[78-L] 15, 000 opera 78s for $12K: 2 competing dealers - Frederick Md vs LHo ldridge

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Shapiro" <steveshapiro1 at juno.com>
> Michael Biel mbiel at mbiel.com wrote:
>>> Does anyone have an idea who the Frederick dealer might be?  (I have a 
>>> hunch.)  He made a cool 2 grand just for getting there first.
>> I think your hunch is correct -- he shares your initials, right?
> Also, what kind of "room" can house 15000 78s, where they are not stacked 
> up in dense rows of boxes?
> How many collectors keep their collections on shelves in warehouses?  I 
> know of two, one in Frederick Maryland and one in York Pennsylvania. 
> Also, does anyone (Kurt N?) know what ever happened to the 100,000 records 
> in the Providence RI warehouse?  To gain entry the first time, I had to 
> wait until the associate of the person who guided me there got out of jail 
> after he being arrested for coca*ne distribution.  (What a scene that 
> was!)  My guide told me the 100,000 records had been in something like a 
> third-storey walkup apartment.  The records had been stored something like 
> 3 deep./steve
>
I currently own about 57,000 78's...they are stored in around 400 milk 
boxes, stacked all over
my c.1869 1.5-story house. So far, I have seen NO unfortunate results from 
this accumulation;
fortunately, most of the milk boxes are of the older "pre-metric" size (I 
was given around 250 of
the old red fibreglas boxes by a variety-store owner who wound up stuck with 
them after
Sealtest quit refunding the deposit thereon?!).

15,000 78's would require around 120 milk boxes...?! They are EASILY stacked 
(this is
how they were designed!). I used to buy 78's from Peter Leavitt...who had 
acquired, and
was auctioning off, a VERY famous 78 collection; his lists often included 
near-numeric
sequences of various labels. Gawdknows how many 78's I acquired from 
him...?!

Steven C. Barr