[78-L] Collecting vs. "investing"

[Dave at Audio Tech Transfer]

Taylor Bowie wrote:

> I think this is an interesting topic and hope others will chime in about
> their collecting "motives."

Greetings from Big Wonderful Wyoming!

My record collecting journey began over 40 years ago, with a gift of two LPs at Christmas:  The Rolling Stones "Between The Buttons" and The Beatles "Revolver".  From that point on, I was hooked.  As a kid, all I could afford were 45s, so I began buying British Invasion, Bubblegum, and Motown singles at the local five & dime store.  My tastes later evolved to include Prog, Punk, Metal, Jazz, and Blues.

I was vaguely familiar with 78s since my Grandpa had an extensive shellac collection of Opera and Classical, but it wasn't until a few years ago that I 'discovered' 78s.  A large lot of 1,200 records I purchased included about 200 78s.  There was a mix of Classical, Blues, and Kiddie records in the lot.  It was obvious that if I wanted to hear those Big Mama Thornton 78s, I'd need a proper turntable.  So I bought an old BSR with 78 capability and fitted it with a Stanton 500 cartridge with 3.0 mil stylus.  What I heard coming from those grooves simply blew me away.  I had no idea that 78s could sound so good!

At present, I've got about 5,000 ~ 7,000 78s in my collection, ranging from 100 year old acoustics to late 50s Rock 'N Roll.  Many are WLP vinyl pressings, the remnants of a record station library.  I also rescued a Technics SP-15 from a radio station and it's my primary shellac spinner.

Motives:

-Resale or "book" value is meaningless to me.  It's the value of what's in the grooves that's important.
-The excitement of discovering fantastic music from a bygone era.
-The physical object itself, the label art, album cover art, etc...
-The ritual of playing records and listening as the stylus races around the grooves.  Pure magic.
-Preservation of a bit of history.
-Exploration of certain genres or of particular artists.
-The thrill of the chase!  This is what keeps me going to countless yard sales and thrift shops.

A yard sale find from last Friday yielded (60) 78s, most of which are in NM condition.  In the past few days I've been spinning some of those discs:

Bessie Smith - Empress Of The Blues, Columbia album C-31
Eddie South - Dark Angel Of The Violin, Columbia album C-27
Art Tatum - Piano Solos, Decca album 126
Fats Waller - Waller On The Ivories, Victor album P-109
Doc Evan's - S/T, Dublin's album (no cat. #)

Great music!  If someone had told me 30 years ago (as I was playing Pink Floyd and Blue Oyster Cult LPs) that I'd one day be listening to Jazz 78s from the 30s and 40s, I'd have thought them crazy.  It's hard to describe how much pleasure I get from spinning these old shellac discs, but I suspect many of you can relate.