----- Original Message ----- 
From: "D P Ingram" <[log in to unmask]>
> On 20 maj 2007, at 05.26, Steven C. Barr(x) wrote:
> > That would be MOST definitely appreciated! Aside from anything else, I
> > have a large box containing auction lists (which I bought cheaply from
> > Bill Frase's list...!). However, most of the "privately-published"
> > listings are British (the homeland of [Sir - IMHO] Brian Rust) and  
> > never
> > existed in more than a handful of copies; as well, any OCR attempts  
> > may
> > be foiled by the inherent inaccuracy of mimeography...?!
> 
> I have also written to you now off list, but if any other list  
> members have some "desires" it would be good to hear about them to  
> assist in the fine tuning. My project is not just for 78s (even  
> though I love them a lot!) but obviously should be tuneable dependent  
> on the media in question.
> 
> I doubt it will ever have every known recording and variant thereof,  
> but one can dream.  As long as I don't have to type in every entry !
> 
But...therein lies a problem! The number of 78rpm phonodiscs started to
multiply significantly after WWII, when a profusion of new mastering
studios and record-pressing operations made it possible for almost
anyone who wished to "issue a phonograph record" to do so! I'm not
absolutely sure of the applicable numbers...but, starting in 1946
(and lasting a couple of years, until they were overhhelmed by the
size of the task...) Billboard magazine used to put out a special
issue on a yearly basis which listed all the record labels/firms
of which they were aware...which usually ran well into the THOUSANDS!

In fact, I have run across (and usually NOT purchased) countless
examples of "indie-label" 78's from the forties and fifties! I've
always said that my RAREST record (in a literal sense of the term)
is a c&w record made in (IIRC) East Chicago, Indiana and issued on
the Okie label. Probably a hundred or so of these were pressed, and
the artist probably sold them at his gigs in the steel-plant area
of Gary, et al. My copy MAY be the only surviving one...?!

Now, consider that computer/digital technology has made possible for
anyone with a reasonable amount of hardware and skill to record their
own "magnum opus" and burn copies onto CD-R, which than then be sold
as "CD's!" I have NO idea to what extent these are tracked...or,
indeed, if they are at all...but I have myself had two such "records"
issued...and, as well, have received a fair number for Internet
"broadcast" as a blues deejay on a local school's web-based "radio"
facility...

Steven C. Barr