Snake Q&A 026: Sam Valenti IV/Ghostly
Ghostly label founder on Suede poster, CD longboxes, arcade ephemera, Suede poster
Snake covers design and explains it. For a representative sample, read the best selections from this week’s auctions, and the most recent designer profile and explainer.
Today on Snake: Every other Friday or so an interview with a person in good standing of the newsletter whose taste in vintage, furniture and adjacent is worth recording. Sellers, buyers, artists, adjacents, etc., but first:
Housekeeping:
No newsletter Monday night (Passover)
I wrote a market story about walking pads for the Wall St. Journal (free link here)—they’re under-the-desk treadmills for working people. Thank you to my editor Daniel V; praise gets held back in newspaper stories (rightly so), but these are great investments. Walking 10,000 or so steps a day is number 1, working out regularly (weights; maybe not barbells, hard, but not insane) 1a. Much, much easier with these things; better than advertised.
Sam Valenti IV | IG, Ghostly IG, Herb Sundays IG | NYC | Founder and leader of Ghostly International, a label/collective that started in his dorm at University of Michigan and is celebrating 25 years this year and is now an affiliate label of Secretly Group; also writes/curates Herb Sundays, a weekly newsletter that has people like Kool Keith, Big Love Records and Sami Reiss program playlists, with elucidatory writing on the topic. ⤵️
Sam is great; iceberg type of person… lots and lots of depth beneath what he does. Also quite thoughtful, I find the writing he puts down in Herb Sundays, especially when it’s about art and creative experience, is unlike most of what’s out there—bound in reality, considered and informed, with it… idealistic… always wrestling with something. Or just very thoughtful and observant. Like this one on compilations and ads. It’s important; someone needs to think and write about this stuff. Also one of the most ass-beating collections of shit that has been featured here yet.
Q&A 026
Best flea market day ever—what did you get?
Was with the great great DJ/producer Daniel Wang maybe 2009, walking around the Berliner Trödelmarkt, the big one, and picked up an old Omega for around $200. I think it was a gift for a French TGV train employee based on the inscription.
Best eBay purchase?
Prob tickets to see Daft Punk Alive, Alive2007 in Coney Island.. I forgot you could buy tickets there until I looked at my old purchases for this. That show/era is sort of majestic as it's seen as sort of the last gasp of regular phones/crappy videos so feels more historical and vague than events a year or two later. It acts more like memory does whereas the deluge of hyper-crsip pics available now start to feel like someone else’s life after a while.
I'm a big poster guy which is weird cause I don't have space hang most of them up but always love finding them (prob 100 rn). I got a big Suede UK tube poster that I think is fun, and could see being great in the right room (in a tube currently).
Best Depop/Grailed find?
I gravitate towards cassettes/vinyl/longbox CDs, the most maligned package ever... There was a minute when I was buying heavier in the late ‘10s and you could find music on non-music platforms like Depop/Grailed when they were evolving. Picked up a great Three 6 Mafia Underground Vol. 1 (1991-1994) cassette and a Ken Ishii tee both under $50 I believe.
Best Discogs find?
Maybe not one thing, but I love white labels/test pressings/promos as they have such a personal touch, and often the original artist’s handwriting even. I’m not an autograph hound but cherish this incidental form or communication, very earnest and hopeful.
IG seller account you hang out on/look at their stuff the most?
Intramural, I'm biased as Bijan, who runs it, is a friend now, but I met him in 2019 as I loved the character of his picks and try to work with him whenever able, like a pop-up we did at Nepenthes together last year. Sometimes I think I’d be a good seller, but then I see his stuff, and the way he does it all, and I stay in my lane as a consumer. Always a great aura around his presentation.
Thing you most regret passing on?
One of the all time pieces for me is a handmade 4AD label box set, edition 100, for the Lonely Is An Eyesore comp from 1987. (Not my wording, but found on Discogs: “It features eight of the better bands on that label from that era, and in fact only about 50 copies were given away, since Dead Can Dance refused to accept their copies.”) It came up in late 2022 on Discogs but I flinched, and didn’t move on it. It's one of those things that’s worth the price it is. Gutted. It sold in a day or so.
Best thing you got for insanely cheap?
Value is in the eye of the beholder. This coin from my childhood arcade for $1. Space Station Arcade, Royal Oak, Michigan, RIP. Hanging with my dad on a Saturday. A DARK ROOM that smelled of cigarettes, lit up by beautiful marquees, dusted joysticks and injection-molded plastic handles lit from below. Played Gauntlet 4-player next to some scary older kids in jean jackets. The conversant din of bitcrushed vocals and MIDI guitars… you’d be bleary eyed and silent walking out, hands reeking of these coins, this filth. Heaven.
Best thing you overpaid for?
I did not overpay, but it was intense; I bought the Rammellzee/Basquiat 12” from a nice older guy during the pandemic. The price was fair, and felt like once in a lifetime. Plus, I could go look at it as he was close by. I walked to his apartment in a mask, and it was sort of surreal. He and his wife were so nice and made me tea… He said he just wanted to build out his home studio, so this was like a trade to him. He had bought it from the Tower Records at 4th and Broadway when it came out, and even had the original yellow plastic Tower bag, if that was true. It was a really memorable and personable experience, which is rare. It sort of freaks me out to own it, I don’t keep it in the house.
