[78-L] Records - LOTS - in Westbury NY on Saturday

[zimrec at juno.com]

Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:43:42 -0400
From: Steve Ramm <steveramm78l at hotmail.com>
Subject: [78-L] REcords - LOTS - in Westbury NY on Saturday
To: 78-l 78-l <78-l at 78online.com>
Message-ID: <COL124-W94125AB0E2FCF374ACCA0CEB60 at phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

I get emails with estate sales and today this one popped up. Doesn't look great but apparently LOTS of Vinyl.

Anyway it is tomorrow so thought I'd post for the New Yawkers.

http://www.estatesales.net/estate-sales/79092.aspx

Steve

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

This is also more commonly referred to as a tag sale here in the northeastern USA.  The term is also used in parts outside the northeast, but is completely unknown in other parts of this country.  I’ve been going to them for years and, here on Long Island, have found quantities of 78s that I couldn’t even begin to count.  Occasionally held mid-week, 99 percent of them are held on Friday, Saturday or Sunday.  Some are two day sales.  Based on the classified ad listings in Newsday, the Long Island daily, on any given Friday through Sunday, there are at least 8 or 10 of them, sometimes maybe even 30 in the two counties east NY City and in the borough of Queens.  The term tag sale originated from the sales where items in the homes had price tags or stickers, but today, more frequently, most of the items are not individually priced.  The larger items, such as furniture, usually do have price tags.

I’ve gotten to know several of the people who run them locally.  You can often tell who they are based on the heading in the ad.  There’s Junkbuster, Full of Surprises, Finds, Ace, Sisters in Charge, among others.  Some are easy to bargain with, while others, like Mona of Junkbuster, is pretty stern.  Some charge sales tax, others don’t.  The one in Westbury to which Steve Ramm referred is 2muchstuff4me, run by Brian Ellison, who seems always to have a large wad of cash and often has an inflated idea of what things are worth.  I’ve sometimes left records or sheet music at his sales when I felt the price he quoted was too high.  It doesn’t seem to bother him that people don’t buy things after he quotes a price.  The person I like best is the woman whose ads end “Please join us at 
”

In recent times, here on Long Island, entrance to tag sales is based on numbers.  In most cases, there’s no official person handing out numbers.  Rather, the first person to show up gets that right.  It’s sort of an accepted way of keeping order.  But, while some of the tag sale operators go by numbers, others don’t.  So, basically, you show up early, sometimes two or four hours – or more – before a 9 or 10 o’clock sale, get your number and then return about a half hour before the scheduled start time and queue up according to number.

Brian’s sales always start at 8 in the morning.  As the Westbury sale was only a few miles from my home – less than a mile from Holy Rood cemetery – I drove to the house at 5:30 where, not unexpectedly, I found this fellow Jimmy handing out numbers.  He gave me number 11.  Jimmy is of my competition, almost always at tag sales where records are advertised.  He buys jazz and rock LPs, 45s, 78s and CDs.  I went back home to eat breakfast.  When I arrived back at the house at 7:30, there were several other of the record collectors and dealers already milling around.  When the doors opened, Brian’s helper let in the first 15 or 20 people on queue.  The ad said over 10,000 records.  I didn’t count, but I don’t think there were 10,000.  Maybe 5,000 to 8,000.  Some on the main floor, some in the basement and others in the garage.  At least 40 percent to half were 12-inch disco singles.  The others were LPs of the period.  And Brian wanted two dollars each, compared to most other tag sale operators who charge half that.

I didn’t have the patience to go through more than a few boxes, hearing from the other record people there that it was all the same kind of stuff.  I left empty handed and headed a short distance away where Please Join Us had a sale.  There, after looking through perhaps 100-plus 78s, I took a handful from the 1920s along with some other items.  I was quoted a single price for everything in my hands, so I can’t say how much the 78s were individually on average, but probably not more than 25 cents each.

Yesterday, my mom, who is a great scout for 78s, called me from a tag sale run by Sisters In Charge.  The ad didn’t mention records, which is odd since that is one of the items that attracts people to the sales.  My mom was able to pick up several British dance band and vocals from the mid-late 1920s.  Most were not in the best condition, but it doesn’t matter because included in the lot was a 12-inch Victor of a President Harding speech in 1921 in mint condition, the only American pressing.  All that, and a kid’s jig saw puzzle for her great grandchild cost my mom only two dollars.

It wasn’t until this past spring that I discovered that, when it comes to 78s other than post-WWII rock and blues, I seem to have no competition.  Jimmy, who I’ve known for several years, doesn’t collect or know the early recordings.  The way I discovered that was a Junkbuster sale that advertised “hundreds of 78s.”  I arrived with my mother 90 minutes before the sale only to find Jimmy had a low number while we got 23 and 24.  When the doors opened at ten, Jimmy was one of the first inside.  We didn’t get in until 30 minutes later.  We found Jimmy in a small room in the basement where there were not hundreds, but rather 2000 to 3000 78s.  Jimmy already had a basket partly loaded, but completely ignored the pre-War records.  I eventually bought about 130, mostly 1920s and early 1930s.  Many had suffered heat damage, and I had to leave more than twice that because of condition problems.  Still, I came home with about ten blue shellac Columbias and a bunch of Brunswicks, not to mention other oddities, including a Bennet’s Swamplanders.  The house, so I was told by one of Mona’s helpers, had been a speakeasy and, at one time, had a juke box.  But seeing all those goodies in such bad condition really hurt.

I have no idea why I’ve been so lucky finding so many 78s at tag sale.  a couple weeks ago, I looked through several hundred 78s, coming home with 86 records, mostly mid-1920s to early 1930s, costing me $23.  A large chunk of them were Brunswicks in E or E-plus condition.  The lot included two of the 10-inch Victor 33 rpm Program Transcription discs, one of which was the demo.

Art


____________________________________________________________
Online Medical Insurance
Get free online medical insurance quotes and save more money today.
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=6efaLUwFwCkL4w6RMA2RPgAAJ1AuJEYQAH2je3i-R67rd8P6AAQAAAAFAAAAAFqODz8AAAMlAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAiWIQAAAAA=