Buying duplicate copies

[Rob]

I'm not referring to just new copies of a limited ed., hot selling record you want a back up of. How many times do you find yourself buying duplicates, triplicates and more used copies of the same title because its relatively rare and you came across it cheap. The For Duke thread got me thinking since i'm up to 5 copies at least. I don't plan to sell them but keep them for trading purposes with dealers that have something over-priced that I want.

The last half dozen visits to used record stores yielded purchases in which a third to one half of my haul were records already own Who else admits to this behavior?

[JCOConnell]

I like to pick up sealed OOP dupes if the price is right, not so much opened copies. Great for trade or resell.

[JCOConnell]

But its a rare occurrence, not like your case.

[allenh]

I've purchased some dups, not on a regular basis tho. If I purchased an LP and the 'NM' wasn't exactly that, but good and cheap enough to keep, I'll try to find a better copy and use the first one as a day-to-day play disc and the better copy as a backup. But I don't think I have more than two of any pricey LP.

[Rust]

Generally for a very few select recordings, typically never widely released or long out of print. Or when searching for a specific release and stamping, for instance the RL stamping of Led Zeppelin II and trying to find one in the best condition.

[astrotoy]

Most of the fair number of dups I've bought were records that I already had, but didn't remember having them! Having 15K records makes that pretty easy for me. Larry

[JCOConnell]

I think we've all been there brother.

[siddh]

Sorry to say....way too many times. My wife loves hearing of multiple purchases. Ha, ha, ha.

[rockitman]

Special releases I usually do dupes. From recent memory...Vanessa Fernandez and Cat Stevens 45 rpm releases for example. Sometimes I have bought dupes by mistake after a period of time goes buy form the original purchase.

[Bill Hart]

I have many duplicates that I acquired over the years, but not part of any deliberate strategy. In the last couple years, I've bought different pressings of the same record, but that's not what you are talking about, is it? Occasionally, I'll buy something because I cannot find a copy here, then I find it. And, in a few cases, with collections, I've invariably wound up with multiple copies of the same "audiophile" records- cause everybody has the same records, right? But, buying for leverage? You are smarter than me- I guess I'll buy something if I happen to see it and it's cheap, knowing I already have a copy or two. I mean, how many copies of RLJ's first album do I need? It's not like those are going to be worth money someday. Short answer is yes, I have duplicates. Sometimes it saves me- I pulled out a record a month ago that I bought, I dunno, thirty years ago? It was still in the shrink, but it had something in the grooves on one side that wouldn't come out. I didn't like the record enough to go out and buy another copy. Happened to find another one today in my stacks- this one is clean. So, I'm good.
PS: one other category, mentioned by others- finding a really good player of a hard to get in clean condition record. Sometimes, these aren't even particularly valuable, just that they are often in subpar condition. VG+ my ass!
PPS: As I noted elsewhere, I tend to shy away from E-Bay sellers that operate under names like "Heidi's Gifts 'N Things." Is it a record- check; is there a jacket- yep. Great- VG+.
I bought an Aretha record from somebody- when I fired it up it was Teddy Pendergrass. My, what a deep voice you have, my dear.

[rockitman]

I have about 10 copies of Basie Me & You. 8 of which were sealed, yet still a bit noisy on the surface at times. I'm getting close to the perfect copy though...

[lasercd]

I have 5 of them. One was sealed. All noisy. Best one is the first one I picked up for 3 bucks. Strange that Chad didn't reissue this onevwhen he did the Pablo series.

[Rob]

I'm sure you know this but back in the day many record stores had shrink wrap machines. re-wraps were common and many show up years later sold as new virgin records when in fact they are re-wraps of opened or used records. In some case they were defected vinyl brought back by customers. I bought some of these from ebay and the sellers either played dumb or just thought they were off the hook. the only way to be sure if they come in loose bags as they did new, like MFSL, Classic Records, et al. over time you get to know the various types of shrink cos. used, there were imports that were always loose domestic consumer vinyl were always tightly shrunk. Then there's the risk of an original NOS LP in original shrink that's bowed to death because of being in shrink too long! this hobby will drive you nuts.

