If you believe eBay, every Sisters bootleg is rare. Even the LIFE 7"/booklet combo is usually advertised as "rare" when it is probably the most common, widespread and boring bootleg in existence...
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"LIFE"
Depressingly common. |
So which bootlegs are truly rare? How can you tell whether something you own or found for sale has real value or not? This is probably one of the most frequently asked questions by newbie collectors.
Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to this question. Value is highly subjective and dependent on context as much as on the intrinsic characteristics of the item in question. It fluctuates over time, based on supply and demand. If you have something truly rare but nobody is willing or able to buy it because the collectors wealthy enough to afford it all already have it, and the more modest collectors can't afford to pay the price you are asking, and if you find yourself forced to sell, your item won't fetch its theoretical high value.
Conversely, if two die-hard collectors really want something (because it's unusual or just a brand new release that was introduced and that they have never seen before), they may engage in a bidding war and end up paying four or five time the value of the item, just because they are impatient or compulsive completists.
In these next series of posts, I will however try to provide some objective pointers that can be used to assess the real rarity and long-term value of specific SOM bootlegs. While experienced collectors won't probably learn anything new here, fans who are only starting their collection might find this series informative.
For my first post in the series, I want to discuss elements which DON'T REALLY AFFECT the rarity/value of a Sisters bootleg, even though one might assume the contrary.
Sound quality
The first of these criteria is the sound quality. Some of the rarest/most valuable bootlegs have terrible audio, to the point of being unplayable, so the sound quality has nothing to do with the value of a bootleg.
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"Red Skies Disappear"
Unplayable, but pricey... |
Packaging
Another criteria that is not relevant to the rarity and/or value of a bootleg is the quality of the package or its design. Again, some of the rarest/most valuable bootlegs have terrible, lazy or non-existant packaging. Don't be fooled by a glossy picture sleeve with colorful printed inners. Look instead for those generic white sleeves with pasted copy sheets...
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"Out Through The Poison Door"
Lazy packaging (copy sheet pasted on generic sleeve) but pricey... |
Limited or numbered edition
A third criteria that does not affect the rarity and/or value of a bootleg is whether it is presented as "limited" or "numbered" edition. Let's be clear, the actual quantity in which a bootleg was produced DOES impact its rarity and therefore sometimes its value, but whether a bootleg is ADVERTISED as being limited and/or is numbered DOES NOT.
First of all, by essence, bootlegs are always produced in limited quantity (typically between 100 and 5,000 copies) so whether they are identified by the bootlegger as being limited, the reality is that ANY bootleg has a limited run. More over, it is impossible to know whether the official "limited" quantity that is advertised by the bootlegger is real or not. Many bootlegs that were initially produced in limited quantity have been repressed multiple times, sometimes by different bootleggers, rendering any notion of limited quantity even more unreliable. A good example of this is any of the recent Australian bootlegs such as "Garden Of Delight" or "Fire in the Hull" which have been repressed so many times that the fact that each of their edition is limited and/or numbered does not confer any value.
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"The Garden Of Delight" 2nd edition
Numbered edition ltd to 100 copies, worth close to nothing... |
First editions
A fourth criteria which is not a reliable pointer for rarity or value is whether a bootleg is a first pressing/edition. In some cases, the first edition is the rarest, but in some others, it is the repress which is actually more rare and/or valuable.
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"Brixton Ace" reissue with green xerox sheet
Much rarer than the 1st edition... |
Classic vs, modern bootlegs
A fifth criteria which is not a good qualifier of rarity or value is whether the bootleg is a classic (i.e. originated in the classic 1984-1989 era) or recent. Again some older bootlegs are very common and easy to find because they were produced in large quantities (ex: "The Incredible History of the Sisters" or the "Echoes" series) while more recent bootlegs are considered very rare and valuable.
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"Incredible History Vol. I"
Classic boot from 1989, worth nothing... |
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"Live in Hull 1983"
From 2015, but very rare, and very expensive |
Rare Titles?
A sixth criteria which isn't
always a good indicator of the rarity or value of a bootleg is the title itself. Granted, there are some titles which are just rare and valuable, period ("Live At Leeds" is a good example). But for many other titles, the same release can be very rare or very common, depending on the variant in question. A good example of this is "Stranger", which was released in at least two different variants under the same title in the same picture sleeve. The regular edition on black vinyl is very common. The colored edition on red marbled vinyl, on the other hand, is one of the rarest Sisters bootlegs in existence.
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"Stranger" on black vinyl
Nothing to write home about... |
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"Stranger" on red marbled vinyl
Super rare! |
Latest auction/buy-it-now price
A seventh criteria which does not always give a good indication of the rarity and long-term value of a bootleg is... the latest auction/buy-it-now price, whether from eBay or Discogs. This might sound counter-intuitive because how to better assess the value of something than checking how much the item sold for recently, right?
