Do you Trust People Around Your Record Collection?

RAJ

So, we're in the process of fixing our house up to put it on the market.

I've got people painting and cleaning in my office. A lot of people in and out.

I realized it's pretty easy for someone to lift a Boscoe or a Stark and it would pretty much go undetected because I have over 1500 of these things and I'm not exactly doing a nightly inventory check.

I do realize that 99% of these people have no idea nor care the value of these vinyls, but what's to stop someone from taking a few records in protected polysleeves and bring them to the local record store to buy a carton of cigarrettes?

So, with that said, do you get a bit paranoid that someone might dip into your stash without knowing it?

pcmr

I do
the thought of subleting my apt for a few months had me shook
You should just put a big cloth over the expedit and breathe easier

Garcia_Vega

My now brother in law and a few of his friends sublet an incredible apartment in the Village a few summers ago, they threw a party and I went to check it out. While touring the apt, I found that it had its own little recording studio with a ton of records. Best believe I went through that shit! I did it more out of curiosity though, I wouldn't have taken anything, stealing is not my style. If any of the people working in your house is into records they'll probably take a peek, or maybe even ask you about them, just hope they are honest.

DJ_WubWub

pcmr said:

I do
the thought of subleting my apt for a few months had me shook
You should just put a big cloth over the expedit and breathe easier

If I was subletting for a few months while on holiday i would definately box it up and put it into lock up storage.

AKallDay

pcmr said:

put it into lock up

jjfad027

I can count the number of people I trust with my records on one hand

Horseleech

Trust but verify.

dollar_bin

HarveyCanal

Eh, they're just records. I woudn't trust a stranger, but if it's family...have at them, they're for all of us.

Almond

I don't trust others around my possessions in general. Not bc I think they'll steal, but bc they might put stuff away at the wrong angle or get dirty hands on things.

button

When I was 6 or 7 a "friend" stole one of my toys while my back was turned and I've been a delusional paranoid ever since.

Breez

My collection is mainly in my basement and NO ONE besides family & 4 of my close friends ever go in the basement. And my wife is the only one that can go down there w/o me. I've had visitors (a family friend here & there or a fellow Strutter) in the past that I've showed my collection to but that's it. I DON'T TRUST NO ONE, period.

elise

In the past, I have had a few roommates that felt obligated to take my records and use my equipment without asking me.

Once, I walked into the spot the I used to regularly play at and my roommate of the time was playing. He was using my records and even the carrying case without asking me ( I think even my headphones!). I was so pissed that I walked up there, closed the case and took them back home. Eff his "gig". He was using my records! The manager of the bar was all about me shutting it down.

Needless to say, records were missing. We are cool now as that was years ago, but this is reason #47690 that I do not have roommates.

button

To address the original post: The painters/movers/cleaners would not be with-it enough -by a long shot- to lift the Boscoe, Stark, etc... but they might help themselves to some Marvin or Al thinking they've struck paydirt.

Unknown

Well-meaning but distrustful parents are a challenge in the record game.

I believe it is better to trust someone who isn't trustworthy than it is to not trust some who is. (what goes around comes around related)

More daunting is the fear of failure.

dj_cityboy

i would trust plumbers/electricians/cableguys before friends sadly...i have had some of my records lifted before...asswipes steal the wax and leaving sleeves behind, people take shit becuase they are too damn cheap to go out and buy, i have had some raer old jungle and house go missing on me back in the day.

i prefer being an antisocialite and not a scenster like i was back in the day, having swarms of people rolling through my place and not knowing who half of them were, roommates "borrowing" records and find them on some "Oh! jeeeeeez! how'd that get in there?"

some of it has been just some plain jane shit, stuff you could easily order online and some stuff has been a bit more difficult to track down copies of, people never "borrowed" my stuff for the value, but more for the fact of just having the records...and them being too damn cheap to go and buy it..

with less friends, i feel more comfortable leaving people alone in the studio, now if i could only train them to put the records back where they came from...doh!

