Perhaps the Best 75-cent Purchase in the History of the World

By Conrad Spencer

I came of age as vinyl records were in decline. I remember a rack of vinyl in my local Wal-Mart, though the vinyl offerings paled compared to the cassette tape selection. By the time I started purchasing music with my allowance (about nine or 10 years of age), there were even a few albums available on CD.

So I don't have stash of vintage records, only a couple dusty cases of cassettes, which are mostly worn out, either from extensive playing or spending too many summer days in my first car. There's only one vinyl record in my house that I know of, and that's a copy of Sgt. Pepper's I bought for my wife (with the little paper dolls still intact) for $60. Still, whenever I find myself at a flea market or garage sale, I have to troll through the records in hopes of finding something from an artist I like that might be worth picking up. This never happens. To me, anyway.

Some people have better luck.

Forty years after it was made, The Velvet Underground's first recording has become a financial hit — in cyberspace. Bought for 75 cents four years ago at a Manhattan flea market, the rare recording of music that ended up on the influential New York band's first album, "The Velvet Underground & Nico," sold on eBay for a closing bid of $155,401.

And that will buy you a lot of smack.