Discogs seller Freestylemaniac either has the best records on the planet, or should be approached with caution. Ellipsis, Larry Clinton, JUNIOR McCANTS???? Not that I'm in the market for any of these, but anyone aware of these records residing in Germany?

 

https://www.discogs.com/seller/freestylemaniac/profile

Only two known copies of Junior McCants so is this a third? This combination of records in the same ownership would be very hard to come by, perhaps half a dozen individuals in this league. For them to be for sale simultaneously is a chance in a million. Nevertheless, the descriptions appear plausible enough.

His scans for J.D. Bryant and Junior McCants (and probably others) are from popsike...

Edited June 13, 201510 yr by mshoals

His scans for J.D. Bryant and Junior McCants (and probably others) are from popsike...

​Discogs uses generic scans anyway - so that in itself would not indicate anything dodgy

if its the same guy he sells quite heavily on ebay under the same name lots of boogie and disco 12"s.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/freestylemaniac-records

have bought some 3-400 quid+ 12"s from him on there without issue.

there is a huge world of soul collectors outside of the northern scene. plenty of new discoveries such as a elypsis were initially found by white american kids rather than NS scene djs, so some bloke in germany having these tunes is not like a 8ft alien walking into your front room. its entirely possible he has them.

soul music and the record collecting that goes with it doesn't begin and end with 50/60 year old northern blokes.

Edited July 21, 20159 yr by JNixon

Isn't there is 3 known copies of Junior McCants plus the studio acetate?

But 5 super, super rarities for sale, from one seller all at the same time. Wow.

Edited June 13, 201510 yr by Juniorsoul

Isn't there is 3 known copies of Junior McCants plus the studio acetate?

But 5 super, super rarities for sale, from one seller all at the same time. Wow.

having the desired effect isnt it. we are talking about it and i guess others are on other sites

im sure he has them if he is advertising them but this will drive traffic to his site and sell cheaper tunes for him im sure. 

Yikes, a few more big ticket items added. Can't imagine anyone listing these and nobody commenting!

He does regular sales list and is a long established seller on Ebay - has been around  a while and I don' t have any reason to doubt his credibility 

Blimey....some big ticket tunes there...hope all is kosher as it goes to show these top records are all over the place, not just in the known collections...great stuff and interesting...great post, thank you...Rob

Discogs seller Freestylemaniac either has the best records on the planet, or should be approached with caution. Ellipsis, Larry Clinton, JUNIOR McCANTS???? Not that I'm in the market for any of these, but anyone aware of these records residing in Germany?

 

https://www.discogs.com/seller/freestylemaniac/profile

​They may reside in Germany, but he could well be selling on behalf of a collector. He did sell some twelves for me a few years ago, as he seemed to get  better money than anyone else. Many collectors have items that they would rather not tell the world they own. Many years ago that Ellipsis 45 was in my sales box at Yarmouth for £400, And i ended up bringing it home , but that was before the sheep had got wind of things. Quality rare soul records have been living in collections all over the world for many years ,even more so since the internet got going.

Found these just listed by someone in Germany. Big Big records....

https://www.discogs.com/seller/freestylemaniac/profile

Found these just listed by someone in Germany. Big Big records....

https://www.discogs.com/seller/freestylemaniac/profile

​Big records alright ....this seller usually lists on Ebay , but never seen the seller list records like these on Ebay.

guess someone will have to test the water...and if alls good watch them fly..this seller been on ebay for years athough i cant recall anything of this stature before

Can't be too many copies of the ravins floating around as well.....

Surely better to auction big ticket items rather than a set sale?

guess someone will have to test the water...and if alls good watch them fly..this seller been on ebay for years athough i cant recall anything of this stature before

​he is one of those ebay sellers with golden balls.

the prices some of his auctions fetch over and above what is reasonable suggests he shouldnt be short of cash to fund such tunes.

OK I know it's not in pristine condition, but given the description I'm actually quite surprised the J. D. Bryant hasn't sold yet at £4,700.

 

OK I know it's not in pristine condition, but given the description I'm actually quite surprised the J. D. Bryant hasn't sold yet at £4,700.

 

I agree...but that is proper money for a record....rare and fantastic, but not many have the money to spend nearly 5k on a record..(or a piece of plastic as the wife calls it) ...if I had the money this would be snapped up immediately!!!....thank you..Rob

Edited June 14, 201510 yr by Lionelonthevinyl

Not arguing for or against any question of "can it be true" ? but the U.S. Forces have been based in Germany since the Second World War and most, if not all the camps had radio stations which were sent records from the USA, in addition to their personnel how may also have brought record or had records sent from home, so it's not unrealistic to have these items in Germany. 

Some servicemen settled in Germany, so if they had them records from new and have disposed of them locally then why shouldn't they be hoovered up by an established seller? No different from here or in the States!