[MylesBAstor]

Ha you got me to thinking. My initial reaction to the question was nah, I haven't bought dupes in years. Then I thought a little more and realized that sometimes when the price is right, I will buy a dupe of a good recording to give away to friends. If I run across say a great album for say $10 or less in good shape, I will often pick it up to give to some audiobuddy.

Like most of you, I have occasionally bought dupes of albums that I already own. Not often, because I have a photographic memory and don't catalog my albums. And that's no small feat having a crap load of albums. I might even own the Guiness Book of World Records for most albums in a one bedroom apartment! Gotta sell some of these dupes too but that involves listening to them and picking the best sound disc first. A project in itself. But that would free up some shelf space too.

Also in the past, I would pick up dupes on sale say at Tower or Tower Annex. One of these days, need to get around to selling some sealed copies of things such as Emerald Forrest, Cat People, some Jarre stuff, etc.

Then there's the case as in Christian's case where searching for a good copy of a given recording leads to the acquisition of two or more LPs. Such was the case of Percussion Museum where the right channel of the first purchase despite being despised as mint, was destroyed. The second copy was better and finally with the third copy, I hit paydirt. Around $300 later in total.

Now as far as getting other dupes. The main time I consider adding dupes are in the case of reference albums that I use in the course of reviewing. Some are rare and hard to find. But eventually need to get another copy of some of Chad's albums that I use for reviewing such as Elvis '57, Poll Winners 3 and a few others.

[Rob]

I'm very visual, maybe not photographic in memory like you. My **skill** if you will, is memorizing jacket art and cover photos. I can rifle through stacks of records and only need to see the top 3-4 inches of a jacket to ID a record. Some records are very obvious like orange spines on Impulse jazz records or the red box in the upper left hand corner of classical EMIs and the list goes on and on. I can get through every bin an average sized store in under an hour. but my arms are sore!

[Rob]

I have many duplicates that I acquired over the years, but not part of any deliberate strategy. In the last couple years, I've bought different pressings of the same record, but that's not what you are talking about, is it? Occasionally, I'll buy something because I cannot find a copy here, then I find it. And, in a few cases, with collections, I've invariably wound up with multiple copies of the same "audiophile" records- cause everybody has the same records, right? But, buying for leverage? You are smarter than me- I guess I'll buy something if I happen to see it and it's cheap, knowing I already have a copy or two. I mean, how many copies of RLJ's first album do I need? It's not like those are going to be worth money someday. Short answer is yes, I have duplicates. Sometimes it saves me- I pulled out a record a month ago that I bought, I dunno, thirty years ago? It was still in the shrink, but it had something in the grooves on one side that wouldn't come out. I didn't like the record enough to go out and buy another copy. Happened to find another one today in my stacks- this one is clean. So, I'm good.
PS: one other category, mentioned by others- finding a really good player of a hard to get in clean condition record. Sometimes, these aren't even particularly valuable, just that they are often in subpar condition. VG+ my ass!
PPS: As I noted elsewhere, I tend to shy away from E-Bay sellers that operate under names like "Heidi's Gifts 'N Things." Is it a record- check; is there a jacket- yep. Great- VG+.
I bought an Aretha record from somebody- when I fired it up it was Teddy Pendergrass. My, what a deep voice you have, my dear.

Oh i hear you re the Heidi's of the world but I've gotten some good deals outta of them too. What I find unbelievable are regular vinyl sellers that will fabricate a mailer out of scrap cardboard, both wasting a ton of time on their end and more importantly risking damage to the record. evidently no one told them 150 mailers goes for under thirty bucks delivered to your door (duh) I should have taken picks of some of those pack jobs and started a joke site to humor other collectors and commiserate with fellow victims.

