Frankie Crocker

Parisians went for a bargain price - has sold for 3K in the past. Pat Brown, great sound, usually valued at less but a discerning buyer has done well to bag this. Seeing a lot of Invitations and Sam & Kitty lately - great oldies - prices have peaked it seems towards the lower end.

Not easily done. As soon as I see someone dancing in their back garden, in a chip shop, around a statue, in a park, in their kitchen etc, I hit the stop button ASAP. I’ll leave it to the YouTubers to work out who are the most narcissistic...some of them have lots of self-produced videos...

An interesting thought. Your observation could well be correct. Self-obsessed YouTubers portray styles that could be practiced at soul venues. Videos of soul events depict a marked slowing down of movement, often associated with age etc In fact, much of the video material online shows a fair bit of Dad Dancing and Round The Handbags stuff. The dancers who know and understand the music adapt their personal dance styles to the tunes eg 60’s v 70’s. Some folk can only dance one way whatever’s being played. At the end of the day, it’s what’s in the grooves that counts and folk should be free to dance as they choose. That said, uptempo soul music virtually requires nimble footwork so long may this tradition last as it’s fast disappearing.

Terrible news Ted. Thinking of you at this awful time. The photo is clear enough for the scumbag to be identified. The records are too prominent to move on so there’s a good chance they can be recovered. Fingers crossed there’s a positive outcome to this nasty business.

Good spotting. They could be Spanish but as Sherlock Holmes might say, ‘it’s not an open and shut case’.

Thought the whole programme was pretty decent, an eclectic mix of contributors from a range of backgrounds. Jordan’s record room was hugely impressive and a real insight into Englishness. Richard Searling’s contribution was excellent as always. The Northern tunes were OK but Marvin’sLove Starved Heart could have been bettered by hundreds of other USA records. Usual Wigan footage of spinning miners and back-dropping factory workers might have opened a few young eyes - just a shame there’s so little video evidence of the Casino in its heyday.

Ah ha! How many Ted? Two have been on Soul Source recently but they looked like sales prompted by Manship’s 5K winner.

Thanks for posting as usual. Thought Cecil would go for more as the finishing figure was well down on the last one auctioned by John. USA 45’s went for normal prices in a few cases rather than insane figures as is often the case.

I’ll be there in April so I’ll take my panda as it eats shoots and leaves...

Ditto... Thanks for doing an a amazing job of keeping us in the picture. Compulsive viewing every Wednesday. Cheers.

Probably the 90’s. I’d had a few Toppers from Gilly but this double sider eluded me for a few years...still haunts me, one of the ones that got away.

Johnny Honeycut was a bargain. Still kicking myself over Tobi Lark. Last time I held a copy was in The 100 Club - seller had it in his box priced at £25 but said it was sold.

No, not really. John sought out, stockpiled, shipped, distributed and sold 60’s and 70’s records for commercial reasons. Along the way, his discoveries boosted the collections of influential DJ’s who shaped the UK soul scene. Essentially, John salvaged 45’s ignored by USA mainstream culture and directed them towards a sub-culture that appreciated them. Mainstream culture is an irrelevancy - it never understood what actually happened and still misrepresents this today. Serious record collectors today are still in awe of John’s varied contributions and that’s good enough for those who knew him - John was very grounded and modest so wasn’t too bothered about mainstream culture.

Not sure re this....yes, there’s a degree of repetitious hype, but John has obviously researched the credits of his wares and generally done justice to the records up for auction. His prose, whilst not perfect, would make for a decent volume of top-drawer records auctioned (provided he excluded the many set-sale items that creep onto the auction site).

One on eBay finishing in just over 8 hours time. Seek and destroy...

Johnny Praye, very rare and a very good sound, so someone snagged a bargain. Barbara and Brenda was a big surprise - what’s the story on this one?

It’s not just DJ’s and collectors who are buying, dealers are also doing the business. Some of the biggest bids on eBay have been placed by high profile UK dealers. Minor dealers, or more accurately, collector-dealers, are buying low to middle price-range records to sell on for a profit. A few sizeable collections have been sold off recently so there are plenty of expensive tunes available to please both collectors and DJ’s.

Someone must have wanted Candi Staton very badly! It’s been hovering between £1,000 and £1,500 over the last couple of years but doubled in price at this auction.

Big spin for Butch back in the day. Then a few turned up. Great record and still unexposed to the masses so hardly surprising people are waking up to it. Prices are going bonkers just lately. Most sellers seem to want top dollar ie what the record just sold for on Manship’s auction or eBay. Records should be priced to sell - if they're too expensive, they won’t sell

Thanks for your perspective. I’ve had the Siberians for over 25 years. I found a load in Cincinnati but only took two as it was nothing special. Nobody was interested in the record when it was in my sales box. A few years ago, I offered the spare copy to anybody who’d missed one on eBay - I think it sold for about £100. The recent deluge of Siberians links back to Cincinnati, quite possibly the stock I left behind. The Flirtations is an absolute classic, and has been for over 40 years. The Siberians will never achieve such status but may please a few collectors. Agreed, the loss of Bob A was a very sad one.

Rare and very good but nobody would pay this eye-catching price. A mint copy might fetch half this figure at auction but 7.5K more likely. This is just another one of those hyped-up adverts intended to stimulate interest.

Siberians went for a stupid sum - a mediocre sound that really should cost less than £100, not a figure just below what the Flirtations sold for.

Hi Paul. Consider making up your own from record labels indicating what might be played. If you have a name for your event, weave it into the imagery. There’s a few creative talents on Soul-Source that could possibly help out... I would like to see the finished poster anyway. Good luck with the event - there’s a few dead keen Soulies down in Cornwall.

Or as 100 Proof Aged In Soul put it ‘One Man’s Leftovers (Is Another Man’s Feast).

As a recent purchaser of this record, I am absolutely delighted with it and have enjoyed it enormously on the few occasions I’ve played it. It took four decades to track down a decent copy and part with a princely sum for it. In fact, I was offered two copies but regrettably turned down one...