Bootleg Value?

[Detigers09]

After a long search, I finally found a record shop that is shady enough to sell underground material; namely bootleg concerts and studio outtakes. I was so excited to finally get my hands on one of these bootleg vinyls, but then I saw the price. These records are going for upwards of $45! And I'm no expert on bootleg companies, or anything related to the business, but these were extremely partial recordings; I think the most complete show was about half of the "Bonzo's Birthday" (May 31, 1973) release. Are these releases really worth between $45-$200 to people? And are they this expensive everywhere you go?

[Evster2012]

Back in the day we used to pick those up at local swap meets for under 10 bucks. That was 30 years ago. The value is in the collectability, not the completeness of the show or necessarily the quality of the sound, unfortunately. My friends and I had a crate of them. Picture discs, colored vinyl, all sorts. "Trademark of Quality" (TMOQ) was a name, not a guarantee.

But to collectors they are precious, and the vendors know it, hence the hefty pricetag.

Edited June 17, 2009 by Evster2012

[reswati]

Back in the day we used to pick those up at local swap meets for under 10 bucks. That was 30 years ago. The value is in the collectability, not the completeness of the show or necessarily the quality of the sound, unfortunately. My friends and I had a crate of them. Picture discs, colored vinyl, all sorts. "Trademark of Quality" (TMOQ) was a name, not a guarantee.

But to collectors they are precious, and the vendors know it, hence the hefty pricetag.

Indeed a good answer, Ev.......I used to purchase them in Germany in a shop run by a shady looking creep who wanted to milk every penny out of his custumers. That was 15 years ago. Nowadays the prices of vinyl boots have more or less doubled, due to their rarity and due to the fact that the old bootleg companies do not longer manifacture them.

And indeed you never know what exactly you are buying. Wrong song title listing and attributing the recording to a wrong date/venue are common among bootleggers.

Also you never know how the sound quality may be.....I have one Deep Durple boot which sounds like it was recorded at the toilet of the LA Forum, so far to Trade Mark Of Quality.

Also high ranking on my shitlist are Zeppelin's "Cellarful of noise" which was pressed at the wrong speed and Montreal 75 which is ruined by shitty fake stereo effects made by the bootleggers.

Edited June 17, 2009 by reswati

[NickZepp]

Back in the day we used to pick those up at local swap meets for under 10 bucks. That was 30 years ago. The value is in the collectability, not the completeness of the show or necessarily the quality of the sound, unfortunately. My friends and I had a crate of them. Picture discs, colored vinyl, all sorts. "Trademark of Quality" (TMOQ) was a name, not a guarantee.

But to collectors they are precious, and the vendors know it, hence the hefty pricetag.

It also increases value when you can pretty much get all the boots downloaded online for free. That would also increase prices for the actual boots.

[Detigers09]

It also increases value when you can pretty much get all the boots downloaded online for free. That would also increase prices for the actual boots.

I would think it would decrease the value, since it's so easy to hear the actual music. But I guess you, Evster, and reswati are correct. The only people who would actually buy the vinyl bootlegs nowadays are collectors, and so this allows the bootleg companies to see the discs as "collectors items," and thus charge ridiculous amounts.

Actually, after reading your guys' replies, the investor in me wonders if their value will skyrocket in the coming years, now that less and less actual bootlegs vinyls actually remain in circulation. But I don't think I'd feel too good about making money off of exploiting LZ's success...

[JTM]

After a long search, I finally found a record shop that is shady enough to sell underground material; namely bootleg concerts and studio outtakes. I was so excited to finally get my hands on one of these bootleg vinyls, but then I saw the price. These records are going for upwards of $45! And I'm no expert on bootleg companies, or anything related to the business, but these were extremely partial recordings; I think the most complete show was about half of the "Bonzo's Birthday" (May 31, 1973) release. Are these releases really worth between $45-$200 to people? And are they this expensive everywhere you go?

Do not ever pay money for a Bootleg... Google the words Bootleg torrents ang go from there.

[greenman]

I'd guess if he's looking at vinyl he isnt approaching this as a newbie, those prices are obviously more than they original were but not exactly outragious given how much rare offical releases go for. If you want to see outragious prices for boots try picking up old tarantula cd's, last I heard the LA forum 77 bagdeholders 22 disk boxset will set you back $1500 or more if you can find it for sale.

