Zero Boys ‎– Livin’ In the 80’s

Z-Disc – ZD 714 – 1980 – 7″

The HC pride of Indianapolis made their debut on their own DIY label “Z-Disc”. Frankly not so much hardcore after all but some great songs anyhow. With Vicious Circle LP in 1982 the Zero Boys developed a more hardcore sound. It might come to a surprise to find it on the list but it hard to find a complete release in good condition. The EP was pressed in 500 copies and fewer actually had a picture sleeve (200 copies according to several trustworthy sources) and of these even fewer had the lyric insert. This EP with sleeve and insert has been sold for 1,400 in 2011 and a wopping 1,800 dollars in February 2014. The later was a VG+ possible EX copy. We estimate of a value to a conservative 1,450 dollars.

There is an bootleg from 1999 on Zongs Music and a re-issue on Panic Button / Lookout! Records from 2000

You can listen to the whole EP on YouTube and read about the Zero Boys on Wikipedia.

I have not found any original picture of the insert, sorry

Must have insert!!! Drop a message if you got it for sale. Looking for VG+ or better

Terveet Kädet ‎– Rock Laahausta Vastaan

Ikbal – IKBALS 003 a – 1980- 7″

This is the first release by notorious “Terveet Kädet” from Tornio in from Finland on their own label Ikbal Records. It’s a raw proto-hardcore. Terveet Kädet has been seen by many the best that came out of the Nordic Countries. Of some reason many records in Finland was pressed in very few copies. The two first Terveet Kädet EP’s was pressed only in 200 copies, same as the first two Rattus EP (Khomeini-Rock and Fucking Disco) but also the first Riistetyt EP aswell as the Kaaos / Cadgers split. All essential stuff.

The records have white labels sometimes with hand written text. The matrix on is IKBALS – 003 A, it’s a single sided record.

There are few sales transactions on on-line auctions but copies has last year been sold for up to 2,000 dollars, we put in a conservative valuation here. We are talking about EX condition here!!!.

The picture scans are from the editors collection

Heart Attack – God Is Dead

Damaged Goods – DGR 001 – 1981 – 7″

God is Dead was the first 7″ by this New York HC act. Some of the members was quite young as well. I find this 7″ just great. In was pressed in 300 copies and is hard to find in good condition and the inserts are often gone. It was sold out in a couple of weeks after pressing. There is a great post on Good Bad Music where you also can listen to the music.

The original release came in a fold out sleeve with the dust sleeve stapled to it. There should be two inserts, one lyric sheet and one credit sheet, stapled together. Also – there is a bootleg out there and a re-issue. In the re-issue the lyric the two inserts are printed on one piece of paper. This insert is very similar the the original but not as clean as the original inserts. Matrix are 100-A-PRI MASTERDISK for the side A.

The price on this record has increased over time and a EX / NM will go for some 1,500 dollars. The most recent auction (in August 2012) it was sold with one missing insert in VG+ for close to 1.000 dollars

I could not find any good scans so these are from my copy, except for the last picture as I miss one of the inserts.

Looking for both inserts. One is missing in my copy. Drop a message if you got it for sale.

Chronic Sick – Cutest Band In Hardcore, The

Mutha Records – MUTHA 002 – 1983 – 12″

What about that cover!!! . This is the second release from Mutha records and it’s believed to be pressed in 300 copies. It’s for sure the holy grail for New Jersey hardcore. It came with a lyric insert. There is a 2010 re-press from No Way Records. Also – read and listen to an interesting post at KBD records convering this release.

This record is sells regulary for 1,500 dollars in Near Mint condtion. However – looking close to the the pictures at on-line auctions it seems like the same copy has been sold at least three times. Some Near Mint copies on Ebay are hardly Near Mint – mere VG+, a not to uncommon Ebay phenomena. BTW – the first Mutha release was The Worst that is traded around 500 bucks.

The scans are from KBD Records – I don’t have this release !!!

