Listen: Three In One / Scratch & The Upsetters
Three

Went through a pretty intense eBay trolling this Sunday. My Father’s Day present was to do whatever I pleased, with no pressure of attending to weekend chores and such. Therefore I became perfectly content settling into my storage garage, digging through boxes and doing some online record shopping. All the while being treated to a non stop supply of my favorite homemade food. A perfect day.

Except of course for all the stress brought on by hundreds of demos and dj pressings currently engulfing eBay. Several seriously hard to find items ended their auctions today and I was not a frequent winner. Some guy outbid my by one penny, no lie one penny, for the Joyce Bond SOUL AND SKA album. This was an original pink Island beauty. My top bid being £109.99. The bleeding thing sold for £110.00.

The one record that crushed me though was Scratch & The Upsetters’ 7″ of ‘Three In One’ from SUPER APE. You just do not see it on eBay. Not ever. Not until now. I’ve had this particular single on an automatic eBay search for years, and finally today there came a notification alert to my inbox. A copy had just listed with a 99p starting price. Could this moment truly be happening!?!

My world fell down upon clicking through to the listing. Disaster. The record’s center had been punched out. Fewer things can deflate my interest in a UK single more than this. I was devastated. Stared at the page for two or three minutes contemplating and then trying to justify a possible purchase. I’d deem it a starter copy only, which could always go straight to the jukebox. How will I pass this up? But, ultimately I decided against going for it.

Several hours later, when checking on my Lee Perry 7′s, just to make sure they were all safe on the shelf, I realized I had ‘Three In One’ this whole time.

It was like a miracle occurred before my eyes, given there isn’t a molecule of recollection about ever acquiring this copy. No idea where it originated from. Not a clue as to how long it’s been there either. Regardless, with all good stories there comes a happy ending. And this was officially a good story.

As Corinne said about my particular circumstance, “What a mitzvah”.