Just a thought for what it is worth.

As a footnote, my demo copy of Alice Clark "You hit me" Warner Bros, came from RAF Woodbridge radio station in Suffolk which is a U.S. Airforce base and that was circa late 70s.

My mates dad who was up there on a course or something, got talking to a guy who was one of the radio DJs and had 2 spare copies of AC which he gave him.His son Mark kept one and gave me one FOC.

Dave H.

Not there now, must have sold.

​They may reside in Germany, but he could well be selling on behalf of a collector. He did sell some twelves for me a few years ago, as he seemed to get  better money than anyone else. Many collectors have items that they would rather not tell the world they own. Many years ago that Ellipsis 45 was in my sales box at Yarmouth for £400, And i ended up bringing it home , but that was before the sheep had got wind of things. Quality rare soul records have been living in collections all over the world for many years ,even more so since the internet got going.

​Is that Ellipsis I ended up with? Remember Simon T phoning me asking if I knew it - might have been you or Simon saying some 'big name Djs had passed it up as they were'n't sure if it was good' 

How much was freestyle's Ellipsis out of interest - someone's gone done bought it.

​Is that Ellipsis I ended up with? Remember Simon T phoning me asking if I knew it - might have been you or Simon saying some 'big name Djs had passed it up as they were'n't sure if it was good' 

How much was freestyle's Ellipsis out of interest - someone's gone done bought it.

​Yes, that was the copy Jason. And yes it's funny  how many rare under the radar items somehow need to have a  big ticket or reputation attached to them before a small fish like me can flog it !   . Which was why I touched on the sheep mentality. Anyway I left lime scale remover on the Snap prescot for a day, and it plays very much better now. You should have twigged that Jason, given that it looked like it had been under water for some time. 

​Is that Ellipsis I ended up with? Remember Simon T phoning me asking if I knew it - might have been you or Simon saying some 'big name Djs had passed it up as they were'n't sure if it was good' 

How much was freestyle's Ellipsis out of interest - someone's gone done bought it.

Jason, can't quite remember Ellipsis was maybe 4,000 euros or make an offer. Looks like most of the big hitters are now sold - Junior McCants etc. Not surprising - money is easier to find than records like that...

has anyone had any problems with the recent array of big sounds this seller has been selling?

Hi,

     Just adding to forum ,  I was in contact with this seller ref purchasing one of those 45s which was the Jd Bryant  and my offer was 5500 euros and we battled back and forth he wanted 6000 and then it was sold next I knew, I have been watching to see if any feedback was received on his Discogs but none as yet on all the big sale items I,e, Junior McCants, etc  , he told me he was selling on behalf of a friend in New York who needed money  for a project ( he did say sellers first  name which I won't divulge on here ) I had no reason to disbelieve him but  as you may well know you always get  a bit concerned on big items, and a few years back was stung on a Margaret Little 45 so hence  my apprehension and with such high value items all in one place , as said he is a regular Discogs/Ebay seller so has a history of sorts , but none to the extent of such prized Soul 45s , that was why I hung off a bit and decided  doing a bit of groundwork and emails with the seller to clarify this situation , as we all would be apprehensive on parting with such funds , have done many deals before but nonetheless still makes yer miss a beat , so I too would be interested in any follow up althou respect privacy in such matters, did it slip through my fingers perhaps i'll never know - Dave

There's only one person I know in NY with the rare Junior McCants record, and I seriously doubt he'd need "money for a project".  And if he did, I'm sure he'd go through a certain well-known dealer with a stellar reputation.

Hi Greg,

                 Yes thought it was a bit suspect I had a lucky escape by the sound of it , but hearing of another couple buyers well ? will see how it pans out , but that was the info he passed on to me ref NY and the seller / friend he mentioned by first name only, but tried doing more to look into it before parting with any cash , and yes sure I have sold a few through the dealer myself , cheers for the input ,, Dave

So seeing as you have pretty much all us active heavy NYC soul collectors right here why not give the first initial of the seller's name, as Greg says we all know the score so what's with this Wizard of Oz attempt at mystery when the curtain is very easy to pull back?  

Hi Greg,

                 Yes thought it was a bit suspect I had a lucky escape by the sound of it , but hearing of another couple buyers well ? will see how it pans out , but that was the info he passed on to me ref NY and the seller / friend he mentioned by first name only, but tried doing more to look into it before parting with any cash , and yes sure I have sold a few through the dealer myself , cheers for the input ,, Dave

Was it Richard, as in Richard “DJ Honky” Lewis?

The seller on Discogs from Germany gave his name as Vas on his replies to my queries , the guy he said he was selling the Rarities for was a friend of his in NY called Paul that is as much as I know apart from heard a couple of guys have not received the 45's they purchased , so we wait and see I guess .... Hope it works out for all concerned especially as serious sums of money involved .. 

