Vinyl Junkies …

That's why I have 2 copies :) It's so good I bought it twice.

Another from the Hobo haul, sounding lovely.

I picked up the Rega 25 off eBay a year or so ago. Bid the reserve and won it. At the time, thought I'd maybe slightly over paid for it but it's a wonderful deck and the Ortofon Rondo Red that it came with is in great nick.

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How much did you get the Rega for?

It was £600 which wasn't a total bargain but it's in great condition and with a decent MC cart, I'd say was fair.

I remember buying this!

The Blood and Fire pressing of Pick a Dub wasn't too bad from memory.

I wanna get copy of African Dub when I get chance. Anyone got any special recommendations in Reggae/Dub ? Not the rare stuff, but top20 material more like.

Picked up 0 items from RSD21 on Saturday, but left Eel Pie store with latest Sons Of Kemet, Moses Boyd and The Comet Is Coming. That was my first visit to a physical record store in aaages. Last time was probably HMV somewhere 5-6 years ago maybe.

Nice haul there, best thing to do is get down to a shop and have a listen. Some fav shops of mine for dub, Supatone in Brixton and Massive in Camden and have fun digging. Maybe visit this for some inspiration and also get some King Tubby. Enjoy.

Thanks. Brixton isn't too far so that's very doable.

Just opened the SoK ("Black Is The Future) and to my surprise it's the orange vinyl version. So twice as happy now!

VPRL 4212 Congos - Heart Of The Congos
Bunny Wailer - Blackheart Man (I've got a first pressing but there must be modern pressing available)

All of the albums discussed on the last 2 pages would be in my top twenty for dub.

Also read the book I mentioned, it's full of very good recommendations.

Good luck finding really good copies of the top twenty dub records in Brixton though. That would just be too easy :) Don't be put off of the VG/VG stuff though, affordable VG/VG pressings are available and they can still be enjoyed.

Awesome. Thanks for the pointers.

What's your take on the many Joe Gibbs reissues?

The book is really the best place to start.

On the many Joe Gibbs old and new, I've found they are variable quality pressings like most reggae. They have access to an incredible catalog though worth a punt if you like the tracks. Got some nice new 10" releases that I picked up from Universal Roots in the arcade in Brixton, they are really friendly and will give advice and recommendations. Not sure if they are still there after lockdown. I hope so although I know he was considering stopping before the pandemic.

If you want great pressings then check out the label Dub Store Records from Japan. They press some fantastic reissues. You can probably buy them over the internet without too many worries about quality, they don't always have the biggest titles though.

One more thing on RSD - was browsing Discogs last night, and the first two pages of one guy's stuff was all this year's RSD releases, each with a tenner added to the price. Clearly bought up everything he thought would sell and whacked it on Discogs when he got home. This was something we guessed when we saw a bunch of the early birds coming out with bags and bags of records, but it sucks a little.

Dub Store Records from Japan

no 15 in the world that place...

https://thevinylfactory.com/features/50-worlds-best-record-shops/

It's always going to happen unfortunately. At least all items are limited to one per person.

Everywhere which sold the Text release of Sound Ancestors was one per person too, but I saw several eBay sellers with 5-10 listings each. All only sold for £5-10 more, they're just wasting our time more than anything else.

Amateur resellers, pfff...

Even at 1 per person, there was nothing to stop them joining the back of the queue again. Also, potentially working in packs.

I wish they would just take up Yugioh cards or something. I'd happily give them a tenner to fuck off.

It's just a bit pathetic, isn't it? Some sap who thinks he's Jeff Bezos cuz he made five quid flipping a dodgy Steely Dan reissue... Well done, mate! 🤣

I don't want to worry anyone but the distributors were sending out a lot of these disks a couple of months ago. I've had both versions of Sound Ancestors for 3 months. They were considerably cheaper than the main version.

It's only the non indie places that can't get the RSD stuff, supposedly it helps indie shops/sellers survive. The USP is limited edition but often they get re-pressed a year or 2 later if they were super popular.

Yeah, guy beside me at the tills spent £500 - let's say that's 20 records he makes a tenner each on. Is £200 really worth sitting on the pavement all night and all the admin you've got to do putting them all online, fielding questions, mailing them and taking the risk that they don't sell?

I don't want to worry anyone but the distributors were sending out a lot of these disks a couple of months ago. I've had both versions of Sound Ancestors for 3 months. They were considerably cheaper than the main version.

You mean you got promo copies? I only see retail records like a pleb, where does one go for these cheap records?

Who knows how their business model works? They may well be like those delivery riders. We seem to be heading (back) to some kind of master-servant economy where badly-paid very basic services, standing in a queue on behalf of somebody unknown in this case, seems to be what sort of pay people can get. Maybe it's just a sideline and £200 might be worth that to them. A tenner on top doesn't look like a catastrophic mark-up to me, and maybe it's comparable to the pittance that someone working for the likes of Deliveroo gets.

It's something I first became aware of with sneakers and streetwear back in the 00s, lots of Asian kids at the front of queues grabbing up limited releases... Then it started happening for iPhones and now this... Resellers suck...

I'm buying direct from a distributor. They will take on new accounts but you need to spend around £300 per month. I get around 20 emails per day covering around 100 new releases, maybe more some days and access to the catalogue of most records currently being pressed. There are lots of smaller releases and imports that I can't get but generally they will try and get anything I request.

Referring to Madlib - Sound Ancestors there were two releases. One was the part mixed 'Text' release with a colour sleeve, the other has a black and white sleeve and is the 'main' release. Something to do with licensing and labels. The 'Text' release was cheaper from the distributors than the main release. I have both copies.