Xapno Mapcase
New Member
Hello all,
This is my first post here, although I've been a lurker on and off through the years. Unfortunately, my introductory post here is due to finding myself in a financial situation where I must part with my beloved Smiths/Morrissey collection of 20+ years. It's not something I want to do, and going through my collection and writing up lists has made me feel nostalgic. I know I'll regret it, and miss looking at all the album covers that I spent years trying to obtain. (In the days before the WWW and ebay!)
With that nostalgia, pardon me while I give a little background on myself, if you don't mind: I've been a Smiths fan since borrowing my friends 'The Smiths' debut cassette in 1984. I mostly bought everything on cassette in those days, but I started buying UK singles shortly after that, just for the b-sides. As a US fan, I could only find them at "independent" record stores, record shows and through mail order catalogs. So, that was the bulk of my "collecting" -- just UK Rough Trade 7" and 12" records -- until around the time The Smiths broke up. At that point, with no more official releases, I got interested in buying foreign pressings of albums and singles, as well as promos and rarities.
I met and became friends with a record dealer who had an amazing collection of Elvis Costello records -- literally a basement full of boxes.. categorized chronologically, and by country -- who sparked my interest in serious collecting. We even worked record shows by the late '80s and that's when my hobby became an obsession; I sold and traded there and discovered how much stuff was out there to collect.
Around that time, I went off to college and sold off some of my collection -- keeping mostly the Mint condition stuff. To shorten the point, everything I have is stuff I bought from around 1985 to around the time of Vauxhall and I. I can look at each single and album and still recall when/where I bought it, and then taking it home and listening to it. There's a lot of emotional and monetary investment in those boxes throughout the years.
So... It's kind of painful to part with it. It's like parting with memories. But at the same time, it's just "stuff" I guess, right?
Some of what I have:
I have only original stuff in my collection; no reissues. I also never collected CDs (I didn't own CD player until 1991).
As for books, magazines, fanzines and tour/backstage passes and signed stuff... Sorry, but I sold those along with my bootleg LPs a few years ago to a friend. I don't think I have anything left like that.
I have a lot to sell, and I'm actually getting a little stressed out -- I need to sell it in a timely manner, but it's taking me much longer than I thought to take pictures and put everything together and come up with a full list.
My question is to those of you who collect Smiths and Morrissey vinyl.
Is there anything in particular that you're looking for? I'll post, hopefully, a full list in the next few days in the marketplace forum. But in the mean time, let me know if there's something you've been looking for; I might have it. Just PM me and I'll let you know. If you have lots of questions, I wouldn't mind discussing it on the phone while I look through stuff. I just thought I'd give fellow collectors a heads up; if there's something specific you're looking for, I wouldn't mind selling it for a decent offer. The rest of the stuff, I'm mostly putting up on eBay at 99 cents starting bid.
PS. Sorry, I didn't mean to be so long winded!
This is my first post here, although I've been a lurker on and off through the years. Unfortunately, my introductory post here is due to finding myself in a financial situation where I must part with my beloved Smiths/Morrissey collection of 20+ years. It's not something I want to do, and going through my collection and writing up lists has made me feel nostalgic. I know I'll regret it, and miss looking at all the album covers that I spent years trying to obtain. (In the days before the WWW and ebay!)
With that nostalgia, pardon me while I give a little background on myself, if you don't mind: I've been a Smiths fan since borrowing my friends 'The Smiths' debut cassette in 1984. I mostly bought everything on cassette in those days, but I started buying UK singles shortly after that, just for the b-sides. As a US fan, I could only find them at "independent" record stores, record shows and through mail order catalogs. So, that was the bulk of my "collecting" -- just UK Rough Trade 7" and 12" records -- until around the time The Smiths broke up. At that point, with no more official releases, I got interested in buying foreign pressings of albums and singles, as well as promos and rarities.
I met and became friends with a record dealer who had an amazing collection of Elvis Costello records -- literally a basement full of boxes.. categorized chronologically, and by country -- who sparked my interest in serious collecting. We even worked record shows by the late '80s and that's when my hobby became an obsession; I sold and traded there and discovered how much stuff was out there to collect.
Around that time, I went off to college and sold off some of my collection -- keeping mostly the Mint condition stuff. To shorten the point, everything I have is stuff I bought from around 1985 to around the time of Vauxhall and I. I can look at each single and album and still recall when/where I bought it, and then taking it home and listening to it. There's a lot of emotional and monetary investment in those boxes throughout the years.
So... It's kind of painful to part with it. It's like parting with memories. But at the same time, it's just "stuff" I guess, right?
Some of what I have:
- *most, if not all, Smiths RT single releases; 7" and 12"
- *UK Morrissey singles (7" and 12") through Vauxhall era.
- *Several foreign Smiths/Moz 12" and 7" singles
- *ALL Smiths and Morrissey UK LPs, and a few foreign pressings of LPs.
- *Several Smiths and Morrissey PROMO records from the UK and US. (will be among the first to be auctioned)
- *Warner Brothers Smiths "Meat is Murder" 30 minute radio show promo (with Blasters B-side)
- *Shoplifters RT 12" with promo Shoplifters bag
- *Interview picture discs (12" and 7")
- *A couple of bootleg 7" records with picture sleeves. (Sorry, I sold my LPs to a friend a few years ago)
- *original 45's of songs that The Smiths or Morrissey covered.. (Twinkle, Herman's Hermits, T-Rex, etc..) I was thinking about just including those for the respective single/album in an auction, if there was any interest? eg. A Twinkle 'Golden Lights' promo 45 with a copy of Louder Than Bombs, etc..
- *Smiths/Morrissey tour programs
- *A box of VHS tapes... Smiths/Moz official stuff, but mostly Smiths bootleg compilations of TV appearances and concerts.
- *MAYBE some old Smiths T-shirts and promo/subway posters... (my wife says she saw them recently. Haha. I'll have to search, though)
I have only original stuff in my collection; no reissues. I also never collected CDs (I didn't own CD player until 1991).
As for books, magazines, fanzines and tour/backstage passes and signed stuff... Sorry, but I sold those along with my bootleg LPs a few years ago to a friend. I don't think I have anything left like that.
I have a lot to sell, and I'm actually getting a little stressed out -- I need to sell it in a timely manner, but it's taking me much longer than I thought to take pictures and put everything together and come up with a full list.
My question is to those of you who collect Smiths and Morrissey vinyl.
Is there anything in particular that you're looking for? I'll post, hopefully, a full list in the next few days in the marketplace forum. But in the mean time, let me know if there's something you've been looking for; I might have it. Just PM me and I'll let you know. If you have lots of questions, I wouldn't mind discussing it on the phone while I look through stuff. I just thought I'd give fellow collectors a heads up; if there's something specific you're looking for, I wouldn't mind selling it for a decent offer. The rest of the stuff, I'm mostly putting up on eBay at 99 cents starting bid.
PS. Sorry, I didn't mean to be so long winded!