Record Mania's Karl Marthon shares a few of his two step favourites on our third blog mix. Everything from locally-released-pressed-in-100-copies sounds to Lionel Richie's most funky moment. Enjoy!
Eramus Hall – She shined a light – Westbound
Original Matadors – Golden leaves – Dore-Me
Ullanda – Watching you watching me – Atlantic
Disconnection – Love lady – Prelude
Gregory James – Dream lady – Kelli-Arts
Fresh Air – Miss you – Fresh Avenue
Commodores – You’re special – Motown
Rudy Copeland – I see you – Fantasy
Tamiko Jones – Make love to your mind – Atlantis II
Floaters & Shu-Ga – Not enough for me – Fee
Lil’ Albert – Movin’ in – Silvercloud
Kocky – Share love – Windsong
Sweet Thunder – Love’s embrace – Fantasy/Wmot
Hot Bush – Tell me that you will – APA (extended album version)
Larry Whittington - Count on me – Fun City (original mix)
Cobra Heart Band – Thinking of you – Cobra Heart
Sass – I only wanted to love you – San Francisco I.N.S.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
MY BIGGEST MISTAKES (OR HOW SOME RECORDS HAVE BECOME EXPENSIVE)!
My firm belief is that prices should indicate the supply and demand of the record being sold. Before the powerful tool we know as the internet, these kind of estimations could be difficult and plenty of mistakes were made. On my part as well as with other dealers. Since there's a lot of poor information around online (like unpaid for auctions on popsike and people trying to get lucky setting a high price tag), I think the best way is to use a combination. The whole toolbox so to say, that is your gut feeling and knowledge, online information and, to a lesser extent, printed price guides.
Going through my old paper lists from the mid 90's I can definitely say that I made quite a few pricing mistakes. Every now and then I get reminded of these when I see certain titles listed/sell for big money. I've listed some of the biggest pricing mistakes I usually get reminded of during sleepless nights...
Milton Wright - Spaced - This was regarded as "the poor Milton Wright album without Keep it up" when I started dealing. On my first list I had two copies at £10 each and only managed to sell one. I relisted it later at same price and it sold (if I remember correctly Rainer Trüby was the lucky customer). In 1999 I had another two copies but increased the price to £50. The last decade showed how incredibly rare this LP is and the top eBay price is $1149.
Directions - Self titled - I listed it for £10 in the mid 90's and it didn't sell. Since then I have only had it twice and the highest I sold it for was 2200 SEK. Again time has proven this to be a very rare record with popsike top hit being $361.
Hörselmat - Svenska LÖD AB - Again on one of my paper lists at £280 which was then the highest price I ever tried to sell a record for. Last copy online sold for $1581. Even though it used to be found every now and then (DJ/collector Mad Mats found two copies when we were scoring Stockholm record stores together one day in the mid 90's) this album has proven to be very very rare.
Boscoe - Same - In 1997 I had listed this for £100 and it sold to one of the local soul/funk collectors. He later sold the same copy on eBay for abuy it now price of $999 in 2007 if I remember correctly.
Mulatu of Ethiopia - Same (Worthy) - In 1997 me and friend/dealer Max Hansson went to Tokyo together. The Wax Trax record shop had around 50 sealed copies of this for sale at around £30 each. As I was unsure of the value I bought only two copies. One I kept myself and listed the other for £65. Last eBay copy sold for $726.
Other painful memories involves Toby King, Leon Debouse "A fine instrument", Steady Wailin Sid "Spirit of 76", Snoopy Dean "Wiggle that thang", Cortex "Mary & Jeff" (20 copies scored in a trade deal and all sold for £40-75), Joey Gilmore album, Joki Freund "Yogi jazz", Phyllis Bailey's incredibly rare Ameri-Com album and many more.
All records were of course not sold too cheap at the time and when re-reading old lists it's amazing to see how some prices on records proven not to be so rare have drastically dropped. In the mid 90's with the more inefficient record market and prices being hyped on records played on the then strong acid jazz, rare groove scenes etc, many now fairly easy to find classics were overpriced. Some examples below!
Marva Whitney - Live & lowdown at the apollo - £150
JB's - Food for thought - £85
Leroy Hutson - Hutson - £85
Band of Thieves - Same - £130 (auction price)
And when the big hype for European bossa records came in the mid 90's myself and many other European dealers sold some records way too expensive due to the incredible demand. Like Lill Lindfors "Vi har varann" £25, Alice Babs "67" £60, Meta Roos "Zazueira" £125 and Gimmicks Of Sweden £125. My deepest apologies to those who bought them but I guess you all sold them with good profit back then!
