The continuing saga of a compulsive hoarder.

Week 4: Odin vs Satan vs Kali

I only ever read Anton LaVey’s outpourings for a laugh or as a precursor to criticising people who thought he was really profound. Had his death added to or subtracted from the mythology? A copy of the Church of Satan in-house journal and LaVey-fanbwoy organ The Black Flame was my test.

And Odin? Well, setting aside the dodgy politics of some of his followers, I always had a grudging respect for the northern european runic posse. I’ll take serious drinking, berzerker mayhem and the aesthetic simplicity of the runes over the arty fartyness of wicca, tarot, etc on most days of the week.

Also a random hodge podge of other occultnik mags from yesteryear, including the “Kali issue” of Tantra. I muse that new age ponces like Sting should definitely have more Kali in their lives.

Result: A resounding victory of Odin to the tune of £17 nicker, althoug the winning bidder also snaffled the satanic stuff. Make of that what you will.

Week 5: Do fetishists pay with rubber cheques?

Ebay fatigue was beginning to set in, so only 4 items rather than the usual ten. Skin Two used to be a great magazine, filled with slightly arty photos of curvy pale gals in tight shiny black outfits. Oh, and some great articles on all sorts of slightly edgy stuff – interviews with Clive Barker, pieces on Angela Carter, that sort of thing. (Obviously the main reason I bought ’em was because of the articles – you know that, right? 🙂 )

At some point in the early 90s Skin Two mutated into a rubberist version of Vogue and I gradually lost interest (“what you gonna do when the novelty has gone?”). Two issues remained an onto ebay they went, with a slight pang of reluctance – my first!

Also a copy of The Obsession, a novel by Terence Sellers, who is more famous for writing The Correct Sadist – a well observed “how to” guide which was non-salacious and very insightful on a number of levels. Terence is quite an interesting character – a New York based transsexual dominatrix with connections to Genesis P-Orridge.

Result: One of the mags had my biggest number of views at 81. You never know if that is because people just want to have a peek or if they are seeing if it is something they have already (and want to sell!) though. One issue sold for a tenner whilst Terence went for the bargain basement price of £1.20, something I felt quite bad about on her behalf (like she gives a flying one).

Also this week: some signs of change in my better half. Whilst watching an episode of ‘Six Feet Under’ on DVD I noticed that it featured reknowned sex author Susie Bright. I wandered off to get my copy of RE/SEARCH – Angry Women to make sure it was the same one. It was! MBH asked, slightly anxiously – “you’re not going to sell that, are you?”. I wasn’t, but it was definitely a turning point.

Mid January 2007.

The better half is pottering about the flat and pointedly asks “what is all this shit in the cupboard?”.

I have a look and retell the story of my masterplan to flog an assortment of Valuable and Rare documents on ebay. Or redistribute them to the needy. But yes, I have to confess, they are basically a load of mouldering fanzines that we have now moved house about 4 times without me looking at them.

I resolve to do something about it – to clear space, to get some much needed cash, but also to test my unconscious theorem that “where theres zines, there’s brass”. What is the actual financial value of various subcultural artifacts stretching from the 60s to the 90s?

The clearout includes a number of strands, the most time-consuming being the selling of at least 10 items a week on ebay for 10 weeks. It proved an interesting exercise – one which would see me colliding with my past as well as starring in some improbable encounters with underground “celebrities”.

Week 1: Step Right Up Folks! Anarchy For Sale!

I kicked off by bunging on a load of UK anarchist magazines from the 80s. Things seemed so clear then. Yuppies vs the working class, Thatcher vs the miners, everyone vs fascists. At least the tories came right out and said they were going to shaft vast sections of the population, they didn’t dress it up in Blair-speak consultation jargon.

80s anarchism (in the UK) was in many ways a product of Thatcherism. Arguably “the movement” is still coming to terms with its high profile then and its inability to (er…) capitalise on it.

