Crazy Record Finds

RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
edited February 2016 in Record Collecting
Over the years I've found records in some crazy places......was just thinking about one today and I thought I'd share.Back in the mid-late 80's there was an ad in the Dallas Morning News classified section advertising an Estate Sale in small town about 60 miles east of Dallas called Elmo. A friend of mine had been out to it and came back with tales of endless records, magazines and other more bizarre items.My brother and I headed out there on a Saturday morning and walked into what had to be the greatest pack rat sale of all time. The house was on a large piece of property with a barn, two 18 wheel trailers and a variety of junk cars scattered about. We were told the records were in the barn and started there.....Piles upon piles of LP's everywhere....all genres and plenty of raers. Our pal climbed up into the barn loft and found a shoe box filled of nude polaroid photos of what appeared to be local women as they were taken right there on the sight.Next we went out to the 18 wheelers....filled from top to bottom, front to back with magazines.....mostly porn magazines and all vintage. Small "specialty" magazines that I had no idea existed back in the 40's & 50's ....fetish magazines, black only magazines, nudist colony magazines...definitely more than 100,000 of them.But the truly amazing part happened just before we left....someone, and I don't remember who said "Have you guys looked in the old cars???"......with that I walked over to a 40's Ford that was under a tree, and it was filled with records, opened the trunk and it was filled with records too....all the cars on the property were filled with records!!! The ones exposed to the sun were obviously ruined but the trunk and lower back seat Lp's were just fine.....found a copy of Roscoe Shelton on Excello in the trunk of that old Ford.To this day my brother and I still kick ourselves in the ass for not buying all the magazines.....not sure who wound up with them but believe me, old man wacking material for years!!!!
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  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts


    Next time I'll through in some Jews, Bush and white chicks callin' each other "Vato" to guarantee at least one response....

    Seriously, no other crazy digging stories out there to share??

    Or do mine just suck?


  • coffinjoecoffinjoe 1,743 Posts


    Seriously, no other crazy digging stories out there to share??

    Or do mine just suck?


    yer stories are too

    digging @ Brad's 218 Record Den by flashlight & candles
    cause the electric was turned off for lack of payment
    or
    50,000 pieces of Churchill Music wax being diverted from the dump
    or
    Studio One's basement with cases of white rum on one wall
    & pens with dawgs that have never seen sunlight
    or
    Marlin Wallace's shack with sealed crates of records
    can not
    equal
    your
    crazy
    ass tales

    :masterdigger:

  • Naw, I don't think that story sucked. I enjoyed it.

    Maybe non-controversial threads don't get much run oer here. Think this story gets more response "on that other board"?

    Tonight I'll be moving all my records out to a junked-out car on my lot.....

  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    T*m,
    I KNOW you have stories that are wilder than anything I can throw out there!!!

    Most of mine just show what an addicted dumb-ass digger I am......

    Like the time I put my life in danger to dig through 10,000 Jimmy Clanton LP's up in Johhny Vincent's Ace Records Warehouse Attic in Jackson, Ms. to find the 5 colored vinyl copies!!!

  • GropeGrope 2,970 Posts
    not crazy, but funny:

    Cosmophonic and me were digging for records at local antiques shop. no price tags on the records at that place. they write the prices on the cover with a pencil.
    after a while, we were finished going through the records at the frontroom. at that point, we had already pulled out a good deal of records.
    i asked the employee, if we could also check the racks in the backroom. he said yes. we took all of the record we pulled out earlier with us and went on digging.
    at one point, i noticed that i didn't have enough money with me, so both of us, being lazy, put almost all the records that we found into the racks at the backroom. we were too tired to carry the records back to the regular sales room. i took 3 record to the counter and asked if i could have them for 5 Euros each.
    The employee immediately gave me the ice grill: "No!"


    PASUE...


    "No! Absolutely NOT! Because records from the backroom only cost 2 Euros each! I won't let you pay 5, son!"

    So we went back the very next day, removed the old prices (rubbing them off by hand - no homo) and took home the records we left in the backroom for 2 Euros each. What a happy day! Cosmophonic called it "the big record swindle". we went to a backery afterwards, drank a coffee and ate quiche & cookies!


  • coffinjoecoffinjoe 1,743 Posts
    T*m,
    I KNOW you have stories that are wilder than anything I can throw out there!!!

    i choose to reflect on my post-sh*tcanning digs

    what happened at **S stays at **S
    (besides, i'm not sure if all the statutes are up yet)

  • coffinjoecoffinjoe 1,743 Posts
    not crazy, So we went back the very next day, removed the old prices (rubbing them off by hand - no homo)



  • GropeGrope 2,970 Posts
    not crazy, So we went back the very next day, removed the old prices (rubbing them off by hand - no homo)





    i usually don't do that...

