I decided to pull the trigger on one of my prized record collector items: the original press of The Misfits first single, Cough/Cool on Blank Records. This record was pressed and released in 1977 by the band itself in edition of 500. It doesn't have the same sound and feel as the subsequent material The Misfits are known for but it's still way cool. Why would I sell such a thing? Well, the simple fact is that it goes for so much money I just couldn't sit on it any longer. I got it close to 20 years ago when the KBD craze was in its infancy and many of the people who are buying this stuff now were still in diapers. I believe it went for about $100 then and I got it for next to nothing from a Jazz dealer who looked down his nose at such uncouth little items.
My auction yielded $1,976, so I did well on my investment. Maybe it will increase in value in the future but then again, maybe it won't. I know I lose several inches of record collector penis by parting with this 45 but I'm adding several inches to my guitar penis, as the proceeds will more than cover the cost of the Gibson SG '61 Reissue that I recently purchased. So, there you have it. Fully justified. My pre-posting reserach showed, as many know, that this record has been booted innumerable times. Some say that Glen Danzig was responsible for some of the boots but one of my informants, who actually knows & played with Danzig, assured me that was not the case. I was told by one person to sell immediately because Danzig was sitting on a bunch of these and could flood the market with them at any time, thus deflating the market price it currently commanded. I'm not so cynical or conspiracy-minded to believe that but who really knows what the future or Glen Danza holds.
I guess this blog posting is my memorial to this fine slab of wax. I will miss having it. There is no doubt about that. But I'm still left with just about every other damned Misfits single and LP, as well as the thousands of other singles and LP's that are warping the floor in my apartment. Maybe there's a quality over quantity argument to be made. I have so much great music and there's only so much time in a day, week, month, etc., to dedicate to listening. How will I ever get to it all? Now that I have a spiffy new guitar for inspiration, perhaps I'll spend more time making music than listening to others'. The auction drew a lot of interest, as there were over 1,300 different viewers and about 150 watchers. There were 7 or 8 bidders including usrname thingsdogsdo, who had a very provocative article written about him on the KBD Records website. Nice to know that I'm rubbing elbows with such legendary characters.