[78-L] value of records

[DAVID BURNHAM]

MB wrote:

Better off selling 
them at a buck then not having them last long enough to find a ten buck 
buyer.


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Tell that to Tom Kennish of Royal Garden records in Cleveland.  I went in there several years ago and told him I was looking for classical 78s.  He looked at me as if I had grown a second head but didn't offer me any deals.  He said all of his records were $7 each but if I chose a large number, he would give me a special price.  Well I spent the whole day there going through his cramped back room picking out records and at the end of the day presented him with a sizeable pile of around 100 records.  He said he would give me them for $800.  I pointed out that that was more than $7 each.  He explained that since I had come all the way down from Toronto, I obviously wanted to make the trip worth while and it would be more so if I spent more money!!  I left most of the records there and took a dozen or so at the original $7 each.  I went back about a year and a half later and the pile of records were still sitting where I had left them on my first
 visit, but now he told me the price had gone up to $8 per record, (and several of them were broken).  When I asked him how this makes any sense since he's not making any money on records he isn't selling, he said he would rather smash a record and throw it in the garbage than lose money by selling it for less than $7.  I might also point out that on the day I spent going through all of his records, not one other customer came into the store.  A strange place!

Another place I frequented was Cappy's in Detroit.  He had better prices than Cleveland but every time I went in there nobody else came in, in fact more often than not the door was locked and I had to knock on it for several minutes before he would come from whatever he was doing and open it for me.  One day I got there and found David Lennick in the store.  On this occasion, Cappy had a gun prominently hanging out of his pocket, so I guess I should feel flattered that he never appeared to need to take that precaution when I was in there.

db