[Detigers09]

If you want to see outragious prices for boots try picking up old tarantula cd's, last I heard the LA forum 77 bagdeholders 22 disk boxset will set you back $1500 or more if you can find it for sale.

Haha wow, thanks for the eye-opener. Sounds like there's a whole world out there I was not aware of. Comes out to about $250 a show...guess I'll stick with the electronic way.

Also, in response to the earlier comment, I don't really see anything wrong with buying bootleg vinyl records at this point. I could see back in the '70s, if the bootleg companies were trying to rip everyone off and get wealthy illegally off of Zeppelin's fame. But now that the bootleg companies are no longer making records, it's only the record store owners who are making a profit, and you would have to think that any owner who cared enough to even seek out bootlegs would not be trying to turn too high of a margin on their bootleg sales. Of course, what do I know...I'm sure most people on this board have more knowledge on this topic than I do...so you could be completely right.

[reswati]

Even Plant buys bootlegs, did read that in one of the topics here, Jimmy has also a big collection.

I also realize that every show can be downloaded by now, but certain things look just cooler on vinyl, still I am not into paying rip off prices to anyone (like the idiot who tried to sell the 02 triple disk on Ebay for 600 Dollar)

Most of the bootlegs I have were given to me by magickal pixies

[chef free]

There's MUSIC collecting and them there's BOOTLEG collecting. Some people (like me) just want to hear Zeppelin music, we tend to download (for "free" you gotta upload too!). But some people like to get the nice box with photos and artwork and info. Some just people want to collect everything zeppelin! To them price is NOT the issue. I guess it depends on what you want and how bad you want it.

[greenman]

Even Plant buys bootlegs, did read that in one of the topics here, Jimmy has also a big collection.

I also realize that every show can be downloaded by now, but certain things look just cooler on vinyl, still I am not into paying rip off prices to anyone (like the idiot who tried to sell the 02 triple disk on Ebay for 600 Dollar)

Most of the bootlegs I have were given to me by magickal pixies

I don't think Page buys boots so much as the shops in Japan are happy to give him whatever he wants for the price of a quick snap shot to put on the counter.

[2bitnogoodjive]

Back in the day we used to pick those up at local swap meets for under 10 bucks. That was 30 years ago. The value is in the collectability, not the completeness of the show or necessarily the quality of the sound, unfortunately. My friends and I had a crate of them. Picture discs, colored vinyl, all sorts. "Trademark of Quality" (TMOQ) was a name, not a guarantee.

But to collectors they are precious, and the vendors know it, hence the hefty pricetag.

Back in the day (pre-internet) it was all about finding rare shows that you had not heard before. Now that everything is available online, it's about "collectability". What a scam.

Edited July 1, 2009 by 2bitnogoodjive

[Strider]

Have you priced official vinyl releases lately? I just saw Joy Division's "Still" priced at $50 at Amoeba.

Everything on vinyl has gone up in price as vinyl has come back in vogue, especially among the kids as they have finally realized how crappy music sounds on mp3's and ipods.

That's why bootleg cds are cheaper than bootleg vinyl...I won't say which store, but I recently saw the EVSD's 2cd "Casino Royale" priced at $15 and EVSD's 4cd set "Boston Cream Pie" at $25, which are pretty good deals IMO. Naturally, when I went back later that same day to see if they were still there, somebody had already bought them.

I have scads of bootleg vinyl: TMoQ, Rubber Dubber, Box Top records, all sorts of different labels, coloured vinyl, etc. I just prefer having tangible physical evidence of the music as opposed to some downloaded digital 1' and 0's. I like looking at the pictures and the packaging; my favourites are the ones where, in hopes of throwing people of the trail, they would use fake names and fake song titles on the label. My vinyl copies of Osaka 1972 and Copenhagen 1979 for instance.

And there are some shows that, to this day, still sound better to me on vinyl than any cd version I have heard; "For Badgeholder's Only" June 23 1977 and "Going to California" Sept. 14, 1971 for example.

As the 80's passed into the 90's, I started buying more of my boots on cd than vinyl...but every now and then, if I see something that I don't have that looks pretty cool and is priced no more than $30 to $50 for a double set, I will pick up a vinyl boot to add to my collection.

Most of my vinyl boots are Zeppelin, Dylan, Springsteen and the Stones.

Edited July 1, 2009 by Strider