Any thoughts on the price of the Station To Station acetate, Maarten? It looks very expensive to me.

eBay

Station To Station LP Acetate 2-sided 12"
Starting Bid US$7,500
Buy It Now US$10,000

those are very nice labels! Really well designed.

That is very overpriced indeed - Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust acetates went for a lot less, and then Ziggy Stardust had a unique tracklisting and Hunky Dory supposedly has longer tracks, see here.

Thanks Maarten, I did wonder if I'd missed something unusual about it.

he has some very nice items for sale, i think he's genuine and either very well connected or very wealthy.

the STS acetate would seem to be overpriced. i've not seen another US RCA acetate with this label design so i suspect it may be standard for the mastering studio it was cut at. also, a library copy? why? give them a test pressing or a finished record. could it have been cut at a later date as a reference, or an example of the engineer's work? does anyone know who cut the original US vinyl? etc etc. potentially a risky purchase at that price, but there can't be too many collectors who'd be in the picture for it.

also $449.99 opening bid on his STS test pressing? ok it's mint but that's HIGH. a UK one in EX condition sold for £93 last year and RCA tests rarely go above £100.

i just found some very interesting info from the Steve Hoffman boards that COULD be relevant to the STS acetate. Allen Zentz's mastering studio opened in '74, so it's not impossible that it was used for STS but that's early for a studio that only made its name later when a recording studio was added and the first album recorded there was Michael Jackson's Off The Wall.

the important info, however, is this, from engineer John Van Nest, who worked there from 1979:
"In 1983, I bought the studio part of the business from Allen with a partner, Harry Maslin, renaming the business, Image Recording."

as you all know, Harry Maslin was producer of Station To Station. is it therefore not likely that he had this cut from his own master as a reference post-1983?

Very interesting and it's clearly not a coincidence that a STS acetate has turned up on a label associated with Harry Maslin. Really not sure about the date because Maslin may have also had a relationship with the studio before his purchase. It's certainly not unusual for people to invest in a business they already know. RCA may have also been happy to accept a master from a minor studio in '76 because it was simply the studio Maslin choose to use.

Whatever the date though, it does suggest the acetate was cut from Maslin's master.

Good spot!

OK, seems my instincts are off again today

here's a similar acetate, dated 1975 from an old eil.com sale.

http://eil.com/shop/moreinfo.asp?catalogid=344046

this one has an instruction to boost the level, so not a final master.

bid with confidence!

Nice find! That item is from the 'RAREST David Bowie COLLECTIBLES £250 - £500' section on eil.com. If you take in account eil is usually on the high end of the price curve the asking price for the acetate on eBay is way out of league. I'd even say this acetate on eil.com is more interesting as it is different from the released album.

i agree that his prices are high but he does seem to have the rarest items in the best condition so he's a wealthy collector's dream seller. if money were no object it's a no-brainer. also makes you wonder what stuff he's chosen to hold on to...

Most of the items are quite realistically priced, I just think this one item is off the mark - but I could be wrong of course.
He has now added an Underground 7" proof. I'm looking forward to see what else he has to offer!

he's actually specified in his description of the "Dance" proof without spelling it out in bold caps, that this proof is incomplete - the Cyan plate has not been printed on this progressive. he states "I originally obtained one set of various progressive proof versions and the final proof of this never released "DANCE" LP", so he's probably keeping the final proof for himself. i think if i was going to spend $500 i'd want the complete thing.

similar deal with the Underground single. this one has some of the black but not all (unusual), the text for the yellow boxes around the title is missing, as is label text, barcode etc.

and the "non shiny gatefold insert" with the STS japanese test pressing is the standard lyric insert as found with the standard release.

the two STS proofs reached the exact same selling price of $732.00 - i think these are very fair prices considering the pristine condition even if their existence shows previous seller and self-styled authority michael olsen's claim that only a handful survived to be incorrect and more survived than was once thought.