Lost My Ways

So I mentioned in my last post about keeping my Supertouch collection complete, which brings me seemlessly to my next post... a Supertouch 7".

The 'Lost My Way' 7" was released ten years ago now, in 2011. WHen it came out I picked up both colour vinyl options that were available (blue and green). And then at some point not too long after, they sold two black vinyl copies in different limited covers, each out of 50 copies and only sold with some kind of shirt that made them really expensive. So I didn't buy either, and then spent the next decade trying to track them down. They limited covers were related to a couple of sites that were quite popular at the time. The first was the 'Double Cross' version, and the second the Vinly Noize version. The Double Cross version I managed to pick up in 2013, but the Vinly Noize one has taken quite a few years to land... which is slightly ironic given that I actually ended up writing for Vinyl Noize for a while.

As the picture shows, this one has a cover that is unique to this version, and it comes in a brown paper dust sleeve which is hand numbered out of 50. It's also numbered in the bottom left corner of the back cover.

This was the last version that I needed to complete my collection. So of course, this meant that I was legally obliged to get all of them out for a photo. Given I have 7 different versions, I wasn't sure of the best way to lay them out, but it kinda worked out ok.

Shown in the photo are:
Test press /15, Blue vinyl /208
Green vinyl /803, United Blood 2011 Stamp /20, Generation Records RSD 2012 cover /70
Double Cross cover /50, Vinyl Noize cover /50

I think that technically there is one that I don't have, which is a black vinyl in regular cover. But I'm not going to buy one of those. Of the 7 copies I have, 5 of them are on black, which is way more black than anyone needs in their life. Plus, one version is just a black vinyl in regular cover with a stamp on the front, so it's practically the same thing.

United Blood 2011

Collecting records is not for the impatient. I know some people out there can't seem to wait, and send emails out all over the place to try to acquire things that they are missing, and some of these people have a lot of success this way. But me, I'm happy to just add something I want to my want list and just sit back and wait. And sometimes it can take a long time. But I'm ok with that. There are so many things I want that stuff is always popping up (as you may have noticed), so I think it's fine to just wait to seewhat comes long rather than go out and chase things.

On this theme, Supertouch released a 7" back in 2011 called 'Lost My Way' (on a side note, I can't believe it has been almost 10 years, but hey, that's how life is these days - I'm old and time is flying). To date I have managed to collect 5 versions of this thing, and there are two more I don't have (well actually, one I do have that I bought about 3 years ago, but it's still not with me yet). The other version I never thought I would get, as there were only 20 copies made. But then out of the blue a couple of weeks ago I got a message from fellow blogger Willem telling me that he wanted to send me this record, so of course I couldn't really say no.

This version is an odd one. The second press of this record was 1070 copies, all on black vinyl, but there were then 5 different sleeve variations. This one is the most limited in terms of numbers made, but basically this is just a standard cover with a United Blood 2011 stamp in the bottom left corner of the front cover. I assume that the band played at that show, else this would be a weird thing to make. There were only 20 of these made, which is why it's so difficult to find one. And when to consider that people from the label and the band may have copies, I wonder how many of the 20 actually got sold to Joe Public?

I remember at some point in the past, probably not long after this came out, there was talk of a second Supertouch LP. It was supposed to come out on Triple B Records. Any talk of this went silent for several years, but in the past couple of weeks I saw something on it again, although now I think aboutt it I'm not sure where. Perhaps it will come out one day after all?

Anyway, big thanks for this, Willem. I hope to repay the favour at some point.

Lost My Elephant

So you may or may not know that Supertouch released a limited cover version of their 'Lost My Way' 7" for Record Store Day 2012. There were 70 copies on black vinyl that came in a numbered sleeve which featured an elephant on the front. It was sold exclusively at Generation Records in NYC, where the band played a special in store show on the day. Well, it's taken three years, but I finally managed to snag one for a reasonable price.

I actually managed to get this from the store who were selling on eBay. Makes me wonder how many copies remained unsold, or they held back.

This is the fifth copy of this 7" that I own. The one I am missing is the one with the limited Vinyl Noize cover. Pretty funny that I used to write for Vinyl Noize and this is now the only one I need... all because I didn't want to have to pay for a t-shirt that it came bundled with back when it came out. In the unlikely event that anyone has one with the Vinyl Noize cover and could live without it, you know where to find me...