 

Edited July 10, 20159 yr by soulgrooves

BEWARE - FRAUD/SCAM

Just had the full story from two collectors, so here goes;-

In both cases the seller took over a week to post the 'records' citing family holiday and then a German Post office strike for the delay.

Case 1

Post tracking number given. Parcel was sent to wrong address ( buyer lives in Manchester and package sent to an address in Chester!). Unfortunately for the seller (and fortunately for the buyer) the Chester address was a business which was closed at the time of delivery and was signed for by the business, an Art Gallery next door. The buyer managed to trace this via DHL and then Parcel Force. He spoke to the Art gallery and they forwarded him the parcel. Guess what - no Rita and tiaras, just a cheap German 45. He has contacted the seller but is still awaiting a response!!! Unfortunately he paid by bank transfer.

Case 2

Post tracking number given. This turned out to be incorrect and when buyer contacted seller he said he was in the USA for 3 weeks and could not check until his return on 19th July but not to worry if parcel wasn't delivered as it would be returned to Germany and he would repost. This buyer spoke to buyer in case 1 and they compared 'tracking numbers'. From this buyer 2 found the correct tracking number ( seller had stated a wrong digit, on purpose he suspects) and lo and behold, this had been addressed wrongly and the person at the address refused it and it was retuned to Germany. Buyer then contacted paypal to start a dispute at 9am - amazingly he received a reply with 15 minutes from the seller ( must have been a light sleeper as it would have been 3am in the morning in the States!) stating that paypal had frozen his account and he needed the money for buying records in America and could the buyer cancel the dispute as he would get the record he bought in due course ( i.e after the 19th July on his return to Germany). Interestingly, if you cancel a dispute with paypal you cannot then restart it! The buyer escalated to a claim with paypal and also informed his card company as to the situation. This is now ongoing and the fraudster has been given until the 19th July to reply. I assume this date is just a coincidence with his 'return' from the States

I'm not sure if Discogs have a 'dispute' system so don't know if the buyers have flagged this up with them ( could be 28 days as the seller spent a week before posting and then 3 weeks away?) perhaps to get out of complaints. Don't know, perhaps any Discog dealers on here could clarify the position.

Another poster on here said he knew of 2 others awaiting parcels. Get your paypal/repayment claims in now guys before this fraudster gets away with your money.

 

You sure don't need us to add there is no heavy collector in NY called Paul (or was his full name Paul My Leg?) but thinking you can buy a Junior McCants from Discogs involves swallowing a fairly insane amount of credibility, def bummed for all these buyers.  

Discogs do have a dispute system Julian . However, it is not as robust as Ebay / Paypal and they rarely get involved in the dispute. Only if seller fails to respond they cancel subscription - but don't assist in reclaiming any monies paid via Paypal .

People actually fell for this...really?! No conmen without greedy suckers

Edited July 11, 20159 yr by pow wow mik
correction

If you read the whole thread, the seller seems to have gone from a bit suspect to genuine (with people who dealt with him giving endorsement) to a total Arthur Daley. Does anyone actually know who the guy is (one of our German members perhaps?). Could his ID be being hijacked? 

People actually fell for this...really?! No conmen without greedy suckers

Got to say this is the most crass statement I think I have read on SS.

Where does greedy suckers come from? A guy offers rare 45s at a competitive price ( not cheap) and some collectors buy. What is greedy about this?

Does anyone actually know who the guy is (one of our German members perhaps?). Could his ID be being hijacked? 

Sorry, I don't know who he is. There's a german Ebay seller going by the name of freestylemaniac-records. Forgot his real name, but he's a 100% reliable bloke. 1,000's of pos feedback. But he mainly deals in 70s funk/soul and 80s boogie 12"/albums. Somehow hard to believe he's the Discogs bloke. Freestylemaniac-records is located in Stuttgart. Where's the Discogs one from?

Sorry, I don't know who he is. There's a german Ebay seller going by the name of freestylemaniac-records. Forgot his real name, but he's a 100% reliable bloke. 1,000's of pos feedback. But he mainly deals in 70s funk/soul and 80s boogie 12"/albums. Somehow hard to believe he's the Discogs bloke. Freestylemaniac-records is located in Stuttgart. Where's the Discogs one from?

Shipped from Kongen

The ebay seller is Turkish, living in Germany. Vasillis is his name.

He's been around for years and always had big ticket boogie/disco/hip hop items. And got top money for them.

As far as I know he is a fairly honest seller, albeit a bit fast and loose with grading. 

Unless he's decided to cash in and do a moonlight flit, he's been around too long to take a chance on scamming people.

Maybe the discogs seller is a bootleg trying to cash in on his rep.