Unknown

Reels are worse. Trust me, you don't want to have to rewind a reel by hand.

faux_rillz

Almond said:

I don't trust others around my possessions in general. Not bc I think they'll steal, but bc they might put stuff away at the wrong angle or get dirty hands on things.

Pretty much.

People who don't know or care about records seem to feel a need to manhandle them.

stratasphere

None of my friends know where I live. Plus, the few dj friends I have switched to Serato or cds. If they want the raer I just put it on cd for them. And NO, I wouldn't trust anyone near my records. Non-collectors don't value records the way we do.

button

I've let my NRR friends handle my rares. In fact, they tend to be more careful with them than even I am. They hold them like they're Faberge eggs or something.

Mr_Lee_PHD

Unknown

button said:

I've let my NRR friends handle my rares. In fact, they tend to be more careful with them than even I am. They hold them like they're Faberge eggs or something.

Yup, the more you do this the more they will see the beauties in records and in their natural surroundings.

spoonietee

button said:

To address the original post: The painters/movers/cleaners would not be with-it enough -by a long shot- to lift the Boscoe, Stark, etc... but they might help themselves to some Marvin or Al thinking they've struck paydirt.

Yes because no one who does manual labor is "with-it."

button

spoonietee said:

button said:

To address the original post: The painters/movers/cleaners would not be with-it enough -by a long shot- to lift the Boscoe, Stark, etc... but they might help themselves to some Marvin or Al thinking they've struck paydirt.

Yes because no one who does manual labor is "with-it."

JusMe

whenever someone stays with us theres really no where else to put them but in the record room. i dont really get up tight about it though. im not in the habit of letting people i dont trust into my home.

AKallDay

in college i came back after a weekend away and my roomate was sitting on my floor, with at least 10 of my records spread out of their sleeves with her on the floor there. she was smoking and listening to cymande and had a big ash tray of cig butts. she was also wearing my favorite dress at the time and some of my other clothes were out on my bed, including a few bras, and she was looking at a box of my photos. she was really rifling through my shit, not just records.
needless to say i was decidedly on lock with my shit afterwards.
but these days i like having people over and playing with records and stuff, i just would probably want to cover my shelves if remodeling was going on, both for dust and for keeping peoples hands off.

and about that comment that contractors etc aren't "with it" about records you are wrong, one of my favorite dealers is a demolition/cleanout/contractor guy who also has a weekend storefront to sell a lot of the stuff he gets on his jobs and he gets crazy amounts of records. he knows what he's getting too and is very familiar with titles and so on. he doesn't steal, but he really knows what's up.

SIRUS

sidebar question: is a woman 'borrowing' another woman's bra, as creepy as a man 'borrowing another man's draws?

button

Dudes, I wasn't saying that all laborers are complete buffoons. I was saying they're 99.9% likely to be NRR. Meaning, on the small chance that a house painter or cleaning lady were going to go through the risk and trouble to cherry pick a few LPs out of an Expidit, they would probably take the records NRR people tend to think are worth millions of dollars. Steve Wonder, Michael Jackson, Leo Sayer... not some janky ass looking LP called Boscoe. WTF is a Boscoe?

For every one demolition guy who runs a record store on the weekends, I'd wager there are a thousand plumbers, carpet layers, window installers who don't. So long as dudes don't come in looking like complete Beat Dawgs I'd try not to be worried.

El Prez

hell to the NO!

CinisterCee

button said:

Meaning, on the small chance that a house painter or cleaning lady were going to go through the risk and trouble to cherry pick a few LPs out of an Expidit, they would probably take the records NRR people tend to think are worth millions of dollars. Steve Wonder, Michael Jackson, Leo Sayer... not some janky ass looking LP called Boscoe. WTF is a Boscoe?

I don't want them touching my Wonders or Jacksons either.

The_Non

RAJ, follow Dick Cheney's example and get a man-sized safe.