Nothing like making something rare to make it desirable beyond all reason. The latest in the Robert Pollard/Guided by Voices Fading Captain Series came and went in 48 hours, selling out before most fans knew it was even available (including me). The album, As Forever by Acid Ranch, is a limited edition of 525 LPs. That's vinyl, kids.

Word went out on the fan listserv Postal Blowfish the first week of December, and copies already were selling on eBay for $152 a couple of weeks later. Yes, limited-edition GBV-related vinyl is an investment... anyone looking for a mint copy of that out-of-print Tropic of Nipples single, by the way?

The thing is, I know the music on this is quite likely horrible. The last Acid Ranch LP, Some of the Magic Syrup was Preserved, is almost entirely without appeal. That doesn't make me want this any less. Usually, it's all about the music. When you get a favorite band that puts out an endless stream of product, however, it slowly becomes all about possession. If the music is good, that's a bonus.

In this case, the possession is pretty cool, an LP of recently unearthed music from Pollard, his brother Jim and fellow GBV old-timer Mitch Mitchell, sleeved in an old LP jacket screen printed with a "new" cover. Dan Hill, Juice Newton and Dire Straits are thus far among those covered over. I'll only admire from afar, however, as $150 is much too rich for me. I may get suckered into the aural equivalent of Tom Sawyer's white picket fence, plucking my credit card from my wallet each time Pollard issues any little scrap of music and deems it "limited" just as surely as Sawyer's buddies would pick up a brush to partake in the fun of painting. This little whitewash job, however? I'm going to sit this one out.