in 1947 -- not a shred of evidence.
After that disappointing trip, we ducked into a nearby antique/collectibles/general junk shop to see what they had. Looking around the various tables, we were both thinking that Roswell needs to be scratched off our list of places to ever go again.
Then my foot hit something under one of the tables. I peeked under the table cloth, and there were about 4 milk crates filled with record albums, all with plain white sleeves and no jackets. I pulled one box out, slipped up a disc and checked it out.
It said, in gold letters, "Dick Clark -- Show #34".
Quickly flipping through the other boxes, all the disks said the same thing, only with varying show numbers, going all the way to about #285. As I have no poker face at all, I summoned the wife to broker a deal for the crates, and we arrived at $25. We loaded them into the car and drove off like we had just knocked over the First National Bank!
Over the next few hours, I checked out my new acquisition: over 300 hours of two radio shows by Dick Clark, one called "Solid Gold" (no relation to the 1980's TV show), and one called "Dick Clark's Music Machine". Finally getting a turntable again, I listened to a few dozen of the shows: Solid Gold was no mere title, it was a true description of what is on these discs. Interviews with Rock Royalty, like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bo Diddley. Current early 1970's music by Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd and Barry Manilow. A whole history of Rock, and I had hundreds of hours of it!
According to some of the play sheets, which were still included from the radio station these were originally lent to, these shows pre-date "Rock Roll & Remember" by a good 10-15 years. If you try to Google "Dick Clark Solid Gold" or "Dick Clark's Music Machine", you come up with paltry few sites that even mention them. On Dick Clark's own websites, these shows aren't even listed in his body of work! How am I going to sell these things if Dick Clark himself doesn't make mention of them?
A few years ago, I did sell one of the shows on eBay, that contained an interview with Chuck Berry, and got $80 for it! The collection has already paid for itself.
So, I've got about 290 hours of these shows on vinyl. If I knew of a serious collector of radio shows on vinyl, I could probably get a pretty penny for them. If I try to sell the shows one at a time, it could take months, or never.
As of now, they have sat on my shelves for 15 1/2 years, taking up space, worth essentially nothing. Part of me wants to just toss them into a dumpster. What to do, what to do? --JB
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Chaplin, Anyone?
First off, many thanks to Grace, for the nice words...
Kind of got caught up in the Thanksgiving holiday, haven't had much of a chance to make a dent in the sum of my material possessions.
Tonight, however, I finally got the last of the books that I was willing to part with, and head on over to Half Price Books (thank goodness for them!). I dropped off 36 books, including 19 on Charlie Chaplin! Some of them must have been pretty rare, because they gave me $29 this time! {That comes to 80 cents a book! Not too shabby...}
That still leaves me with 102 books, including 27 autographed books. I hope in the next week or so to rid myself of all but the autographed books.
My major project for 2011 will be to reduce my computer data to what can be held in a couple of external hard drives. I currently have something like 500 CD's and DVD's that are just pictures, old programs, countless backups from the 6 computers I've owned over the last 20 years. Although bulky, I should be able to get them all into a single Terabyte Hard Drive. Just going to take a couple of dedicated weekends.
--JB
Kind of got caught up in the Thanksgiving holiday, haven't had much of a chance to make a dent in the sum of my material possessions.
Tonight, however, I finally got the last of the books that I was willing to part with, and head on over to Half Price Books (thank goodness for them!). I dropped off 36 books, including 19 on Charlie Chaplin! Some of them must have been pretty rare, because they gave me $29 this time! {That comes to 80 cents a book! Not too shabby...}
That still leaves me with 102 books, including 27 autographed books. I hope in the next week or so to rid myself of all but the autographed books.
My major project for 2011 will be to reduce my computer data to what can be held in a couple of external hard drives. I currently have something like 500 CD's and DVD's that are just pictures, old programs, countless backups from the 6 computers I've owned over the last 20 years. Although bulky, I should be able to get them all into a single Terabyte Hard Drive. Just going to take a couple of dedicated weekends.
--JB
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)