Diggin' the crates - a record buying thread (1 Viewer)

[rettucs]

its for a show the week after next.

 

[nlgbbbblth]

@nlgbbbblth

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any interest?

Could be fun, thanks. I am not on twitter though - he can find me on [email protected] though.

 

[shidheat]

these guys have a new book out: Dust & Grooves – Adventures in Record Collecting. A book about vinyl records collectors

the site was mentioned before in another thread from '09. worth another look for the sheer magnitude of some of the collections.

 

[rettucs]

Could be fun, thanks. I am not on twitter though - he can find me on [email protected] though.

ok, will pass that on

 

[travispickle]

these guys have a new book out: Dust & Grooves – Adventures in Record Collecting. A book about vinyl records collectors

the site was mentioned before in another thread from '09. worth another look for the sheer magnitude of some of the collections.

That's a great site, always gets me down though looking at the scale of some of those collections!

 

[Lili Marlene]

Star Tribune music critic Jon Bream parts with his 25,000-piece record collection | Local Current Blog | The Current from Minnesota Public Radio

kinda cool

“I kind of weighed all these alternatives and thought, what would be the best legacy?,” Bream says. “We’re selling it, and we’re going to set up a scholarship for arts criticism. And I will mentor the recipient every year. I didn’t want to make it just music criticism—if you want to study theater criticism or movie criticism, fine. So that’s the goal. Judging by the bids we got, we’ll have the money to start a decent scholarship fund. I thought that was a good legacy.”

 

[nooleen]

"THE GATEFOLD JACKET IS IN VG+ CONDITION ( light wear, 3-D photo missing from cover, top & bottom rear seams nicely repaired, some pen marks inside gatefold, otherwise nice & clean)"

Rolling Stones Their Satanic Majesties Request 1967 London GF LP NPS 2 VG EXC | eBay

 

[Lili Marlene]

That actually seems fairly accurate based on the discogs grading system. Maybe more of a VG than a VG+...

http://www.discogs.com/help/doc/mp-grading.

Record gradings make no sense

 

[nooleen]

but...the cover picture is missing

 

[Lili Marlene]

Near Mint so

 

[nooleen]

i like how it says "top & bottom rear seams nicely repaired" as if that's a bonus

 

[dunderhead]

Diggers delight: London’s 8 best secret record shops – The Vinyl Factory

 

[shidheat]

these crate diggers videos are pretty great. they lean heavily towards big hip hop dj's but whatever. this is my favourite one so far...

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jazzy jeff says don't fight it

 

[Unknown Convict]

Miss Nancy and D. Lincoln’s Orchestra – Stambol Junjongan Hati | Excavated Shellac

R.I.P. Benno Häupl

The second reason for picking this disc is a little different. This record came from the collection of Benno Häupl, who passed away in late April. Benno was a legend among collectors for his seemingly relentless peregrination, his tenacious collecting habits, his considerable knowledge of cultures and willingness to relate all manner of worldly escapades, as well as for his collection itself – surely the most diverse and perhaps the most significant private collection of global music on 78 rpm outside of the United States.

Collectors talking about other collectors – to outsiders that must seem like inside baseball at best, and gossip at worst. But it got me ruminating about these relationships, and I started digging through old e-mails. I corresponded with Benno for only about 8 to 10 years, and therefore am in no position to write a remembrance with any real depth, as I solely knew him as a collector and even in that pigeonholed realm there are others who had known him for 30, 40, maybe even 50 years. We were not quite close enough to be “friends.” However, I have to say that his taste had certainly been a strong influence on mine, even if we hadn’t eventually connected. For one, he was well-known as a sometime contributor to numerous CDs including the Secret Museum of Mankind series, as well as various releases on Heritage/Interstate, and was a chief source for Paul Vernon’s Ethnic Music on Records reference book, the only book of its kind.

We intersected almost immediately after I began to focus my interests. In the ensuing years, I’d heard Benno’s mythic stories of traveling to Lahore, Pakistan to purchase the remains of a Hindustani 78 store from the 30s, with the entire stock sitting in boxes in a basement, new and untouched, and how it took him years to pick up one copy of each record, regularly sending the owner of the shop insulin and medicine to ensure that it might still remain there until his next trip to the city. I’d heard about Benno’s trips to hunt for 78s in Port Dickson, Malaysia, Mali, Cappadocia, and Cambodia. He told me a bit about his trips to Yemen and Oman, the latter a place that he highly recommended I rent a car and drive through, even giving me route advice, and I heard the story of how he bought what was left of an entire 78 label’s stock in Kuwait. If it existed on 78 and was painfully rare and regional, likely Benno had not just one example, but perhaps 50, perhaps 100, perhaps, like his Indian records, thousands.

Benno would occasionally sell large portions of his collection with an eye toward eventual dissemination, and several times he explained his plan and reasoning to me in detail. He told me he didn’t much care for African music, for example – he “only” had 500-600 of them – so he sold them off, one by one, rarity by rarity. This was entirely disingenuous, in a funny sort of way. Of course I knew he loved certain African music, such as the early music of Morocco, Ethiopia, and Madagascar, among others. Those discs weren’t going anywhere! What he clearly had admiration for stayed close to him. But even what he divested was frequently top shelf, and even one-of-a-kind. Over several years, he continued to sell his Caribbean collection, and a significant portion of his Indonesian and Malaysian discs.

