got an e-mail from music writer Martin Popoff, he of the many many awesome rock and metal books/guides. he is now in charge of all the Goldmine record price guides. he is writing a long article on collecting for the newest price guide. he put together some questions and he'll be quoting people so if you answer these you may be immortalized in a price guide. anyone interested can e-mail me and i'll give you martin's e-mail. i don't want to post it here. (though it's probably on his website.)
Hey guys,
Not sure how many of you know this, but I’ve taken over all the Goldmine record price guides.
In the next one, the huge 1400 page Standard Catalogue, I have to write a piece on record collecting habits. Please answer only if you have a fair bit of any of these three things: VINYL, ROCK MEMORABILIA or loads of stuff from A SPECIFIC BAND (OR MANY).
So… I wanted to see if some of you might venture some answers to these 11 questions? A) the more detail the better and B) the more of them you can answer the better!
Put as much work into it as you want without getting ticked off at me! If that’s “none” that’s fine too.
Looking forward to some cool collecting stories and philosophical thoughts. : ) Thanks! Martin
PS - Oh yeah, and if you have a buddy who has a killer collection and cool stories behind it, please pass on this email.
1 – Describe your collection, the nature of it, quantity etc. What do you collect and why… that?
2 - Tell me a cool story of a great deal you got, or a major purchase, or just a crazy, awesome shopping trip or purchase?
3 – Tell me a cool story about obtaining autographs?
4 - How and where to you shelve or store your collection? Any interesting ways you have things displayed?
5 – One day you will stare death in the face? How – and when - do you plan to dispose of your collection? Where is it going to “go” and why?
6 – What are a few of the very coolest things you have? Perhaps tell me how you obtained them?
7 – What do you think your collection is worth, and how did you arrive at that number? (optional).
7 – What was the first record you ever bought and what is the story behind obtaining it?
8 – Can you tell me a story about one or two of your favorite (or weirdest) stores to shop in, past or present, and your emotions upon opening your wallet in that place?
9 – What is your very fondest memory of wanting something so bad, and then finding it, buying it, getting it as a present etc.?
10 – And finally, and I’m really not sure what I’m getting at here…do you ever get bored of it, grow out of collecting, reflect on mortality or the concept of “ownership” being only temporary… I guess also, did you ever do all this and then get rid of your collection for that reason or any other? Explain!
11 – Wait, really finally, let me know if you would RATHER have your responses anonymous, or you don’t mind, or actually prefer, to have your name used.
Thazzit!
Martin
― scott seward, Monday, 14 December 2009 17:39 (fifteen years ago) link
1. I have about 1,200 LP's and a few hundred 7"s. In college, I bought a few records to listen to in my dorm-room, but mainly bought CD's. With the rise of vinyl-only albums in genres-of-interest, the new ease of digital transfer (and accompanied personal devaluing of CD's as aesthetic objects), and the deepening and broadening of my tastes past the retrospective reach of CD/digital reissue, I just casually started buying more records. Casually became actively.
2. On Record Store Day this year, my girlfriend and I borrowed our friend's car, and went to a few stores in Oakland, CA. We arrived as our favorite local punk store, 1-2-3-4-GO! Records, was opening. The owner hadn't put out the new Live Pavement record, and I asked him if he'd gotten them in. He scrambled to the back and grabbed the stack, giving me the top copy. My girlfriend got one too. When I got home, I noticed that I had gotten one of only 95 copies on red vinyl. Maybe it's less of a "cool story" this way, but I sold the red copy on eBay, along with a few other things I'd decided to sell, and my girlfriend gave me a little money for our anniversary, and I put it all towards a record I had wanted for a while: Michael (Mike) Hurley's first record for Folkways, FIRST SONGS. The next week, I bought another (black) copy of the Live Pavement LP.
3. Schmautographs.
4. I have a 5x5 Ikea Expedit. The LP's are arranged in artist piles, then basically chronologically, all in rough genres. No real display-aesthetic here.
5. Music-collecting is changing a lot. Who knows what the world of record-buying will look like when I die?? My first instinct would be to pass my records along to any family-members who are nascent music/record-freaks. I guess I'd like to imagine my kids being interested, like me, in the discovery of new sounds and music. After family, I'd give records to interested friends. After that, I guess I'd aim to sell the collection (whole) to an independent record store, to be sold in the physical store. After that, I'd just be interested in liquidating and leaving the proceeds to my family.
6. I love my Mike Hurley LP, my other Michael Hurley LP's, my collection of African folk/pop/traditional music, on the Ocora and Original Music (RIP JSR) labels, my 21 (and counting) Don Cherry records, my ten or eleven gamelan records, John Fahey's Hitomi, and both versions of the Catatonic Youth HoZac single. I really enjoyed the fervor of collecting Jay Reatard's 2008 Matador singles, and the records are great, too. I'm still a very NEW record-collector, though, and I imagine that the vast majority of my scores/finds to be in the long life of collecting I plan to have.
7. When we moved from DC to SF in late-February, we shipped about 1,000 records in 12 or 13 big boxes, and insured each box for $1,000. So according to the USPS, as of 2/09, my collection was worth about $12,000-13,000.
8. Upon moving to the West Coast, I caught Amoeba Fever. It's a SUPERMARKET of records! I know that Amoeba takes business away from smaller Bay-Area stores, but they also stock tons of independent records and regularly under-price records, so it's still a fun thing to go there every so often. My FAVORITE stores in the world, however, are the Academy Records Annex in Brooklyn, NY, and Red Onion Records and Books in Washington, DC. I've made close friends with the staffs of both stores, and extracting my personal feelings about the stores from my records-feelings is a little tricky. I used to visit Red Onion 3-4 times a week on my walks home from work in DC, and the stock changed over so regularly, it was always a pleasure to go there. The prices aren't the lowest, but they reflect the high resale you can get on records there [Note: Red Devil Records in San Rafael, CA, has a similar business model, and also has a nice owner]. Academy is staffed by friends of mine, and when I visit NY, it's generally a special occasion, so I basically scour their excellent stock for hours, finally clear out the pile of records I've asked friends to hold there for me, and devote a certain budget to my trips. I've never been disappointed, and I'm going there this coming weekend!
9. Mike Hurley, again!
10. I think about this all the time, but I think worrying about the decadence and bloat of things I enjoy is just something I am disposed towards worrying-about. These feelings have never compelled me to sell EVERYTHING, but they have compelled me to pare down, concentrate my collection, and, as is my goal for 2010 collecting, become more financially efficient in my personal collection by buying-and-reselling records online and at record fairs. This goal may eventually lead to opening my own brick-and-mortar store, but it's unclear as yet.
11. No, it's cool.
― 69, Monday, 14 December 2009 18:51 (fifteen years ago) link