[78-L] 78 collectors

[Steven C. Barr]

see end...!
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Biel" <mbiel at mbiel.com>
> Sammy Jones <sjones69 at bellsouth.net> wrote:
>>> Maybe I'm a rare case, but I've only ever met one other 78 collector
>>> in my life (granted my age is probably a little under the average)!
>>> There was a time (before I discovered 78-L) that I thought I
>>> pretty much must be the only one in the world,
> One of the questions my daughter Leah asked when interviewing collectors
> for her documentary was "when did you first meet other record
> collectors?"  With a few exceptions most had not known there were others
> like them for quite a while before meeting any others.  For me it was
> when I was in college and was doing a radio program with my 78s.  The
> most extreme example was a friend of Kurt Nauck's who was a lifelong
> collector in his 60s when he first discovered and met his first fellow
> collector: Kurt!
> While it is good to get together here on 78-L, you will find it most
> rewarding to go to some of the meets, record shows, and conferences that
> we discuss here.  I don't know where you live, but there's bound to be
> something within a few hundred miles of you once in a while.  IAJRC is
> in Minneapolis later this summer, I believe.  ARSC is in New Orleans
> next Spring.  Will Friedwald wrote a great article in the Wall Street
> Journal about the recent NJ Jazz Bash a few weeks ago.  And there is a
> Music Machines show each Spring and Fall in NJ that attracts a lot of us
> 78 collectors.  CAPS meets every so often, and we have nearly monthly
> meetings of the NYC ARSC branch.  We go for the records (except at
> ARSC), sure, but even more for the comradships.  Will's article mentions
> that many of us only see each other once a year at the Bash, which is
> what I had long considered ARSC to be for me.  When I first discovered
> the 78-L about 12 years ago I immediately realized that it was like a
> daily ARSC -- and it still is, even more than the ARSCList which was
> founded about ten years ago.
>>> I've been thinking about this recently: how many 78 rpm record 
>>> collectors
>>> are there in the U.S., North America, the rest of the world?
>>> but then there are lots of people making a living on 78 record
>>> auctions and restorations, and eBay does a swift business.
>>> There must be enough people to support all this. Has anyone
>>> ever done an estimate? Are there merely hundreds of us, or is
>>> it conceivable that our numbers could reach past a few thousand?
> From: Erwin Kluwer <ekluwer at gmail.com>
>> Kurt Nauck only has approx around 1000 different customers each
>> auction...I know a lot of collectors whe never by on Ebay, Naucks,
>> etc... just fleamarkets, and other local events...
>> My wild gues: between 3000- 8000 worldwide....    Erwin
> Although the lists will include duplications, and institutional
> collections (who's representativess and curators are sometimes personal
> records collectors as well -- but many times not) and will also include
> people who collect forms of records other than 78s -- you need to add in
> the lists of members of these organizations and the number of attendees
> at the meets and bashes.  There have been directories of record
> collectors published going back into the 1940s when the only things out
> there were 78s!  The jazz list I have from around 1940 shows a few
> hundred, and a couple of people I know are still alive and collecting.
>
The first other 78 collector I ever met was the late Jeff Healey. I was
bidding on a small lot of 78's at a local auction shortly after I moved
to Toronto...and noticed there was a young lad (he was 11 at the
time) bidding against me! We quickly worked out a split of the 78's
(there were only a couple I wanted!)...and I invited Jeff and his dad
to my place to look through my dupes and unwanted discs; sold him
the stuff he wanted for cheap.

The next 78 guy I met was actually mainly a dealer; after a year or so
he tried opening a "78 store" in Toronto (it eventually failed). I bought
a lot of his cheap stuff; in 1980 he fell in love with my then wife (he was
married at the time...?!). They eventually married and later moved to
Vancouver.

But, shortly after meeting Jeff, we both learned of a Toronto store
called "Don's Discs" where Don Keele sold both vinyl and 78's...
the latter cheap, especially after he had had them around for a while!
I must have bought a few thousand 78's from Don...he still sells
78's, in fact!

Don held "record shows" two or three times a year...and there was a
small group of Toronto & District 78-ophiles who rented tables at
these...and mainly bought & sold from one another. Virtually all of
those folks are no longer with us to-day...!

Finally, every spring Gene Miller (of IAJRC) organizes the annual
"Canadian Collectors' Conference"...a full weekend of 78 trading,
listening, discussing, buying and selling. This event is WELL worth
attending...worth the drive to Toronto, Ontario, Canada!!

Steven C. Barr