I have alot of records

Here is approximately what 2300 45 RPM records looks like.


To give you an idea of how big the boxes are, the 'tiny' one at the top is a 7 inch by 7 inch by 7inch box. That box holds exactly 100 records.

How does one amass such a large and useless collection? The answer is simple. I am a collector by nature. I have stories that I wrote when I was in third grade about the collections I had then: stamps, rocks, bottle caps, and I forget what else. I am a collector by VOLUME. Not quality, VOLUME. Lots and lots of things is what I like. To a fault. So back in my bachelor days (in fact, in the months before I met Maryann), I went on an eBay rampage. One Saturday night around 3am I was on eBay and decided that I would put in bids on around 10 different lots of 45 RPMS, each of them numbering in the hundreds. My lucky before them was not so soon, so I figured that if I won 1 or 2 of them, then that would be cool. I ended up winning about 8 of them. So, there you go. At least I can say that I listened to the majority of them. I think there was probably only about 500 of them that I never listened to. The rest all saw the needle all the way through (unless is was so scratched that I had to pick up the needle to save it).

But, 2700 7 inch 45 records is TOO MANY when you live in a 1200 sq ft ranch with a wife and a kid and three cats.

So, today I spent nearly 8 hours going through the majority of my collection of 45s which I am eventually going to sell on eBay. It wasn't too painful of a process. I saved probably somewhere between 100 and 200 for me, mostly hits from the 80s that I can relate to (c'mon, who doesn't want to hear Hall and Oates since 'You Make My Dreams' a few more times.) So the picture above shows 2300 that are boxed up and ready to go. Not pictured are the 100-200 that I set aside while going through them today, another 100 that I already owned, another 50 or so that are 'special' that i will sell separately on eBay and another stack of 100 to 200 that are still in limbo, but will probably be used to pad out the boxes that people (hopefully) buy from me.

So... that's the tale for the 45s.

Yesterday I went through my collection of 78 RPM records. As an experiment, I put them up on craigslist. Up for grabs is 325+ 78 RPM records. I actually came across another 40 or so that I'll probably throw in as well. Hopefully someone wants them. There is no way I can shop them anywhere since they are so fragile. I'm (probably) asking too much, but hopefully there is someone out there like me who is looking to increase the size of their collection in one swoop.

As for LPs or CDs or cassettes. I have not guess at all as to how many I have. Again, the quick answer it too many. I sold off around 100 to 200 LPs (or 33s as you might know them by) at a garage sale last year. That was a big step for me. Against, as with the 45s except a little bit better, I have listened to each of them at least once. So, my collection is not for naught. I DO listen to the things I buy. But to attempt to sell it all off is a bit of a daunting task, but it's one I'm going to attempt. Wish me luck.