[78-L] Picking up 78s next week

[Bill McClung]

Of the ones I looked at 95% were post-war which is what I would have
expected since the story is that this is what is left from a juke box
distributor.  But since I'm mainly a post-war 78 guy that is fine with me.

The records are all in those small 10x10x6(?) cardboard boxes 78s were
shipped in back in the day.  Half are stacked six-feet high along one wall
of the warehouse and are inaccessible because of all the crap that is
stored in front of them.  The boxes on top of the stacks I saw are covered
in a thick layer of dust and dirt so I assume they have been there a long
time.  I don't know if newer 78s are on top and older 78s are on the
bottoms or if unbroken 78s are on top and broken ones are on the bottoms.
There was no way to tell.  Most of these were from the 40s and this is
where I found the pre-war 78s mixed in.

The other half are on the other side of the warehouse up some stairs on a
catwalk.  These are stacked four feet high but are four and five stacks
deep.  All of the ones I saw in this part were from the mid to late 50s so
I assume this is the more recent accumulation.  This is also where the 45s
are.

On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 11:21 PM, Bill McClung <bmcclung78 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Early next week I'm traveling to New Orleans to pick up the remnants of a
> juke box distributorship.  The guy I'm buying it from says there are 30,000
> 78s (and a few thousand 45s) but I'm thinking the number will be closer to
> 15-20,000.  They are in a warehouse apparently undisturbed for many, many
> years.  We are going to have to move a lot of furniture and parts of Mardi
> Gras floats to get to them.  I looked through about a thousand from several
> spots and found a mix of commons and brokens but also found enough
> interesting 78s in good shape that I took the chance to buy them.
>
> I'll send a follow-up post next week.  What I find fascinating is the
> games my mind is playing going through all the possible good things I'll
> "find."  When I look through 78s I always keep my expectations low and that
> has served me well.  We'll see what we will see.
>
> And no, there isn't any flood damage.  It's near the oldest part of the
> city which was built on the highest ground.  We'll see what we will see.
>