By VERENA DOBNIK,
Associated Press Writer
Thu Dec 14, 6:18 AM ET

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."

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

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CinisterCee, here's your chance!

cubic61052 said:

That record store is two blocks from my house.

cubic61052 said:

CinisterCree: Maybe if you are nice, Santa Claus (Stax) will drive his sleigh (car) to the rekka stow and use his hefty end-of-year bonus to buy it for you.

Just sayin'.....

cubic61052 said:

the bonus ain't that hefty, yo!

Well, it ain't posted on ebay again... I guess it's going to be a private auction.

So check this out:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eB...0049521604

CinisterCee said:

Auction Ended.

It's back on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/VELVE...dZViewItem

I walked over to Saturn Records today. They told me that the owner suggested a "buy it now" price of $45,000.00. Saturn told him to just put it up for auction and see what it commands.

More importantly, however, I picked up some vinyl while I was there and the store owner tipped me off to a great record swap in the city tomorrow: http://www.kusf.org/rock/rocnswap.html "Lot's of great deals to be had."


[Edited 12/16/06 13:55pm]