The 5 most unattainable records in the known universe
[This was my weekly column for GlobalNews.ca. – AC]
Record collecting has never been hotter.
Discogs.com, the de facto online vinyl bible, has a Top 50 list of the most expensive records sold to mere mortals, which range from the obscure (a 2008 12-inch single by Scaramanga Silk that sold on the site for US$27,000) to the legendary (Prince’s mysterious The Black Album, a single Canadian-pressed copy that went for US$25,000). But that’s pocket change for some collectors.
A copy of John Lennon‘s album, Double Fantasy, owned by his assassin, Mark David Chapman, and autographed by Lennon himself, sold at an auction in 1999 for US$150,000. A first-pressing fully autographed copy of The Beatles‘ Sgt. Pepper went for US$290,500 in 2013. And a copy of The White Album, once owned by Ringo Starr — serial number 0000001 — sold for US$790,0000 in 2015.
But these were all records once commercially available. There’s an even higher category that features special singles and albums with production limited to one (and in a special case, two) copies.
Read all about them here.
