I don't believe Hot Stampers are snake oil and I don't blame those who prefer to buy records that way. I do believe finding your own hot copies is easier and more fun than advertised. No record is guaranteed to sound good even if it has all the right markings but there are some tell-tale marks that will put you in the right ballpark most of the time. I won't detail all of this here nor do I claim to have all the answers. For those interested, a few of the things to look for in the dead wax have already been posted on audio asylum under the heading "Hot Stampers Secrets Revealed" No guarantees but time and time again when I pull out my favorite sounding copies I find one of these indicators. What I once thought was a random search has now taken on more of a pattern. It at least gives you some indication of which ones to bother with. Best of all, your local record store doesn't know the difference(or care) so won't charge any more for the good ones. Tom Port knows more about this than probably almost anyone and he'll find them for you if you want. It's not snake oil, more like a service.