It will surely be interesting to look back at today's record prices and to see how the market will develop in the next 10-15 years. After all one man's trash is another man's treasure.
Going through my old paper lists from the mid 90's I can definitely say that I made quite a few pricing mistakes. Every now and then I get reminded of these when I see certain titles listed/sell for big money. I've listed some of the biggest pricing mistakes I usually get reminded of during sleepless nights...
Milton Wright - Spaced - This was regarded as "the poor Milton Wright album without Keep it up" when I started dealing. On my first list I had two copies at £10 each and only managed to sell one. I relisted it later at same price and it sold (if I remember correctly Rainer Trüby was the lucky customer). In 1999 I had another two copies but increased the price to £50. The last decade showed how incredibly rare this LP is and the top eBay price is $1149.
Directions - Self titled - I listed it for £10 in the mid 90's and it didn't sell. Since then I have only had it twice and the highest I sold it for was 2200 SEK. Again time has proven this to be a very rare record with popsike top hit being $361.
Hörselmat - Svenska LÖD AB - Again on one of my paper lists at £280 which was then the highest price I ever tried to sell a record for. Last copy online sold for $1581. Even though it used to be found every now and then (DJ/collector Mad Mats found two copies when we were scoring Stockholm record stores together one day in the mid 90's) this album has proven to be very very rare.
Boscoe - Same - In 1997 I had listed this for £100 and it sold to one of the local soul/funk collectors. He later sold the same copy on eBay for abuy it now price of $999 in 2007 if I remember correctly.
Mulatu of Ethiopia - Same (Worthy) - In 1997 me and friend/dealer Max Hansson went to Tokyo together. The Wax Trax record shop had around 50 sealed copies of this for sale at around £30 each. As I was unsure of the value I bought only two copies. One I kept myself and listed the other for £65. Last eBay copy sold for $726.
Other painful memories involves Toby King, Leon Debouse "A fine instrument", Steady Wailin Sid "Spirit of 76", Snoopy Dean "Wiggle that thang", Cortex "Mary & Jeff" (20 copies scored in a trade deal and all sold for £40-75), Joey Gilmore album, Joki Freund "Yogi jazz", Phyllis Bailey's incredibly rare Ameri-Com album and many more.
All records were of course not sold too cheap at the time and when re-reading old lists it's amazing to see how some prices on records proven not to be so rare have drastically dropped. In the mid 90's with the more inefficient record market and prices being hyped on records played on the then strong acid jazz, rare groove scenes etc, many now fairly easy to find classics were overpriced. Some examples below!
Marva Whitney - Live & lowdown at the apollo - £150
JB's - Food for thought - £85
Leroy Hutson - Hutson - £85
Band of Thieves - Same - £130 (auction price)
And when the big hype for European bossa records came in the mid 90's myself and many other European dealers sold some records way too expensive due to the incredible demand. Like Lill Lindfors "Vi har varann" £25, Alice Babs "67" £60, Meta Roos "Zazueira" £125 and Gimmicks Of Sweden £125. My deepest apologies to those who bought them but I guess you all sold them with good profit back then!
It will surely be interesting to look back at today's record prices and to see how the market will develop in the next 10-15 years. After all one man's trash is another man's treasure.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Just added to the site
We just stocked up on a bunch of superb modern soul and disco reissues courtesy of First Choice Records. All on loud 12's this label is focusing on making some really good and rare music available again.
FIRST CHOICE RECORDS VOLUME 1
James Polk & Co "My Sun"
b/w
Morris Wilson "Put Your Foot on the Ground"
FIRST CHOICE RECORDS VOLUME 2
Solaris "Music Mind"
b/w
Inner Passion "After Hours Spot"
FIRST CHOICE RECORDS VOLUME 3
Tal Armstrong "You've Got So Much Feeling in Your Love"
b/w
Tony Love "We're Doing It Together"
FIRST CHOICE RECORDS VOLUME 4
Ivan Neville "Dance Your Blues Away"
b/w
Family of Eve "Having It So Bad For You"
FIRST CHOICE RECORDS VOLUME 5
Mark IV "If You Can't Tell Me Something Good"
b/w
Clausel "Let Me Love You"
Record Mania newsletter
Sign up for our much appreciated newsletter!
Every Friday around noon we send out an email listing all new records added to our website the past week.
Do note that alot of titles sell before they reach the newsletter so it's always an idea to check the site during the weeks, we add records daily.
Every Friday around noon we send out an email listing all new records added to our website the past week.
