Friday, March 21, 2014

Es-Say #6 - Can't Buy Me Records

Record show days remind me of the one thing I'm not- A man. As a woman, I have to either wave money in the air or slam 10 dvds in front of any vinyl dealer(male or female) to get a bit of attention. I want to be sold items but I usually have a ton of uninterrupted time to figure out what I might like to purchase. The dealers act like they are doing me a favor answering my questions but will take my money. The best experience I can get is maybe some tidbits of record information but I really have to go the extra mile myself. My online searches can only offer so much and girlfriends eyes to not sparkle when I say "Let's go to a record show!" Cue the violins.

At a record show today, I didn't expect much and still got a few good things. My partner bought a 7" of "Jet" without the B-Side pressed label of "Let Me Roll It" and I asked a dealer about its value. He thought it was worth about £10 which was 5x what we paid for it. The dealer didn't try to sell me anything but I bought a 5th pressing copy of "Help"(back cover- above, left, bottom) from 1976.

After awhile, I finally found some cheap but decent bootleg DVD's(view my youtube channel to see the unboxing www.youtube.com/magicmeri) of both Beatles and McCartney. I almost got a second DVD but no dealer would confirm that NTSC Region Free disc would play in a PAL system. This one had no specifications at all on the box but it was a risk that I took anyway.  It does work and I just have to now devote five hours of my life to sit through all of the EPKs and TV promo clips from Memory Almost Full. (Just not right now but I did watch about 30 minutes).


I found a white vinyl 7" Juke Box copy of "Off The Ground" for £3. It was next to an Italian copy of a 7" Picture Sleeve of another day(£8), but I didn't want it as it wasn't in great condition. It said "rare" on it but I didn't feel that way at all and I got the white vinyl 1993 single instead. This was a situation where I did have to bark "Money," like the guy on Storage Wars(or Hunters?) and I got the vinyl.

By this point I was tired and gave away £11. One last viewing at a dealer table was almost a bust as I saw newer 2013/14 items I could have been tempted to purchase but I didn't think my business was welcome. I stretched like a gymnast to reach things in boxes with higher prices and eventually gave up...until I spotted "Spin It On" for £3. "Money" got me the vinyl.

Finally, I got a vinyl carrying case from a dealer who did everything in his power to sell to me. I did accidentally hit my head on the sales table mid-sale, but I finally felt I got a bit of expected acknowledgement for my money. I'll let you know when the room stops spinning but I was very happy to find my way home with half my budget still in my pocketbook. Men...you just got to love 'em...
 

No comments:

Post a Comment