Favorite piece of furniture you own?
I need your help… one day.
What’s one thing you own that you won’t ever sell?
An original Slum Village Fan-Tas-Tic tape I bought from Dilla’s friend House Shoes in ‘97. I loved it then and love it now. Long before they were signed and when Dilla was “Jay Dee” he was just an up and coming dude who made amazing beats and you’d see him at the shops looking for records to sample. The guy who worked at Street Corner was DJ House Shoes, who I wrote about for Herb Sundays a couple years ago. I used to carry his records into St. Andrews Hall with him so I could go in and listen to him play, even though I was only 16 or 17. Shoes was Dilla’s main promoter and conduit; this was his first “commercial” tape that was available. We later got to work with Dilla on a song with Dabrye for Ghostly, which was unreal.
Piece you have now that you despise and want to replace?
I had a VHS/Beta and 8-Track phase which I wrestled myself out of. You could find some wild stuff on discogs or eBay cause there wasn’t much precedent for it. I love the form factor of these and CD longboxes, how the artwork is used, how the colors have faded, it’s all very visceral.
I’m trying not to add new categories—i.e., the aforementioned posters. One area I’ve tried to avoid is 7”s. There's no particular reason; I just don’t DJ them. I have probably 50, and that’s enough. It’s too vast a world to start in, and I would be starting at zero. Plus, as you can tell, I’m more into the packaging, and that’s not as much of a thing here. I know this excludes me from getting into cool collector Heaven.
Who do you think sold more records: Nelly Furtado or Three 6 Mafia?
Three 6, bootlegs and the like. Nelly Furtado is fine though. Good question.
Secret spot that you love but won’t tell anyone about? (please describe as judiciously as possible while omitting any identifiable characteristics)
Man, I just love finding local shops wherever I go and see what’s collecting dust, a lot of fun stuff is overlooked. I went to a wedding near Big Sur a few years ago and had like half a day so I just hit up Google and even FourSquare and found a couple random hesher shops up the coast. In one I found sick Ministry and Nitzer Ebb longsleeves stapled to the wall, just fading gracefully. They were shocked I wanted them.
Rarest/most canon vintage thing you have but never wear?
The brown Tommy Boy Staff Carhartt jacket, acquired from a former employee. I need to get my confidence up.
Most jealousy-inducing thing you’ve seen? (e.g. I saw a guy in Foremost jeans once in 2012 and I’ve never gotten over it)
I love a casual unintentional flex when people don’t know what they have, and it was just like a freebee to them. A lot of like Rawkus/Nervous stuff, or like one-off rap single tees that you marvel at seeing in the wild. The man Ross One has the craziest Rap Tee collection and I just enjoy looking. I think I’m closing my acquisition phase (for now), and am just an admirer of the world’s oddities.
Favorite Russian novelist?
Won’t front, still on my roadmap though.
Is there a field of collecting are you looking to get into in the near future? (Furniture era/paper/autographs/stamps/model trains/computer shirts/90s Harley shirts/digital watches/lighters/slot cars/faberge eggs/Amish quilts etc)
I’ve gotten more into photo books but so much to learn. Love The Jeff Hirsch books newsletter, the Dashwood Books Instagram, book fairs, etc. I wrote about Idea Books for Herb Sundays too. I am an appreciator of people like this who go so deep and create communities around these archives.
What’s the item that’s been on your watchlist the longest without you having pulled the trigger?
There’s a dumb Columbia Bob Dylan poster that just loiters in my eBay cart. I’m not even a super fan. Gonna delete now, thank you.
Has all the cool shit been discovered? (Yes or no answer only)
No way.
Any vintage accounts you want to rep or boost? Furniture? (feel free to include local spots)
Excited for Printed Matter Art Book Fair next week! Miss the PS1 days, not gonna lie.
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Auctions ending this weekend:
Sottsass Deneb vase, Az., $400 (super deal)
Five white Bellini cab chairs, Pa., $1,300 (fair price)
Scarpa Pigreco chair, $300, Pa. (pictured; straight up breathtaking)
Hannah & Morrison loungers, $400, Pa. (Crazy name for a company just saying)
Milo Baughman patterned sofa, $800, Pa. (perfect dude)
Reverse housekeeping:
Can someone ordering r*w dairy from D***h M*********** farm add some butter in there for me; not into raw milk anymore (cutting season) but need the non-pasteurized crap to fry up my regular eight eggs a day as I’m trying to get my eyes lighter (look it up). DM
I will also accept raw butter from any of the 7 other farms I no longer buy raw milk from.
Scroll up to see Sam’s Suede poster again.
swag
Post Q&A god-tier aesthetic video of the week:
Thanks for reading.
Snake
Tommy Boy x Carhartt promo jacket talk should not be taken lightly! As coveted as the old Def Jam bombers. This made my day!
This was great! Sending me down many rabbit holes when I should be working :)