Jack White Flexi Disc On EBay : Sold for $4,238.88

[Aussie0zborn]

Jack White of Third Man Records has made some every collectable records in recent years but this one takes the cake... a free flexi disc attached to a helium filled balloon with a postcard released into the sky for the wind to take the records wherever they go.

There is one on Ebay currently at US $1,358.00 with 26 bids and 6 1/2 days to go.

Update : sold for US $4,238.88 [ 65 bids ]


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Jack-White-Limited-Edition-Flexi-Disc-/320884419223?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item4ab633aa97

[petermontg]

3 dollars shipping BARGAIN!

[piaptk]

It must be nice to have unlimited resources and a production manager who works at United... (though I'm sure these were made at Pirates Press)....

I can only imagine the clusterfuck of ebay speculators chasing these things down....

[Curley-Ann]

So...forgive my stupidity--but could someone explain what the reasoning was behind that venture?
What were the records for? Was it a special purpose or event..?
It's a cute and unique idea...but a little costly perhaps...

[Angus McCarthy]

It's Jack White. He knew that by making this insane gimmicky "how many will ever be found?" short run they would be instant collectors items. And don't forget, there are rabid White Stripes fans out there, and Jack White fanboys in general who would pay dearly for something as crazy limited as this was.

You've gotta hand it to him, he certainly knows how to make a buzz.

[Aussie0zborn]

These records were a gimmick to promote a track from the upcoming new album. The problem is that he has inadvertently been responsible for milking collectors dry. He has now jumped on that same bandwagon and milking them dry directly.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/dec/01/jack-white-ebay-auctions

If there is such a demand for your labels's releases why not press more copies? He has created an industry and now he is milking it by Ebaying his limited edition records himself.

I think he might be an asshole that is wanting to see how stupid collectors can be. This is more crass than Kiss dolls and lunch boxes. Collectible records become collectible after many years for various reasons not instantly before they even land in the hands of fans.

[mossboss]

Isn't this the free spirit of the market that always determines the price
After all the bidders are doing it, not the guys behind it
I have no issue with it let the market be
An auction certainly establishes that
By comparison not even a single bid for the two Neumann cutting heads recently up at $10K for the 74 and some devil number $6666 for the 68
Did they?
Cheers

[Angus McCarthy]

A thing is as valuable as whatever someone is willing to pay for it.

[Aussie0zborn]

Sure but imagine Paul McCartney releasing a previously unreleased Beatles song and pressing up 100 copies only, then selling them himself on Ebay. That would wreak of opportunism, wouldnt it?

I'm looking at this as a record collector and it wreaks of opportunism.

[Angus McCarthy]

There are two different kinds of record collecting these days - classic, scrounge the bin for lost rarities collecting, and holy-crap-my-favorite-underground-band-released-100-copies-on-purple-cheesecloth Hipster record collecting.

[mossboss]

Yeah right So what If these people want to "create" a collectable and people are willing to part with they cash where is the difference?
Every one can see 58 bidders there who are willing to buy this thing and if it is a case of "purism" in so far as collectable items It just dont cut it
And yes whoever does it its not a case of opportunism it is a case of what the market will bear
I don't think any of the performing artists out there do their art for gratis In actual fact some of the fees they demand for a concert are enormous
I cannot see why a ticket to a concert in the back of the venue should cost $150 but that's about what they go for and front line ones triple that
The bad thing is that the pressing shop got a few pennies out of it Ha Ha
Cheers

[Steve E.]

so...who manufactured the flexi??? that's what I wanna know!

[mossboss]

Plates by GZ and flexi by Pirates Press I think so, I am pretty certain that is the case
Cheers

[piaptk]

His "production manager" also works at United, so he gets a lot of stuff done there, and they bend over backwards to make whatever his heart desires... (though I'm sure Mossy is right about the Flexis being made at GZ).

He just made one of the playable etchings I was trying to make a few months ago, and also a liquid/oil filled record similar to that weird Black Hole soundtrack that came out in the 70s.

I'm just jealous because I don't have the resources to actually make all these records that I dreamed up years ago.

Being in a similar business of making intentionally "collectible" art pieces as opposed to audiohphile stuff most of the time, I definitely see where he is coming from. And while I agree it is opportunistic, it is still something that costs him a significant amount of money to make, and I would rather he make the money on ebay than the dudes who bought them JUST to flip them. That being said, if it turned out he did the balloon launch just to make them rare and held back 100 that he sells on ebay $4000 at a time, then I'd have a problem with it, but I don't think that's exactly what happened.

I released a record on a lathe cut mirror from a couple of pretty well known underground dudes, and it sold out in an hour. Within hours of people receiving them in the mail, it was up on ebay for $250! And then they just kept popping up for the next week, each one with a lower price... over a dozen of the 66 people who bought them never even listened to them... bought them JUST to put directly on ebay... and who knows how many actually had that idea and decided to wait because of the glut on the market.

I don't really see what Jack White does as being much different than an artist who sells high quality prints for $500+. He is making something unique and sought after, and selling it for what the market will bear. And he doesn't really sell stuff on ebay all that often.

[Curley-Ann]

(*sigh*)
I would HATE to see people buying Essency Records just to turn around and RE-SELL them on EBay!
I have a friend who's philosophy is: "After I get their money, I don't give a d*** WHAT they do with the item!"
That's sad.

[piaptk]

I am actually interested to hear everyone's feedback, as I am about to release a lathe cut record for an artist who was a member of an extremely famous indie band, and it is a record the likes of which has NEVER been made, and could NEVER be mass produced. I can realistically only make about 50 of them. But, at 50, I know there will be plenty of ebay speculators, and I'll only have 30 copies to actually sell... so, I want to make it expensive enough that the speculator aspect is diminished, and instead, the actual fans (the kind of people that are bidding $4K for a freaking flexi) get it at a much more reasonable price.

[diamone]

How about the Bendai phonograph and the White Stripes discs they made for it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR4VoL6yw7g