Actually, this logic does not always apply to bootlegs, and especially to Sisters bootlegs, and here is why: First of all, new bootlegs are constantly being produced and put to market through eBay. Whenever a brand new title is first introduced to the collector base, there is very often a bidding war on eBay to snatch it. The completists fight over it, artificially inflating the price. After a few successive sales, the price of the same item keeps falling until it flattens out due to a lack of demand. And if the buyer of the first auction wanted to resell his item, he would lose most of the money he spent on it since by then, the item has lost its novelty and become common.
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"Demo Obscurities" blue vinyl
1st auction: 235 USD, 2nd auction: 100 USD |
Another reason why the price of the last eBay sale is not always a good indicator of long-term value is that certain bootleggers (especially in Greece and Australia) systematically set a very high price point for their items, even though there is no real demand for them or justification related to the cost of producing the item. And because there are one or two collectors who are completists and will buy everything, the item will have a sales history with a very high price, even though it is based on only one or two sales, with no potential for further sales.
The opposite phenomenon also happens, when a seller does not realize the value of what he is selling, and offered a genuine rarity at bargain price. This may give the wrong indication of the actual value of the item since the item was priced without proper knowledge of its real value and was snatched very quickly by the first collector to see it.
Sometimes also, items can appear rare and sell for very high price on eBay when in fact they are fakes and homemade mistaken for being rarities. Sometimes, unscrupulous sellers will package two different pieces of bootlegs together and call it a rare or unique edition, which may sell for a very high price by fooling some unexperienced collectors.
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Fake blue "Sodium Haze"
Homemade sheet + Mercyful Release vinyl: sold for US$153... |
Limited Quantity
Yet another criteria which is not always useful in determining the rarity or value of a bootleg is the number of copies in existence. I am saying "not always" because actual quantity in some cases is a good indicator of rarity and value, but the point is that it is not a foolproof criteria. Let's take a famous example: the official Damage Done 7"is VERY EXPENSIVE. But in reality, it is not that rare. First of all, there were allegedly 1,000 copies pressed, which is not very limited compared to many other Sisters rarities. Even if you buy into the story that half or more of the copies were destroyed in a flooding, the reality is that, at any given moment, there are at least several copies available for sale, whether it is on Discogs or eBay. But despite this relative abundance of copies, the price is extremely high, north of 500 Euros. To take a bootleg as an example, "Tender Mercies", produced in 150 copies, sells for about 200-300 Euros while some bootleg variants which are EXTREMELY RARE, even sometimes unique, sell for much less. So the quantity of the production run is not always a good indicateur of value.
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"Mercyful Release" with rocker mouse labels
Very scarce, but sold for less than 80 Euros on Discogs... |
As a rule of thumb, for quantity to really determine value, the run has to be 100 or less copies for a classic bootleg, and 10 or less copies for a recent bootlegs. So any recent bootleg that is supposedly limited to 100 copies should be considered very common, and chances are that the producer will struggle to sell even half of his run.
Item Condition/Grading
This is not so clear cut, but as a basic rule of thumb, the actual condition of an item will have a definite impact on its value the more common the item is. The rarer an item is, the less its condition will affect the price. Some items are so rare that most die-hard collectors would be thrilled to buy it IN ANY STATE because they know it may be their only chance to own it. In addition, sometimes rarity is determined by only one component of the bootleg (the vinyl color or a sleeve variant for instance). Say the vinyl color is what is rare, the condition of the sleeve won't impact the price of the item since collectors will be able to replace the sleeve easily.
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"Halloween Day"
So rare that the condition won't really matter |
Black vinyl vs colored vinyl
Intuitively, you would expect that when a bootleg exists in black vinyl and in colored vinyl, the colored variant would be more rare and therefore more valuable. This is not always true. Even though it is not the norm, there are certain titles for which the black vinyl is the rarest variant. This is for instance the case for several recent titles that were only released commercially on colored vinyls (such as "Reptiles In The Basement" or "Jesus Loves The Sisters"). For these releases, the black vinyl variant only exists as a test pressing and is therefore much rarer.
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"Jesus Loves The Sisters" test pressing
Black vinyl white label, very rare... |
But this is not limited to recent releases and/or test pressings. The classic Swingin' Pig bootleg "Live In Amsterdam" for instance is much more common in marbled or clear vinyl than in plain black.
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"Live In Amsterdam" clear vinyl
Boring. Go for black instead. |
Unknown releases or variants
Just because you have never seen a particular release or variant does not mean it's rare and/or valuable. First of all, I have identified over 350 separate vinyl or lathe cut bootleg master releases, not to mention all their existing variants. If all variants would be taken into account, we would probably have 10 times more bootlegs in our list. With so much output, it is just not possible to know them all. And therefore, the fact that you have never seen a particular title, and even more so when it comes to a specific color or sleeve or label variant, DOES NOT MEAN this title or variation is rare. It is especially the case with new titles which keep popping up unannounced.
