Hey, it's Record Store Day! Yeah, whoop! To me, every day is record store day. I appreciate the organisers' efforts to boost the profiles of both vinyl and the ever-dwindling tally of record stores, but I've never fancied camping out with all the opportunistic chancers and having to fight them for the limited vinyl releases that always seem to be on eBay within five minutes of leaving the store. These people are no better than ticket touts. How about leaving the Record Store Day releases for real fans! There's nothing wrong with selling on your surplus vinyl, but denying a true music lover the chance to own a special slab of wax from their favourite artist just so you can make a quick buck strikes me as pretty scummy behaviour. At the other end of the marketing scale there are plenty of legit sellers on eBay who could use a few lessons in maximising the sales potential of their wares.
When I'm browsing the vinyl listings on the 'Bay, I'm often left dumbstruck by the way some of the vendors present the items they have for sale. I've collected a random sample of godawful, genuine photographs from ebay listings over the last week or so to illustrate my point.
This vendor deserves credit for managing to photograph his Neil Diamond LP from the window of a speeding train...
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What are you selling, records or home furnishings?..
Turn off your flash, for crying out loud!..
A selection of LPs possibly photographed under the influence of alcohol. I searched in vain for a similarly blurry copy of Foreigner's Double Vision. That would have been too perfect!
The lack of focus in this shot can't disguise the huge tear in the sleeve...
Bob Dylan, blurred and jaundiced...
You'll be surprised to learn that none of these albums achieved a sale.
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