Hawkers attempt to cash in early on Saturday’s record buying bonanza.

This year’s Record Store Day is still two days off, but the shelves of eBay are already groaning under the weight of limited edition clear vinyl as money-grabbers with early access list their wares at inflated prices.

A sealed copy of The The’s ‘GIANT’ 12″, backed with DJ Food’s version of the track, is on the auction site with just over a day remaining. “Really depressing that this is already happening on eBay, 2 days before any of these are on sale,” lamented DJ Food on Facebook this morning.

Other records listed include the glow-in-the-dark Ghostbusters theme 10″, currently at €32.50 (plus €11.50 postage!) and a David Bowie picture disc 7″ going for $79.

The event is bigger than ever this year, with over 600 limited edition releases pressed up for sale at stores in the US and UK, but the growing number of titles and increasing major label presence has been criticised in some quarters, with distributors Kudos claiming last month that RSD “requires a rethink”.

Former Stool Pigeon editor Phil Hebblethwaite tackled the growing behemoth in an interesting piece for The Quietus this week, speaking to the UK’s RSD representative and Death Waltz label boss Spencer Hickman.

And if you are going down to your friendly local music retailer this Saturday – which of course you should, seeing as it’s Record STORE Day – here are FACT’s 20 essential RSD releases.