Went to a big record fair at Kempton today. I don’t know why I go - the prices are generally laughable and some of the sellers are just unpleasant unhappy people. Anyway, I bought a copy of the Minari soundtrack for a tenner and an overpriced but clean copy of Blake Baxter’s Crimes of the Heart from Chris Energy plus Gilberto and Snell for £2.
The rest are from the car boot on Saturday, £2 each. David Snell is a spare and on discogs.
From past experience I stay clear of Chris Energy, nothing is priced and as soon as you express an interest in something it is invariably very rare and very expensive.
Dealt with him a few times at a local fair. He was barred eventually. So many stories of underhand, desperate, oddball moves.
I had a stall one time and saw him browsing my stuff and pretended not to notice him. He pulled a few bits out and asked for a price. At which point i said ‘i’m not selling them to you’ He looked
a bit dumbfounded, gave a cartoon-like, confused shake of the head so i simply told him ‘i’ve dealt with you a few times and you’re thoroughly unpleasant’. Off he shuffled without a word. Job done.
Yes today he accused me of “aggressively” going through his records and not treating his stock with the respect it deserves. I’m a mild mannered fella who is not easily phased, so replied “right-o” rather than “fuck off”, which is what he deserved.
Hah! Thats exactly how HE goes through records! My ex was helping me out another time and he was aggressively flicking through records and she said ‘who is that @£%$?’ And she rarely swore! Female intuition-just a terrible vibe/demeanor.
Oh yeah, He’s doing YOU a massive favour by selling you a record, obvs
Morning bootsale had Orbital’s Chime, 4 Hero’s Cooking Up Your Brain, something on F project (For those Breakbeat/Jungle fans) and some assorted bits, about 15 records for £30. Unfortunately they looked ruined and were unplayeable or saleable, so I put the lot back.
Fuck it I’m bored, off to a record fair, got plenty although I should leave more stuff behind. I’m past picking up copies of T Connection 12’s, my weakness tends to be D-Train or Change records.
William De Vaughan was £10 & Cupol was £5…yes five, had to reject the offer of discounts on these. The rest from were from 50p to £5, not much at all, I also have duplicates of stuff like A Flock Of Seagulls and Maximum Joy further up the thread.
Well he said the same to me about another record so yes it will be. I could have told him that I had a copy of the record I was touching when he told me and that it is in better nick too but I’m not sure he even listens to what you’re saying.
Must be the same guy I bought an iffy copy of a Donald Byrd LP off at a record fair a few years back, told me he was doing me a huge favour selling it to me for £40. Being young, naive and just generally wanting to end the unpleasant and rude negotiation I had somehow got myself into, I agreed to buy it at 40. Looked on Discogs when I got home and the going rate (at the time) was £15. Has since gone up in value so it doesn’t quite rankle as much as it did.
I also pulled a copy of Donna McGhee’s admittedly very rare and very expensive Make It Last Forever out of one of his boxes, which was the cue for him to run over, grab it out of my hands and exclaim “what the fuck is that doing in that box, that’s a 400 quid record!”
Hmm think I might have encountered this guy too, or someone very similar.
I’d sorted out about 5 records that I wanted. He priced them up, which then made me think he’d either calculated wrongly or I did. Either way, I didn’t have enough money so I put one back and asked him the price for 4.
Same price. I asked how that was possible and he accused me of taking the piss. So I left them all and walked off.
He had me over with a few rare boogie records that only he had in UK apparently .
My fault for being a bit keen and taking the bait but checked on discogs when I got home and realised I’d been proper tucked up.
He can’t have many repeat customers as seems it’s his business strategy to take the piss on price by the sound of things .
It’s a strange business strategy for sure. In a relatively niche hobby that’s catering to music fans and should be fun. There’s only a finite market after all.
Rule #1- don’t be a dick
Bought a 12" copy of Sylvester - Over & Over on Fantasy from him for £40 at the Olympia fair around 12 years ago, told it me it was defo not a bootleg, got home, stuck it on and and guess what? Felt sick at being ripped off, lesson learnt.
