Do Wop record values - any lesson for us?

[Dayo]

Just curious:

Has the market and value of doowop  held up in recent years?  I ask because I'm guessing that many of those collectors will be getting on in years - a generation older than most of us perhaps?  I guess I'm trying to divine if our highly prized soul 45s will still have value when us lot are all grown up or shuffled off! So I'm wondering if there might be any parallels with the doowop vs NS collecting scene...

 

 

[Liamgp]

Were Northern purely a UK thing, followed only by those young in the early-mid 1970s who are now aged 60+, I would say that record demand and prices will fall sharply as their natural mortality increases. But today Northern is worldwide and has a large number of younger devotees who are going to retain an interest at least for (I estimate) the next three or four decades. Although we live in an increasingly technological world, the interest in 'retro' actually seems to be increasing, although the demand for original 45s may suffer as many might consider any old vinyl acceptable. But I think there will be an interest in really rare or interesting sounds, the why being neatly summed up for me by this:

“In his insightful book The Recording Angel: Music, Records and Culture from Aristotle to Zappa, Evan Eisenberg wrote about the unique motivations that lie behind the collecting of “cultural objects” such as records, noting five motifs as particularly significant.

The first relates to time: “the need to make beauty and pleasure permanent,” based in a fear of its possible/likely disappearance, a motive common to cultural preservation efforts of all kinds.

His second reason is related to the first: “the need to comprehend beauty” in that which is collected, which can become “more beautiful the better it’s understood… [and] certainly owning a book or record permits one to study the work repeatedly and at one’s convenience.”

Third, he discussed the “need to distinguish oneself as a consumer,” to become “heroic consumers” who “spend on a heroic scale, perhaps, or with heroic discrimination,” acquiring the rarest items or the most complete set, or going to the greatest lengths for a purchase.

The fourth motive has to do with nostalgia, a sense of belonging felt through collecting bits of the past; the collection itself serves as a bridge, and “each object connects its owner with two eras, that of its creation and that of its acquisition.

The final reason is about the quest for social capital in all its forms, “the need to impress others, or oneself.”

[Frankie Crocker]

I would guess that there is only a very specialist market for Doo Wop nowadays with a small number of completists in their 60's and 70's chasing one-offs and mint upgrades. There does not appear to be a market for low-end Doo Wop although these sounds are available in loads of record stores at minimal prices.

On the other hand, the future of rare Northern looks to be fairly long term with plenty of young hipsters buying into an addiction that will occupy them for 50 years or more. Record players have made a comeback. Very little new music of note is being generated by an industry that has shrivelled up. All this suggests that rare Northern records should hold their value, even if small quantities are turned up by trackers of group members. The future of low end sounds is uncertain but youngsters could latch on to them in years ahead as they catch the collecting bug.

Fifty years down the road, people of all ages are buying rare soul vinyl but that can't be said for Doo Wop.

[George G]

All genres of music are different. There are some all time legendary doowop rarities that still go for top money - for example, the Sha-Weez on Aladdin on ebay this past week. Most of the rare doowop records I've dealt in the past few years have gone to long time collectors who are late 60s/70s in age, so you can assume that once they get too old, that market is gone for good. The cheap/common doowop records started tanking 10+ years ago and are still going down.  Not much new blood coming into the market. The best way to gauge future record values is to see the age group who are most actively buying the records. I see plenty of people in their 20s and 30s buying garage and soul records, R&B, but not as much rockabilly and no doowop. Yeah, a good percentage of these are DJ types who will burn out and sell up quickly but there's still enough 'hard filers' to keep the market stable. 

[MikeHinNewJersey]

Just curious:

Has the market and value of doowop  held up in recent years?  I ask because I'm guessing that many of those collectors will be getting on in years - a generation older than most of us perhaps?  I guess I'm trying to divine if our highly prized soul 45s will still have value when us lot are all grown up or shuffled off! So I'm wondering if there might be any parallels with the doowop vs NS collecting scene...

 

 

Posted this a couple of years back....

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/01/nyregion/as-ronnie-is-closes-sounds-of-doo-wop-fade-away.html?_r=0

[Sceneman]

you know what happened when the teddyboys died and their collections hit the market ,plummets

[Rick Smith]

To be honest once I'm brown bread I won't give a stuff what happens to the prices.

[Chris L]

I agree with much that been said above. We're probably at a crossroads now, already sales volumes are down with some lesser known records not fetching much whilst others are reaching the stratosphere. I suspect that within about 5 years or so we'll see far fewer old soulies on the scene and those that are about won't be buying much. A pal of mine who runs a record store in the US says that sales of Do Wop has dimished with mostly dealers buying from him.