[MylesBAstor]

Oh i hear you re the Heidi's of the world but I've gotten some good deals outta of them too. What I find unbelievable are regular vinyl sellers that will fabricate a mailer out of scrap cardboard, both wasting a ton of time on their end and more importantly risking damage to the record. evidently no one told them 150 mailers goes for under thirty bucks delivered to your door (duh) I should have taken picks of some of those pack jobs and started a joke site to humor other collectors and commiserate with fellow victims.

Luckily I haven't run across that problem (maybe because I only buy in general from a select few sellers) but other audiobuddies have suffered that fate too. One friend ordered a record, the seller put it in some flimsy packaging (like a taped together Fed Ex envelope) and then the dumb postman folded it up and stuffed the album in his mailbox. Speechless.

One thing that happened though a couple of times though is that I've received a package with no record inside. The three times it's happened is with the mailers where you seal the edge (often used by overseas sellers), not the more common ones that fold and you might buy at Sleeve City or Bags Unlimited. It sure looks like someone just slit the end of the mailer with a box cutter and removed the record.

[Rob]

Luckily I haven't run across that problem (maybe because I only buy in general from a select few sellers) but other audiobuddies have suffered that fate too. One friend ordered a record, the seller put it in some flimsy packaging (like a taped together Fed Ex envelope) and then the dumb postman folded it up and stuffed the album in his mailbox. Speechless.

One thing that happened though a couple of times though is that I've received a package with no record inside. The three times it's happened is with the mailers where you seal the edge (often used by overseas sellers), not the more common ones that fold and you might buy at Sleeve City or Bags Unlimited. It sure looks like someone just slit the end of the mailer with a box cutter and removed the record.

some off the records I got were in containers fabricated from old produce boxes, like the kind markets discard with rotting fruit inside. that record nearly cost me a 100 bucks! The worst record mailers are from the UK, they are absolute junk. When I was binging on used vinyl a few years ago, i was getting 10-20 a month from the UK and they all used that same crappy thin cardboard mailer...

[Johnny Vinyl]

I have more duplicates than I care to admit, but such is the life of a musicphile. I've bought copies of albums I didn't think I had, because unlike Myles I wasn't gifted with a photographic memory. I've gifted some, sold some and will keep others as a backup...just in case. I do like buying various pressings of fave albums, which has led me to owning 8 copies of DSOTM, 6 copies of RLJ and I think 7 copies of I ROBOT to give you but 3 examples. If I'm browsing and come across an RL, BG, KG, GP or WT pressing I have to have it....LOL! I also like the KENDUN and JAMF pressings. I've also bought dupes because of an alternate cover.

[MylesBAstor]

I have more duplicates than I care to admit, but such is the life of a musicphile. I've bought copies of albums I didn't think I had, because unlike Myles I wasn't gifted with a photographic memory. I've gifted some, sold some and will keep others as a backup...just in case. I do like buying various pressings of fave albums, which has led me to owning 8 copies of DSOTM, 6 copies of RLJ and I think 7 copies of I ROBOT to give you but 3 examples. If I'm browsing and come across an RL, BG, KG, GP or WT pressing I have to have it....LOL! I also like the KENDUN and JAMF pressings. I've also bought dupes because of an alternate cover.

Just had one weird packing job today on a Discogs order. Seller took the record out of the paper inner sleeve and then placed the LP on the inner sleeve and in turn on top of the outer jacket and then saran wrapped them together!?!? What were they thinking? There was zip protection for the LP but luckily seems undamaged.

[JCOConnell]

My preferred method of receiving LP shipments is to get the LP in its original inner sleeve shipped in a junk outer jacket along with the empty correct outer jacket. This prevent split seams on the correct jacket while still protecting the LP in shipping. I don't get many this way, but when I do, I know I'm dealing with someone who knows what they are doing.