  • we went to a backery afterwards, drank a coffee and ate quiche & cookies!



  • sticky_dojahsticky_dojah New York City. 2,136 Posts
    Was visiting this studio by a guy somewhere out of my hometown, doing some scratches for a jazz project...he had a small stack of records, all polish stuff, mostly jazz and rock, some sort of rare, some not. So I came back and asked what he was doing with the records and he just said: "Well, you can have them all, as I am not listening to them anymore. I only listen to Folk now". I took all the records, thanked him, put them in my car and headed off. Good day.

    One time this video rent place in some outskirt bought a huge collection of records. My friend didn't want to tell me at first, but one time he took me with him and I couldn't believe it. Got OG Nigeria Pressing Fela Stuff, he got stuff like BDP, I got stuff like love unlimited lp with "Strange games and things" for like a 2 dollars and tons of other material, just shitloads of records for cheap. All that in Germany, mind you, where these records were not easy to get at all in the first place...

    recently a guy i know who owns a record shop here found a "together bros." og in vg++ lying on the street, next to the trash. I wonder who wanted to trash that....just stupid.

  • high_chigh_c 1,384 Posts
    40's Ford that was under a tree, and it was filled with records, opened the trunk and it was filled with records too....

    didn't check the trunk, but at D*n Bak*r's house in his garage there were (and probably still are) records under whatever kinda antique car he has in there. And I think there were as many mosquitos in that garage as records.

    As far as crazy, and I've told this story before, I gotta go with a tale about another D*n: D*n Gr*y in Tyler. Dude lives in a town house that is floor to ceiling moving boxes full of records. He did leave a corridor though so he get to the bedroom which consists of a bed surrounded by even more stacks of floor to ceiling records.

    We get there and dude has us do manual labor so he could get to some burried box which was about four tiers back near the wall. Took a lot of lifting and rearranging in a such confined space but we finally got to the box in question. Then dude asks if we'd order him a pizza. This kinda caught us off gaurd, and after an akward silence he tells us he was just kidding. He didn't sound like he was kidding. Next he accuses me of breaking his toilet which was backed up before I even went in there to whiz. He later tells me he was kdding about the toilet too and that he knew it wasn't functioning.

    At checkout time dude "reserves the right" to not sell us about half of the records we pulled. But one of the records he did sell me was Nathan Bartell so I was happy.

    I talk to him about a month later to inquire about coming back to go through the stuff we didn't get to. He pulls a "nah, butyou can buy from me off ebay." Then he says he'll let me come back if and only if i "bring him a cute chinese girl."

    recycled story I know, but such a fond memory.

  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    40's Ford that was under a tree, and it was filled with records, opened the trunk and it was filled with records too....

    didn't check the trunk, but at D*n Bak*r's house in his garage there were (and probably still are) records under whatever kinda antique car he has in there. And I think there were as many mosquitos in that garage as records.

    As far as crazy, and I've told this story before, I gotta go with a tale about another D*n: D*n Gr*y in Tyler. Dude lives in a town house that is floor to ceiling moving boxes full of records. He did leave a corridor though so he get to the bedroom which consists of a bed surrounded by even more stacks of floor to ceiling records.

    We get there and dude has us do manual labor so he could get to some burried box which was about four tiers back near the wall. Took a lot of lifting and rearranging in a such confined space but we finally got to the box in question. Then dude asks if we'd order him a pizza. This kinda caught us off gaurd, and after an akward silence he tells us he was just kidding. He didn't sound like he was kidding. Next he accuses me of breaking his toilet which was backed up before I even went in there to whiz. He later tells me he was kdding about the toilet too and that he knew it wasn't functioning.

    At checkout time dude "reserves the right" to not sell us about half of the records we pulled. But one of the records he did sell me was Nathan Bartell so I was happy.

    I talk to him about a month later to inquire about coming back to go through the stuff we didn't get to. He pulls a "nah, butyou can buy from me off ebay." Then he says he'll let me come back if and only if i "bring him a cute chinese girl."

    recycled story I know, but such a fond memory.

    I'll finish the D*n Gr*y story for you......

    Dude had two houses filled with vinyl, one out on the highway that leads to Noonday, Tx.......had a big sign out front that he bought vinyl.

    I stopped there a few times but no one was ever home.....could see the massive amounts of LP's through the poorly boarded up windows.

    Finally I left a note with my # and asked him to call me collect, which he did. He informed me that none of the records were for sale but he would do some trading. Said the only record he was looking for was an OG Kenny & The Kasuals.