Do note that alot of titles sell before they reach the newsletter so it's always an idea to check the site during the weeks, we add records daily.
Friday, December 11, 2009
HOW IT ALL STARTED (For me anyway)
In the summer of 1983 my older brother came back from a trip to relatives in England. With him he brought 20 singles which changed my life and is the reason why I now run the Record Mania website/shop. Until then my life had been strictly about sports, football and basketball but the music he played made an enormous impression and after that my main focus was music.
I began saving money in all possible ways and started going to record shops. First in my hometown Uppsala but after a while trips to Stockholm where I discovered great shops like Jack Box and Record Hunter (in those days specialized in black music). Among the 45's my brother brought back was James Brown's "Bring it on" and George Clinton's "Atomic dog". I soon learned that those artists were famous and had done loads of stuff. After that I got into the JB's, Funkadelic, Parliament etc.
I befriended people with their base in hip hop like DJ Delite, Mad Mats and Will-Rock. Through them I heard artists like Rakim, Run DMC and more, and via their influence I started DJing myself and doing clubs in 1989.
Uppsala had a local record shop selling mainly soul called Black Wax. They had like 30-40 copies of the Ramp album (for 76 SEK each) I saw English dealers was charging 25 GBP for. So I started buying copies of that and many other records they had and traded them with English dealers who had records that I wanted. I bought the Goldmine magazine and ordered lists from Soul-Utions, Soul Bowl, Craig Moerer, Backatcha, Soul Providers, Ian Clark (what a dealer and what a gentleman!), Pete Wolfman Chavasse, Hot Biscuit, Mark Wimmers and many more. Through those lists and via friends and magazines my knowledge grew and I began buying stock to start my own business. I travelled to record fairs, record shops and flea markets as far away as I could without a driving license and hardly any budget. I went on trips to Finland and Denmark which both were good for records.
My big break came unexpected in the small town Katrineholm which I was visiting for family business, killing some time before the train came. I saw a sign saying "LP Skivor 1 krona, billigast i Sverige!" (translated - LPs 1 SEK each, cheapest price in Sweden! 1 SEK = 0.14 USD). I found over 700 records, 90% was sealed stock including some rare ones like quantities of Ron Henderson "Soul junction", Alice Clarke, Leroy Hutson "Hutson" (back then one of the most sought after soul albums) and many more. I missed the train and my parents had to come down with their car three times to drive back all the records. Now I had enough stock to do my own business.
In 1996 I started doing paper lists. The first one was only sent to 30 people but after a while I had 200-300 customers and business was doing fine. After a couple of years my more technically gifted friends told me to get a website and a database gathering the info. So around 1998 or 1999 I set up a very basic website. In 2001 I set up the small store to be an alternative to the website and after a while I started hiring people to be able to free up time to find enough stock. Having your own business can be very stressful and frustrating sometimes but I must say that most of the time I sit here and enjoy listening to fantastic music with people I like. I must say that I'm very happy that I chose to make a business out of my hobby!
I began saving money in all possible ways and started going to record shops. First in my hometown Uppsala but after a while trips to Stockholm where I discovered great shops like Jack Box and Record Hunter (in those days specialized in black music). Among the 45's my brother brought back was James Brown's "Bring it on" and George Clinton's "Atomic dog". I soon learned that those artists were famous and had done loads of stuff. After that I got into the JB's, Funkadelic, Parliament etc.
I befriended people with their base in hip hop like DJ Delite, Mad Mats and Will-Rock. Through them I heard artists like Rakim, Run DMC and more, and via their influence I started DJing myself and doing clubs in 1989.
Uppsala had a local record shop selling mainly soul called Black Wax. They had like 30-40 copies of the Ramp album (for 76 SEK each) I saw English dealers was charging 25 GBP for. So I started buying copies of that and many other records they had and traded them with English dealers who had records that I wanted. I bought the Goldmine magazine and ordered lists from Soul-Utions, Soul Bowl, Craig Moerer, Backatcha, Soul Providers, Ian Clark (what a dealer and what a gentleman!), Pete Wolfman Chavasse, Hot Biscuit, Mark Wimmers and many more. Through those lists and via friends and magazines my knowledge grew and I began buying stock to start my own business. I travelled to record fairs, record shops and flea markets as far away as I could without a driving license and hardly any budget. I went on trips to Finland and Denmark which both were good for records.
