Top 5 eBay Vinyl Record Sales

Week Ending 04/04/2009

1. 78 - Harmonica Frank "Rockin' Chair Daddy" / "The Great Medical Menagerist" Sun - $3,606.00 - Start: $700.00 - Bids: 33

2. LP - The Beatles "Yesterday And Today" 1st State Stereo Butcher Cover - $3,000.00 - Start: $3,900.00 - Bids: Best Offer
LP - The Beatess "Yesterday And Today" 2nd State Stereo Butcher Cover - $3,000.00 - Start: $499.99 - Bids: 12

3. 45 - Tommy & The Derby's "Don't Play That Role" / "Handy Andy" Swing - $2,651.00 - Start: $49.99 - Bids: 13

4. LP - The Beatles "Yesterday And Today" 1 State Stereo Butcher Cover - $2,400.00 - Start: $3,000 - Bids: Best Offer

5. 45 - The Rolling stones "Wild Horses" / "Sway" Japanese Pic Sleeve - $1,999.99 - Start: $1,999.99 - Bids: 1

More Beatles make the list this week, offering an amazing opportunity to look at the state of The Beatles' Butcher Cover.

But before we get into Beatles and baby dolls, the #1 must be recognized. This week the top spot goes to Harmonica Frank and a Sun Records' 78 RPM, which bids past $3.6k.

The #2 spot is the most interesting on the list this week, a tie at exactly $3k of two Butcher Covers. Each comes from a different seller. Both are stereo and one is a 1st State, the other a 2nd state cover. The 1st State LP sells from a seller who has sold a half dozen or so Butcher's over the past month. In his ads, this seller has stated that he is selling his many Butcher Covers for health reasons. The 2nd LP in the tie comes with a Perry Cox authentication certificate.

So here occurs an amazing convergence - the eBay market, which many consider the only true measure of a collectible's value, in a negative adjective laden economy (if I've confused you just insert "screwed up" for "negative adjective laden") causes a tie between an Average Joe seller posting his own stuff and a Perry Cox (think Christie's of the Beatles market) authenticated record.

What does the convergence tell us?

Mainly, I've been proved kinda sorta wrong. About a year ago, I posted numerous times that the Butcher Cover was getting far less on the eBay market than the book value (either Goldmine or Osborne's), and I speculated that the Beatles' market was beginning a decline. The book value for these two records are respectively, $5k for the 1st state cover and $2.5k for the 2nd state cover, taking into account the grading given by each seller. The $3k for the 1st state cover is exactly what would be expected for a non-dealer sale. By this I mean an item sold by someone who doesn't sell records for a living, and who would be selling it on eBay, or taking it into a store or convention for that matter. The $3k for the 2nd State cover is $1k more than the book price, which shows just how valuable is a Perry Cox authentication. And more importantly, this convergence demonstrates that collectible records are a damn stable market in this economy.

Record Store Day is coming up this month, and I'll be posting my annual list of top monthly sales for the past year and graphing the last two years of top monthly sales. This will show further that vinyl collecting is in no danger of extinction.

Now, on with the list. In the #3 spot sits an old friend on this list, the Tommy & The Derby's Northern Soul rarity sells for a dollar more than halfway over $2.6k.

From the same seller as the #2 1st state Butcher Cover, the #4 item this week sells on a Best Offer for $2.4k.

And last, a Rolling Stones 45 with pic sleeve from Japan gets its asking price at a penny less than $2k.

As alway, thanks to Norm at Counter Clock Records (http://ccdiscoveries.blogspot.com) for this great material!