Date:         Sat, 21 Jul 2007 10:39:34 -0400
Reply-To:     Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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Sender:       Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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From:         "D. Blake Werts" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: off-topic: guilty pleasure in hi-fi demo records
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Steven C. Barr(x)" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2007 2:16 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] off-topic: guilty pleasure in hi-fi demo records

<snip>

> Well...what a given phonorecord is "worth" depends on two specific items:
>
> 1) How badly the buyer wants it
>

.. but Stephen you've already made the assumption that there _is_ a buyer
for said item.  Before either of your points are valid, and I'm sure that
you are very aware of this, you have to find someone that shows an interest
in the item.  There is a very large gap that exists between rarity/scarcity
and a monetary value that can be placed on an item.  For people that care
about value and monetary worth, it is sometimes a painful exercise to accept
that what once might have been of interest to a larger group of people (and,
thus, likely carry more "value") may today be of interest to a very small
percentage of the former.  The fact that this is happening is exactly what
captured my interest in "records" initially--I can add literally dozens of
wonderful recordings to my collection for mere pennies; items that used to
command much more in terms of "value."

The piece that puzzles me the most is trying to separate monetary value and
historical value.  To my naive eyes, every recording has some type of
historical value and it literally pains me to see and hear of so much
material getting dumped.  In the short time I've been a part of this group,
I've very quickly learned that I (we) can't save it all...

How do we measure historical value of something that can easily be purchased
for 25 cents?

D. Blake Werts