Another topic I thought would have been fully explored on here but I can't see a similar thread (might be overlooking one though).

LOTS OF DIFFERENT WAYS TO BUY BLIND OF COURSE; seeing something that 'looked right' on an auction listing back in the day. Being out 'junking' / create digging & seeing a 45 / LP that looked promising, hitting a US shop basement where lots of likely stuff lurks amongst the dross. FOR ME, I'd always take a risk if the price was right -- buying 3 x 45 'cheapies' you had no idea about was worth it if just one of them turned out to be a decent soul single.

In the early days of collecting soul (mid to late 60's for me), we had little knowledge & no real way to find more info to check out 'unknowns'. Back then UK released stuff made up 95% of what was available to us. So we'd start by picking stuff on likely labels (Chess, Stateside, Pye International, Vocalion, etc.). I'd also look for other stuff by artists I already knew. I loved the Sapphires "Got To Have Your Love" and so would bid low on any import 45's I found on lists by them. Won a copy of a UK 45 by them and got it thru the post. Shoved it on the turntable & listened ... it was a dancer (though I was hoping for a deep soul cut or big city ballad really) but it had stupid dance lyrics. As I had won other unknowns in the same auction, I threw it aside & listened to the other stuff. A mate @ college in Sheffield had started up a mobile disco & wanted soul dance stuff, so I sold him a few items I had 2 of or tracks that hadn't hit me hard. Thus a copy of "Slow Fizz" left me & joined his plays on nights he got bookings. HEYHO, you can't get it right all the time.

A BETTER EXPERIENCE FOR ME WAS ... got a similar auction listing in the late 60's & it had a more than a few 'unknowns' on it. One stood out -- It was a 45 on Mala by a guy called Gino Washington. The label was right & the guys name seemed promising, so I bid around 2/11d. Luckily I won the single & it duly arrived in the post. It was "I'll Be Around" by Gino Washington with the Altrasonics & the Versatones. It turned out to be a great buy as the other side was good too. I just loved the artist names on the label. but it set me off on a quest to find out who the ULTRASONICS & VERSATONES were ? Of course, we didn't have any data bases to check against & buying a US mag such as BILLBOARD was beyond us (we could hardly afford to buy Record Mirror). So knowledge of obscure US soul labels & their product was minimal, so I had to wait many years to find out.

Would others care to recount any of their similar experiences ?

Edited Tuesday at 06:072 days by Roburt

Very really bought blind without reading a review of some sort first. Though must admit in some cases I wish I hadn't! One I did was Rena Scott - I Finally Found A Love, which I still love and always thought It should have gone big at the time.

In the 70s I used to get all the mailing lists going.

If I saw a record by an artist that had a record currently or in the past being played on the northern scene that I didn't know I'd often take a chance.

This way I got Tony Middleton - Return to Spanish Harlem, Tobi Lark - Sweep ..., Sammy Cambell - I never Thought, plus many others.

Also I would tour all the junk shops in Bristol and hoover up everything soul related even if I hadn't heard it. Possibly the best find was the live version of Garnet Mimms - As Long As I Have You.

I would also buy blind anything recommended by Dave Godin.

3 hours ago, Johnlloyd said:

I would also buy blind anything recommended by Dave Godin.

Yes, you couldn't go far wrong buying sumat Dave recommended. Didn't know Tobi Legend when he just about forced me to buy a copy when visiting Soul City record shop in 1968.

In the 80's thru to recent times, I go on junking trips to London and dive into 3 of the branches of Record & Tape Exchange. With their clear-out stuff being so cheap (LP's from 30p, 12"ers from 20p and 45's from 10p -- in the 80's / 90's / 2000's) used to buy loads on spec. If much of what I bought was rubbish, it didn't matter at those prices. Plus, I did discover quite a few goodies in there.

I'm sure the guys who trawled US shops / warehouses / basements back in the 70's had to be buying blind with a lot of their purchases.

Edited Tuesday at 10:192 days by Roburt

Pretty much the only times I've bought totally blind were mystery packs.

One very large pack (500) from a very well known ex DJ -absolute rubbish in quality & condition, and took me years to get a fraction of the money back by selling on, kept virtually nothing, never bought again.

One set of 7 or 8 packs from an online shop -great condition but very little mainstream northern (although much was advertised as exactly that) and again took years to shift elsewhere.

Several sets from another well known ex DJ with his own website (but sadly he no longer sells), these were the higher priced 'packs' but always worth more on paper than I paid and I almost always made a small profit eventually selling on.

I've kept almost nothing from any of those blind packs but trading up to better stuff was the name of the game, so at least the latter source worked for that anyway.

I'm sure everyone on here has bought SOUL BOWL soul packs (either NS / general soul or both). You also used to get some decent stuff in lots of OLDIES UNLIMITED packs (though as they bought up 1000's of TK 45's, you'd get lots of TK labels if purchasing from them in the 80's). I know one lucky devil got a couple of Shrine 45's in an OLDIES soul pack sometime in the 70's.

