Commencing countdown…
The current issue (December 2004) of Record Collector magazine is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a list of the 100 most valuable records of all time.
An unissued 1969 UK picture sleeve of David Bowie’s Space Oddity 45 stands at #7 in the list, commanding a cool £3,000! ($5,755USD)
Here’s an edited version of what Record Collector had to say about the disc:
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Space Oddity £3,000 (Philips BF 1801, 7″ in unreleased p/s, 1969)
In 1969, it was still relatively unusual to find picture sleeves with UK singles. They were very much the norm in America and across Europe, but British record companies still reckoned that it wasn’t an expense worth taking. So, when a previously undocumented picture sleeve was discovered in 1996 for David Bowie’s 1969 release, Space Oddity, even well-known Bowie collectors assumed it had to be a clever fake.
Nobody has been able to explain why the sleeve was printed and then not distributed, although, during his research for his David Bowie: World 7 Records Discography, expert Marshall Jarman was informed by a man who worked in Holland for Philips in the 60s that when Space Oddity was first released, stereo singles were still a novelty, and Philips had several stereo singles pressed up in Holland specially for the UK market as an experiment. Space Oddity would have been a likely subject for a marketing exercise of this kind, as the single made good use of effects, and was also inspired by developments in technology.
So Jarman speculates that as the UK stereo discs were pressed in Holland, there may well have been picture sleeves printed to go with them – after all, every other European country issued a picture sleeve, most utilising the same image seen here in various forms – and that for some reason the company decided not to use them after all. Just those two or three copies are known to have survived, hence the astronomical asking price.
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I did do a piece about this item here on BowieNet a few years ago, which I can’t locate right now. But, if memory serves, I approached the item with a little healthy suspicion. I’ll keep an open mind until the day I have a copy in my paws to inspect. There would be tell-tale signs if the item were fake, not least of all the paper stock, the way it was printed and even the design.
Another reason I haven’t been completely comfortable about this one, is the fact that all the known copies seemed to emanate from one record dealer. The fact that a limited ‘reissue’ version of the sleeve then became available at a much lower price from the same seller, did nothing to convince me of the validity of the sleeve. Anyway, as I say, I have an open mind for now.
OK, now I’m going to rant, so if you’re easily bored I’d move on if I were you.
Attempting to evaluate the price of a rare record is an almost impossible task that the likes of Record Collector can only give a vague idea of. Obviously any item for sale is worth what the last person was willing to pay for it, and if eBay is a fair marketplace to get a picture of an artist’s current worth in the record-collecting market, then the Record Collector Rare Record Price Guide is wholly inaccurate. David Bowie is a great example of that.
I bought the latest edition (2006!), the first time I’ve bothered in six years, and while I appreciate how hard it must be to compile such a tome, there are unforgivable errors in this guide…particularly considering the book is “fully revised and updated” with each new edition,
Even taking in to account that this is a UK price guide, there are still ridiculous omissions from the UK listings of many major artists. If anybody from Record Collector is reading this, yes I can give several examples.
Anyway, even though I seriously collect lots of different artists, I’m sure the majority of you only want to know about some of the Bowie inaccuracies. Here are just a handful of the more expensive recent eBay auction results with the Record Collector valuation in brackets. Prices are GBP/USD, using
(NB: A white label advance promo of the above,
Sometimes, (though not very often) the eBay auction and the RC list price end up in a similar area, as with this item:
Another area where I think the guide fails those shelling out £25 for it, (hardback is £40) is its lack of consistency. For example, on page 646 of the 2006 edition, the 4-track EMI 7″ EP from 1979 containing two tracks each from Davy Jones and The Lower Third and The Manish Boys is listed for £12, while the 1982 10″ issue on Charly is listed at £18. Turn to page 776 and the very same records are listed at £10 and £7 respectively. The irony being that the far rarer 1990 CD reissue of the EP isn’t even listed!
This inconsistency is highlighted in the current edition of the mag in the aforementioned 100 most valuable records of all time listing. At number 53 the magazine claims that the rarest Smiths record is an unissued live Meat Is Murder EP test pressing, valued at £1,000/$1,916.
However, earlier in the very same issue, the magazine values a Reel Around The Fountain 7″ test pressing by The Smiths at £2,000/$3,832! It gets sillier…This £2,000 test pressing is listed in the 2006 guide at just £550/$1,052.
As I say, it’s not an exact science, but that’s just sloppy. So, before you take your old vinyl collection to your local second-hand record emporium, (where you’ll probably be offered around a third of the Record Collector list price) it may be an idea to try it on eBay first.
Inspired by a
If you have any specific questions regarding any rare Bowie items, drop me a line. If I can’t answer it directly, I probably know somebody who can. Send an e-mail to me at TotalBlamBlam@davidbowie.com with a subject line of “Rare Bowie Stuff”.