Got to say this is the most crass statement I think I have read on SS.

Where does greedy suckers come from? A guy offers rare 45s at a competitive price ( not cheap) and some collectors buy. What is greedy about this?

Yes that is exactly what I thought when I read that statement , does not make sense , people were paying good prices for top records ( waiting to hear if anyone received them safely as yet ? )  so not quite sure where the greedy comes into it ??

OK, this thread itself is titled 'too good to be true?' and dates from when all the 45s were still 'available', proving that some people, at least, smelled something fishy here.

So if you didn't, especially when considering throwing money at this, then to some extent you have failed to smell the fishy smelling something which kind of edges you towards the reckless / sucker category.

If the lust of big trophy records that dont really have any use yet cost the same as the average worldwide annual wage blinded those people to the air of fishiness that seemed apparent to many, then that might be likened to the sort of greed that regularly leads people to the fraudster's trap.

I don't know if this is a fraud or not, and of course I hope not, but the point is is that it seemed fishy enough to warrant some caution no? As proved by the very existence of this thread.

And honestly, if you really want me to feel sorry for people who have $10000 to splash on a single record then i'm afraid they're pretty far down the queue. And if it was me on the end of it, I wouldn't expect anyone to cry about it. 

Fact of life : big money corrupts

Edited July 12, 20159 yr by pow wow mik
correction

OK, this thread itself is titled 'too good to be true?' and dates from when all the 45s were still 'available', proving that some people, at least, smelled something fishy here.

So if you didn't, especially when considering throwing money at this, then to some extent you have failed to smell the fishy smelling something which kind of edges you towards the reckless / sucker category.

If the lust of big trophy records that dont really have any use yet cost the same as the average worldwide annual wage blinded those people to the air of fishiness that seemed apparent to many, then that might be likened to the sort of greed that regularly leads people to the fraudster's trap.

I don't know if this is a fraud or not, and of course I hope not, but the point is is that it seemed fishy enough to warrant some caution no? As proved by the very existence of this thread.

And honestly, if you really want me to feel sorry for people who have $10000 to splash on a single record then i'm afraid they're pretty far down the queue. And if it was me on the end of it, I wouldn't expect anyone to cry about it. 

Fact of life : big money corrupts

Yes, sort of.

Except when I sold up the 'big ticket' end of my collection (a couple of years ago) I had a number of those items for set sale. And, they were all here, and all genuinely for sale.

Having said that, it definitely is a minefield, and it is ripe for for the unscrupulous to try to exploit. Leaves the collectors (with serious money to spend) in a bit of a dilemma.

 

FWIW, the Discogs seller presently has zero items for sale.

As a Discogs seller myself I think it's very important that we find out the outcome of this.

Feedback is a very big part of Discogs and gives the buyer confidence. Although sensible precautions around payment method should also be adhered to as in any other internet transaction.

We need to know whether a seller with a good reputation has had his Discogs identity hijacked or whether a hitherto trustworthy seller has committed fraud, and what measures are being taken to prevent it re-occuring.

I also imagine that Discogs will be very concerned if this becomes public knowledge.

Tell you what,  if this pr*ck had thousands off me I'd be doing some homework then flying to Germany to give him some feedback.

This episode just underlines how collecting rare records puts paid to rationality sometimes. We've all done it I suspect and the unscrupulous know it of course. Unless I know a seller that I'm buying an expensive record from, especially from overseas, I'll always ask for a pic of them holding the 45 next to a newspaper with today's date on it. A friend came up with that and I've done it ever since. No guarantees of course but it's one way of checking that the record is in their possession at least 

Edited July 21, 20159 yr by PhilT

edit.

Edited July 27, 20159 yr by garethx
Off-topic post removed.

ok ,lets stick to the topic,i am genuine in saying i am sorry for those who have a concern /issue about this person,i too have more than just an interest in this matter,but he has contacted me today as he said and nothing has changed yet to change my opinion or thoughts up to now.lets wait and see when he gets back in his country

Tell you what,  if this pr*ck had thousands off me I'd be doing some homework then flying to Germany to give him some feedback.

This episode just underlines how collecting rare records puts paid to rationality sometimes. We've all done it I suspect and the unscrupulous know it of course. Unless I know a seller that I'm buying an expensive record from, especially from overseas, I'll always ask for a pic of them holding the 45 next to a newspaper with today's date on it. A friend came up with that and I've done it ever since. No guarantees of course but it's one way of checking that the record is in their possession at least 

Is your "friend" involved in kidnapping Phil? 

Pay up or the record gets it. 

If I had the money and bought a big ticket item I would collect in person any cash on receipt of said record(s). You can fly almost anywhere for less than £1000, Germany £200 so it would be a no brainier 

has anyone received their 45,s yet,or had a trouble free  completed deal ?