Velvet Underground Record for Sale Again
By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press Writer
Thu Dec 14, 6:18 AM ET
NEW YORK - The cyberspace saga of The Velvet Underground's 40-year-old first recording was to continue after fetching a false eBay bid of more than $155,000.
The vintage Velvet was to be auctioned online again starting Thursday afternoon. The original bid bit the dust earlier this month when a young man in California e-mailed the seller and confessed he doesn't have enough money to buy the rare recording.
"Seriously, I can barely afford gas for my car to get to work," reads part of the message the seller says he got via eBay.
The first auction ended Dec. 8, with eBay showing a final bid of $155,401 for the recording of music that ended up on the influential New York band's first album, "The Velvet Underground & Nico." Warren Hill, a collector in Montreal who owns the acetate LP, says he bought it at a flea market in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood for 75 cents in 2002.
The $155,401 bid was confirmed Wednesday by eBay spokeswoman Catherine England. She told The Associated Press, however, that eBay has no way to verify whether the bid is legitimate because "the transaction is between the buyer and seller."
The bidder has seven days to close on a deal, which is legally binding. After that, the seller — Saturn Records, of Oakland, Calif., representing Hill — may report a false bidder.
"I'm not going to sue him," a weary-sounding Hill said Wednesday in a telephone interview from Montreal. "I just want to sell it."
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