OK, half the fun of being a record collector is hunting down those elusive discs! You know-those discs you heard at a friends, etc. And there's certainly no shortage of used LP sources. Record stores, dumpster diving, flea markets, garage sales, craigslist, ebay, radio stations, etc. are some of the many sources for used LPs. So the question is: what was the source of your biggest haul in history?
For me, that LP mother lode happened for me about 20 years ago. One afternoon after work, I was walking down Broadway and 115th St (right by Columbia Univ.) and happened upon a vendor selling LPs on the street. Among the LPs on sale were a few Mercury, RCA and other assorted record labels which I prompted snatched up; in the course of our conversation, I then casually asked him if he had any more LPs for sale. He replied in the affirmitive and finally after three weeks of telephone calls, I finally managed to set up a time to meet him to check out the other LPs.
Well that fateful Wednesday night finally arrived and it was off to this fellows pad on Bdway and 106th St. And I was hardly prepared for what I found: a one bdroom apt. stuffed to the gills with boxes containing 1000s and 1000s of classical LPs. I asked him how he upon all of these LPs and it turned out that he was a recent graduate of Manhattan School of Music -- and surprise of surprises was unemployed. To pay the bills, he was working in a Harlem library just about to undergo rennovation. And stored in the libraries' basement were boxes of records that WABC AM had donated to the the library sometime in the '60s when the station changed format from classical to ????. And guess what. They were just going to toss all the records in the dumpster and this guy stepped in and saved all these LPs.
So I ended up buying roughly 400 LPs (including original pressings from Mercury, RCA, Argo, Vanguard, London, etc.) from this guy at $3 apiece. That night as I was heading home in a cab with my evening's haul, I began to wonder if I had missed some records that night. So I called the guy again to see if there was a possibility of coming over again to look at the LPs again. He took his time getting back to me--and finally admitted that someone told him the albums were worth more than he was selling them for (now at that time, I had been paying $5-10/album from other sources including a vendor at a local flea market). I told him that he might be able to get more for the records--but then people would be more choosy and he would have to deal with people wanting refunds for any defective records. So he agreed to let me come over and pick through the LPs again for the original price of $3. So I ended up getting another 300 LPs from this gentlemen and almost all were in mint shape. So the total was around 700 LPs though with what I know about the different labels nowadays, the number could have been much higher
For me, that LP mother lode happened for me about 20 years ago. One afternoon after work, I was walking down Broadway and 115th St (right by Columbia Univ.) and happened upon a vendor selling LPs on the street. Among the LPs on sale were a few Mercury, RCA and other assorted record labels which I prompted snatched up; in the course of our conversation, I then casually asked him if he had any more LPs for sale. He replied in the affirmitive and finally after three weeks of telephone calls, I finally managed to set up a time to meet him to check out the other LPs.
Well that fateful Wednesday night finally arrived and it was off to this fellows pad on Bdway and 106th St. And I was hardly prepared for what I found: a one bdroom apt. stuffed to the gills with boxes containing 1000s and 1000s of classical LPs. I asked him how he upon all of these LPs and it turned out that he was a recent graduate of Manhattan School of Music -- and surprise of surprises was unemployed. To pay the bills, he was working in a Harlem library just about to undergo rennovation. And stored in the libraries' basement were boxes of records that WABC AM had donated to the the library sometime in the '60s when the station changed format from classical to ????. And guess what. They were just going to toss all the records in the dumpster and this guy stepped in and saved all these LPs.
So I ended up buying roughly 400 LPs (including original pressings from Mercury, RCA, Argo, Vanguard, London, etc.) from this guy at $3 apiece. That night as I was heading home in a cab with my evening's haul, I began to wonder if I had missed some records that night. So I called the guy again to see if there was a possibility of coming over again to look at the LPs again. He took his time getting back to me--and finally admitted that someone told him the albums were worth more than he was selling them for (now at that time, I had been paying $5-10/album from other sources including a vendor at a local flea market). I told him that he might be able to get more for the records--but then people would be more choosy and he would have to deal with people wanting refunds for any defective records. So he agreed to let me come over and pick through the LPs again for the original price of $3. So I ended up getting another 300 LPs from this gentlemen and almost all were in mint shape. So the total was around 700 LPs though with what I know about the different labels nowadays, the number could have been much higher