Customer Reviews

Goldmine Price Guide to 45 RPM Records

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I guess I should have spent a little more time thumbing through this one before picking it up. I have Mr. Neely's current LP price guide and it covers a good variety of styles of music. I assumed this guide whould be equally diverse.

I collect mostly soul and jazz 45s, two areas that are lacking or, in the case of jazz 45s, completely devoid of listings. Sure, there are the major artists, James Brown (though I have some label variations not mentioned) the Motown artists, etc. But where's Eddie Bo, for instance? He's obscure to probably the average punter, but he did have some top 40 and regional hits and is a highly collectable artist in this field. Even classic breakbeat artists the Incredible Bongo Band, who were popular enough to appear on K-Tel compilations, are missing from the listings.

I wouldn't find the lack of soul listings so troubling, if not for the fact that in the introduction the author discusses the "Northern Soul" scene and how the Frank Wilson 45 has surpassed the Beatles "Beat Brothers" single as the most valueable 45.

Granted, a lot of the Northern Soul is based on obscure regionaly produced 45s, but the listings seem to exist for Doo-Wop and garage collectors interested in similar pressings. The Northern Soul scene has been active since the 1970s and while it's mostly collectors over seas buying, they're buying American soul records. This has been an active field of collecting for long enough, at least the records that change hands more frequently (such as the afore mentioned Mr. Bo) should be included.

The ommission of jazz 45 I can tolerate a little better. This is kind of an odd field of collecting. The jazz records that crossed over into the soul market (Jimmy Smith, for instance) are collected, but the more straight ahead jazz records (like a Charles Mingus single on Candid I have) are kind of in a grey area. I know Goldmine put out a Jazz 45 book years ago, so they at least have the listings somewhere.

I also was bothered by the fact that current artists (the Backstreet Boys, for instance) were listed even though they really aren't "collectable" (meaning nothing listing for more than $3 NM) yet. I can see that this may be a "place holder" of sorts for the time if and when they do become collectable, but to give a listing of their current (at the time of publishing) 45s in a book about collectables does a disservice, I think.

Still, there's a lot of information. This is easily the biggest book dedicated to 45 collecting I've ever seen. However, if you're not interested in rock, you may find it lacking. (And to the previous reviewer (Is that you Joe?) the price on Mike Nesmith 45 has been adjusted in this addition.)

Ever wondered how much one of those 45s you have is worth? Here's the place to look. Not every artist is listed but with every new edition, more are added. I have a first edition which contains over 30,000 or so entries. The reason why I asked what I did above is beacuse if your collection contains older records or records that look just like the day they were first sold, you could probably have a collection worth thousands of dollars. Some songs are available on different labels, ones that are easy to find rather than ones that are rare on other labels. I saw that a near mint copy of "For Your Precious Love" by Jerry Butler and the Impressions on the Vee-Jay label is worth $10,000. A very good codition of that record is over $1,000. If someone has something rare like that or colored vinyl, they are lucky!! If this is your hobby whether you've started or it's been with you all your life, you shouldn't be without this book. RECOMMENDED!

This is "the" guide to have if you have a stash of boxes filled with 45's. If you're reading this, you know what a 45 record is! Interesting and fun to read bit of music history.

With records becoming more and more plentiful, it does lose a little of the obscure stuff it used to carry. However, it is a MUST for any collector!

All I will say is if you're looking for any obscure stuff from the 70's 80's it's not in there. You're better off check websites that sell 45's.

over and over,neelys guides come out faithfully showing all the wonderfull records you would love to own,stating decent prices anyone would wanna pay for them ..and then hits you in ther gutt by telling you they arent worth a third of that amount to dealers.
when it comes to books like these everyone suddenly becomes a dealer.
or else the near mint pricing is all anyone looks at.
its a good book but its repetitive of all the other books hes done.and in fairness,all the other writers books too who do yearly record guides.
and when it comes to showing scans of rare records..welp..it looks good but it doesnt make me wanna run out and buy them.
in other words a collector can own one of these..preferably this book..and never buy another one because the info will not change much.
just the packing and covers.
still..a good xamas gift ands hard work involved.

Not relevant for todays market !
I whis I could buy some of the soul, garage and freakbeat records listed there for the prices they estimate !! And the mainstream records are listed too high ! Buy the Jerry Osbourne price guide instead !!
(and the colour section section pages fell out after one read)
Avoid this !

I have found this to be the most informitive book on 45's that I have ever read. Not only does it give you a guideline on the value of the records in your collection, but it also gives you information on the artists such as other groups the artist has been with and the groups that have changed their names over their careers

Great book - excellent presentation as always. It can be disconcerting when trying to find a record and it is not in the book but there is information contained in it's pages to assist with that problem.

very limited in listings..with a guide just for 45s I thought it would be a lot more complete...found more listings in my regulat price guide{for all size records} than I did in this!