Oldies Unlimited



Oldies Unlimited Catalogue No 77



I was gonna write something here about a record label called Old Gold. But i'll save that for another day because whilst i was looking through my collection to research more i found this monthly catalogue from approx 1987/88 and decided to change it to Oldies Unlimited.

Based in Telford this company bought up old stock of ex chart hits from record labels and shops, then sold them on to anyone willing to buy. They also had franchised dealers up and down the country and flogged via mail order.

This wasn't a second hand service. These were unplayed vinyl oldies on the cheap.

The sort of thing that Woolworth's stuck in a dump bin the minute it dropped to No 41 in the "Hit Parade" these people saved and sold as "Ex Chart oldies" at a later date.

As a collector myself i found them a god send, especially for those really weird forgettable tracks that no one remembered.

This catalogue also shows that you could buy Albums, cassettes and 12" singles. But i had forgotten that they also sold Plastic and card sleeve covers, Adaptors for the missing center of 7inchers and T shirts. (i have to say i never bought one of those and i never knew anyone who did either).

But best of all were the bargain packs. You had no idea what was in these packs but you got them cheap.

"5 different ex-chart 12" singles for £4.00" it says. Followed by "None of the offers give you any choice within the package"

I wonder if anyone would fall for that one on I-tunes nowadays ?.

The shop i worked in had a special Oldies unlimited stand at one time. A guy came and stocked it up with a random selection of singles (of their choice), shrink wrapped and priced. 99p i think ?. It was all free on 'sale or return'.

Then they would come back a week or two later and count up how many were gone (sold), charge you for the missing stock and load up a set of new ones.

The down side to this was that the real collectors (and staff working in the shop) drained the stand of all the best stuff in the first two days, leaving all the crap stuff behind for the rest of the week. And any stock that got stolen over that week we ended up paying for.

But finding this catalogue also jolted a few other memories that had completely escaped me.

They may seem small and irrelevant but that's what nostalgia can be sometimes.

1 Singles whose numbers are preceded by P generally, though NOT ALWAYS, come in a picture cover.

2 Singles whose numbers are preceded by (p) MAY come in picture sleeve

3 The catalogue itself is printed on the equivalent of cheap toilet paper, so thin you could tear a page turning it over

4 Pop Singles 40p each 10 for £ 3.50 or 20 for £ 6.00

5 AJ Lewis (Director)

6 If Paying by Transcash Tick Here

7 Adaptors 1p each

8 Stiff Plastic Record Sleeves 7" 10p each

9 Stiff white Card Sleeves 7" 5p each

10 "In the past five issues we have included an oldies quiz. Unfortunately while this has been of interest to some of our customers, we have not found it the unqualified success we thought it would be. So last months was the last one."(LOL)

Name your local record shop