Online music database Discogs has unveiled a list of the most expensive items ever to be sold on its site, undoubtedly making collectors the world over curse their low bank balances.
What’s the most amount of money you’ve ever spent on a CD, record, or cassette? Personally, I once threw down $500 on a copy of TISM’s 1986 demo tape, but apparently that’s chump change compared to the cashed-up collectors over at Discogs.
For 18 years now, Discogs have been providing obsessive collectors with an opportunity to catalogue their music collections. Since the opening of their Marketplace in 2005, users have had the chance to sell and trade items with other like-minded individuals.
As the years have gone by though, Discogs themselves have noted how the most expensive releases are getting more expensive. Effectively, this means that if you’ve got a hole in your collection that only a Jack White test pressing can fill, you might want to bust open the piggy bank sooner rather than later.
Each month, Discogs take a look into the sales figures of the last 30 days to inform their followers just what recent sales were enough to write home about. Usually, you’ll find some impressive releases cracking the top of the list, but in case that wasn’t enough, the site has now told us about the most expensive items ever sold in their history.
Check out Prince’s ‘Dead On It’:
Taking to their blog recently, Discogs revealed their list of the 100 most expensive items ever sold on their site.
“Our criteria included albums that were actually sold and paid for on Discogs,” they explained. “All prices have been converted to USD based on exchange rates at the time of sale. Duplicates are included, so some releases might appear more than once.”
“Every one of these has a unique story that contributes to them being worth a fortune,” they noted, explaining they had included a link to each release “where you can find release notes that will help shed light on their value.”
So what are the big things to take away from this list? Well, topping the list at a whopping $15,000 is a copy of Prince’s infamous Black Album.
Famously pulled from release due to Prince deeming the record “evil”, only a handful of copies managed to survive, with fans often paying top dollar for this elusive release.
Amazingly though, the Black Album appears thrice, almost book-ending the list with a different copy appearing at #98 with a $2,250 price tag, and one at #12 for $5,203.
We also see four copies of Bad Brains’ ‘Pay To Cum’ single making the list, along with two versions of Minor Threat’s ‘In My Eyes’.
Check out Nirvana’s cover of ‘Love Buzz’:
Most notably though, a whopping eight copies of Nirvana’s debut single made their list, with their cover of Shocking Blue’s ‘Love Buzz’ bringing in anywhere from $2,290 to $3,300.
Of course, records weren’t the only big sellers in the list, with only two releases not being available on wax. One of these was Prince’s The Versace Experience mixtape, which – despite selling for $4,117 back in 2016 – was reissued for Record Store Day this year.
Likewise, a copy of The Flaming Lips’ 24 Hour Song Skull – which is a memory stick encased in a real human skull – brought in a whopping $$5,026.
Last, but not least though, the top 10 also features two copies of the same record, with Judge’s Chung King Can Suck It album hitting the #7 and #5 positions with an average sale price of $6k.
With 110 copies of this release pressed back in 1989, the record was an oddity of sorts, named after an altercation with New York’s Chung King recording studio, and only released due to it being “financially unviable” to scrap the record.
Even Judge frontman Mike Ferraro could hardly explain the rarity of the record, noting in 2015 that he was “bewildered” by its rarity. “I don’t know why that record is worth anything to anybody when it’s not worth anything to the people who created it,” he explained.
Check out the top ten below, with the full list available over at Discogs.
Check out Judge’s ‘Take Me Away’:
Discogs’ Most Expensive Records
10. William Powell – ‘Heartache Souvenirs/Chicken Shack’ ($5,449.36)
9. Phafner – Overdrive ($5,500.00)
8. Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run ($5,500.00)
7. Judge – Chung King Can Suck It ($5,848.06)
6. LaRom André Baker – ‘You’re The Best’ ($6,000.00)
5. Judge – Chung King Can Suck It ($6,138.33)
4. Gorilla Biscuits – Gorilla Biscuits ($6,164.88)
3. Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin ($6,250.00)
2. Charley Patton – ‘Love My Stuff/Jersey Bull Blues’ ($7,089.36)
1. Prince – Black Album ($15,000.00)
