I have been forced to empty both attic and basement at the same time, (to accommodate upgrading insulation!), and have come upon a large amount of very old records. They belonged to my Husband’s parents, and there’s a lot. Used record stores don’t want them. If donated to Goodwill I think they just trash them.
It’s a pretty impressive collection of swing era music, and it kind of breaks my heart to just throw them away.
Has anyone else faced this dilemma?
Did you just bite the bullet and trash them?
Did you find a home for them? How? Where?
Grandpa had a couple hundred 78s and we faced this very dilemma. I would say they could be priced out. A few might…might (long odds) be worth some money to a collector, but to be honest, that means going through scores of records and researching each one out on the internet. We’re talking a substantial investment in time for what would probably balance out as something below minimum wage when it’s all said and done. Just toss 'em.
Even if Goodwill doesn’t trash them outright, they’ll just sit on a shelf collecting dust because there’s very little market for that format or music. If you want, put them on Facebook Marketplace or similar for free and see if anyone comes to take them. Either you’ll give them to a new owner or else you’ll be justified in tossing them when no one else wanted them.
If they were 33-1/3 RPM records, you would have a chance of finding buyers for some of them. . .maybe. But 78s? Likely not. Vinyl has to be in excellent condition for a collector to consider it
We decided to ditch all of our 33s when we made our move to our present location. I spent a lot of time digitizing the music we wanted to keep. We hauled those damned things all over the world (literally) and were able to sell a select few (Sly and the Family Stone, etc.) to a shop specializing in vinyl. The rest were put up for free on Craigslist, and someone grabbed them, probably thinking he’d find some gems in there.
There are collector catalogs available that list market price for vinyl. I bought one when I was trying to sell a box full of 45s that I got at a garage sale. I actually did pretty well with some of them on eBay, as they were in pristine condition and some of them were scarce. Sold the rest of the box at a garage sale for a flat price.
There are dedicated collectors of 78’s. It would be worth putting an ad in your local online buy & sell. You don’t have to research and get top dollar if you’re only looking to get rid of them. Sell the lot of them for however much (cheap) to get them out of your way and you’ll also be giving a collector a gift.
A number of years ago I knew someone who’s hobby it was to collect 78’s and old phonographs. He actually had a store that was quite busy selling & trading these old recordings.
While I can appreciate the historical significance, listening to scratchy, poor quality recordings (good for the time they were recorded) wasn’t for me, but 5 minutes in his shop and you’d see people that really appreciated them.
I’d Craigslist them “FREE…but you have to take them all”. If that doesn’t work, just toss them…I mean throw them in the trash; those things can decapitate someone.
Check to see if your local library or historical museum might want them. A lot of them are very interested in “slice of life” kinds of artifacts, the kinds of things that people toss without giving a second thought, but 50 or a hundred years later, everybody bemoans the fact that those kinds of everyday things are gone.
My parents had quite a large collection of vinyl records, most of which had no value. So we put the cardboard sleeves in the recycling bin and the vinyl records went to the trash collection at the transfer station. It’s very unlikely that any of your 78 RPM records have any value.
Another remote possibility; contact Zero Freitas. He’s a Brazilian guy with a collection of millions of records so maybe he’d want yours?
The question is, what brings more value, the music or the format? Because if it’s the music, a lot of it is now available in modern formats. Remastered and maybe in stereo. So one can better appreciate the music, and more easily, on CD or in digital format. If it’s the format – OMG, 78s, you never see them any more – keep digging until you find people who specialize in that.
Now I have a different take on something that happened when I was about ten. I cleaned up my father’s collection of 78s. Dusted the sleeves, cleaned the disks with the liquid and the velvet-eraser thing, and sorted them all by artist. Or song? I forget. Point is, I got the whole collection spruced up, and he had a tepid response. Basically, thanks, good job, but you didn’t have to go to all that trouble for “old junk”. Because by then, he had all the songs he really wanted on LP, and the 78s were too old to play any more, even cleaned up. Which makes sense. (Still, jeez, some kids would have been winging them across the room…)
Also, I didn’t realize this until I was older, but his 78s collection kind of sucked. The songs were top-notch, but most of them were not performed by the band or artist that made them famous. “One O’Clock Jump” by Marvin Mooney’s Moonlighters, instead of Count Basie and Orchestra, and like that. The LPs were all greatest-hits by the top artists, like Benny Goodman, so I can see why he’d prefer them.
If you can find a local collector, I suggest asking for an estimate of value. A good collector can look thru them all and might find a rare one. You can always hope.
Or keep them around for 50 more years if you have the space to spare. They might increase in value as antiques!
Another idea…antiques like this are often used as a decor item in restaurants or lodges. See if you find a dealer of this kind of stuff. Probably won’t get much for them, but at least you will know that they have been put to good use. That is, until the decorating style changes.
Here’s a short list of some of what’s there:
Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Sammy Kaye, Glen Miller, Artie Shaw, Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Woody Herman, BingCrosby, Gene Krupa, Kay Kyser, Harry James, etc.
It’s my understanding that the OP is not looking for a return, just to be rid of the collection without adding to a landfill somewhere. Yes, @elbows ? Or are you hoping to maximize the pay day?
This just reminded me that I still have a box crammed full of CDs that are in plastic sleeves, the jewel boxes having been thrown out in order to save space, and I uploaded the music. Guess I should chuck them, since CDs are now also obsolete and Alexa can access most of it the music on iTunes if I buy a new phone.
I’m not a serious collector, but I’m quite familiar with those names. If they are originals, not covers, there might be some interest there, although probably not a lot of money. They were made and saved by the millions back in the day.
The reason race records are so valuable is they were looked down upon by the “serious” (i.e., white) community, and they weren’t frequently preserved, since most people thought they were worthless.