The key wording on this article was here...
" ... specialising in Northern Soul records ... "Any Record Collector will tell you that this genre is THE hottest and most expensive of any genre (save, of course, pre-war Delta Blues 78's ... but that's another story).The most expensive 7" EVER sold was "Do I Love, Yes I Do" by Frank Wilson.(
https://recordcollectormag.com/articles/the-worlds-rarest-record ).This article is out of date, I know that this record has since been sold again at a much higher price.
These scam artists were making reproductions of super-rare records and it's extremely lucrative indeed. We're not talking about pirating Supertramp LPs or anything as pedestrian as that. No, these guys knew precisely what they were doing as there is REAL money to be made here.
The British have a seemingly never-ending appetite for "Northern Soul" (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_soul ) and are willing to pay incredible amounts of money for choice & rare items (always 7" from USA). This genre makes Doo-Wop and rare Jazz seem like veritable bargain-bin sales.
Aside: Pre-war Delta Blues 78s represent THE most expensive genre for any Record Collector to enter ... one of the top collectors here is John Tefteller who has kindly uploaded numerous images of THE rarest records on the planet, check them out here:
http://www.tefteller.com/Some of these discs are unique (literally 1 copy) and contain in their worn grooves some of THE most outstanding ever made, some of which remains lost (like the two Paramount 78s by Willie Brown, who accompanied Charley Patton in one of his sessions).
