Total. Score.

Posted on by keepsmealive Posted in posts by aaronTagged , ,

We interrupt our regularly scheduled Rush series to bring you this breaking news update:

My lovely wife took today off from work, giving us a lovely long weekend. Of course, we had some administrative stuff to do downtown (who doesn’t love going to the bank and the post office?) but then we were free to our own devices after that.

On our way back to the car, we passed the back of our local branch of the Salvation Army store, where people drop off their donations. Ah, I see you’re already guessing where this is going…

Yes, a guy was there with a trailer full of stuff, piling it all onto the pavement. At the front of the pile, two boxes of vinyls. Of course, I had to dig through them. Initially, my fears were confirmed – a lot of crap I had no desire to hear. There were a few Bread, Earth Wind & Fire records, some Elton John and Eagles (though as I dug through, he said ‘Eagles! Those shouldn’t be in there!’ and took them back).  But most of it wasn’t for me.

There were, however, a few musts. And how much did he want for them? Nothing. I said “Seriously, Dude, let me give you money for these.” He wouldn’t hear of it. Wouldn’t even let me buy him a coffee. He was just happy they were going to a good home. I KNOW!

Folks, here is my TOTALLY FREE score from today:

IMAG4881

Yup.

Most of the vinyls are pristine and all inserts are intact, though Record 1 of the White Album looks like it has a few really light surface scratches – they shouldn’t affect playback. Honestly, these look like they were hardly ever played, if at all. Sadly, the packaging for the Red collection (1962-1966) has some water damage to the front cover, which has caused the two halves to get stuck together. I tried gently prying them apart but they’re fairly well glued, so I won’t pull them anymore. The records themselves, though, are perfect. And who cares? They were FREE!

I’m most intrigued by that collection of Love Songs with the yellow vinyls. They look neat! A quick search of Discogs (using the catalog #) shows a copy like mine to be $35-$40, but they’re worth more than that to me. They’re just neat (and the vinyls are in perfect shape).

So. Am I thrilled? HELLS YES. I still feel bad that the guy wouldn’t take anything for them. I really did try to pay him for them. Heck, I didn’t even catch his name. But he seemed cool with it, so I guess it’s alright.

A chance encounter, some random guy, and some really awesome records.

It was a very, very good day.

20 thoughts on “Total. Score.”

  1. Pingback: Beatles – Love Songs | keepsmealive
  2. Reply
    Sarca says:

    Frig, brilliant find, Aaron!!
    Reminds me of one time my husband and I went to a Value Village in London, ON, 4 years ago and someone had given up their Nintendo cartridge collection – 8 or 10 games. VV was selling them for $3 each. He hollered at me “Get a cart! Get a cart!” lol That was a good day.

    Like

    1. Reply
      keepsmealive says:

      Hey, I know! I still cannot believe it. I would have been just as happy with them if they guy had taken money for them. But FREE?! Goddamn!

      My lovely wife said, as we walked away, “Well, it’s obvious he’s not the Beatles fan in the family…”

      Like

    2. Reply
      keepsmealive says:

      I wish I’d known you were into those. Our VV had a pile of them for a long while, nobody wanted them. Then one day they were all gone so I asked the lady and she said some guy came in and dropped $200 for the lot of them. I have no idea what they were per unit, but that’s a lot of games!

      Like

    1. Reply
      keepsmealive says:

      Thanks! It was sweet indeed. I thought for sure he was gonna change his mind, as we were walking away, and say he wanted them back. Or that he now wanted crazy money for them, or something. But nope. Just cheerfully waved us on and went back to dumping stuff from his trailer.

      Like

    1. Reply
      keepsmealive says:

      I know, and for once right! How many times I’ve been in the wrong place at the wrong time, or even the right place at the wrong time. And most of the random Dudes are nowhere near as nice as this one was…

      Like

  5. Reply
    Becky says:

    I have those same records myself! What a superb gift to start the weekend. I hadn’t even heard of the Love Songs record before I found it in a flea market. Gotta love the smell of vinyl!

    Like

    1. Reply
      keepsmealive says:

      Thanks for the Like, Becky! It was indeed a brilliant start to the weekend. If I wasn’t already enmeshed in a series on 1990s Rush, I would totally be writing about these records starting now. I’d never heard of the Love Songs set either, but then again, I am more a Stones guy (despite growing up on the Beatles) so not much surprises me when it comes to releases from them. I just love the coloured vinyl. Gorgeous. You got the coloured vinyl set at a flea market? Damn, seems like Discogs is the LAST place people should go to get this set! haha. As for smell, I agree. But these are (admittedly) a bit musty. Probably been in a basement for a while. Alas. But it’s OK, now they’re in a loving home where they will receive proper treatment. Thanks for commenting!

      Like

    1. Reply
      keepsmealive says:

      And this will be the one time I won’t say that my karma ran over someone’s dogma… oh wait… Shit.

      Yeah you’re right, it’s a HUGE start to the weekend. WAHOO! I’m convinced that there are these people out there, who don’t know that vinyls still have value (I have been asked before “People still buy those?!?!). Around here, it’s A LOT of country and western. Great, if you’re into that (and I am, to a degree), but I’m certain there are people out there who have basements and crawlspaces with a box or two in them and they don’t want them, don’t care to try to sell them, and would gladly ditch them on someone like me. Trick is to meet them…

      Like

    1. Reply
      keepsmealive says:

      I know! He said he and his wife are pack rats, but every once in a while they go through and just pitch stuff. Said he could probably do about four more trailers full, but didn’t know if they had more records.

      This is similar to another time, last summer, when i went past the back of that shop and they had boxes of vinyls. They let me go through them before they hit the shelves, reasoning that anything I bought would be less they had to lug into the store. I got 66 records. They charged me $0.10 each. $6.60 for a trunk full of some pretty sweet vinyl. Even a couple of Zeppelins. The list is over at whatownsme.wordpress.com Anyway yeah, they even charged me only $0.10 for a 4-vinyl swing/big band boxed set. It was one unit, you see, not 4 separate records.

      Starting to think I should just hang out behind that store all the time. Seems every time I go by there, there’s vinyl treasures to be had.

      Liked by 1 person

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