My big break came unexpected in the small town Katrineholm which I was visiting for family business, killing some time before the train came. I saw a sign saying "LP Skivor 1 krona, billigast i Sverige!" (translated - LPs 1 SEK each, cheapest price in Sweden! 1 SEK = 0.14 USD). I found over 700 records, 90% was sealed stock including some rare ones like quantities of Ron Henderson "Soul junction", Alice Clarke, Leroy Hutson "Hutson" (back then one of the most sought after soul albums) and many more. I missed the train and my parents had to come down with their car three times to drive back all the records. Now I had enough stock to do my own business.
In 1996 I started doing paper lists. The first one was only sent to 30 people but after a while I had 200-300 customers and business was doing fine. After a couple of years my more technically gifted friends told me to get a website and a database gathering the info. So around 1998 or 1999 I set up a very basic website. In 2001 I set up the small store to be an alternative to the website and after a while I started hiring people to be able to free up time to find enough stock. Having your own business can be very stressful and frustrating sometimes but I must say that most of the time I sit here and enjoy listening to fantastic music with people I like. I must say that I'm very happy that I chose to make a business out of my hobby!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Record Mania Mix 2 – Artist focus on Yusef Lateef
On our latest mix we have selected eighteen of Yusef's 1950's and 60's recordings. Through hard bop, modal and spiritual jazz with Yusef playing the flute, oboe, tenor saxophone and even taking a breather (on “Head Hunters”). Hope you'll get great pleasure listening to one of our all time favourite jazz musicians!
Track listing:
Magnolia Triangle (“Live at Pep’s” Impulse, 1964)
Brother John (Cannonball Adderley Sextet, Riverside 7 inch, ?)
Chang, Chang, Chang (“Before Dawn” Verve, 1958)
Planet Earth (Cannonball Adderley Sextet “In New York”, Riverside 1962)
Jungle Fantasy (Riverside 7 inch, 1961)
Head hunters (“The Golden Flute” Impulse, 1966)
Yusef’s Mood (“Jazz Mood” Savoy, 1957)
Retrograss (Paul Chambers “1st Bassman” Vee Jay, 1960)
Before Dawn (“Before Dawn” Verve, 1958)
Love Theme from Spartacus (“Eastern Sounds” Moodsville, 1961)
Revelation (“The Centaur and the Phoenix” Riverside, 1960)
Blue Rocky (“Lost in Sound” Charlie Parker, 1962)
Chinq Mau (“Eastern Sounds” Moodsville, 1961)
The Smart Set (“The Golden Flute” Impulse, 1966)
Morning (“Live at Cranbrook” Argo, 1958)
The Plum Blossom (“Eastern Sounds” Moodsville, 1961)
Apathy (“The Centaur and the Phoenix” Riverside, 1960)
The Golden Flute (“The Golden Flute” Impulse, 1966)
Also check out this great live footage from Oscar Brown Jr's Jazz Scene show showing Yusef together with the Adderley brothers.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
RECORD MANIA BIG UPDATE SPECIAL!
It's that time again, close to 400 rare and indemand titles have just been added to our website.
www.recordmania.net
A few examples below.
Jazz/Eurojazz etc
Hank Mobley - Peckin' time - Blue Note 1574 (Mono original first pressing with w63rd address, ear, rvg and deep groove on both sides)
Art Farmer - Farmer's Market - Prestige 8203 (First 1958 mono original, deep groove)
Börje Frederiksson Quartet/Quintet - Intervall - Columbia SSX 1021 (Super clean EX/EX copy of this rare and great title)
Cecil Payne Quintet - Same - Signal S1203 (EX/EX original of this 1955 album, w/ dg and ear)
Per Husby Septett - Peacemaker - SIT (super rare Norweigan only album incl the superb title track + "Adgang F")
Berndt Egerbladh Trio - Schizo - Swedisc 26 (beautiful EX/NM copy complete with insert and the original plastic cover only available on one hundred copies).
Soul/Funk/Disco
Blair - Nightlife - Solar Sound 12" (Still sealed original of this indemand title)
Roger Hatcher - R&Better - Guiness LP (Still sealed copy incl the modern soul master piece "Your love is a masterpiece")
Village Callers - Live! - Rampart LP (Superb copy, includes "Hector" and more great funk titles)
Al Green - Keep on pushing love - Rca 12" (Includes the indemand "Absolute remix" mix)
Tommy McGee - Now that I have you / Stay with me - TMG 7" (Rare 45 original, usually seen on a re-issue 12 inch)
Nate Evans - Main Squeeze - Twinight (Pristine DJ copy of this classic Chicago crossover sound).
www.recordmania.net
A few examples below.