Drop a message if you got it for sale. Looking for VG+ or better

Minor Threat – In My Eyes “Gary Cousins sleeve”

Dischord Records – Dischord 5 – 1981 -7

WOW!!! This record so great I can’t find anything to write as my fingers are trembling typing on the keyboard. 4 killer songs – In My Eyes / Out Of Step / Guilty Of Being White / Steppin’ Stone. Amazing guitar sound and aggressive like hell.

There are totally 3 presses of “In my Eyes”. The first press was on red vinyl with yellow label (1000 copies). Going rate prices for these are 700 to 900 dollars. Second press is on black vinyl with yellow labels and the third press has blue labels. Also the paper on the third press it thicker than the others. Anyhow – this will get the collector-scum going: The first sleeve version of the first press was the “Gary Cousins” sleeve (125 copies). The offset printed sleeve where not ready for a show so a xerox version was made to have something to sell. On this sleeve version the credit for photography was given to Gary Cousins. On the printed version the spelling is Cousin. The “Gary Cousins” sleeve came as a fold out sleeve and the printed ones are glued. There should not be an insert for the “Gary Cousins” version as the inserts where not ready when the xerox version was made.

Going prices is 2,150 dollars – but beware!!! A copy was in VG+ was sold for 2,000+ in July 2012. Before throwing good money on this rare release make sure that seller is trustworthy and the provenance is good. Frankly – it’s an easy sleeve to counterfeit. I have learned the hard way myself

Also check out the KBD Records post on “In My Eyes”.

Excute – “A-Z flexi” aka “Go To Hell”

DOA Records – DOAR-001 – 1983 -7″ FLEXI

Japanese hardcore – what can I say – it’s like the Japanese comics or horror movies – always cranked up a notch. A lot of the early Japanese HC acts seems to have the same few funding members – I find it sometimes hard to understand the “who is who” in Japanese Hardcore punk. Also – according to me, the genre soon became crappy due to the metal cross-over in the end of the 80s. This flexi however is amazing. 10 really dirty songs, aggressive and with terrible sound quality – just like I want it. Check a clip out at YouTube (thanks valtionvankina for the clip)

I heard that it was pressed in 500 copies but flexis tend to go bad fast if played to often. Furthermore – Japan is serious collector market with a lot of money. To find a good copy is hard – cheap impossible! The “A-Z” flexi also came in various xerox covers (Dragon sleeve, Hanging corpse sleeve etc) so just to be sure that you are buying the real deal is hard. There are at least two trusted traders on e-bay where I would consider a purchase.

A nice copy was sold for 2,500 dollars in February 2012 (Swedish seller) and I believe it has only been sold at two occasions on Ebay earlier. There are at least two copies for sale now, priced between 2,000 and 3,500 (SIC!) dollars. You need a nice credit card to buy this release and also have the sleeve versions!!! If you want to spend more money on Japanese flexis you can also buy the Coward / Voice flexi or Gudon ‎/ 残忍聖者 “Cook” flexi and you easily spend another grand.

Bad Brains – Pay to Cum

Bad Brains Records – BB001 – 1980 – 7″

Bad Brains need no introduction and there are bunches of great blogs writing about this release – just surf the web. To put is short – according to me – it’s one of the top three hardcore 7″ ever made.

It’s a self-release by the band on Bad Brains Records. It is unclear how many copies were pressed. Most sources mention 200 copies whilst other talks about 400 copies. Compared to two most expensive records on this list, Pay to Cum trade at least a few times a year rather than once a year (at best) for the other two. However – many copies sold on eBay have not been in great condition (VG).

The price has increased steady over the years and nice copies trade regularly around 3,000 dollars meaning that the price fluctuation is less compared the item one and two on this list. However a listing in June on an EX condition copy ended at only? 2,125 dollars ?

