Introduction: Collecting Vinyl Records

Back in the early days of the compact disc, many people thought records would be obsolete by now. Most chain stores did stop selling them and major on-line vendors such as Amazon don’t offer them. But at your hip local music store, vinyl has somehow stayed around, even started to thrive again, thanks largely to djs and record collectors, now often called crate diggers when referring to that obsessive who will look through every record in the building just to find that obscure funk song or Misfits single that will impress their friends and more importantly, allow them to brag about their record collecting prowess. Yes, record collecting is a competitive field, full of manic music fans who are very, very anxious to find that rare record before you do. Here at Expert Village, we would like to give you a few pointers on what to look for…

Antique store owner Jan Braunstein has seen her share of rare records. In this free series, she shows you her very own copy of one of the rarest, the infamous “butcher cover” of the Beatles’ “Yesterday and Today” album. She gives you an overview of record collecting in general and talks about some albums by Bob Dylan, Elvis and the Beach Boys which you should snatch up whenever you see them. She also discusses 45 rpm singles and specialty niches such as comedy albums, box sets and show-and-tell records. You never know when you might stumble across a treasure while looking through the stacks of vinyl at a used book or antique store. The trick is to know that it’s a treasure when you run across it. Because if you don’t find out until later, it will be gone. But your regret will live on forever…

"Hi, this is Jan, antiquer at Expert Village.com. Today, I would like to tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Jan and I was a college administrator. I even went to school forever and got a pHD. But then, I found it to be incredibly boring. Done; kaput. So then I decided to do antiques. And I've been doing antiques pretty much all my life because my mom owned an antique store, so I learned at a young age. So I've been an antique collector in collectibles for practically all my life. But I decided to kind of formalize the whole thing so I got my appraiser's certification. And now, I can do it and you can even pay me to do it. I have an antique store called Antique Avenue in Pomona and it's very cool. You should come see it. Antique Avenue in Pomona; it's very nice. So, there's about twenty or thirty antique stores here and we have all kinds of fun things. And today, probably what I would like to tell you about (one of my favorite things) is vinyl. Not blow up dolls...no, that's a different show. What we are going to talk about is vinyl records. Now some of you out there on Expert Village.com don't even know what vinyl records are, which is sad. Now, I happen to be a person who does know what vinyl records are. I even remember what cassettes are. I remember what CDs are (but, that was later). I remember the kind that you stick in (which I can't think of the name of). But, I remember them all and that means that I'm old. But, if you're not old and you can barely remember some of these, you are in good shape because they are very collectible. They are very easy to find and there are still ones to buy. But what I would like to show you is...don't just buy any records because some of the records you may buy will be in thrift stores and they will be in the garbage can because they are worthless. Okay? So what we are going to do today is a little overview on vinyl (that would be records). We are going to talk about hits and misses; what you should buy; what you shouldn't buy; what you should look for; and what's worth something. So let's "take her away.""