How to Sell Music, Collectibles, and Instruments on eBay... And Make a Fortune

Music is a huge category on eBay. It includes selling not only records and CDs but also collectibles, instruments, equipment, tickets, and technology. Dennis Prince teams up with William Meyer, an expert at selling music items on eBay, to give information specific to the music market, including determining the condition and authenticity of items; understanding what can legally be sold, including copyrighted material and tickets; the use of an instrument (for beginners, marching bands, professionals, or collectors); and more.

In 1976 in Perth, high school students, David McComb on acoustic and bass guitars and vocals, and Alan 'Alsy' MacDonald on drums and vocals, formed Dalsy as a multimedia project making music, books and photographs. They wrote and performed songs with Phil Kakulas on guitars and vocals (all three later in The Blackeyed Susans), they soon became Blok Musik, and Logic (for a day). In May 1978, they became The Triffids, taking their name from the post-apocalyptic novel by John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids. They were soon joined by Andrew McGowan on guitar and Julian Douglas-Smith. When Byron Sinclair joined on bass guitar in September, McComb switched to rhythm guitar. The Triffids began partly in response to the punk rock movement. Writing in his diary as a teenager, McComb traced the band's emergence in Perth:
"On the night of November 27, 1976, a tape was made by Alsy MacDonald, playing a single toy drum, and Dave McComb playing acoustic guitar. The multimedia group 'Dalsy' had come into being. Dalsy went on to make several remarkable tapes (mainly of original material): The Loft Tapes, Rock 'n' Roll Accountancy, Live at Ding Dongs, Bored Kids, Domestic Cosmos, People Are Strange Dalsy Are Stranger, Steve's and the seminal punk work, Pale Horse Have a Fit.… Dalsy did paintings, sculptures and poetry, and wrote a book named "Lunch". They were tinny and quirky, obsessive and manic, versatile and productive. They were also immensely unpopular.... The members of Dalsy grew to hate their audience. They still do, and this hate is an integral part of their music. Dalsy split up towards the end of 1977…. They launched into 1978 as Blok Musik, with their famous Blok Musik tape.… In April, they played at the Leederville Town Hall Punk Fest, alongside Perth's punk rock contingent but, as usual, no one danced. After that they went home and metamorphosised into Logic. Within a day they changed their minds, and metamorphosised into the Triffids."
Between 1978 and 1981, McComb had written over 100 original songs and The Triffids had recorded and independently released six cassette tapes simply called, 1st (1978), 2nd (1978), 3rd (1979), 4th (1979), Tape 5 (1980) and Sixth (1981) (see List of The Triffids Cassettes). By 1979, Kakulas and Sinclair had left and were replaced by David's older brother, Robert McComb on violin and guitar, and Will Akers on bass guitar, in 1980 Margaret Gillard had joined on keyboards. At year's end, the band won a song competition run by the Western Australian Institute of Technology (now Curtin University) Student Guild’s radio show on 6NR (now Curtin FM) and, in July 1981, they released their first single, "Stand Up" on Shake Some Action label. MacDonald had briefly left the band for two months and the single was recorded with Mark Peters as drummer.

Gillard and Akers left in February 1982 and were replaced by Jill Yates on keyboards and a returning Sinclair. April saw the release of Reverie, a four-track EP on Resonant Records. Around this time, due to the small population/market in Perth, the band started the long journey driving from Perth to Sydney, then Melbourne (and back again) to play shows, do some recording and to live for large periods of time, often in quite squalid conditions. By mid-year Sinclair had left again, Martyn P. Casey joined the band on bass guitar in September 1982, For $150 a night, The Triffids’ services as a support act were procured by The Reels, The Sunnyboys, The Church, Hunters and Collectors or Uncanny X-Men.
As a four-piece—Casey, David & Robert McComb, and MacDonald—they signed to Mushroom Records' White Label in Melbourne and released a single "Spanish Blue" in October 1982 and the Bad Timing and Other Stories EP in March 1983. By then, back in Sydney again, Jill Birt had joined on piano, organ and vocals. Soon after the release of Bad Timing and Other Stories, Mushroom Records let the band go. They signed with new Australian independent label, Hot Records, which brought the independent scene some much needed cohesion. The Triffids were one of the bands leading Hot’s drive into overseas markets, which partly led to the label’s demise. The Triffids' debut album, Treeless Plain, released in November 1983, was a critically acclaimed and brilliant album—described as a "magnificent, muscular piece of work that pounds out simple powerful rock songs – one of the best indie rock albums of its day"—but no singles were released from it. All tracks for Treeless Plain were recorded over twelve midnight-to-dawn sessions at Emerald City Studios, Sydney in August and September 1983 with The Triffids producing. Their next single, "Beautiful Waste", appeared in February 1984 and was followed by the Raining Pleasure 12" EP in July—the title track, "Raining Pleasure", featured Birt on lead vocals, was cowritten by David McComb with Sydney musician, James Paterson (JFK & the Cuban Crisis). A

