And I thought I had a problem...

[Bol]

Take a look at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/22/books/do-not-sell-at-any-price-and-dust-grooves.html?src=dayp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-above-moth-fixed-region&region=c-column-above-moth-fixed-region&WT.nav=c-column-above-moth-fixed-region#

Esp. the slide show!

[JSngry]

This link might help some:

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=do+not+sell+at+any+price+book&tbm=nws

First result is the NYT article.

The Times is getting better at blocking unsubcribed traffic, at least here it is. I got one click out of Google, and that was it.

[marcello]

I read “Do Not Sell at Any Price” last week and it has some nice moments along with some rather sophomoric fluff like when she takes scuba lessons and dives next to the Paramount plant looking for 78's that may have been tosses into the river.

Good article/review.

Edited July 22, 2014 by marcello

[AllenLowe]

Truthfully, I've lost interest in the whole subject, which has been beaten to death. Rather than deal with the music itself, there appears to have grown a cottage industry built on overheated sociological rationale and rather futile attempts to present Americana prototypes; it's become the trade equivalent of building academic careers on fragile theories that are more gimmick than idea.

Marybeth Hamiton did it well and did it best, however, and her book bears repeated reading.

I've been collecting as long as anyone and with as much obsession; but it's not that interesting and I don't think the story is in the obsession or the process. It's in the music.

Edited July 22, 2014 by AllenLowe

[TedR]

I haven't read any of these books on the subject but, based on a quick look at the pictures here, it seems like an attempt to recreate the vibe of record stores in a room(s) at home. Most of us here, I believe, have warm memories of "haunting" record stores as an engaging escape and a place of relaxed discovery. That can also be a welcome addition to a home too.

[Hot Ptah]

Truthfully, I've lost interest in the whole subject, which has been beaten to death. Rather than deal with the music itself, there appears to have grown a cottage industry built on overheated sociological rationale and rather futile attempts to present Americana prototypes; it's become the trade equivalent of building academic careers on fragile theories that are more gimmick than idea.

Marybeth Hamiton did it well and did it best, however, and her book bears repeated reading.

I've been collecting as long as anyone and with as much obsession; but it's not that interesting and I don't think the story is in the obsession or the process. It's in the music.

I agree. I think that collecting is not interesting, and that collectors and their stories are usually quite boring.

[clifford_thornton]

Collectors with stories about anything other than records can be quite interesting.

[Big Beat Steve]

Collectors with stories about anything other than records can be quite interesting.

Did you ever get close to or move in the circles of classic car collectors? I've been into that scene for almost as long as I've been listening to and collecting jazz (a.o.) records (and have accumulated my share of items there too ) and I can tell you that "collectionitis" can get just as much out of hand and assume colossal proportions as in the case of record collectors, and the stories surrounding those explorations, finds and discoveries can be just as bizarre (and fascinating, of course). Apart from the fact that the objects of those collections tend to be MUCH more cumbersome, all other facets are very much comparable and probably even worse, i.e. even more obsessive, than in the case of records, because as often as not those collectors tend to accumulate "related" collectabilia too - very often with every car stored away go NOS parts, books, catalogs, garage signs, gas pumps, whatnot ... as long as the things are considered worthy of keeping by whomever ... and the distinction between collecting and hoarding is a very, very blurred one.

Just for a teaser, check out the videos on the LEE HARTUNG COLLECTION on Youtube. and then see if you can find any record collector who has hoarded THAT much (comparatively speaking) AS WELL AS associated items (printed matter, for example) that go with the music on those records.

Marybeth Hamiton did it well and did it best, however, and her book bears repeated reading.

Which one would that be? In Search of The Blues?

I may be mistaken (it's been a while since I read it) but i cannot recall it dwells that heavily on the collecting aspect of exploring blues music.

Edited July 22, 2014 by Big Beat Steve

[AllenLowe]

I do agree with Cliff that there is a lot of interesting info and stories that came out of various generations of 78 collectors, particularly in the blues area; it's just been overdone, I think; lots of articles and a few books; I may be wrong but I don't think there's a lot to add, after Gayle Dean Wardlow, Pete Whelan, Dick Spottswood, Mary Beth's book, there's been articles galore on Joe Bussard; books by and about John and Alan Lomax, interviews with Chris King and Dave Freeman, back issues of 78 Quarterly.

yes, Marybeth's book - and correct, it does not hit the collecting obsession directly, but goes at it in a far more interesting way, about the history and the obsession for the history.

Edited July 22, 2014 by AllenLowe

[Big Beat Steve]

True, the subject has been covered well.

Maybe what is and remains most interesting about all those stories (particularly from the 78rpm era) is not so much about collecting in the sense of adding the 10,001th item to one's personal collection but the stories about how those discoveries were made in the first place, e.g. if you read the stories about "collecting hot jazz" in sources such as Ramsey/Smith*s "Jazzmen" of 1939, in the 1944 Esquire Jazz Book, in "Black Beauty White Heat" ... Anybody probably wishes for a time machine, if only for a one-day visit.

And IMHO anyway, those stories of incredible finds on the Old Hat Records website just remain fascinating.

Since every such story of rare finds or finds in unlikely places is a personal one, those stories wil always strike a sensitive chord with some because those who collect in one way or another can relate to them.

Just like in all other fields of collecting.

[danasgoodstuff]

Collectors with stories about anything other than records can be quite interesting.

Did you ever get close to or move in the circles of classic car collectors? I've been into that scene for almost as long as I've been listening to and collecting jazz (a.o.) records (and have accumulated my share of items there too ) and I can tell you that "collectionitis" can get just as much out of hand and assume colossal proportions as in the case of record collectors, and the stories surrounding those explorations, finds and discoveries can be just as bizarre (and fascinating, of course). Apart from the fact that the objects of those collections tend to be MUCH more cumbersome, all other facets are very much comparable and probably even worse, i.e. even more obsessive, than in the case of records, because as often as not those collectors tend to accumulate "related" collectabilia too - very often with every car stored away go NOS parts, books, catalogs, garage signs, gas pumps, whatnot ... as long as the things are considered worthy of keeping by whomever ... and the distinction between collecting and hoarding is a very, very blurred one.

Just for a teaser, check out the videos on the LEE HARTUNG COLLECTION on Youtube. and then see if you can find any record collector who has hoarded THAT much (comparatively speaking) AS WELL AS associated items (printed matter, for example) that go with the music on those records.

Marybeth Hamiton did it well and did it best, however, and her book bears repeated reading.

Which one would that be? In Search of The Blues?

I may be mistaken (it's been a while since I read it) but i cannot recall it dwells that heavily on the collecting aspect of exploring blues music.

Studebaker Drivers Club member here, and yes car guys can get quite obcessive - just don't tell my parts guy I said so!

[Homefromtheforest]

That old documentary called "Vinyl" was a great film about record collectors...made me feel better about myself haha...

[bluesoul]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/magazine/the-brazilian-bus-magnate-whos-buying-up-all-the-worlds-vinyl-records.html

[Leeway]

Speaking of obsessive collectors of any stripe: If you don't think you have a problem, then you do. If you think you have a problem, then you may have one, but it is already being resolved.

[JSngry]

I had a buddy come by the other day and say something about how he needs to get his girlfriend over here to see how he's not the only one who's buying things while still having stuff still waiting to be opened, and I thought, oh, shit, I'm being solicited to be an enabler.

Hey, it's a gig. And really, what are friends for?