A 12-Inch From an Obscure British DJ Is Now the Most Expensive Record Sold on Discogs
Discogs, the bottomless music reference site and music marketplace, has released a list of the 100 most expensive records sold on its platform, and the Number One sale is a fittingly obscure one: a special 12-inch promo vinyl released by the British DJ Scaramanga Silk.
Scaramanga Silk’s 2008 self-released debut, Choose Your Weapon, was released as a promo gatefold with a 12-inch vinyl and a CD-Rom, both of which contain the title track. The release also comes with “an art print by Immyart and a poem on acetate.” Only 20 copies of Choose Your Weapon exist and the Discogs record-breaker sold for $41,095.891.
Little is known about Scaramanga Silk, who has been releasing music at a slow and steady clip since 2008, including a debut album, Designer Scribble, that arrived in 2016 via Micro Scribble. The artist does, however, keep a pretty active Facebook page filled with what one would affectionately describe as “dad jokes” (an example: “Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe used to come into the record store I worked at. They never bought any music but would always come over and stroke my head! They pet shop boys”).
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The story of how the Choose Your Weapon release earned its $41,000 price tag is equally unclear, although the record seems to have been a collectors’ item since its arrival due to the limited number of copies pressed (years ago, a copy sold for $654 on eBay).
Coming in at Number Two on Discogs’ list is a rare copy of Prince’s 1987 record, The Black Album, which sold for $27,500 (and was the site’s previous record-holder). That LP’s whopping price tag, as Discogs notes, has a much clearer origin story: Prince was set to release the album in 1987 under the name The Funk Bible, but he made a last-minute decision to pull it. By that point, however, some promotional copies had already been sent out, and they’ve been a much-coveted — and very expensive — collector’s item ever since.
Other notable releases in the Top 10 of Discogs’ list include a promo copy of the Beatles’ debut seven-inch, “Love Me Do,” which fetched $15,410.96; a seven-inch of the Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen,” which went for $15,060.24; and a special promo copy of Pink Floyd’s 1970 album, Ummagumma, which went for $14,457.83.
