The rescue of "ugly"records from the trash bin

[Inigo]

I've been trying to downsize my 78s collection since maybe 15 years ago. I did first move some 1200 records to 22 boxes at the shelves in the basement shed, to reduce the size of the collection at the main shelves at home. Those records at the basement were the ones I didn't like very much. Now at home, still I'm trying to do the same, and I have a separate shelf with records I don't like very much...

Ha, ha, ha!!!

All my life, since then 15 years ago up to now, I always find myself, from time to time, in the act of rescuing some ugly records from the basement or from the separate ugly records shelves and playing them to be sure they are ugly, and I discover that they are not so ugly nor bad at all... It depends strongly on the humour of each day! I'm always asking myself why this record and that other one are in the ugly shelves...

Ha, ha. ha...! Impossible task to reject any 78s !!!

Certainly there are some ones that are very bad, but be very careful.. . any of those "rescue ugly records" days you get in love with them and bring them home again!!!



I have the feeling that I'm always playing and replaying the ugly records instead of the very good ones !!!

And there are days that I simply cannot get any records out to the rejected piles.

[CarlosV]

Same here, the only records I throw away are the worn and the cracked. Yesterday I was playing a very early Columbia yodel record pressed in the USA, one with the black label and silver letters - certainly not the pride and joy of my collection, but it is there now safely hidden away in the upper shelf. Maybe I will accidentally play it in 10 or 20 years. I'm still pondering however about what to do with the circa 20 copies of Harry Lime's Theme from the Third Man - this record seems to sneak in every lot I buy, and probably found a way to breed in the dark corners of the record collection.

[Curt A]

Harry Lime's Theme from the Third Man

It's that "catchy" Greek style music - who doesn't love a Bouzouki???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9yyDEDGlr0

[Orchorsol]

It depends strongly on the humour of each day!

ABSOLUTELY! Sometime in the next few years I must embark on thinning down my 20,000+ collection massively, a task I almost fear - not only because of my general indecisiveness, but because my tastes vary daily, monthly, yearly etc and it's so hard to second-guess what I might miss at some point in future.

[kirtley2012]

I’m ever trying to build my 78 collection, records have seem to become rarer to find where I live these days, wonderful job lots still occasionally show up, but not very often, and I’ve nearly filled the record shelves I built a couple years ago, ever looking for an excuse to build another, mind there is some absolute rubbish in a pile in a hallway that will never reach the shelves, it’s been picked through time and time again and they’re still rejects.

In that vein, here’s a little plaque I made during a particularly slow day in the workshop

[vintagetenor]

Wise admonition to the deviants!

[Orchorsol]

I’m ever trying to build my 78 collection, records have seem to become rarer to find where I live these days, wonderful job lots still occasionally show up, but not very often, and I’ve nearly filled the record shelves I built a couple years ago, ever looking for an excuse to build another, mind there is some absolute rubbish in a pile in a hallway that will never reach the shelves, it’s been picked through time and time again and they’re still rejects.

In that vein, here’s a little plaque I made during a particularly slow day in the workshop

IMG_5205.jpeg

Well really Alex, you know what Richard Thompson says about Jimmy Shands - still at least it wasnt a "Beltona brand / Finest label in the land"

(For anyone unfamiliar, https://genius.com/Richard-thompson-don ... nds-lyrics)

[Inigo]

Me once fell and bought not one, but two Jimmy Shand, Decca made, Beltonas... I didn't know what they were...

I confess that these two are, since the very first day, in the 'uglies' and I've never played them again. They are also recorded at a very high volume... Were these records intended to be played at popular open air meetings or square dance gigs or barn dance parties or something? Played inside a home they blow up the window glasses!

[Lah Ca]

Within the last two years, I was given the equivalent of a number of long box pickup truck loads of 10" and 12" 78s, perhaps as many as eight truck loads in total.

I had to be ruthless.

I speed culled out things that I definitely knew were not of interest: multi-disk album re-issue/repackagings of Bing Crosby's greatest hits; albums of radio evangelists such as Billy Graham; anything Montovani-ish; later Guy Lumbardo; B, C, and D grade also-ran swing bands; 1950s MOR/very maudlin schlock; etc.

Then in the evenings, my wife and I would sit in front of the modern stereo, glasses of wine in hand, and play a game called "Meh! or Keeper!" A disk would be placed on the turntable, and usually within a few bars a verdict would be offered: Meh! or Keeper! An A-side Meh! record was always given a B-side chance at Keeper! status. There needed to be no consensus. Keeper! always overruled Meh! Sometimes house guests participated in this game.

This process to this point left us with only about 20% of the initial volume.

I then set about finding homes for interesting things that we were not interested in. There were some aluminium acetate disks of personal/family interest to others. Some acetates were of historical interest to a collector of a small Canadian label. There were also other things in the boxes such as old promotional photographs; I gave these away, too.

I offered boxes of records for free (to used as a deal sweetener) to someone who was selling a Brunswick Panatrope machine on Craigslist. He came and took a load of boxes. I also gave him some tips on gramophones and records. He decided to keep his Panatrope machine, and he came back a number of times for more records.

I took boxes to the Salvation Army where they were initially rejected by the front line donation handlers. I asked to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor took them. Curiously, the records did not end up in that store. There are some stores here that have large bins of 78s, but most do not.

My son and I sat down with two laptops and then sorted records by decade and put them into smaller more easily handled boxes for storage on shelves.

The Meh!/Keeper! process of elimination continues. My wife and I will choose a box by decade, sit, glasses of wine in hand, and listen either on the stereo or in front of an acoustic machine as best seems appropriate. The rate of attrition here, however, is now negligible.

Sadly, I have had to say "no" to more truck loads of records, many more than what I had already received. Among the furniture, book cases, walls of LPs, musical instruments, computers, TVs, stereos, etc, there is just no more room.

[Marco Gilardetti]

I'm still pondering however about what to do with the circa 20 copies of Harry Lime's Theme from the Third Man - this record seems to sneak in every lot I buy, and probably found a way to breed in the dark corners of the record collection.

Good grief, same here!!! It's unbelievable the number of copies of that record that were pressed... I mean what did they had in mind? How could they think at all that that stuff would sell by the billions? Personally I got rid of *all* that I had, as every once in a while it surfaces once more in the next records' lot, so should I change my mind in a remote future it will definitely not be a problem at all.

The numbers of my record collection is far below some numbers that I've read here but as I have anyhow reached space limits by a long time, I'm costantly thinning down, and I know what it means. The problem is that I grew up with 78s, they have kept me so much company during good and bad times, that I feel a lot of sympathy at the mere sight of a record. It's not easy at all to let them go, and also to refrain buying new ones.

It would be easier if only I knew some beginner that would happily take for free the ones I discard; but unfortunately, as discussed many times over here, this has never been the case.

Finally, I can hardly believe anyone having a wife that would happily listen to 78s and help selecting them as a sort of game. Now that's what I call luck.