Conscious Unconscious Test

If you know me, you know that I am not a fan of discogs. I mean, don't get me wrong, there's a lot of positives about it, but my main gripe is that it is full of dickhead sellers who make up prices that bear no relation to reality, and they encourage other sellers to follow their lead. I've lost count of the number of times I have been on there looking for records to find 3 copies all listed at 3-4 times what the thing is actually worth. So annoying. At least with eBay auctions the market value could be tested. But on discogs, over priced records just sit there for years, and it annoys me. If you're not interested in selling, don't list it for sale.

Anyway, recently I was really lucky. I got the daily email telling me about all the stuff for sale from my want list, and I got excited because one of the items was a Mind Eraser 'Conscious Unconscious' test press. One hadn't sold before, so the price was untested and the seller had it listed at $35. I decided that this seemed like a fair price so bought it quicksmart.

Not an easy one to photograph, this comes in a plain black sleeve with the band name and the record title printed on the front. Simple, but effective.

Well, that wouldn't be the most interesting story if it ended there. But by coincidence, about two weeks later another copy appeared for sale on eBay as part of a huge lot of auctions from Painkiller Records. I decided to watch it just to see ow much it sold for. I just wanted to make sure it didn't got for $10 else I would have felt a little bummed. Well, the auctions drew a lot of attention and a lot of items sold for big money, and this record was one and in the end the bidding stopped at $230. So for once discogs gave up a real bargain, and I felt pretty lucky.

It had been a while since I had played this record, but I dug the other two copies out for a photo. Gold vinyl /200 and second press white vinyl /500.

I almost forgot that I got to see this band play a few years ago. They played a set in London when The Rival Mob came over back in 2013. So good. I'm not sure if they ever technically broke up, and as such I always hoped that they would come out with a new record at some point. Although 12 years on from the release of their last record, it now sadly seems highly unlikely.