[78-L] Houston record shops

Robert M. Bratcher Jr. rbratcherjr at yahoo.com
Sun Apr 3 15:19:52 PDT 2011


Interesting about Black Dog having common 78's in the shop. That must have 
happened since I was last there. Vintage Sounds? Long time since I was there but 
I think she had a small selection of 78's when I made my last visit. Davids 
Records in Humble. Didn't know about that one. Will check it out one day this 
spring or in the summer. 


Every once in awhile some 78's turn up at the local Houston record show at the 
Hilton Southwest hotel thats put on every 2 months. All of what I've seen over 
many years is the usual 30's to 50's common stuff & not very much of it if any 
at all. I did manage to find a near mint copy of Feel So Good by Shirley & Lee 
on Alladdin on 78 RPM at the local Houston record show once & was glad to find 
it as the 45 of that record which I've had for over 20 years is badly worn & was 
that way when I found it used.  Also several shows later I picked up some early 
to md 50's near mint Nat King Cole 78's on Capital at that show but then I 
collect Nat which is why I bought them plus some of those I already had on 45 
RPM. I've also seen common 78's at the Austin record collector show too & don't 
remember seeing any rare 78's there. Haven't checked the Austin area for record 
collector shops but there were some when I spent a summer there in 1980 or maybe 
it was 1981. I suspect there might be a few though but gas is too expensive to 
drive over there on a regular basis. Same with San antonio & the D/FW area. A 
few record collector shops might exist but then I honestly have no idea whether 
they do in those cities or not. The possibility of any 78's in those shops is 
unknown at least to me anyway.

I wonder if the folks at Kurt Nauck's place let people come by appointment to 
dig through whatever is not in the current auction? I've never asked whether 
they do or not. Be rather nice if they did allow this though.

A quick Google search turned up the following still around in the Houston area. 
Haven't been to any of these 3 in several years & none of them had 78's at the 
time of my visit but then I do collect 45's & LP's too besides 78's.

Cactus Music & Records 2110 Portsmouth Houston, TX 77098 (713)526-9272  

VINAL EDGE RECORDS. 13171 Veterans Memorial Drive, Houston, Texas 77014. (281) 
537-2575.
 
Sound Exchange 1846 Richmond Avenue, Houston (713) 666-5555.  
I remember when this one was close to the lower Westheimer area near Shepherd 
before they moved to the Richmond location.
 
I'll have to drive down Gray close to Montrose one day & hunt for whatever that 
shop is if it's still there or maybe it might be 

somewhere on Montrose but then I don't know. Doubt there'd be any 78's there but 
you never know..... 

 
15 to 20 years ago there were 3 or 4 record collector shops in the lower 
Westheimer area but sadly they are all long gone now. 

One was Infinite Records that Dave Ritz ran & another with tons of 78's was 
whatever Kurt Kauck's shop was called  before
he got married & moved everything to the Spring area. That was a great shop 
while it lasted. Another shop which only
had 45's & albums was Roy's House Of Memories later called Roy's Collectors 
Showcase after Roy Bonario moved his shop
out of the Montrose area wherever it was. He's been dead for a few years now & 
his shop is long gone.
 
The Half Price Bookstores at 1011 Westheimer (near Montrose) & the one at 2537 
University Boulevard have a few common 78's 

from time to time. I haven't checked any of the others in the Houston area. The 
78's issue at resale shops, Goodwill &
the antique shops I've been to in the Heights is very bleak & has been for quite 
awhile however Ebay, 

(if you ever wanted to surf there)always has lots of them both common & rare if 
you believe what the sellers say. Not pushing Ebay but I've found some 78's
worth buying on the site.
 
 
I'm having trouble finding 78s in Houston, too.

There are some at Vintage Sounds 10910 Katy Freeway open Fri-Sun (Kathy
Botto 713/468-4911).

Every so often there are a few 78s at David's Records in Humble
(281/446-2345). The store is a mess and only open Fridays and Saturdays.

And Black Dog Records near Shepherd and 59 has some 78s but they are your
mostly late common items.

It's pretty bleak.




On Sun, Apr 3, 2011 at 8:38 AM, neechevoneeznayou at gmail.com <
neechevoneeznayou at gmail.com> wrote:

> So what is left of the Houston record shops? I am not sure that I know
> of any presently, other than the occasional dealer who sets up in a
> temporary location, and the one in Stafford which is open once a month
> maybe and looking for a new owner. There's one toward Montrose, on West
> Gray possibly, and one other I am not placing at the moment. Other than
> that, there aint much. Few have any 78s or occasionally have some,
> mostly late common items, and I don't find 78s at Goodwill and resale
> shops much anymore. Most of what I do find is not that which I collect.
> It has been a while since I have seen any worth mentioning at 1/2 price
> books, altho I did once get some Chevalier French HMVs for pennies @,
> and they turned out to be very delightful music
>
> joe salerno
>
> On 4/3/2011 8:16 AM, Robert M. Bratcher Jr. wrote:
>  Other than visiting Black Dog
> > Records one time last year (a collector shop on Shepherd close to hwy 59&
>  they
> > never have 78's) I haven't tried to visit whats left of the Houston
> record
> > collector shops


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From: Bill McClung <bmcclung78 at gmail.com>
To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Sun, April 3, 2011 10:17:09 AM
Subject: Re: [78-L] Houston record shops



      


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