How do you square the circle of rarity versus condition? I hate records that are scuffed, have needle fatigue or just plain knackered. I was in Detroit last month and saw records at a fair that would shame Albert Steptoe. Mind you, I have an old copy of Tamiko Jones 'Spellbound' that I can barely look at, the label is torn and the vinyl is scraped. I shouldn't have bought it many moons ago. At what stage do you let the desire to own a record overcome the logic of wanting a mint pearler? Records are getting older now, 40 year old sounds are rarely perfect - so what do you do?

The northern scene is one of the few that you get the same price for a M/Ex/Vg+ record. If we used record collector's guide for valuation, many of our discs would be worth half or a third of what we paid for them and the same goes for selling them. Seen lots of comment of couldn't care what label was like as long disc was fine, in other collecting fields, unless label and disc are mint then price drops like a stone. The exception to the rule on the soul scene is with the UK label collectors they will only pay top $ if it's mint.

The northern scene is one of the few that you get the same price for a M/Ex/Vg+ record. If we used record collector's guide for valuation, many of our discs would be worth half or a third of what we paid for them and the same goes for selling them. Seen lots of comment of couldn't care what label was like as long disc was fine, in other collecting fields, unless label and disc are mint then price drops like a stone. The exception to the rule on the soul scene is with the UK label collectors they will only pay top $ if it's mint.

that's a good opinion, speaky, but once was enough

that's a good opinion, speaky, but once was enough

Dan, I had trouble posting yesterday, didn't think it had been posted because it bombed out, I didn't look this morning.