The record came with a large insert (often referred as “a poster”). It seems that not all records came with an insert so a copy with the insert will maximize the value of this record. Original records have light tan labels with tan lettering. The Matrix is MOD-001-A RL (PR) on the A-side. There is also stamped MASTERSDISK on the run-out area. The 1981 repress (which only came with a stamped dust sleeve) have tan labels with red lettering. There are also bootlegs and even counterfeits but it’s quite easy to recognize the difference compared to the first press.

Also check out breakmyface.com where there is a full story on this release (and where most pictures where stolen…but also the NYHC and Classic Punk post or the post on this site.

The Fix – Vengeance / In This Town

Touch And Go – T&G 2 – 1981 – 7″

Go ahead! The second release from Touch and Go was pressed only in 200 copies (All on black vinyl). In addition the two tunes by this Michigan HC band are awesome. The price used to be higher compared to the first Touch and Go release “Necros – Sex Drive EP” which was pressed in only 100 copies. There are rumors that some of copies of Vengeance got damaged but it has not been re-confirmed by the band or the label. A Near Mint copy was sold for 4,250 dollars on eBay the other year and some moron paid 4,000 bucks for NM copy in spring of 2012 and in June 2012 a nice copy was sold for 3,000 dollars. In October 2012 there were two auctions on this record at at prie around 3,600 dollars. Thats a span of 3,000 to 4,250 for similar grading within a couple of years. So – can a record be worth the money the collector-scums are paying? Let’s leave that open for the discussion forum!!!

This release did not have any insert. There are a bunch of re-issues of this release, however the original press has matrix KRFT-04-A on side A and KRFT-04-B on side B. Also the labels are flipped and Records are spelled Rekords on the labels.

Also check out KBD records which has an interesting post on this 7 inch.

Necros – Sex Drive EP

Touch And Go – T&G 1 – 1981 – 7″

This is the first release from Touch and Go and it was pressed in astonishing low numbers – only 100 copies.. The four tunes of this Ohio hardcore band is not blowing me away, both the IQ32 EP and the Conquest for Death 7″ on the same label is much better.

This rare record was sold for 3650 dollars on eBay (2010) and a nice copy has recently (2012) been at sale for 3,000 to 3,300 dollars. An auction in October ended at 4805 dollars (looked Mint) and there were three bidders up to 4750 dollars. There has been a couple of private auctions in 2013 in a similar price range. It should also be noted that rare records like this often is traded outside the on-line auctions

The record came with an insert printed on both sides. Also – there are two sleeve versions. According to non-confirmed sources there is 13 copies with a full rear sleeve while the remaining copies have the rear about 1/2 of the height of the front sleeve (see pictures). A “sex pistol” sleeve was made before this, where all the song titles where presented, but they where discarded due to bad print (six of these are suppose to exist, but there are counterfeits out for sale.) … more. There are a bunch of re-issues and bootlegs of this release. The original press has matrix KMRP/KRNS-03-ONE on side one and MRP/KRNS-03-TWO on side two. Furthermore “Records” is spelled Rekords on the label.

Also check out this site where the various re-issues are presented with pictures.

The information of the sleeve versions are from several sources and they are not always consistent. So be careful and don’t interpret everything you read as “the truth”.

Judge– Chung King (Can Suck It)

Revelation Records – Rev-1 – 1989 -LP

Not my favorite of several reason, one being that I prefer 7″ over LP’s.

It’s pressed in 110 copies, all on white vinyl. Each copy has its number out of 100 stamped on the sleeve although the additional 10 copies have the second zero in “100″ manually altered to read “110. You can read the full story on wikipedia but short – Mike “Judge” was not happy with the studio recording but it got released anyhow. Most of the songs was re-recorded and became the Bringin’ It Down LP. Due to bootlegs (I guess) Revelation Records have tracked down most of the owners of the original release …[more]

There are very few sales on this item and it was sold on ebay some years ago. I know about two private copies that has been sold during 2010 – 2012 in the 4000 – 5000 dollar range, but the record hit a wopping 6,600 dollars in an auction in January of 2014. We made earlier conservative estimate but in March this record sold on discogs for a wopping 6,048 dollars.