Interview With Brian Hutchinson

Q: So, you’ve lived in Long Beach all your life. How long have you been at the Lafayette?
A: Three years. We bought at the peak of the market. Right before it crashed. It’s a little demoralizing in a way, but we wouldn’t have gotten financed now. We plan on keeping it forever, so if it’s upside down in 5 years, it doesn’t matter.

Q: Any chance of you running for the Lafayette board?
A: It’s something I would consider, but not at this time. I was on the board for EVAD (East Village Arts District) for a while, but I was always too busy to make time for it, to dedicate myself to it.

Q: Do you like living at the Lafayette?
A: Yeah, I like living here. There’s lots of freaks and geeks and tweaks, you know, and I guess I’m one of them. I’m getting to meet more and more people. When you first move in you just meet people in the elevator on a whim, gradually, and you realize how many good people are in the Lafayette.

Q: Where did you live before?
A: We were renting a place in Belmont Shore and we had a couple of roommates.

Q: What brought you to the Village?
A: Diana (Brian’s wife) was managing La Muse Cafe and we were looking at historic buildings, looking for something with a lot of character. We found the place we’re in, we walked in and it was a dump, but it had good vibes. We just kinda got happy right when we walked in and said, hey, we can turn this into something. We like it more and more every day.

Q: Are you guys spiritual?
A: No.

Q: What do you mean by vibes?
A: Just vibes.

Q: You’re saying you were high when you bought the place?
A: Yeah, basically. (Laughs) No, no, no, no.

Q: What do you do for a living?
A: I work for a Japanese steam ship line doing heavy haul brokering. I arrange trucking for mostly project cargo. Mostly from Japan, but typically from anywhere in Asia and we’ll bring it in on our ships and I’ll arrange trucking to get it to whatever state it’s going to.

Q: And you’re a musician as well?
A: Yeah, I’ve been playing music since I was a kid. Playing in bands and always writing music and just doing different projects.

Q: Which instrument?
A: Guitar, bass and singing.

Q: Did you go to school for music?
A: No. I took a couple lessons when I started and that introduced me to it and then just buying books and studying on my own. Playing the first lick to Enter Sandman over and over and over and over. Now, I’m 12 years old, you know, so the concept of the guitar and all the music theory kinda came later. When I first started it was really primitive and you play these strings and go with it, you know.

Q: What is the concept or theory of music?
A: The theory is frickin’ pull out your guitar and play it like you’re playing your dick! But, no, well, just more the creative side of it and being able to listen to it outside of just playing it.

Q: Do you have a band now?
A: Kind of. It’s a couple guys I’m playing with.

Q: What’s the name of the band?
A: No name. We’re still waiting for that to fall out of the sky.

Q: What were the names of some of your other bands?
A: The first band I was in was called FDA Approved. The band after that was called Soma Holiday, which was a take off the Brave New World book.

Q: What kind of music does your new band play?
A: Kind of rock and metal.

Q: What kind of music influences you? Who do you like?
A: Now it’s mostly classic rock. I think that’s the biggest influence now.

Q: The Beatles?
A: Of course.

Q: How about the Sweet?
A: Who?

Q: You never heard of Sweet?
A: What is that? Some 70’s shit you listen to? (Laughs)

Q: I saw that Barbara Streisand album in your collection, so before you make fun of me…
A: (laughing) That’s my grandma’s!

Q: When was the last time you played live?
A: We played Taco Beach on Pine during the Gay Pride festival. We walked in and it’s full of gays and I’m gay friendly, but we…

Q: You mean you didn’t insult them like you insulted me tonight?
A: No! (Laughing) I’m politically correct! We were pushing our amps and equipment in and we’re bent over and WHAM! We’re getting spanked every single time! It was a lot of fun!

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