Back In Black

I picked this one up a while ago but have taken a long time to get around to posting it as I have struggled to take any half-decent photos. This is because, as you may have noticed, I like to use a black background for my photos, and (surprisingly) an LP on black vinyl with a black cover doesn't show up too well on a black background. Oh, and also there isn't much good quality daylight around at this time of year, which is another barrier to obtaining a good photo. In the end I have been forced to get rid of my black background and use a floor background just so I can finally make this post.

I scored this release show copy of the Supertouch 'Live on WNYU 1988' LP on eBay for only $24. I thought that was a pretty good price give that there are only 50 of these things.

The cover is screen printed onto a plain black glossy LP cover. The back is left blank except for the numbering in silver ink. It really is tough to photograph.

As is often the case when I pick up my umpteenth copy of something, I couldn't help but pull out my other copies for a group photo.

Shown in the photo are the following:

- Black vinyl test press 39/50, Black vinyl in Black Release show sleeve #25/50
- Black vinyl in White Release show sleeve (not numbered), Red vinyl 1st press #77/500
- Purple vinyl 2nd press #96/100, Gold vinyl 3rd press #100/100

Apparently there's a new Supertouch LP coming out on Triple B Records at some point in 2015 and I, for one, can't wait.

What Did We Learn?

Mark Ryan from Supertouch was selling some records on eBay recently. As you would probably expect, he had a lot of NYHC classics. There were however only really two things that really caught my attention. One was a test press of the Revelation Records NYHC The Way It Is in the original packaging it was sent to him in and including a hand written note from Jordan. The thing is, this was clearly going to go well over a grand, so I was out. The second item was a test of the Supertouch 'What Did We Learn' test press. I'd never seen one of these before or known of anyone who had one. So it seemed like a rare opportunity and I wanted it big time. I put the word out to Doug to leave it off of Vinyl Noize, then I sat and waited for a few days to see what would happen.

This didn't go too crazy. When the price started rising, it didn't accelerate too much, and with a couple of hours to go it was sitting on $202. However, when the auction was about 40 minutes from the end, I noticed that the auction listing stated that the seller did not ship to my country. Sometimes when ebay says this I can still bid, but other times eBay actually prevents me bidding, so I needed to know what would happen here. So I placed a test bid, and eBay blocked it. Fuck! I entered a panic state. After watching this for days I suddenly only had 40 minutes to come up with a plan. I emailed Mike and asked if he could bid for me. I know he usually responds pretty quickly, so I figured he would get back to me straight away and confirm he could help. He took 12 minutes though, and in that time my panic was growing. Whilst I waited, I started to think about who else I could potentially ask for help. Fortunately though, Mike was down to play the good samaritan, and asked how much I wanted him to bid. I hadn't really considered this at any point during the week. I was waiting to see where the price would go. With it sat at $202 with 30 minutes left, it was anyone's guess as to how high it might jump in the last few minutes. So I instructed Mike to bid $666. I really didn't want to pay anywhere near that much, but I expected it jump significantly in the past few seconds, and I figured that amount should be enough to beat the opposition. So the bid was placed and I watched it end 'live', and much to my relief the price didn't move too much at all. In the end it stopped at $227 with Mike's bid taking first prize. Considering one of these has never sold before, I thought that was a pretty reasonable price, and if I was a drinker I probably would have opened a bottle of champagne at that point to celebrate.

So anyway, on to the record, which I now have in my possession. It comes in a plain paper sleeve, which isn't much to look at, so I pulled out my regular version of the 7" to make the photos more interesting:

Actually, the sleeve is slightly interesting after all. I asked Mike to ask the seller to 'write something cool' on the sleeve. I'm not sure that what he came up with fits the brief, but it definitely makes it more personal.

This now brings the 2013 test press count for 2013 to 24, and my Supertouch test press count to 4. Good numbers eh?

Lost My Test

Seems like this was a big month for 'can't say no' records. You know - the kind of things that, when you get a chance to own, you just can't resist... even if you've already spent your budget. Here's one of this month's examples... a test press of the Supertouch 'Lost My Way' 7" that came out on Reaper Records a couple of years ago. I picked this one up on eBay. As soon as I saw it listed I wanted it. It was just a question of how much I was going to have to pay. In the end it wasn't too bad.

This is numbered out of 15 copies and comes in a sleeve which is a rip of the 7 Seconds 'Skins, Brains & Guts' 7".

For some reason, the inside of the sleeve is stamped with a batman stamp. I guess this is in homage to the early Rev 7"s, although it's a different stamp.

I got number 12 of 15.

Now all I need is the RSD 2012 version with the elephant sleeve. And the Vinyl Noize version. And the black vinyl. And United Blood sleeve. So pretty much all of them really.