Just looked through the new top 100 list, I'm sorry to say this but this list is so far off from the real world it's untrue. Why not produce a list that reflects "rarities" as the title suggests, if that means 60-70 test pressings fill up the top 100 then so be it. No.1 should be the rarest then work backwards.So much of this new list is cobblers, blue vinyl panic at no.100, that would struggle getting in a top 200 for me, common as muck!!
On another note, where do these prices come from? There are quite a few here that you can easily double and you would still do well to get, No.s 93,77,73,65,64,63,50,46,43,39,36,29,27,24,23,21......I will gladly buy any of these off anyone at these new prices. We really need a list that gives collectors the true picture of the Smiths market, not one that includes pretty sleeves just to make it look nice.
You see this is why I've declined putting together those lists before. A real Top 100 would not be very sexy to publish. It would be filled with acetates, test pressings, white labels and in-house tapes and cd-rs. Very few items with a picture sleeve or on coloured vinyl would end up making the list.
And there's always people to complain about the presence of this and the absence of that. I didn't even put together this list and I'm still getting complaints of that sort (because PJLM is credited at the end people think I've had something to do with it).
In the end we should all take this with a grain of salt and not let it affect the pleasure of collecting. Keep an eye on Popsike.com for a truer idea of the worth of collectibles.
Stéphane
References to the RC publication would gradually taper off.
Perhaps the standardization of a m-solo based list (voted upon) is in order?
They've already disappeared from "Passions Just Like Mine". I started adding the new rankings and realized how bananas they were. So I just took everything out. What baffled me was the number of descriptions including words like "don't miss the rarer black vinyl edition which is worth more", but the latter more valuable edition was not even in the list!
Stéphane