As a music fanatic, one of the greatest jobs I’ve had over the years was working for an online company who specialised in buying and selling sought after and collectable music related items, such as CDs, vinyl records and an incredible selection of memorabilia. The company has been around for approximately thirty-five years and started out as a mail order company based in the bedroom in one of the director’s houses. Over time the business expanded and found a big market of music fans who wanted something more than just the standard CD when their favourite artist brought out a new album, and when I worked with them the business occupied a big warehouse and an extra storage building.
It appears that the real collector’s market was initially kicked off by albums from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Many early copies of their albums had limited runs in production, and it was quite normal for the label design to change regularly, which meant that if you had got the album as soon as it was released, there was an excellent chance that you would own something worth a few pounds. For example, albums such as the original first release of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band with the cut-out insert, or the first issue of Sticky Fingers with the genuine zip as part of the cover are much prized – if you can find a collector who wants to sell. Many people would never get rid of their prized collections, and much of the older records that the company acquired came from folk who had inherited them from a relation and had little interest in music themselves, even though we were also aware of some people who ended up selling their collections to fund cosmetic surgery, Laser eye surgery and a college course.
A new market started to flourish with fans who had got into a band after two or three albums had been released who then had to go back and buy all of the previous releases so that they had an entire collection of the artist’s recordings. A perfect example of this would be the debut single release by Manic Street Preachers, which was limited to a very small number of copies, but which at the peak of their fame a few years ago was fetching up to £750 – for a seven inch vinyl single with two tunes on it, in an uninspiring picture bag. I sure didn’t pay out that amount for my copy, but look at what you could get with that amount of money – a nice holiday abroad, a classy designer outfit, Laser eye treatment or maybe a cheap second hand set of wheels!
So, with fans looking for excellent condition second-hand products, there was a massive market to be tapped into and that is exactly what the directors did, taking in unwanted collections and advertising the availability of specific items to fans who had gaps in their collections.
After a while, the music marketing machine came to realise that dedicated collectors would pay a lot of money to keep their collection complete and some record companies embarked on what were actually quite cynical marketing concepts, although I’m sure they wouldn’t have admitted this publically. By way of an example, a new David Bowie ‘Best Of’ compilation released globally in 2002 had a different tracklisting for each country in which it was issued, so that many fans were trying to collect every single version available. We can only guess what Mr Bowie could have spent his cut of the profits on, but I’m sure he knows that no amount of money invested in Laser eye treatment will ever change both of his eyes to the same colour!
The other concept which became popular a while back was giving away additional items with CDs, ranging from pens, bonus recordings of live or previously unheard material, scarves, posters – in fact anything that the devoted fan would be keen to add to their collection. There has now been a clampdown on this type of marketing, since it was wrongly bumping up the sales of those artists whose products were being abused in this way, so fortunately we never plumbed the depths of being given free flights, vouchers for Laser eye surgery or teeth whitening or any other ridiculous rewards just for buying a CD. But it didn’t stop individuals from buying the things back then.
The business I worked for also had some interesting contacts within the music industry in a number of countries and as a consequence, we also received many promotional items which had been given to pluggers and DJs ahead of a release date and which they then generally passed on to people they knew. Some of our buyers also obtained items like tour itineraries and exclusive crew shirts from contacts who had contributed to the tour, but had no interest in wanting to hang on to the stuff once the tour was done. Some of the itineraries make very interesting reading!
I didn’t want to leave the job, as there was nothing better than working through a box full of music items, researching them if needed and then enhancing their descriptions on the website for people to purchase. But all good things must come to an end.
It appears that the real collector’s market was initially kicked off by albums from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Many early copies of their albums had limited runs in production, and it was quite normal for the label design to change regularly, which meant that if you had got the album as soon as it was released, there was an excellent chance that you would own something worth a few pounds. For example, albums such as the original first release of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band with the cut-out insert, or the first issue of Sticky Fingers with the genuine zip as part of the cover are much prized – if you can find a collector who wants to sell. Many people would never get rid of their prized collections, and much of the older records that the company acquired came from folk who had inherited them from a relation and had little interest in music themselves, even though we were also aware of some people who ended up selling their collections to fund cosmetic surgery, Laser eye surgery and a college course.
A new market started to flourish with fans who had got into a band after two or three albums had been released who then had to go back and buy all of the previous releases so that they had an entire collection of the artist’s recordings. A perfect example of this would be the debut single release by Manic Street Preachers, which was limited to a very small number of copies, but which at the peak of their fame a few years ago was fetching up to £750 – for a seven inch vinyl single with two tunes on it, in an uninspiring picture bag. I sure didn’t pay out that amount for my copy, but look at what you could get with that amount of money – a nice holiday abroad, a classy designer outfit, Laser eye treatment or maybe a cheap second hand set of wheels!
So, with fans looking for excellent condition second-hand products, there was a massive market to be tapped into and that is exactly what the directors did, taking in unwanted collections and advertising the availability of specific items to fans who had gaps in their collections.
After a while, the music marketing machine came to realise that dedicated collectors would pay a lot of money to keep their collection complete and some record companies embarked on what were actually quite cynical marketing concepts, although I’m sure they wouldn’t have admitted this publically. By way of an example, a new David Bowie ‘Best Of’ compilation released globally in 2002 had a different tracklisting for each country in which it was issued, so that many fans were trying to collect every single version available. We can only guess what Mr Bowie could have spent his cut of the profits on, but I’m sure he knows that no amount of money invested in Laser eye treatment will ever change both of his eyes to the same colour!
The other concept which became popular a while back was giving away additional items with CDs, ranging from pens, bonus recordings of live or previously unheard material, scarves, posters – in fact anything that the devoted fan would be keen to add to their collection. There has now been a clampdown on this type of marketing, since it was wrongly bumping up the sales of those artists whose products were being abused in this way, so fortunately we never plumbed the depths of being given free flights, vouchers for Laser eye surgery or teeth whitening or any other ridiculous rewards just for buying a CD. But it didn’t stop individuals from buying the things back then.
The business I worked for also had some interesting contacts within the music industry in a number of countries and as a consequence, we also received many promotional items which had been given to pluggers and DJs ahead of a release date and which they then generally passed on to people they knew. Some of our buyers also obtained items like tour itineraries and exclusive crew shirts from contacts who had contributed to the tour, but had no interest in wanting to hang on to the stuff once the tour was done. Some of the itineraries make very interesting reading!
I didn’t want to leave the job, as there was nothing better than working through a box full of music items, researching them if needed and then enhancing their descriptions on the website for people to purchase. But all good things must come to an end.
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