I AM READY TO SELL NEARLY ALL MY RECORDS!  

Nothing is priced yet, because the process is in its birth/infancy.  

I also want to downsize from my Condo, and move into a one-bedroom apartment – you know, like many people do late in life (I’m 79 year old).   I’M A VICTIM OF MY SUCCESS.  Until 1998, I was a HOARDER – of RECORDS.  That stopped 28 years ago.  All these years later, I’m still trying to get rid of stuff to avoid still doing this when I’m 87 or something.  My best estimate is that I peaked at 1.3 MILLION records in 1998.  In 28 years I’ve managed to only remove ONE ZERO, estimating 130,000 records now.  100,000+ too many!  This condo has a massive monthly HOA, and substantial storage costs for records that I store downstate in Macomb IL.  Much of the hoarding was entirely because of my extreme quest for a radio station “TIME CAPSULE” of 45s (stashed into boxes and untouched since), and some long-time customers will remember my pleading, and that  if I was offered a choice between a time capsule of 50,000 45s or THE ENTIRE WEALTH OF BILL GATES (assuming the two were mutually exclusive, and that wealth could NEVER buy a Time Capsule), I would have shouted “TIME CAPSULE!” right away. That was of course IMPOSSIBLE, because that  wealth would have allowed me to simply BUY any radio station that had a Time Capsule.  I was kind of a wreck that first two-thirds of the 1990s, as other record guys had found these and treated them like TOXIC WASTE, like they just HAD TO get rid of those horrible icky non-hit disgusting oddball records **FAST**, and a clueless guy far Up North was getting these, pulling out the Billboard hits, and throwing everything else into a Dumpster.  I couldn’t even get him to wait for me to drive there to buy the “junk.”  SO YEAH, I hoarded much longer than I wanted to.  I wanted to stop in 1990 when I already had too much, but I strove to make my lists look like Time Capsules, spending $50K/year.  The saga ended on September 21, 1996 (the day that changed my life) when I bought a Time Capsule from a radio station in Asheville, North Carolina.  About 55,000 singles, virtually all in original company sleeves, and not played.  Some were warped from being kept in Associated Press long boxes and obviously stacked a few high for decades, but the experience was very cleansing and I challenged myself not to look at even one record UNTIL ONE MONTH LATER.  I succeeded against that temptation.  1998 stopped the hoarding:  the habit was so ingrained that it took some time to wither away.

SO, HERE’S WHAT I HAVE:  (1) MACOMB, IL:  About 11,000 “novelty” LPs.  The definition is as “LOOSE” as my MISCELLANEOUS and NOVELTY sections combined.  It can be an LP with as few as one relevant cut that might mention Vietnam or Elvis Presley or Dwight D. Eisenhower, or how great Philadelphia is, or a song about a sports team or notable player such as Babe Ruth or Wayne Gretzky.  Many are novelty music and/or comedy, so the “one or two cut wonders” are the  exception.  This includes HUGE collections of prolific people like Oscar Brand and Redd Foxx.  This includes a large miscellaneous section, and a large Christmas section.  

(2)  MACOMB, IL:  About 20,000 novelty/comedy 45s, which again includes all the trappings of NOVELTY and MISCELLANEOUS sections.  But in this case, one cut is the entire point, which is usually one-half of a 45.  Yes:  true novelty, patriotic, R and X rated, some outsider stuff, lots of TRIBUTES to people/places/musicians, etc. from 1950s to 1990s.  This includes about 2,500 Christmas records, often standards or classics but also a good number of obscurities. 

THE REST ARE IN CHICAGO:  (3)  78s:  about FIFTY FEET of these.  Almost no pop in here!  12-18 feet of novelty, 10-11 feet of R&B and blues, a LOT of hillbilly, World Wars I and II, Billy Murray, early 1920s comedy, later novelty, good batch of Christmas, ROCK AND ROLL, and more.  

(4) LPs:  300 or 400 compilations, perhaps 1000+ punk/alternative, rock and roll, and such – almost no country or pop.  Classical around 400 which I’d get rid of very cheap “plus postage”.  

(5) 45s:  Whatever is left over in my “ARCHIVES” (on the second page of my site).  I haven’t made any effort to keep up with those in about sixteen years, so the pages are woefully out of date, but good stuff STILL remains.  My thoughts lean “extremely reasonable” on these, which I estimate to be around 9,000 or 9,500 records.  

(6) 45s: ALL of the 4i CHARTED, including duplications on perhaps 15% of the titles, and another 3,000 or so which were “planned for” that list, which I’m somewhat reluctant to use extra time on.  