But, good lord, he was ferociously competitive, forcing the few who might deign interest in the same recordings on the market to reconsider if they came to light. With an eagle-eye, he left few stones unturned. If he prevailed on a particularly brutal auction where we were primary competitors, he would immediately send me a note apologizing, stating that, well, sorry, but his collection “had priorities.” Quite often I would manage to triumph, and again, I would receive a congratulatory e-mail from Benno, commending me for my erudite taste, but always letting me know that it didn’t really matter quite as much to him, as he luckily had some 43 examples of said rare musical style already safe in his collection. It’s disheartening to have an elder statesman of sorts treat you like an interloper, no matter if it was sugar-coated or not. But then again, that’s precisely what I was: the competition. It’s all in the game. My comparatively sedate collecting habits evolved precisely from and with the benefits of the internet age. For Benno, someone who had been traveling the world to hunt for records for decades, the rest of us neophytes, “erudite” or not, must have seemed like cheap carpetbaggers.

Whether or not he truly felt that way, it never showed beyond playful jabs, and he readily admitted to me that he mainly collected via the internet. He remained a congenial bastion of arcane knowledge, always happy to divulge information and source material, especially if I was working on a project. That’s not to say that I didn’t sometimes find him contradictory, intermittently fanciful, and occasionally patrician to the point of total frustration. He had so many amazing, unfinished projects. He kept collecting like a runaway train – two weeks before he passed, he had bought a rare bagpipe 78 from me. But, in this world of 78 collectors, it would be peculiar if one weren’t an eccentric or complicated in some noticeable ways – and this was the only side of him I ever got to know.

Today, I own a LOT of records that once were Benno’s, and nearly each one came with an ornamented story. I’m just one of many music fans out there with “Benno stories.” Very little has of yet been written about him. Some people call the great Joe Bussard “the king of record collectors.” It’s a fun if hyperbolic moniker – Mr Bussard is surely one of a kind, and what he’s preserved has rightly become legend. But if you want to talk about global scope, miles traveled, countries visited, regions recorded, and rarities rescued…if I’m forced to take that mantle seriously, you know where I’ll place my bet. So, no, I didn’t know Benno well. I don’t have a clue what moved him. But maybe he got me to think about the reasons for collecting 78s to begin with, and what was exciting about them, as well as the dark side. To the consternation of many collectors, Benno’s wish was that his collection go to an institution. I hope all the “Benno stories” go with it.

The last time we had a substantive exchange was back in January. He was just as energetic as ever, and left me with this:

I plan to go to the probably most remote area of the Sahara: the Ennedi Plateau and the Tibesti Mountains in the North of the Chad – for a month in February and March. I always wanted to see the pond at the Archei Canyon – “discovered” by Westerners only some 15 years ago – where there are 6 or 7 Nile crocodiles in the middle of the desert, surviving since the climate change after the Ice Age!!! A mystical place where camel caravans stop by to “have a drink”. From the last town it takes 5 days “through the void” by Landcruiser to get there.

 

[dunderhead]

can anyone recommend a decent bag for carrying records. Generally I set a day aside to buy records once or twice every couple of months. usually end up hauling a bunch of records around under my arm in a plastic bag which isn't the most convenient. not talking one of those beasts of things that can carry 40 or so. 10-15 records tops would be the limit generally, on a very good day

 

[GARYXKNIFEDX]

Just get a bag big enough to hold an lp mailer.


New shop opening at the weekend in Dundalk.

New record store to open in Dundalk this Friday | Talk of the Town

 

[travispickle]

can anyone recommend a decent bag for carrying records. Generally I set a day aside to buy records once or twice every couple of months. usually end up hauling a bunch of records around under my arm in a plastic bag which isn't the most convenient. not talking one of those beasts of things that can carry 40 or so. 10-15 records tops would be the limit generally, on a very good day

I got a Technics bag (holds about 40) for buying trips from Sounds Around for €40. It's a bit big but not too unwieldy. But my preferred bag is one I got in TK Maxx for €30- it's a Timberland Messenger Bag; great for records and will easily hold the amounts you mentioned.

 

[Jerry Twig]

Diggers delight: London’s 8 best secret record shops – The Vinyl Factory

London is hopeless for vinyl. The prices are offensive and Rough Trade is the worst offender, cynically trying to fleece hipsters who probably don't know any better. Tragic really for a city of its size and musical importance.
The author of that article by the way seem to think that Bob Marley records are a 'find',

 

[Jim Daniels]

Tesco becomes first UK supermarket to reintroduce vinyl in stores | NME.COM

 

[travispickle]

London is hopeless for vinyl. The prices are offensive and Rough Trade is the worst offender, cynically trying to fleece hipsters who probably don't know any better. Tragic really for a city of its size and musical importance.
The author of that article by the way seem to think that Bob Marley records are a 'find',

I'm heading to Brighton next month, any tips on good record shops there anyone?