A rare and early copy of David Bowie’s self-titled album, (also known as Space Oddity,) has sold on vinyl marketplace Discogs for a whopping $6,826. The record was originally pressed in 1969. The sale was the highest one ever on the site. You can read a statement from Discogs marketing director Ron Rich below.
As morbid as it sounds, there is usually a bump in sales in the marketplace for a given artist when they pass. Collectors look to grab that piece of history, they want to own that a piece of the story. Thanks to the accuracy of Discogs’ data this particular collector was able to pinpoint to that exact first pressing. The power of the first pressing is a classic supply-demand model. There are a finite number of that album and even fewer that were released under the title,David Bowie (it was later re-released as Space Oddity) – find one in good condition and you can relive that moment when you first listened to it. It’s tough to put a monetary value on that.