    I explained that it was a pretty rare LP and worth a fortune and he told me... "I know, I have 3 of them but I need another". About a year ago I was out that way and decided to stop by to try to see him......house was GONE!!!

    Burned down and every damn LP was lost.

    Not sure if he still has the other house full but the locals told me he was so depressed about the fire he stopped collecting.

    If you know how maybe you should try to get in touch with him again.

  • high_chigh_c 1,384 Posts
    Burned down and every damn LP was lost.




    how long ago was this? W*l and I were down there in late '01/early '02 probably.

  • Mike_BellMike_Bell 5,736 Posts
    You guys got some stories to tell (why does it seem most of these stories are TX related???).

    I'm still trying to find my house of vinyl.

  • Keep them coming, I love it.

    Ever come out of a dig like this just covered in dirt and your hands black as sin and your lungs on fire?




    Or do mine just suck?


  • DelayDelay 4,530 Posts
    I stepped to this woman selling a bunch of hip hop to a store in VA in the parking lot on her way out, and asked if she had more. she's like, "oh hell yeah. they my broke ass baby daddy's, and i'm getting rid of all'em."

    i gave her my address and she brought them by... a few heavy things in there as i flipped through, pulling them aside. all the while shes running her mouth on her cell phone while flinging around this screaming baby. All the sudden I see 2 crispy $20 bill between records. i grabbed them, then kept finding more and more as i continued...about $300 total and a bunch of empty dime bags. She did'nt see a thing. as i apprached her with my pile of finds, watching her son cry, i had a crisis of concience, and gave her the cash. she lit up and proclaimed, "oh SHIT!! i'm gonna get me some more cell phone minutes!" and snatched the cash from my hand. To top it off she complained that i didnt buy all the records and asked for $100 for a stack of 20 12"s. i offered her $20 and she took it and called me a cracker.

  • I stepped to this woman selling a bunch of hip hop to a store in VA in the parking lot on her way out, and asked if she had more. she's like, "oh hell yeah. they my broke ass baby daddy's, and i'm getting rid of all'em."

    i gave her my address and she brought them by... a few heavy things in there as i flipped through, pulling them aside. all the while shes running her mouth on her cell phone while flinging around this screaming baby. All the sudden I see 2 crispy $20 bill between records. i grabbed them, then kept finding more and more as i continued...about $300 total and a bunch of empty dime bags. She did'nt see a thing. as i apprached her with my pile of finds, watching her son cry, i had a crisis of concience, and gave her the cash. she lit up and proclaimed, "oh SHIT!! i'm gonna get me some more cell phone minutes!" and snatched the cash from my hand. To top it off she complained that i didnt buy all the records and asked for $100 for a stack of 20 12"s. i offered her $20 and she took it and called me a cracker.

    Wow. I bet you at least got some karma for giving her the money. Some people.....she shoulda gave you all the records for nuttin.

    Nothin in any of those dime bags either huh? Damn....

  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    Keep them coming, I love it.

    Ever come out of a dig like this just covered in dirt and your hands black as sin and your lungs on fire?




    Or do mine just suck?


    Rob????

    If so welcome to the board.....crazy place, lots of stories.....bring us the metal perspective!!!

  • karlophonekarlophone 1,697 Posts
    around '98 i was in NorCal, somewhere east of Sacramento in the mountains, me an my buddy were visiting his step grandmothers pad - she had married this musician dude who built a studio up in their (huge) log cabin near where the grid ends up in the mountains. Anyway, besides good wilderness hiking and recording some kooky music up in the middle of nowhere, we went down into town a few times and hit a (totally unexpected) record shop. The funny/story-worthy part was the huge guy who ran the place could barely move, he was sitting the whole time at a desk of sorts, with a massive tub of rubber cement. He was literally gluing peices of paper together the whole time we were there, going realllly slowly. he was using massive amounts of rubber cement to do this. the paper was blank! he had a really thick doofus drawl, clearly no sharp tack for starters, but years of rubber cement fumes couldnt have helped the mental/motor nerve situation at all. i recall pulling about 10 inches of pretty good soul plus some wacky folkways/buddhist stuff, and the guy called it $70. ("sevintee doh-lurs") All hail rubber cement!

  • yep, hell-o Rich. Digging for metal these days is a really grim prospect. Not much in shops anymore. At least nothing that good for me. But I look when I can. I'm trying to think of a good story but most are pretty fragmented. You and your brother need to write that book about it....


    Rob????

    If so welcome to the board.....crazy place, lots of stories.....bring us the metal perspective!!!

  • Oh Man ELMO, TX now I wont sleep for a week.

