[78-L] Shopping in places other than record stores

[Matthew Duncan]

I bought my first 78s in 1997 when I was 11 and inherited a box of records around the same time.  The first purchases I made were at my local flea market and the records were 40p each or 3 for £1...now the records are generally 50p each at the same market and multiple buys bring about a discount..  This is when the records are first brought along to the market.  Then, after they've been there a few weeks or a month or two they are reduced to 6 for £1 (about $1.45 at the moment??!) and the last time I bought some when this pricing was allocated (a month or so ago) I got 40 records for £5.
The market is small and has maybe 5 or 6 sellers, the main one is an antique dealer who sells what he considers 'junk' at the market and the higher value stuff he buys to sell on at collectors fairs or at auction.  His area at the market is biggest and sometimes he has upto 10 or 12 crates of records there with quite a lot of 78s, some 45s and loads of LPs.  When the boxes become emptier and not looked at by buyers very much he takes them away and sells them at an auction, maybe for a very small amount and gets some more to take their place. He does the same with books and magazines etc that he gets from auctions in job lots or in house clearance sales. 
 
I must have bought several thousand records (mainly 78s) from him in the last 12 years!!
 
So...plenty to go at for one venue...
 
Also - There is a used record store in my town that occasionally gets 78s for me...they tell me I'm the only collector of 78s they know in the area.  Prices there are 50p each or sometimes £1 each or I make an offer on a box full...last time I went in to the shop and came out with some 78s, I was told as soon as I walked in they had been given some 78s by someone who came in with them...3 Artie Shaw records on HMV and one Bill Haley on Brunswick...the Haley was okay but a little worn and the others were excellent and I bought them all.
 
The charity shops (around 12 in my town and another 12 within a few miles) don't often have 78s now, but did 10-12 years ago when I first started out...they usually retail at £1 or less per disc when they turn up though.
 
Local car boot sales often don't have any records anymore of any kind but it all depends on who turns up on the day...I spend March to October going to a few of these each week every year and it's only this year that the number of records available at some of them has started to drop...prices are usually good though.
 
There has been a lot of change in the availability of 78s in non-record store environments in the 12 years I have been trawling for them...but the fun has never stopped!
 
I have also found responding to adverts in the paper to be fruitful...not always ...but sometimes....which is what counts...when good stuff crops up (especially if it's cheap!!) that makes up for all the trips we make and leads we chase that don't work out I guess...
 
I have been given 78s by family members but never in a record shop, but I once got a crate of about 100 78s for £1 at a jumble sale ('rummage sale' in USA??)...which was great!! about 3 years ago.
 
Matthew Duncan, 
Snowy Ol' England.



________________________________
From: Steven C. Barr <stevenc at interlinks.net>
To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Wed, 23 December, 2009 22:42:52
Subject: Re: [78-L] Shopping in places other than record stores

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "eugene hayhoe" <jazzme48912 at yahoo.com>
> When I was 17 back in the '60s, I bought many great records cheap in drug 
> stores, grocery stores, every kind of discount and dept. store, 2nd hand 
> stores, Sally Army stores, St. Vincent de Paul storefronts, Volunteers of 
> America shops, even roadside stands,
> By the mid' 70s, most of these had unfortunately dried up.
>
And I was finding really good 78-reissue CD's at Dollarama stores; I suspect 
that
you lovers of classical music can still do so! Note that many of the thrift 
stores in
the above list had TONS of 78's back in the sixties/early seventies...a LOT 
of
folks were getting rid of their "obsolete" 78's, since they were no longer 
playable
on turntables and record players. These thrift stores usually charged ten 
cents
(sometimes 25...?!) each for 78's.

Since I started collecting 78's in 1973, after inhertining my late father's 
300 or
so 78's (no one else in my family wanted the dommed things...!), I carted
home 78's by the milk box full...at those prices! I also bought 78's very
cheaply from a store in Toronto...Don's Discs (Don Keele still sells used
records...often 78's!). Don had an unusual pricing policy...the records got
cheaper as they went unsold (he once GAVE me about 400 "leftover"
78's...!).

As far as used LP's, they still abound at most thrift stores; however,
conditions vary from "well-used" to "beyond hope!"

Steven C. Barr 

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