It may surprise many to find that the hobby of record
collecting, long thought dead after the introduction of the
compact disc, is still alive and well. Granted, many music fans
have long replaced their records with CDs, but for many Baby
Boomers and Generation X-ers, the hobby of buying and collecting
record albums and singles continues to be a focal point in their
lives.
Records offer the tactile sense of a substantial
product, unlike the CD. The seven-inch, 45 RPM single often came
with a picture sleeve that has no equivalent among compact
discs. The nostalgia of records draws many back to their younger
days. And records still sound great. A recent check of the Bay
auction site showed 959,857 records for sale. That’s just under
one million records!
These records aren’t selling
at garage-sale prices, either. At any given time, there might be
six thousand records by the Beatles for sale, some of which have
sold for up to $40,000. Elvis isn’t far behind; his first five
singles, issued on the small Memphis-based, Sun label, routinely
bring $2000 at auction in nice condition. Other artists, such as
the Rolling Stones, Pink
Floyd, Led Zeppelin, James Brown, or Madonna have issued
records that not only command sky-high prices, but also draw a
lot of bids.
The greatest interest in record collecting
is in artists of the 1960’s and 1970’s, but newer bands, such as
Nirvana, draw a lot of attention from younger collectors.
Nivrana’s first single, Love Buzz issued in 1988, sells
for up to $2000 and there are several other bands, such as the
Misfits, that have released numerous records that sell for more
than $1000. What do collectors do with these records? Some play
them, some frame them, some simply put them on the shelf. There
are collectors who only buy records that they intend to play and
others that simply want anything that was ever commercially
released by the artist that interests them. There is no
pigeonholing a collector; they come in all shapes and sizes. For
them, finding a long-unavailable single that has eluded them for
years is like winning the lottery.
For those who are
interested, there are literally thousands of Websites devoted to
artists, records, and record collecting. There are well-known
magazines, like Goldmine , Discoveries, and in the
UK, Record Collector. Anyone who thinks they might be
interested in collecting records has more resources available to
them than ever before. Twenty years ago, people thought that
records would be long forgotten by now. They couldn’t have been
more wrong.
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