At its best, anarchism goes some way towards creating an entirely new politics as well as providing some compelling criticisms of both capitalism and its main opponent so far (Leninism/Stalinism/Trotskyism). At its worst it becomes another trap, clique or racket which gives some comfort to self-styled revolutionaries without actually ever achieving anything other than noise and endless pamphlets.

Exhibits 1-10 were mainly local newsletters from throughout the UK. The idea of people being able to walk down their high street and be given the opportunity to buy a scurrilous local lefty newsletter is still very appealing. The anarchists where I grew up were significantly less patronising than the socialists (though not entirely immune from wanting to “educate” me).

I worried slightly about being denounced for “recuperating” revolutionary texts for my own personal profit. My conclusion was that the downturn in the class struggle is not because of a lack of availability of 80s newsletters.

Result: All sold. Most bids: 7. Most views: 42. Highest price: £16.71 for 2 issues of a Southampton zine called Boot ‘Em!. The group and politics behind Class War have the most valuable brand. All bidders from the UK. One bloke makes off with 90% of it. I subsequently discover that he is reselling them on abebooks. Anarcho-speculation?

Week 2: Primitivist Accumulation: Stewart Home vs Green Anarchist.

I cash in on the wave of anarcho nostalgia and add some prime 70s UK mags like Anarchist Review, Anarchy and some more recent stuff like Black Flag. Also some unadulterated pony from Green Anarchist and the american Anarchy a Journal of Desire Armed which I am slightly surprised I still have. Oh and a Stewart Home pamphlet.

This brings back some memories of the lengthy and vicious feud between Green Anarchist and Stewart in the mid 90s, which is best documented here. Needless to say the juxtaposition of Home’s humour, class consciousness and style with Green Anarchist’s misanthropy and cluelessness was as instructive as it was entertaining.

Result:

Quite good bids for Black Flag and the bulk of the anarcho stuff. The Stewart Home pamphlet goes for a respectable fiver after 4 bids and 37 views, making it top of the pops this week. With no watchers and no bids at all the G.A. and “AJODA” stuff is left in the recycling bin of history where it surely belongs. Arguably not a fair fight because of primitivists’ objections to using technology (although this doesn’t seem to stop them having websites…)

Week 3: Cash from Chaos

Having rid the flat of most of its anarchists, it was time for my culling scythe to be introduced to the occultists.

It is undeniable that occultism has played a big part in european history. These days I don’t think I’d recommend that anyone spend time looking into this stuff, but I once felt there were some interesting ideas there, or at least some engagingly wacky people. Nice for a holiday, but you wouldn’t want to live there…

Occult means “hidden” and for my purposes here, this boils down to “a large number of customers who are obsessed with collecting things which came out years before they got into it”.

Whilst T.O.P.Y. was often criticised for being a personality cult around Genesis P-Orridge, chaos magick always struck me (in London at least) as being a personality cult based around a few individuals who didn’t even have personalities.

Chaos International always prided itself on being elitist and for “those in the know”. Had the passage of time reinforced that? I also added a copy of Liber Null/Psychonaut (a book I have never read) and a copy of the late great Nox – a magazine so dark that you had to read it with a torch, even in broad daylight. Some of the mags seemed to have odd stains on them and I resisted the urge to hype it all up by saying they were the bodily fluids of some well-known apocalyptic folk musician.

Result:

Chaos magick’s stock remains buoyant, with 4 of the mags going for over a tenner and a bidding war peaking at £16 for one of them. Disappointingly Nox only goes for 7 odd quid despite being the better magazine. All items sold, biggest number of views was 74.

It is also worth noting that a significant proportion of chaos magickians seem to be fucking rubbish at paying. Presumably because their “non-beliefs” don’t extend to actually honoring their promises to cough up. “Why pay your bills when you can be STICKING IT TO THE MAN?” as a friend commented. Eventually my persistence paid off, however.