Amazing & unexpected finds at flea markets & car boot sales.

[PeterG]

I just have to tell you about the totally unexpected find I made last Sunday at a car boot sale out in the country. The guy had put all his stuff on a large fold-up table in front of his van, including 4 crates of records, my eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw the first LP in the first crate, Amon Duul II - Lemmingmania, original German pressing, and in excellent condition. Nothing was priced and I was afeared that the guy knew his stuff, so I asked, "are the records individually priced?" He said, "nah, all 3 euros"..... I nearly bit his hand off, I couldn't get my wallet out fast enough. In the same crate I also found 2 MMEB LPs I'd been looking for, again original pressings & in excellent condition, Solar Fire and Messin'. I paid the 9 euros & told him how pleased I was, and he said, "yea, we just filled up that crate and you're the first person to have looked though it" Talk about right place, right time! Well chuffed!

[PeterG]

BTW, hearing quite a few PF influences in Lemmingmania or was it perhaps the other way around?

[bob_32_116]

What's MMEB?

The most ridiculous discovery I made in a record section at an open-air market was in 2009 - a CD entitled "Wizards of Oz" by Porcupine Tree. It was a recording of their concert in Melbourne in 2007. It looked and smelled like a bootleg - crappy cover with slightly out of focus concert photo, very basic lettering listing the tracks. very un-PT looking. No one I have spoken to before or since has heard of this "release". In case you wondered, I was not tempted.

The strangest thing was the location of said market - Huddersfield, UK. But then Huddersfield is a rather strange place all round.

[PeterG]

Manfred Mann's Earth Band. If you haven't heard those early albums like Solar Fire (73) and Messin' (73) you really should. Fantastic spacey organ driven prog.

[gryphs also]

At a church garage sale they had 3 CDs: a disco compilation, a Michael Jackson CD, and "The Love Songs" by Peter Hammill.

A Salvation Arm Thrift store had "Unfold Like Staircase" by Discipline.

A Goodwill Thrift store had "Suffocating The Bloom" by Echolyn.

I've had many more near finds, but either the CD was missing or scratched beyond repair.

[rcarlberg]

I found a copy (my second) of Leo Kottke's first LP "12 String Blues" in a thrift store. There were like 350 or 500 of them pressed.

[ronmac]

The ultimate flea market find. You have to check out this story.

Long Lost Paramount Blues Record Found

[arturs]

The ultimate flea market find. You have to check out this story.

Long Lost Paramount Blues Record Found

Amazing story... Remember about 20 years someone found an original Declaration of Independence under a painting bought at a yard sale? This is on the same level.

[Progbear]

Found a copy of Fruupp’s Modern Masquerades at a Salvation Army thrift store for $1. The Affinity album (Paramount pressing) showed up at a Goodwill store for $2.

[PeterG]

My most valuable find about 10 years ago was a seemingly average 5 track David Bowie BBC sampler CD, which I paid 2 euros for in a secondhand record shop. I bought it because it had 2 early songs I'd never heard before & which weren't on any of my early Bowie vinyl collections (i.e. Rubberband, She's Got Medals period), plus it had a radio interview. When I started looking into it, after a friend offered me €200 euros for it, I found out that it was a very limited promo sampler sent out to the usual places (mags, shops, reviewers) for ONE WEEK only in July 96 for a box set that was never completed or released. I checked one collectors site at the time and saw this sampler for sale for £600!!! I still own it, never been tempted to sell it.

[Chain]

How about a pic of the Bowie CD, I've never heard of it before

[PeterG]

http://www.5years.com/sampler.htm This link gives all the details about the sampler & the unreleased BBC Sessions box set.



"Semi-official picture disc sampler for a proposed but never realised 3CD collection of Bowie BBC material. This promo only sampler CD (NMC NMCD 0072) was made commercially available in July 1996 (released for one week) but was then withdrawn from sale in the UK due to a dispute over ownership rights. It was intended to be a sampler to a full 3CD set of David Bowie BBC sessions from 1969-1972. Following the dispute David Bowie bought back the sole rights to the material and it is now officially released as BOWIE AT THE BEEB (2000)."

Saw it on a site recently for over $200.

[Progbear]

In non-musical territory, I got a Pioneer laserdisc player for $10 (marked down from $20). And the coat that formed the basis of this costume came from a thrift store ($5 from a place in Fremont):



Incidentally, the epaulets are not genuine, they’re $15 worth of cardboard, gold spray paint, hot glue and curtain fringe.

Regrets? The genuine German lederhosen I saw at a Goodwill for $20 (even if they didn’t fit, what a conversation piece!). And the Optigan I found for $10 (half the keyboard was caved-in, and it wouldn’t fit into my Chevy Cadavalier).

[nycsteve]

Don't laugh but at an estate sale I found a bookcase full of old childrens books, with a load of Bobbsy Twins books, with the original jackets, early printings. Got the books and bookcase for 20 bucks. Turns out the Bobbsy Twins books, because of their age and presence of jackets and condition are worth a couple of bucks. I've been offered close to 100 dollars per book. Theres more than 10 of them. Didn't sell though.

[Halmyre]

Not so much flea-market but flea-ridden - a legendary Glasgow record shop called 'Listen'; downstairs they sold second-hand LPs, imports and miscellaneous items such as belt buckles, badges and tour programmes. Late 70s/early 80s I picked up the Yes 1974 North America Tour Programme for a quid, and they also had some cheap looking souvenir programme, A5 size, barely a dozen pages, from Wembley 'Tormato' tour for 50p, so I bought that as well. After a closer look I assumed it was one of those cheap knock-offs that used to get sold outside venues by dodgy geezers.

Anyhoo, put them both on ebay some years ago and after a brief bidding war in the last few hours, someone ponied up nearly £100 for the Wembley programme; I contacted the buyer to say "look, this item isn't that impressive, are you really sure you're not confusing it with something else", but he said it was genuine merchandise and very rare and valuable.

[PeterG]

Incidentally, the epaulets are not genuine, they’re $15 worth of cardboard, gold spray paint, hot glue and curtain fringe.

Looking good! Next step, all out steampunk!

[Progbear]

Oh, and I have the original Mahavishnu Orchestra transcription book, the one with the scores done by John McLaughlin himself. Apparently this is quite collectible now. I found my copy in a bookstore in Oakland years ago and I forget how much I paid for it, but it was not a lot.

[JKL2000]

Amazing story... Remember about 20 years someone found an original Declaration of Independence under a painting bought at a yard sale? This is on the same level.

Wasn't there only one?

[arturs]

Wasn't there only one?

Apparently 24 copies were printed in 1776.

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/03/ar...ure-frame.html


In other news, I found a copy of Kansas' King Biscuit cd for a quarter at a library sale a few weeks ago. Not quite the declaration, but still...

[Garden Dreamer]

I'm still waiting for my first amazing and unexpected musical find at a flea market, thrift store, etc....

[moecurlythanu]

In keeping with a lifetime of amazing luck, back in the 90s I found a perfect copy of Poobah -'Let It Roll' at a flea market. Cover still in shrink. No record. A search through the 50 or so LPs without covers turned up nothing...And so it goes.