Jazz/Eurojazz etc
Hank Mobley - Peckin' time - Blue Note 1574 (Mono original first pressing with w63rd address, ear, rvg and deep groove on both sides)
Art Farmer - Farmer's Market - Prestige 8203 (First 1958 mono original, deep groove)
Börje Frederiksson Quartet/Quintet - Intervall - Columbia SSX 1021 (Super clean EX/EX copy of this rare and great title)
Cecil Payne Quintet - Same - Signal S1203 (EX/EX original of this 1955 album, w/ dg and ear)
Per Husby Septett - Peacemaker - SIT (super rare Norweigan only album incl the superb title track + "Adgang F")
Berndt Egerbladh Trio - Schizo - Swedisc 26 (beautiful EX/NM copy complete with insert and the original plastic cover only available on one hundred copies).
Soul/Funk/Disco
Blair - Nightlife - Solar Sound 12" (Still sealed original of this indemand title)
Roger Hatcher - R&Better - Guiness LP (Still sealed copy incl the modern soul master piece "Your love is a masterpiece")
Village Callers - Live! - Rampart LP (Superb copy, includes "Hector" and more great funk titles)
Al Green - Keep on pushing love - Rca 12" (Includes the indemand "Absolute remix" mix)
Tommy McGee - Now that I have you / Stay with me - TMG 7" (Rare 45 original, usually seen on a re-issue 12 inch)
Nate Evans - Main Squeeze - Twinight (Pristine DJ copy of this classic Chicago crossover sound).
Record Mania Mix 1 – Soul, disco and more
Record Mania staff Lars, Carl, Karl and Mattias got together recording the initial RM blog mix. Enjoy!
Margie Evans - Waterfalls – Buddah 7”
Flyers – Mainline is sunshine – Good Will LP
Randolph Baker – Getting next to you – J&R LP
Mass Production – Welcome to our world (of merry music) – Cotillion 12”
One Blood – Running around – Sound City 12” (UK)
Me and You – That’s the way nature planned it – THT 12” (UK)
J. Brown & M. Smith – Hold it right there – Summer 12” (CA)
S. S. T. – Soft soul transition – Transition LP
Overland Stage – To the park – Epic 7”
Jeannie Trevor – Visit me – Mainstream LP
Thelma Houston – Nothing left to give – Mowest LP (UK)
Rotations – We want freedom – Emandolynn 7”
Dexter Wansel – The sweetest pain – PIR LP
Act III – Love power (club version) – Pharaoh 12”
Mark Capanni – I believe in miracles – Capitol 7”
Denise LaSalle & Satisfaction Guaranteed – I’m trippin’ on you – Mca LP
Powerful People – (Little girl) Say yes – Epic 12”
Ronnie McNeir – In summertime – Rca LP
Paraibo – Quem me viu por ai? – HP LP
Lee Fields – Last ride – Truth & Soul LP
Margie Evans - Waterfalls – Buddah 7”
Flyers – Mainline is sunshine – Good Will LP
Randolph Baker – Getting next to you – J&R LP
Mass Production – Welcome to our world (of merry music) – Cotillion 12”
One Blood – Running around – Sound City 12” (UK)
Me and You – That’s the way nature planned it – THT 12” (UK)
J. Brown & M. Smith – Hold it right there – Summer 12” (CA)
S. S. T. – Soft soul transition – Transition LP
Overland Stage – To the park – Epic 7”
Jeannie Trevor – Visit me – Mainstream LP
Thelma Houston – Nothing left to give – Mowest LP (UK)
Rotations – We want freedom – Emandolynn 7”
Dexter Wansel – The sweetest pain – PIR LP
Act III – Love power (club version) – Pharaoh 12”
Mark Capanni – I believe in miracles – Capitol 7”
Denise LaSalle & Satisfaction Guaranteed – I’m trippin’ on you – Mca LP
Powerful People – (Little girl) Say yes – Epic 12”
Ronnie McNeir – In summertime – Rca LP
Paraibo – Quem me viu por ai? – HP LP
Lee Fields – Last ride – Truth & Soul LP
Monday, November 23, 2009
Welcome to the Record Mania blog!
Promoting the record shop www.recordmania.net with store news, music mixes, photos and more.
Based in Stockholm, Sweden we have been spreading black music to dj's, producers, collectors and music lovers from all over the world since 1996. We are specializing in jazz, soul, disco, funk, hip hop, brazil, afro and reggae. Vinyl only, all formats.
Visit our store!
Record Mania
Östgötagan 2
116 25 Stockholm
Sweden
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