Richard

Between the internet, "Cronological" and "Through the years" CD's, really no Bing release is unavaliable and any serious fan is able to to get a copy. But this doesn't really matter. For example Robert Johnson 78's have sold for $1000+ but anyone can buy his entire recorded output on a CD for less than $20. Generally the CD would sound better than most of the few remaining 78's.

I would also point out that any artist of merit would have had private records, out takes, master tapes and other memorabilia that would be unavaliable to the general public.

Really I'm refering to comercial releases (in this case to 78 format) which should be avaliable on the second hand market but for various reasons almost never show up. These for me define a rare 78.

For me though the 78's are important because these are the format that were released when Bing first recorded them and all subsequent releases until the advent of magnetic tape were copied from the 78. There is nothing quite like putting the 78 on the turntable and hearing Bing come through via an 80+ year old disc.
 

Hi there. My name is Morgan. I've been collecting 78's since about 2007 and I've mannaged to accumulation about 5000 of them. I love all kinds of the older style music especially pre-war music.

I really started listning to Bing through his 78's that I managed to pick up. Up till recently I had about 60 but recently I bought about about 1200 ex radio station 78's which includes about 450 Bing records. Interestingly enough there were many early Brunswick records.

I've been cleaning and playing these records and very much enjoyed listning to them. A clean 78 played on a modern system with a correct stylus can sound amazing, nothing like their crackly, scratchy reputation.

But the limited information supplied by the label means that for me raises  a number of intriging questions which perhaps the members of this forum might ber happy to answer.