A Mountain of Records: My Day in the Sweat Box

If you know me at all, you know that I am a bit loose in the wallet sometimes. A great deal will come along, and instinctively (NOT IMPULSIVELY) I have to buy it or else pass on what could be the deal of the century.

Wednesday, I made one such instinctive purchase.

Lounging around work Wednesday, I decided to pop over to Ebay and look at some records...my favorite past-time. I did a search for records within 50 miles of my zip code, and saw there was a lot of records being sold in North Vernon.

It advertised "Approximately 1,000" LP's (that's the 12 inch, 33 1/3 rpm records, for those of you not in the know) all for $300. In looking at the picture with the posting, I counted roughly 25 boxes. 50 records per box...yeah, that's around 1,000. I emailed right away and asked where in North Vernon he lived, and if he would allow me to come have a "sneak peek" at the lot. He agreed.

I went straight from work with the work van, in case he decided he wanted to part with the records right away. When I arrived, I was lead outside, where the owner opened the right half of a two-car garage. Inside I saw a stack of boxes, just like the picture on the ebay listing. In front of the boxes was a rack that contained a bunch of loose records. I started thumbing through, and after about 5 minutes, I had seen enough good stuff to know I wanted to take the plunge.

"What'd ya think? Name me a price, and I'll close the auction right now." the owner said as I removed my hat and scratched my head. I knew at this point, I was going to be able to get these for whatever I wanted...why would he end the auction early, if he wasn't hoping for a quick sale?

"Well, Jim, I'll tell you what..." I opened my wallet, and counted out some $20's...making sure to count and re-count, to build the tension.

"I have $160 in my wallet and I'll give that to you right now for the whole lot." Jim hoped onto the tailgate of his truck and countered.

"How about $200?"

I had him. I would have paid the $300, but now I got a deal. I agreed I would Paypal the rest of the money to him when I got home, if he would go ahead and let me load the records up now.

He looked puzzled...not because I asked to load up without paying in full, but rather because he was adamant that I wouldn't be able to load them in one trip. 25 boxes in an empty van? Yeah, that'll fit, i'm sure of it.

Then, he hopped from the tailgate and opened the left half of the garage. There, behind door number 2 was the mother load. A seven foot high mountain of boxes spanned five rows wide, and three rows deep.

What have I gotten myself into? Where will I put all these records? What the hell am I thinking?

I loaded up the first 25 boxes, and had barely made a dent. Did I mention that Jim had a water cast on BOTH feet, making it impossible for him to help me load? Well, he did. So, I called for some back-up, as I knew this would take several trips.

My back-up wasn't home, so I sucked it up and called Becky, whom I knew would KILL me for buying these. Surprisingly, she was very cool with it. I promised to put them in the shed, and get them out ASAP. She helped me unload the first pile into the shed, and followed me out for round 2 in the Cruiser.

The look on her face when Jim opened up the garage was priceless. And it made me feel about 2 foot tall. I knew it was a look of "what the hell?." We loaded the van and the Cruiser down and headed home for the night. It was about 9 pm when we got home, and Shannon came over to help unload. I settled in for a few hours of searching.

The Plan

The plan was simple. Search for records I wanted to keep for a few hours, and the next day, I would take the morning off work, return for the rest of the records, and take Friday off to look through the rest. I had to get the records I wanted out of the hot shed, to prevent warping or total wrecking of the albums with the humidity and such.

Wednesday night went as planned. I looked through about 25 boxes, and pulled the records I wanted. Thursday morning, I returned to the scene...twice...to pick up the remaining stash. On the way back from the final load, I counted the records in a box that sat next to me.

90 records. I then counted 80 per milk carton, and roughly 75 in a smaller set of boxes. Then, I started to count the actual boxes. I roughly estimate there weren't 1,000 records in this lot...but rather between 7,500 and 10,000!!

Once I got all the records in the shed, I made a startling discovery. I had NO ROOM to move in there. I was going to have to figure out a new way to tackle the project. Friday morning, I set to work, having decided to work a three box system.

Box 1: Records I wanted to keep.
Box 2: Records I didn't want to keep that were in good shape.
Box 3: Records that were trash.

Box 1 records, once full, would go to the house. Box 2 would go into the van. Box 3 would go to the trash.

It was so hot in the shed. 90's outside, probably close to 100 inside. Sweat dripped from the bill of my hat. A sweat soaked towel layed close. Beside me, the remains of a 12 pack of Coke...I swear I drank 10 sodas and several glasses of water Friday...but I couldn't get enough. In the end, I sweat 8 pounds off. But don't worry, most of them found there way back!!

At 9:30 am, I knew I had to make a very difficult decision. The van was nearly full and I had to decide between option A...take them to a storage unit, pay the big monthly fee, and hope to sell them. Or option B...Goodwill. It was the only options, as I couldn't put them all in the house, and the shed would only serve as temporary housing.

I couldn't decide, so I opened a few more boxes. The van was getting full. Then, my answer came for me. I opened a box that showered me with a gold rush of big artists...Beatles, The Who, Zepplin, Stones...in all, if I were to buy all these records on ebay, it would cost me over $700. I found a stash of Beatles 45's with there picture sleeves, one of which was on ebay that very moment for $150!!

I felt so blessed, that I decided, on the spot, that Goodwill deserved my overflow. I hopped in the van, and drove a load over. Poor Goodwill guy...we unloaded that van for 20 minutes, filling a skid, a cart, and leaving the rest on the ground. Another donator pulled up and went straight to work helping unload, what a nice guy!! I returned the favor and helped him with his load when mine was finished. He only had clothes, though, so it wasn't a very fair trade.

The receipt said 60 boxes, but I bet there were only about 35-40. When we pushed the cart inside, the lady in the donation center said: "Good, we needed some records." The kid looked at her and said, "We haven't even scratched the surface yet!"

I returned home and loaded the van up a second time with non-keep albums, and I finished my last box around 5:30 pm. Near the end, I pulled a red vinyl Beatles White Album (Japanese pressing) which is a BIG dollar piece in it's own right. In total, I think I kept 2-3,000 records for myself, of which I will try to pare down (due to doubles, condition, and the fact that I grabbed some stuff I probably don't really want.)

I took van load #2 to Goodwill...another 40+ boxes. Two skids worth this time. I bet they didn't want THAT many records!! But they unloaded with no complaints, thanked me, and I was on my way. The basement is full of boxes, but it's fairly organized still. I worked on getting everything together yesterday, and I hope to make up a lot for ebay, to recoup my investment.

Anyone want to build me a storage unit for these records?