Oldfeet

As a buyer I have no problems with sellers/dealers adding what ever they want to the final sale price because that is the cost of doing business (buying the record). I am aware of the final price I'm likely to pay, when everything is added together, so if I can get a record cheaper elsewhere it's only then that the seller loses my business. But I'm sure some buyers aren't so 'forgiving' when they see 'extra' costs and I'm also sure that some buyers don't even notice However from a marketing point of view it's probably the worse way of presenting any item for sale. Some buyers will just walk away (go to a new web page ) and who would want to reduce the amount of people interested in your sale items , that's a road to slowly going out of business. On the other hand if a sellers/dealers prices are then higher than their competitors because they've added in all the costs to the final price, the buyer might not notice they have to pay more to a seller/dealer who hasn't added in all the costs , they wont get that sale either ..... then again Manships won't be going out of business any time soon

You can also buy a machine that is meant to correct warps! Only costs £1400 in the UK, so everyone should have one Never used one myself so have no experience of how good they are. "Clearaudio's vinyl-doctor is a revelation for restoring warped records. A fine balance of heating, precise timing and an exact amount of pressure applied to the warped record will eliminate warps and avoid any damage to the record. Perfect for professional collectors, general vinyl enthusiasts and djs alike, the vinyl doctor will eradicate the potentially devastating effect of warping."

Personally I'm deeply suspicious of the effect that the so called 'price guides' have had on record sales values on this site and in other places. They have become the 'de facto' source for some buyers and sellers who maybe don't have as much knowledge or time to research the reality of record prices for rare soul records. There are buyers who pay the 'guide' prices and sellers would be nuts if they didn't sell records at that price! In my own opinion the 'guides' should be re-titled as 'sales lists' for the relevant businesses , as the prices within are what those businesses would like to sell the records at so that they can make the biggest profit. Although a lot of knowledgeable rare soul record buyers know this, surprisingly a lot dont. I try to never pay more than 50% of the so called 'guide' prices and I'm fairly successful in getting the records I want. I'm sure there will be a different view from some record dealers, it's not in any businesses interest to see prices/profit margins drop. Rather than let the biggest record dealers dominate the pricing of rare soul records I would rather see a TRUE price guide created by someone who doesn't have an interest in increasing their own businesses profit margins. Somehow we have ended up over the last ten years letting the 'fox' tell us how to guard the 'chickens'. I'm sure the knowledge is here on this site to put together a 'Soul Source Rare and Northern Soul Price Guide' as either a book or a web database and not just a forum section to redress the imbalance. I'll volunteer now to lend a hand to anyone who could do this.

There are buyers and sellers that are just not up to speed on record values because they don't understand that the quality/grade of a record is significant. Personally I blame the 'guides' If JM or TB highlighted a record grading system at the beginning of their 'guides' and included the prices for records in nm, vg+ and vg alongside the mint condition value then those buyers and sellers who struggle to grasp the point might finally get it and make realistic calls on the price of records

There's also a version by the Escorts that has a slightly more prominent beat and you can pick that up for less than a tenner

Try 'Goo Gone' You can normally find the little 1oz bottles on ebay for a few quid.

After reading this topic and using the excellent link to information about ear plugs I will be ordering a set of re-usable 'Alpine Music Safe Earplugs' , my hearing is dodgy enough now , no way that I want it to get worse! Thanks everyone for the info.

I love all my original vinyl records that I've ended up with over the past 40 years , it's not just the music but the memories associated with it that can make them special. For me Northern Soul was all about listening to something new and different from the 'popular' music of each decade, even if the record playing was a NEWLY discovered 60's oldie The only down side I can see for O.V.O is that a CD track, like Derek Martin's 'I can't take it no more' might never get played as it was never originally released on vinyl. It could have filled the dance floors in the 70's maybe today as well and as far as I can make out from the opinions in this thread, most O.V.O DJs wouldn't play it out because its not a vinyl release. I understand the 'it's not on vinyl' opinion from the 'rare soul' fans and understand there are other great/better records that are on vinyl that do get played. I guess it's the exclusion of newly found 'good' music on non-vinyl that seems a little strange to me in my humble opinion.

Over the decades of involvement with 'Northern Soul' it has been my real pleasure to meet so many wonderful, open, caring, funny, decent people. At the same time the amount of snobbery involved from really great people can be eye opening at times. The 'you never went to the Torch, so what do you know' style of snobbery. The 'if it wasn't played in the 60's/70's its not proper Northern Soul' or the opposite 'if it was played out in the 60's/70's its no longer relevant', snobbery. The 'I'll never play an unissued cd track no matter how brilliant the music is because its not on vinyl', snobbery. The 'you've only got the 'national' release not the 'local' release', snobbery. The 'he's wearing a vest, badges and baggies clown outfit', snobbery. I really don't want to give the wrong impression that I think this is going on 100% of the time, it just crops up now and again and by and large I don't think the opinions are vindictive. Maybe a little bit of 'snobbery' is good? I'm just as guilty of 'snobbery' on occasion. Personally, even with its faults, I've never found anything so rewarding as our 'scene', nor as many remarkable people but I can understand where the 'soul snobs' tag can arise.

The first hour on Friday night was so poor In fact it was such an embarrassment it drove me to complain to the BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/ Maybe one day the BBC might even take notice of the complaints

I was wondering if any likely cause was simply down to the 'age demographic profile' for rare/northern/quality soulies Just that little bit older than the previous year and while there'll always be exceptions , I'm guessing going out on cold, wet, dark nights and travelling any distance over the winter period doesn't have the same priority as it used to have! Personally I'll go anywhere at any time as long as you wrap me in a travel rug and give me a thermos flask of hot tea