As the merchandise exchanged and money roared…
I bet the person who removed the original centre of the above single didn’t figure on their action devaluing the 7″ piece of black plastic by around £1,250! (Approx. $2,220 USD)
The record, (cleverly catalogued as BOW-1E) is the very desirable Low sampler from 1977, which the majority reading this (including me) won’t own. The one-sided promo was originally pressed to promote the release of Low, surprisingly enough, though it was never actually distributed.
It contains snippets of six of the tracks from side one of the album, (excepting Always Crashing In The Same Car, for some reason) and it clocks in at 4.45, which works out at a generous forty seven and a half seconds per snippet!
The record is so sought after that the above copy, less than ideal with the centre removed, still commanded an incredible £1,000 (Approx. $1,775 USD) on eBay earlier in the week.
The reason that this centre removal may have cost the seller dearly, is that the pristine copy in its original RCA promo sleeve, below, went on eBay back in May for a breathtaking £2,250 (Approx. $3,995 USD)!
Of course, this is yet another perfect example of why sellers shouldn’t rush to popular price guides to get an indication of actual value. Record Collector has the disc at £500 in the 2006 edition of their price guide, which it has done for the past five years now.
Any collectable is worth exactly how much somebody is willing to pay for it. In fact, to be completely honest, the Low sampler is only really worth around £50 if somebody out there has got one they’re willing to push my way! };-)
Bowie stock is very strong right now, illustrated further by the fact that a particularly dog-eared copy of the above, extremely rare, Portuguese Space Oddity on Philips, (albeit complete with insert) also fetched a remarkable £1,020 on eBay just two days ago.
If you are finding it hard to accept that these records sold for the amounts I’ve mentioned, (admittedly they are beyond belief) then simply click on the relevant cover to reach the original eBay auction page.
It seems rare Bowie is where the smart money is right now. Certainly a better return than any saving scheme or pension fund I’ve ever been offered!