Surprise Tests

I read something on Nick's blog recently that struck a chord with me. Here's what he said:

I always say bid, even if you believe you can't win. The reason is because no one does that. They think they can't win, and decide not to waste their time. Or they forget about the auction cause they're not excited enough to win it, because they don't think they can win.

I can now attest to this being great advice. Here's the proof...

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across a test press for sale on eBay that I wanted. I then checked out the seller's other items & saw that he was selling two other tests, both of which I also kinda wanted. But I figured that people would probably go after these, especially as the seller was selling three tests at the same time, and was thus three times as likely to pull in the buyers as if he were selling only one. So I clicked 'watch' and sat back to see what would happen...

Well, after a few days the last couple of hours of the auction came around and I was surprised to see that all three records were still sitting at pretty low prices. Now, I really thought that other people would be going after these things, and that at least one of them would go for big money. I figured that, as usual, all the action would go down in the last sixty seconds. But even though I didn't think I would win any of these auctions, I remembered Nick's advice and decided to bid anyway. So I put in my bids and then went to bed.

In the morning when I awoke I was pleasantly surprised for two reasons. Firstly, because I ended up winning all three records, and secondly, because they all sold for what I consider to be low prices. So what were they?

Firstly, a test press of the Internal Affairs LP on Malfunction Records. I always liked Internal Affairs but I consider this LP to be their best record. This one comes in a sleeve and is numbered out of 20 copies. I won this one for $26.55.

The second record is for a test press of the first Metroschifter LP. Unfortunately this is not the original pressing on Slamdek records, but the reissue on Conversion Records. Still, it's a nice one to have. This comes in a paper dust sleeve and has the standard Erika labels. This one ended on only $19.41, even though there were 7 bids. That means that there were 6 other people other than me who wanted this, but I guess none of them wanted it enough to pay more than $19... which almost suggests they didn't really want it at all.

And here's a pic of the test next to the regular sleeve as it makes for a more interesting photo.

And finally, the one I wanted most. This is a test pressing of the 108 'Holyname' LP on Equal Vision Records. I figured this would sell for a reasonable amount, but somehow I won it for only $27.

And again, here's a pic of the test next to the regular sleeve.

The only thing that's weird about this one is that I got the regular record out to compare that the matrix is the same (which I actually do for all tests I receive), and lo & behold they are different. This suggests that there were two pressings of this record, probably a few years apart, and possibly using different pressing plants. But now I'm not sure which version my regular copy of the record is. I bought mine about two years after this record originally came out. Does that mean that the copy I have owned for about 18 years is a first press, or a repress? And if I have the first press, then what does the second press look like? Does it have different labels or insert or anything? Anyone got a copy so we can compare notes?