Box of 12 red vinyl early Motown 45s

[mem1320]

I have a box of 12 red vinyl all early Motown 45s containing the following:

Satintones x 6 [[Motown, Tamla)
Contours x 1 [[Motown)
Miracles x 2 [[Motown, Tamla)
Temptations x 1 [[Miracle)
Equadors x 1 [[Miracle)
Five Stars x 1 [[Rayber)

The front of the brown box has a replica Motown label stuck to it which states 'Box Number 61 of 100 Sets'.

Could anyone please shed any light as to its origin, when it was released, etc. Maybe it's a bootleg.

With Thanks.

Ray

[motownjohnny]

Ray, I've not seen this box set before, but the inclusion of a recording on Rayber by the Five Stars immediately raises my suspicions that this may be a bootleg set. As far as I'm aware there was only one Rayber release namely that by Wade Jones "Insane" / "I Can't Concentrate" with the catalogue no. RA1001 and the master nos. G1 and G2 printed on the label and 54001-G1 and 54001 G2 in the deadwax.

The Five Stars release you show here is definitely a bootleg record. I own a copy and bought it on the understanding that it was just that - a bootleg. My copy is also on red vinyl. It's inclusion here suggests to me that this may unfortunately be a bootleg set, as I see no reason why an official box set from Motown or Universal would include such a record.

The Miracles "Bad Girl" was only released in very small quantities on the Motown label in the Detroit area and on black vinyl before being leased to Chess for national release so I can see no reason why an already limited press run would also be pressed up on colored vinyl.

The low availability also arouses suspicions, as normally one would expect a few thousand sets to be made available. To keep costs down and hopefully fully recover them should the item not sell in decent numbers, the producer has decided to limit release to the bare minimum. This in turn might be attractive to potential unaware buyers, enticed by virtue of the small production number and by what's in effect purporting to be a rare and exclusive set of hard to find early releases.

I appreciate that if you purchased these as being the genuine article and hoping that they would appreciate in value you won't like what I've just said, but you can still appreciate them for the music.

[mysterysinger]

Even bootlegs can appreciate in value though.

[woodward]

Just curious. Who or what outfit was your source of this set? It might be worthwhile to let others know that this vendor is selling bootleg material?

[mem1320]

Thanks for your most helpful responses. It was bought at a UK auction and the description stated an 'unofficial' box set, which led me to beilieve it is indeed a boot. I picked it up out of sheer curiosity as I'd never come across it before. The seller had over 400 lots with many acetates and quite rare items.

[woodward]

Thanks for your most helpful responses. It was bought at a UK auction and the description stated an 'unofficial' box set, which led me to beilieve it is indeed a boot. I picked it up out of sheer curiosity as I'd never come across it before. The seller had over 400 lots with many acetates and quite rare items.

Thanks. We all get taken advantage of occasionally. About 5 years ago I bought a Diana Ross & The Supremes "The B-Sides" which I felt was a great
CD to purchase. I often wondered why Universal or Motown never felt the need to issue such a CD covering the period 1961-1969. It clearly was a
homemade job, but even the actual CD looked like an authentic CD. Well
guess what, I played several songs and all of a sudden ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !. The song stuck and would not continue. Hopefully you did not have this kind of problem.

[theboyfromxtown]

That box set is a bootleg. I bought it when it was first issued in the days when some of those tracks were impossible to find.

It's so long ago I can't even remember the details but they had to be imported from the USA to the UK.

There was no doubt that they were bootlegs at the time and they weren't sold as orginals either.

In the UK we had our own "bootleg sets". I can recall getting Love Is Good from the Velvelettes on a 45 set of 6 with 2 tracks on each side.. There is still one track from that set that I would like to be released officially and I am working on that.