World's Greatest Music Collection For Sale

Ah hah...so I guess that's why certain records I'm looking for they never seem to have...maybe they're sitting in those boxes.

 

Yep, he was one of the most arrogant store owners around. He always used to tell customers the records they were looking for "didn't exist." The last time I was in there I asked if he had any OJC jazz lps. "They start at $30." - "a piece?" - "They're out of print"
Whatever- Jerry's sells these for $3-$4.

 

It looks like jopsoup is ready to take pictures of the new collection. This appears to be the last item they got on eBay. They might need more storage if they take a picture of each item.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230204810354

I wonder if this was their old collection?

http://www.discogs.com/collection?user=jopsoup

Just found this article on the purchase:

http://idolator.com/359764/huge-record-collection-sells-for-3-million-and-change

 

I see that jopsoup is no longer a registered user on ebay.

 

That didn't take long

 

wow, what a story. I just popped into this thread and was fascinated. Man, the thought of moving all this tonage around is unfathomable. Who's going to pack it all up? how does one pack millions of lps...a box of thirty has quite a weight to it, never mind 300,000 cds...

from comments in this thread, he should have sold stuff to the locals who'd bothered to show up in his store, before he turned them all off by darkening his doorstep...

so seems like the guy who bought it was a flake, so is this back on ebay?

 

This guy must be an idiot to sell the collection like he did... if you're going to sell something of such high value you vet your bidders ahead of time.

He'll likely approach the losing bidders to try to arrange a sale at this point so it might not end up back on Ebay.

Hearing all these stories about the guy doesn't make me feel the least bit sorry for him.

 

I think if you have $3 million to buy this collection, you can afford the hundred grand it would cost to ship it to where you live (assuming you're in North America).

I actually think the seller's idea isn't that outrageous: ship it to a building and create a museum devoted to recorded music. Not that crazy an idea. I bet if it were a non-profit organization, you could digitize everything and make it available for people to come in and listen to it (which, to a degree, they do at the Cleveland Rock & Roll Museum).

 

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08054/859659-388.stm

Record Rama bidder turns out to be a fraud
Saturday, February 23, 2008
By Scott Mervis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The $3 million winning bid for the Record Rama collection on eBay was a fraud, according to J. Paul Henderson, agent for the sale.

Mr. Henderson said he got a call from an eBay executive last night explaining that the "jopsoup" bid was not legitimate and the account has been suspended.

The Irish man with that screen name says he didn't even know about the bid until after the fact.

"Jopsoup" told the eBay executive that he was a victim of identity theft.

"He claims he went to an Internet cafe and got the e-mail with the invoice from us and wondered 'what the hell is this?' " Mr. Henderson said.

Mr. Henderson says he and owner Paul Mawhinney plan to re-list the collection and run the auction in a more "semi-private" fashion with screened bidders.

They also have a few private collectors coming into town who will examine the collection of 3 million albums and CDs, cassettes and 8 tracks.
First published on February 23, 2008 at 12:00 am

 

How do you hijack an ebay account and get the ability to place a $3,000,000 bid?

 

He ran it like any regular auction...not a special limited buyer auction.

I guess anyone can place a bet however high they want.

It was really dumb to run it that way in the first place... kinda shows inexperience with auction sites.

 

I didn't think anyone would pay big bucks for that collection.

 

I'm not a fan of the guy, and I think he handled the situation very poorly, but make no mistake; that collection is worth big bucks.

 

For someone with the $$ and the desire to sell it in pieces, it sure may be worth big bucks. I just wonder how many folks out there selling vinyl have that kind of cash to unload. And I'd doubt it's going to make ENOUGH money for an investor to buy it up and pay someone else to sell it.

I dunno why, but I get a kick out of that winning bid being phony. Sure wish I had the money just even to take a serious glance at that collection though. Are these all US pressings only, or other countries as well? I dunno... I just can't help but think that the treasure to trash ratio isn't nearly as high as some would think.

 

No one is going to buy the collection without being shown the collection. It might be fantastic but he will have to open the doors and let the potential buyer(s) look at the collection.Its all relative.If I have 50 million dollars worth of stuff then , yeah , 3 million is a steal.

 

The thing is, the $50 million figure is something that he pulled out of thin air, and based on what I've been reading here about his attitude and pricing polices this figure is undoubtedly inflated, and probably by a good measure. It would also assume that each piece is sold individually and for its full value. Neither of those assumptions is likely to hold true when and if the collection changes hands.

No doubt, it could be worth a lot if a buyer was willing to hire a team of people to catalog everything (the other 2 million albums) and start selling it off in pieces, the smaller the lots the better. But that would take a hefty budget and a considerable amount of time as well. With a proper business plan and a determination to see it through, it could be an excellent investment for someone.

 

"He who dies with the most toys, wins!"

Sounds like a collection that the guy from Wolfgang's Vault would buy. He paid like 7m for the BGP collection sight unseen.

 

If I had 3 million to spend on music, I certainly wouldn't buy someone else's collection (with his multiple copies of albums I don't care for).

Come to think of it, I'd be hard-pressed to even come up with 3 million dollars worth of music that I'd actually want.

 

I wonder how much money this Record Rama guy spent over the years to accumulate this collection?

 

Well, he had been collecting since 1954. So I would guess he was in the middle of the hot times for the great items. Maybe he was one of those guys that collected and kept his records in great shape. a lot of the stuff that people pay crazy prices now for really werent that expensive during the 70's. Maybe that was his hey day of collecting.

 

Assuming he collected for about 50 years, that's still purchasing over 165 albums per day, every day with no time off for vacation, illness etc. And that's not including the CDs.

 

Collectors like him buy other people's collections -- sometimes hundreds at a time. Remember that all through the years there were warehouses full of cutouts, stores going under and liquidating their stock, people dying and their possessions going up for sale at auction houses...back in the 70s, as a teenager, I didn't have the money for any of that, but I often scanned the classifieds for estate auctions that included records and went to quite a few. Always saw the some of the same "record" people there with that faux "non-chalant" but with expectation behind the eyes look about them.

Dale

 

I counted at least five other bids over $3,000,000 from what appear to be legitimate eBayers with good Feedback ratings.

The seller recently gave an interview where he said one of the other bidders has stepped forward and agreed to buy the collection for $3 million, so I guess we can assume it's sold.

 

Good point there.

Now all I need is $3 million to test the theory...