S/D: Worthless on vinyl, outlandish on CD

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(There might be a prior thread along these lines, but damn if the possible search parameters aren't too generic)

You couldn't give away the original vinyl pressings of these albums, but you could make a nice down-payment on a car with their ludicrously inflated digital counterparts (prices borrowed from Amazon):

M, The Official Secrets Act ($50.09)
The Wild Swans, Bringing Home the Ashes ($73.35)
Jon Hassell, Aka/Darbari/Java ($76.99)

― Myke. (Myke Weiskopf), Friday, 24 March 2006 03:19 (twenty years ago)

the early bob seger system things usually go for $5 on vinyl, the cds went for $50-100 on ebay.

― baby, disco is fuck (yournullfame), Friday, 24 March 2006 03:25 (twenty years ago)

HELLO FIRST VANITY 6 ALBUM

― Yoo Doo Nut (donut), Friday, 24 March 2006 03:32 (twenty years ago)

Actually many Prince protogé albums: The Family.. anything by Sheila E.

― Yoo Doo Nut (donut), Friday, 24 March 2006 03:33 (twenty years ago)

Also, Bob Seger System records aren't exactly worthless on vinyl, either.

― Yoo Doo Nut (donut), Friday, 24 March 2006 03:34 (twenty years ago)

Anything by Guadalcanal Diary.

― Yoo Doo Nut (donut), Friday, 24 March 2006 03:35 (twenty years ago)

Colourfield, "Virgins and Philistines." $144.99 on Amazon for the double CD version, $62.79 for the single CD. Weirdly, a rerelease is listed for January 1, 2011. "You may order it now and we will ship it to you when it arrives."

― jules d, Friday, 24 March 2006 03:38 (twenty years ago)

Gang of Four "Songs of the Free"

― drench, Friday, 24 March 2006 04:03 (twenty years ago)

I thought they recently reissued the major Guadalcanal Diary albums?

Murray Attaway's In Thrall won't be paying for any cars, alas...

― Joe (Joe), Friday, 24 March 2006 04:04 (twenty years ago)

I'm kicking myself for not picking up the Hassell CD, when I saw it 6-7 years ago...even then I had a feeling it would be hard to find one day.

― Joe (Joe), Friday, 24 March 2006 04:05 (twenty years ago)

I got my Opal albums for $5 apiece, but the Early Recordings CD used to go for $80+ on Ebay.

― Erick Dampier is better than Shaq (miloaukerman), Friday, 24 March 2006 04:36 (twenty years ago)

Game Theory, Lolita Nation, vinyl is like $3, CDs go anywhere from $50 to $200 (maybe not anymore)

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 24 March 2006 06:20 (twenty years ago)

Oh god, I forgot about Lolita Nation ... I don't see much Game Theory vinyl around here, though, regrettably!

― Myke. (Myke Weiskopf), Friday, 24 March 2006 08:13 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, if you know where I can pick up Lolita Nation for three bucks, kindly point me in the direction. I never see their vinyl anywhere.

― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Friday, 24 March 2006 15:48 (twenty years ago)

Also, Bob Seger System records aren't exactly worthless on vinyl, either.

sorta depends on where you shop, doesn't it?

― baby, disco is fuck (yournullfame), Friday, 24 March 2006 15:53 (twenty years ago)

first david johansen solo joint
first emitt rhodes solo joint
tons of old motown records
neil young - time fades away (and everything else never released on cd)

― pssst - badass revolutionary art! (plsmith), Friday, 24 March 2006 15:54 (twenty years ago)

side 2 of time fades away = three of neil's best.

― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Friday, 24 March 2006 16:54 (twenty years ago)

"side 2 of time fades away = three of neil's best"

Amen! "Don't Be Denied" is one of the best songs he's ever written, and it's never appeard anywhere else in his catalog. Amazing stuff. When I read Jimmy McDonough's biography (which is teriffic), I was surprised that McDonough seemed lukewarm about that record. I love it.