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"Covering Paradise 1984" 10" lathe cut
Not rare, just brand new (as of Nov 2020) |
It is not to say that genuine never-seen-before rarities don't sometimes surface, even thirty or forty years after the fact, but this is a rare incidence and, as we know, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. So when faced with an item you have never seen before, exercise caution and ask for advice/opinion from the usual suspects before breaking the bank on it.
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"Stonehenge" white vinyl w/ red labels
An authentic rarity that only surfaced in 2018 |
Rare colors
Does a rare color makes the record rare or valuable? Again, not always. Here, the rule seems to be that rare colors only command a higher price when only few color variants exist for a given release. Let's take a classic bootleg like the Swingin' Pig's "Floorshow" LP. The record has been released in a seemingly infinite number of slightly different marbled colors, mostly in shades of grey, brown and green. Because of the way the release has been manufactured, almost each individual record could be considered its own unique tint or marble mix. For this reason, even more clearly unique shades won't make the record a rarity because it will be considered as one among too many.
"Floorshow" smokey black vinyl
A rare variant, but who cares because there are so many...
This is especially the case with newer titles such as the myriad of Australian represses. Some editions have featured truly unique colors (i.e. only one record exists with this specific color combination) but because the title has been repressed to death in so many different color variants, it has become impossible for the collectors to tell the difference between a rare color variant and a common one. The output is just too large...
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"WEA Mixes" unique color
Beautiful, and only one copy, but who can tell? |
Rare colors do, in some cases, mean higher value but this is usually when a title has only very few variations in existence. A good example of that is the classic "Disguised In Black" 2LP. Widely available on black vinyl, it also exists in a much rarer grey or white marbled variant that can fetch very high prices.
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"Disguised In Black" plain white vinyl
A rarity among the already super rare marbled colored edition... |
Vinyls vs Lathe Cuts
Is it safe to assume that vinyls are always more valuable than lathe cuts since lathe cuts are much easier to manufacture and of much poorer quality? It's probably true in general but not always. One of the rarest and most sought after bootlegs of all time is actually a lathe cut: "Aporetical Poetry". You will probably need to shell out over 500 Euros to add it to your collection, if you are lucky enough to find a copy for sale. Get ready to wait several years before the opportunity arise, if at all.
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"Aporetical Poetry"
Yes its a lathe cut, but you definitely want it. |
That being said, most lathe cut titles are over-priced, especially the glut of badly cut and terribly packaged 7-inch singles sold from Greece. Don't be fooled by their allegedly limited or numbered run. You won't be able to resell them.
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"Visions In Athens 2015" 7" lathe cut
Buy-it-now price $50, resell value close to nil... |
Counterfeits
This is actually one grey area. First, we must say that Sisters are not only one of the most bootlegged bands in history, but also one of the bands for which there exist many fake copies of rare bootlegs. I imagine that the notion that a bootleg, which is already not an authentic product, could be counterfeited is in itself a bit of a stretch, but this has happened more often than lot. Two of the rarest boots, "The Final Floorshow" and "House Of Reptiles", have been counterfeited many times out of Greece for instance.
Some counterfeits take more work than other. Since many bootlegs are using the same basic content (I'm looking at you Psychedelic Sessions), it's quite easy to lift the vinyl from a common release and make a copy of the rare xerox sheet that comes with the original rarity, and package the two together. Case in point below:
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"House Of Reptiles" with Observation labels
Yeah but... no. |
Whether counterfeits are worthless is a different question. Some collectors might actually be interested in them because they are peculiar items and, in themselves, rare since they are often made in very small quantities. So the jury is still out on what is their value, but what is clear is that they will never be as valuable as the original, so buyers should be aware of what they are looking at before they make a purchase, and NOT buy a counterfeit for the price of an original.
Home-made releases
Home-made mostly applies to known records which are re-packaged by sellers to look like different or new releases or rare "sleeve" variants. This is another grey area as it is sometimes hard to establish whether a bootleg is indeed "home-made" or not. The most common variety is bootlegs with different sleeve or copy sheets than the original one. The giveaway is when only one copy has ever surfaced.
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"First & Last & Forever"
Ultra rare release, or just LP1 of "Possession" in custom xerox? |
Israeli lathe cut picture discs
I saved the worst for last. Probably the most awful Sisters of Mercy product on the market, these overpriced home-made lathe cuts sold off eBay are created on demand by sticking two lathe discs together, resulting in terrible audio quality. It does not help that they are sometimes presented as official, and that they cost over 200 Euros apiece. Avoid unless you are interested in paying a fortune for a record you can't play and that has no resell value.
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"Temple Of Love" Israeli picture disc
No thanks. |
That's it folks. This was a quick overview and I reserve the right to explore some of these points more in depth in the future. Comments welcome!
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