Greasy black material on old 78s

[larryh]

I have noticed recently in obtaining some 78 sets that often when you first clean them with a bit of soap and a rag they quickly look like they have a black grease on the rag. It seems to show up on about a fourth of the records I find especially those in sets for some reason. One thing for sure, I found some piano albums yesterday of Franke Carle and others. Many were duplicates but knowing that often the surfaces are a big distraction I got them because they were dirt cheap and might be better than what I had. I was very correct. These had almost no sound, which for columbias of the time is sometimes elusive. I was very pleased that I purchased them. I hit a thrift shop that had a whole box of them donated by someone and they happened to have a 75% off sale on everything. A whole stack of 8 albums was 4.00! I couldn't resist that. They also had a decca electric portable from the early solid state era they had marked as "works", but I was afraid to drag it home even though it was only about 5.00 on sale. Maybe I should have?