    I think the only thing you left out was the little shed's on the property that were FILLED (floor to ceiling) with pots and pans and on passing the last one looking up and seeing BONES hanging off the roof (Animal, Human "the girls from the photos", Alien) who knows at that point I wasn't stickin around to find out. What a trip GREAT RECORDS THOUGH!

  • not as good as some stories on here, but yesterday i stopped in this spot that sells hip-hop, punk, and metal records, but they have a small selection of random used stuff. On the floor there's a small pile of unpriced stuff. Among 'Silk Degrees' and various 80s Pointer Sisters records, there's:


    mono pressing on Concentric, still in shrink.
    guy at the counter's like, 'just give me a buck'
    cool stuff, he kinda sounds like Torme or Tony Bennett but his compositions are often really interesting and :next level: this must be really rare considering what i've seen people pay for it online?

  • Ok lets think after 20 years you start to forget some of these crazy things.
    Maybe someone out there can fill in the blanks where my mind just cant remember or doesn't want to anymore.

    There was a place about 2-3 blocks from Penn Station NY that was named "??? Liquidators" Large 50,000sf warehouse filled to the ceiling with PORN Videos you had to walk down these small isles and in the middle of the place there were records. Scored "Damn Sam" for $2.00
    But the people there were crazy these homeless looking perverts with shopping carts full of videos. I had to wait on this line for like 30 minuets to pay with this Crazy 500lbs lady yelling how she wanted An*l videos.

    IS THE PLACE STILL THERE??

  • SoulhawkSoulhawk 3,197 Posts
    20plus years ago Bob Mays buried stacks of 78s in his garden, at least three different times over the last couple years I've tried to help him dig out one particular doowop title - 'the four arcs' I think.

    unfortunately we haven't been able to locate the right spot, it's frustrating to get down to the clay & only hit water-damaged baseball cards instead of shellac.

    a few dozen copies of Brian Hollands( see Holland-Dozier-Holland) first pre-motown record on Kudo did get unearthed( literally) from the garden 10plus years ago.

    real digger talk.

    btb

  • Mike_BellMike_Bell 5,736 Posts
    Ok lets think after 20 years you start to forget some of these crazy things.
    Maybe someone out there can fill in the blanks where my mind just cant remember or doesn't want to anymore.

    There was a place about 2-3 blocks from Penn Station NY that was named "??? Liquidators" Large 50,000sf warehouse filled to the ceiling with PORN Videos you had to walk down these small isles and in the middle of the place there were records. Scored "Damn Sam" for $2.00
    But the people there were crazy these homeless looking perverts with shopping carts full of videos. I had to wait on this line for like 30 minuets to pay with this Crazy 500lbs lady yelling how she wanted An*l videos.









  • To go back in time to all these dig's before there was ebay. damn how much stuff did we leave.

    There was a comic store on LI with a basement full of wax and 3 inches of water on the floor so the guy wouldn't turn the lights on thinking someone would be electrocuted. Had to dig with a flash light and what a smell. People here talking about mold and spoors hell I've seen and smelled it all. Roaches swimin by.

  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    How's about spending two days crawling through the sea of vinyl once known as Goldmine in Gretna, Louisiana.

    Records were stacked from floor to ceiling, covering 100% of at least two rooms. We had to climb up on to the mountain of records, shimmy across and then tunnel down to see what was there.

    All this while being shadowed by some guy/employee named Fwancis that the store owner "assigned" to stay with us for our two day visit.

    Of course spending the nights drinking excessive quantities of beer, eating rabbit stew & crawfish and shooting pool with vomiting hookers added to the insanity!!!

  • drinking excessive quantities of beer, eating rabbit stew & crawfish and shooting pool with vomiting hookers added to the insanity!!! I WILL NEVER FORGET THAT GREAT!!!!




    Driving in TX on some Government lease property in the middle of nowhere.

    We see a sign that says "Lemonade & REAL Beef Jerky" on this little shack no cars in site. We are about 50+ miles from the nearest anything. It's August in TX 100+ outside so we stop and Mark (RIP) gets out and goes in for "Lemonade & Jerky". I stay in the car with the A/C, well ten minutes go by and he ain't coming out. Then this pickup pulls up and these 2 Redneck hunters get out and go in. Another 5 minutes pass and I am starting to think something is wrong (TX Chainsaw sh*t). The 2 Rednecks come out and there looking at me weird and they get in the truck and leave. Well I get out and start in. Just as I get to the door he comes out the 50+ LP's in his hands. The place was filled with Industural Lp's Crazy Raers.

    Lemonade, REAL Beef Jerky & RECORDS!! Hell my kind of store.

  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    For those keeping score....Glockose is my brother.

  • hcrinkhcrink 8,729 Posts
    You guys are like the Ernest Hemingways of record collecting.
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