― James, Friday, 24 March 2006 17:00 (twenty years ago)

haha that's my flea market Colourfield CD on amazon... it's $199 now

― -rainbow bum- (-rainbow bum-), Friday, 24 March 2006 17:02 (twenty years ago)

blancmange's happy families on cd goes for anything up to £20 which is a shame as it's the 2nd release version with the inferior single version of waves with the strings on it

― frenchbloke (frenchbloke), Friday, 24 March 2006 17:08 (twenty years ago)

The was recently a used CD reissue of John Phillips' John, The Wolfking Of L.A. for something like $300 on Amazon. It isn't there anymore, so some idiot must have purchased it. The LP is worth, what, $20 max? It's a tremendously good album, but seriously, $300 for a fucking CD?

― Hatch (Hatch), Friday, 24 March 2006 17:36 (twenty years ago)

pacific ocean blue is like that, except a little pricier on vinyl. i found a JPN cd copy with obi at my old job like 3 years ago, and we sold it online for like $350.

― pssst - badass revolutionary art! (plsmith), Friday, 24 March 2006 17:41 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, if you know where I can pick up Lolita Nation for three bucks, kindly point me in the direction. I never see their vinyl anywhere.

amoeba on haight. there were at least two copies for $5 last time I looked. One of them was mine!

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 24 March 2006 18:57 (twenty years ago)

how much does Starsailor go for on CD these days?

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 24 March 2006 18:59 (twenty years ago)

Go by Stomu Yamashta is about $40 (a cheap car) but I picked up a copy of the vinyl for $1 at Amoeba. I remember that one especially since I had only seen the CD prices before I went there, and assumed that the vinyl was super-expensive, so when I found a perfect copy for $1 I pretty much freaked. Looking on eBay though it looks as if I got it for a pretty good price anyway.

Also, Floy Joy by the Supremes is $99 on CD and around $5 for vinyl on eBay. I'd like to meet the type of person who'd spend $99 on that CD.

― musically (musically), Friday, 24 March 2006 21:10 (twenty years ago)

Pointer Sisters' That's A Plenty and Steppin'.

― Yoo Doo Nut (donut), Friday, 24 March 2006 22:21 (twenty years ago)

neil young - time fades away (and everything else never released on cd)

if it was never released on CDs how can they be expensive?

i have it on vinyl great record!

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 24 March 2006 22:47 (twenty years ago)

i've seen the cd version of MF Doom - Operation Doomsday go for a pretty penny on ebay before, but it is OOP

― J. Lamphere (WatchMeJumpStart), Friday, 24 March 2006 22:53 (twenty years ago)

Wall of Voodoo - Dark Continent
Does it sound any better on cd, though? I wonder.

― eek, Saturday, 25 March 2006 00:07 (twenty years ago)

Sultans of Ping FC - 'Casual Sex In The Cineplex'.

£30-40 on CD, £10-15 on vinyl.

― Craig Wood (b0n3y), Saturday, 25 March 2006 00:44 (twenty years ago)

"if it was never released on CDs how can they be expensive?"

Possibly off topic for this thread, but there are high quality bootleg CDs of -Time Fades Away- and -Journey Through the Past- that circulate. Copied from vinyl, but high quality sound, very nice reproduction of the LP artwork, etc. They are usually priced at $20 to $30.

(This was also true of those other four Neil Young albums that went unissued on CD for a very long time - On the Beach, ReAcTor, Hawks and Doves and American Stars and Bars. I suppose when Reprise finally issued them, those boot CDs became expensive beer coasters).

― James, Saturday, 25 March 2006 17:20 (twenty years ago)

"The was recently a used CD reissue of John Phillips' John, The Wolfking Of L.A. for something like $300 on Amazon. "

Good god, I only paid 10 dollars for a sealed copy, and that was less than a year ago.

― Chairman Doinel (Charles McCain), Saturday, 25 March 2006 17:28 (twenty years ago)

Pete Shelley's Homosapiens used to be fairly cheap and easy to find but the prices really took off after it became OOP on CD.

There's a reissue coming in the next few weeks though.

― Jeff K (jeff k), Saturday, 25 March 2006 17:38 (twenty years ago)

Casual Sex In The Cineplex has just been reissued on CD, so that should fix that.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Saturday, 25 March 2006 18:48 (twenty years ago)

Altern-8 Full-on mask hysteria
World Domination Enterprises - Let's Play Domination

― mark grout (mark grout), Saturday, 25 March 2006 19:08 (twenty years ago)

how much does Starsailor go for on CD these days?