2 minutes ago, Roburt said:

I'm sure everyone on here has bought SOUL BOWL soul packs (either NS / general soul or both). You also used to get some decent stuff in lots of OLDIES UNLIMITED packs (though as they bought up 1000's of TK 45's, you'd get lots of TK labels if purchasing from them in the 80's). I know one lucky devil got a couple of Shrine 45's in an OLDIES soul pack sometime in the 70's.

Bought a few soul packs from Oldies Unlimited, one I remember was a "Revilot" pack nothing much of note J.J. Barnes "Now She's Gone" and a copy of "Don't Be Sore At Me" we're in one.

Was always buying things blind back in the day, every market seemed to have a box of U.S. soul singles, probably why my taste in soul is of all types and i never binned much apart from funk.

I bought Gerri Hall "Who Can I Run To" on Hotline for £3 in the Wigan Casino record bar. I didn't know it, but really liked Donna King, so I took a chance. The guy selling said it was good👍. No one I talked to back then seemed to know it!

Edited Wednesday at 06:041 day by Solidsoul

2 hours ago, Shinehead said:

Bought a few soul packs from Oldies Unlimited, one I remember was a "Revilot" pack nothing much of note J.J. Barnes "Now She's Gone" and a copy of "Don't Be Sore At Me" we're in one.

Was always buying things blind back in the day, every market seemed to have a box of U.S. soul singles, probably why my taste in soul is of all types and i never binned much apart from funk.

The good thing about 'Oldies' packs was that the owner would price the 45's by hit status. Thus a Motown 45 that had been a hit by a major act @ the company would sell for a high price (by his standards), whereas a lesser known Motown act's 45 or a non-Motown Detroit soul 45 would be priced much cheaper. So buying from him was nearly always a pleasure for a committed soul fan.

The main source of me buying blind was definitely Soul Bowl in the 70s. Falling for the highlighted front page pushed 45s that were within my budget. Generally this worked out really well with things like "Happiness Is Here" on Topper that was something I'd not heard at Wigan if it was I don't recall it so I bought it. Johnny Moore on Sceptre another cracker and Oscar Perry " Ive got what you need" I knew Main string but not this gem at the time. But I also bought that "Misery Loves Company" thing on Essica? I don't remember who it was by but I soon off loaded, it may be popular now? But don't regret selling it. Another pup was the mega (wey too fast) Terry Collins and a slow paced Charles Davenport awful thing on WB . Most of my junkshop blind buys turned out dire with a few exceptions Royalettes on US MGM and Little Milton on UK Chess.

Edited Wednesday at 19:501 day by washlively

I've told this tale before ... BUT it's worth retelling.

Lived in Worksop in the 80's & bought a car cheap from D C Cooks of Wath. It had a bodywork fault (they piled em high & sold em cheap), so I took it back for some attention. I had a couple of hours to kill so took a walk down Wath Rd towards Mexboro. Came upon a 2nd hand shop with a table outside on the pavement. He had some import (US) 45's out, so I looked thru em. They were cheap and mainly 60's stuff on MGM, Verve, etc (obviously old Bostock's stuff). Some were in those small label boxes of 20, so I opened each box up to see what the contents were. There was a Sam The Sham 45, a box of the Superiors (What Would I Do), and a few more similar items I didn't know. Left 16 of Superiors in the box, added a Sam the Sham and 3 other 'likely' items. Took them into the shop & asked how much if I buy the whole box of 20. £2 was his answer. NO, that's too much, I'll give you a quid says I. He accepted my offer and went on to tell me that 5+ years earlier he'd had a Sunday market stall & had bought loads of similar 45's to sell on the stall. These were just what he hadn't moved on at the time. So I left the shop a very happy guy. When I got home, none of the other 45's (including the Sam the Sham) appealed. So I wished I'd just left the full 20 copies of the Superiors in there and fetched those all home.

Mind you, having so many copies, I sold em off (below the then current value) to mates & other guys at local soul nights. I'd never have become a millionaire with my business nouse.

Similar story but earlier. Living in Donny & went junking around the market / Copley Rd areas. A 2nd hand shop on the corner of Copley Rd & Christchurch Rd had some boxes of singles. They all come from the same source & were mainly reggae 45's (I was still buying reggae versions of soul songs back then). Went thru the boxes & found a few copies of the Manhattans "That New Girl" on UK Carnival. It looked promising, so I bought a copy and a few reggae items. Got home, played "That New Girl" and loved it. NEVER DID go back to the shop to buy all the other copies of the 45 though even though they would have cost me just a few pence each (I'm definitely not millionaire material).

Edited 13 hours ago13 hr by Roburt