Dr. Avalanche's Vaults

You have been a fan for years, or just discovered the band. You have some disposable income, and you are afflicted by the collecting virus. You want to get started. Now what? A normal day at the office... Before you get too carried away, there are a few questions you should ask yourself. The first question is why? Why are you collecting? This sounds silly but it is actually a very important question to ask oneself before starting any collection. People are collecting for different reasons. Depending on your agenda and interests, your strategy should not be the same, and the items you should go after will also be different. Let's look at the most common reasons for collecting, and some suggested courses of action for each of them. A) You collect for the music If your purpose in collecting is just to have the opportunity to enjoy the band's unreleased back catalogue, that is: rare tracks, demos, etc. and/or experience the Sisters' live sound, your hobby will be quite straight...

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... "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 va...

For my second post, I am publishing another list. This time, it is an overview of all officially released versions of SOM songs. This does include the radio sessions, but does not include any demo or live track unless included as part of an official release.

Since this blog is dedicated to collecting all things Sisters Of Mercy, listing all known vinyl/lathe cut bootlegs seems like a good place to start. For ease of use, I broke down the list into the following categories: 7-inch Vinyls 7-inch Lathe Cuts 7- & 10-inch Acetates Classic LPs (-1999) Modern Vinyl LPs (2000-) Modern Lathe Cut LPs (2000-) The list ambitions to includes all unique "master releases", but not all the existing variants (such as vinyl colors) within a release (the list would be 20 pages long otherwise). 7-inch Vinyls A Merciless Release (7”) Alice (Australian Reissue) (7”) All Along The Watch Tower (7") And You Won't Make Me Jealous… (7”) Body Electric (Australian Reissue) (7”) Body Electric (Live In Bologna) (7”) Brimstone & Treacle (7”) Damage Done (Primary) (7”) Damage Done/Body Electric (2x7") Damage Done + 3 Live Tracks (7") Echoes Vol. 1 (7") Emma/Ghost Rider aka LIFE (7") Floodland Demo's (7”) Floorshow E.P. (7...