(7) 45s:  If I do this properly, even what’s in the “6” documents (which track all leftover 45s starting and since 2019) are game.  

(8) 45s:  There’s  about 11,000 45s yet to be processed for future lists, and I’d gladly get rid of those.  I doubt much soul is left in these, but obscure disco, sunshine pop, odd gems and just-cool stuff, are in here.  Some may be pop, because they’re un-auditioned.  That covers half of them.  The rest are Christmas, novelty, country, and miscellaneous, all yet to be processed.  

(9) CDs:  I estimate 4,000 or 5,000 of these, including many genres:  novelty and comedy, Christmas, tributes to Elvis Presley, baseball, and even a couple extensive libraries of radio comedy services (drop-ins, short parody songs, etc.) often used on Morning Zoos and such.  

(10) 45s:  PUNK, but something I may not be ready to do yet.  I estimate about 13,000 to 15,000 – about one half after 1987 (duplication is fairly common), and the other half is split between independent VINTAGE punk, and late 70s and 1980s new wave and alternative mostly on national labels.  Also, there are about 2,000 that are organized on my two punk documents, PunkForSale and 1f—punk.  I’m more reserved on these, because the unprocessed vintage punk is likely the most valuable batch of records I have anywhere, even more than the R&B 78s.  

(11) Picture Sleeves:  I have ten or eleven long boxes of these (i. e. probably about 20,000).  Many of them include heavy duplication, but I estimate probably 4,000 that  are a “notable variety of all eras” NOT including nearly-worthless 1980s, and not much country.  

(12) RADIO STATION MUSIC SURVEYS – on request I have a partial list of over 1,000 rarer and earlier ones.  A small excerpt of that long list is on my website offering this year.  I estimate that I have around 100,000 in total.  No other accumulation this size has ever been known, anywhere on the planet.  I was the apex collector of all time.  I have sold about 700 of these directly out of my collection this year, including ALL my New York, so I have officially quit.  My ACTUAL collection (remaining) is still around 7,000 or 8,000 (virtually ALL being different radio stations!) from all over the world; the rest are my “extras.”  All includes perhaps 1,500 (including multiple weeks from a few of the radio stations) earlier than 1964, another 4,000 from the “Beatles era,” and tens of thousands from the 70s and 80s, and not that many 1990s (as this wasn’t “a thing” by them).  **ALL ARE ORIGINAL** even if “original” means they were Xeroxed at the radio station.  I probably have about 3,000 soul/R&B, maybe 10,000 country (virtually all after 1969), and the rest are variations of rock and roll/rock.  If somebody values the research potential and the possible bonanza from bringing to record fairs or such, let me know.  

With this List #100, AND BEFORE List #101 comes out (now planned January 2028), I’ll accomplish two of the big goals decided in 2017:  REACHING LIST #100, AND LIVING IN MY CONDO FOR AT LEAST TEN YEARS (in 2027).  I’m a little anxious about the latter – my first three years here, I had a utility van which was too tall to access my assigned underground parking space, so I had to pay someone in a neighboring building nearly $10,000 over the period to rent his unused (he doesn’t drive) outdoor parking space.  I chose a condo building with NO STAIRS, in case someday I cannot use stairs to get in and out of my home.  So far so good, until I sold my utility van and got a car that would fit.  I then noticed seven ACCESS STAIRS to and from the carpark!  To say the least, I was disappointed, but it’s not an issue at all yet.  THAT COULD BE, later.  That adds to my motivation to greatly downsize and move – and make ENTIRELY sure there are no steps I’ll ever need to worry about.  If any of these bulk sales are consummated, some of you might have to come to me, because I don’t want to be driving 30,000 or 40,000 miles to deliver stuff to 11 scattered US states.  I should add something about ALL the records, too:  Many years ago I went through all of them, and aggressively got rid of (or THREW AWAY) everything that was a “beater” so these job-lots won’t include G- cracked Herb Alpert 45s, badly warped J. Geils Band 45s, etc.  I also should add that I purged virtually all KNOWN pop such as Sinatra, Streisand, Mantovani, Lawrence Welk, orchestra, Al Martino, Nat King Cole, etc. (except for some of the CHRISTMAS and CHART stuff) – about 60,000 pop and easy listening 45s went to Memphis a few years ago.  Admittedly some (a low %) of items in #(8) above will be pop or easy listening by artists I don’t recognize, because auditions are still necessary.  Think on this, and/or if you have any suggestions who might be interested in any of this, I’d love to know.  I need to get from under all of this, and I don’t want an estate (after I’m gone) where tons of records simply go to landfill.