For those who love 78s

[gvopedz]

...he’d wandered into the back room at Village Music Record Store in Mill Valley, where he was quickly overcome by a feverish mania reminiscent of Humphrey Bogart striking a vein of gold in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. CDs? We don’t need no stinkin’ CDs! Not when there are thousands of vintage 78-rpm records piled to the ceiling.

https://www.sfcv.org/articles/feature/these-record-collectors-78s-arent-just-music-theyre-way-life

 

[gmonahan]

Fun read! It caused me to take a long look at all the 78s in one of my cases. Sigh. If an entire wall full of cds is going to make my son cry some day when I depart this mortal coil, I don't even want to think about how he'll react to the 78s!

 

[BFrank]

I still have a collection of 78s that belonged to my parents. Anyone have suggestions about "disposing" of them? I asked the buyer at Amoeba if they buy them, and he said "No". But I don't want to throw them away.

[Aggie87]

Can you donate them to a local library?  Or alternately there's a Half Price Books store in Berkley (I looked online), and they will make offers on things you bring in to sell them (books, music, dvds, etc).  They tend to lowball offers though, but they'd likely at least take them off your hands.  Might be worth at least a phone call.

Edited June 6 by Aggie87

[gvopedz]

1 hour ago, Aggie87 said:

Or alternately there's a Half Price Books store in Berkley (I looked online), and they will make offers on things you bring in to sell them (books, music, dvds, etc).  They tend to lowball offers though, but they'd likely at least take them off your hands.  Might be worth at least a phone call.

"lowball" is to put it mildly or politely - do not be surprised if what Half Price Books offers you is less than what you paid to take the 78s to the store.

[JSngry]

Yeah HPB is only an option if you're just looking to dump, period. And then, take store credit over cash offer.

[Ken Dryden]

Unless a 78 rpm record is rare and has never been reissued on LP or CD, most collectors aren’t seeking them. Few turntables have the proper speed or stylus to play them as well. I’ve been given some over the years and ended up donating them.

[JSngry]

There's something to the uniqueness of the sound, though. No way I'm going there, but it makes me happy to know that some still are.

Those bigass grooves can hold a LOT of sound...

[adh1907]

Agreed. I began listening to jazz through a lot of my Dad’s 78s. Parker Gillespie and Mulligan have never sounded more powerful to my ears. Still have ‘em.  

[romualdo]

Have a collection of jazz 78s (Australian, UK, German & US pressings) played on an old wind up portable gramophone (Columbia 109a) or a 78 compatible technics SH-10E turntable (separate power unit) that i sourced from the ABC radio studios in Sydney a few years back. My preamp has the capability to switch to 78. There is definitely an audible difference to the quality of the sound.

[kh1958]

On 6/6/2025 at 12:32 AM, BFrank said:

I still have a collection of 78s that belonged to my parents. Anyone have suggestions about "disposing" of them? I asked the buyer at Amoeba if they buy them, and he said "No". But I don't want to throw them away.

https://78rpm.com

[BFrank]

Thanks for the suggestions. I figured there would be few options. I'll keep my eyes open and try to find a good donation source.

Nauck's look intriguing, too

[Big Beat Steve]

On 6/8/2025 at 2:08 AM, Ken Dryden said:

Unless a 78 rpm record is rare and has never been reissued on LP or CD, most collectors aren’t seeking them. Few turntables have the proper speed or stylus to play them as well. I’ve been given some over the years and ended up donating them.

I was surprised to find out in the last few years there are more (mostly relatively youngish) 78 rpm collectors here in the greater area than I figured. Not very many overall and sometimes with rather specialized niche-within-a-niche collecting tastes but they ARE there. 
To the point that at least one place out of town does attract enough interest to stage record hop evenings where the DJ spins strictly 78s only. (Something that has been happening in certain "in-crowd" collecting hipster circles in our capital Berlin for some time. But down here ? )

Otherwise, similar to what you say - I myself usually limit myelf to 78s that have never been reissued on LP or CD (or at least not on easily accessible reissues) - or ocasionally others that are so dirt cheap that you cannot resist, even if you have the reissues. But I don't go out of my way anymore to search high and low for 78s.