Way too goddamn much. Prices on Amazon range from $99.75 up to $183.16, all for used copies. Why this and Blue Afternoon haven't got the superdeluxe Rhino reissue treatment yet completely baffles me- it can't be a legal issue, because Rhino already sells them on itunes.

Blue Afternoon definitely fits here- Amazon's cheapest used copy is $65, but you can get the (reissued) LP for 5 to 10 bucks. Not sure how much the original is worth.

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Sunday, 26 March 2006 03:33 (twenty years ago)

an original of blue afternoon would be like $15-20 i'd wager, unless it was a white label or in some other way notable.

― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Sunday, 26 March 2006 03:41 (twenty years ago)

Pete Shelley's Homosapiens used to be fairly cheap and easy to find but the prices really took off after it became OOP on CD.

i bet if they reissued sky yen it'd be worthless on cd but still outlandish on vinyl.

(blue afternoon is like $7-14 here)

― baby, disco is fuck (yournullfame), Sunday, 26 March 2006 07:44 (twenty years ago)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006PIPYW/ref=m_art_li_1/002-0263129-1944076?s=music&v=glance&n=5174

― ama, Sunday, 26 March 2006 08:04 (twenty years ago)

I'd feel bad for selling something for that much, what with .mp3s and all, unless it was a precious artifact. If something looks like it might be THAT valuable, I'll put it on ebay and see how the bidding fares.

― no way, Sunday, 26 March 2006 08:43 (twenty years ago)

Actually, James, Time Fades Away also circulates in its unreleased, HDCD-encoded format. Whether it's as good as the vinyl rips I don't know, but that HDCD light doesn't go on without it being the real deal. They just decided not to actually release it.

― eek, Sunday, 26 March 2006 17:37 (twenty years ago)

I think the reason why these CDs in particular cost so much is because they're not so sought after.. except for "you", basically.

If someone has one.. and that someone is the rare person who is on slsk or what not, the queue for wanting to grab the mp3s is about a thousand people or something... Also, these CDs fall into the category of "not uncommon to find in that one shitty thrift shop in the corner of town nobody wants to go to".

If any of these was a very rare CD by a highly sought after release/artist, then it would be worth far less.

― Yoo Doo Nut (donut), Sunday, 26 March 2006 19:23 (twenty years ago)

...because the proliferation of the mp3s would have more common, and easier to get. (sorry, post submitted early)

― Yoo Doo Nut (donut), Sunday, 26 March 2006 19:24 (twenty years ago)

Not sure I buy that theory, but what the hey.

― Myke. (Myke Weiskopf), Sunday, 26 March 2006 20:28 (twenty years ago)

Stump's A Fierce Pancake -- $4.00 for LP on gemm, $160 for CD (though only about $45 on amazon).

― The Vintner's Lipogram (OleM), Sunday, 26 March 2006 21:04 (twenty years ago)

Yoo Doo Nut, I think you're right in some ways. I've sold CDs to people who really want the music, and who don't want to (understandably) take the time to sift through other people's crap to get an mp3 or two.

I still think that a lot of those $100 jobs are a little overpriced, what with reissues on the horizon and all. It just doesn't square with my experience - something is going for $100, and a year later - bam, it's reissued.

I don't think I've sold something for more than forty or fifty bucks unless it was on vinyl.

― eek, Sunday, 26 March 2006 21:46 (twenty years ago)

Also, as an addendum, I'll add that what really goes for high prices is stuff on the oldies market, not like, old indie or whatever. Just my experience.

― eek, Sunday, 26 March 2006 21:48 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, that Stump one is supposedly expensive on CD,but there's a difference between what somebody wanting to sell it for £100 on Gemm, and it actually selling for £20 on ebay (I bought mine there).

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 27 March 2006 07:58 (twenty years ago)

Well, yeah, the reissue thing changes everything... it only doesn't affect original rock vinyl.

Original SST pressings of that self titled Sonic Youth CD probably now go for $3 instead of $30 or more even half a year ago.

However, the original EP (i.e. original vinyl) remains the same price, just because it's an original pressing... it's more of a talisman than a means to hear the songs.

― Yoo Doo Nut (donut), Monday, 27 March 2006 08:29 (twenty years ago)

I sold my copy of the SST Sonic Youth EP for about £25 on Ebay a couple of months ago :P

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Monday, 27 March 2006 08:44 (twenty years ago)

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