Probably 500 pieces - Blue Note, Miles, Trane, Roy Ayers, Headhunters, Fusion, Grover Washington Jr., David Sanborn, any fucking thing with Marcus Miller on it somewhere, Luther, Boogie, Chapter 8, Jorge Dalto, Tania Maria, Valentine Brothers, Crusaders, Chaka, Anita Baker, Chet Baker, Grown-folks R&B, Stax, Otis, Early 80s hip-hop, Specials, Zappa, mulleted six-string shredders and a lot of bass-players-with-licks-I-needed-to-cop stuff which was my education. No 45s, apart from IIRC Herbie's "Rockit" which was the first piece I bought.
My dad is a hoarder and had, IIRC, 10K pieces years ago. Multiples of stuff he'd forgotten he already owned. Opera, Classical, Sinatra, Jazz (alas, more Armstrong than Miles/Trane), 78s. Al Jolson. Perry fucking Como for days. George Formby (he plays and owns hella ukes). Comedy. Peter Sellers and the Goons. Quadrophonic stuff. Hi-fi demos. Musicals. He was always into music made before his time, no rock or Beatles or R&B.
It's all piled up in their house gathering dust. I'd say it has very little resale value. My dad was born in 1935, adopted, and at that time regular folks were dirt poor with no possessions. I guess having a lot of shit you can see and call your own was a way of creating an identity or a sense of self. He's got a load of books, sheet music, antique pottery and glassware in the attic. No-one has been up there since we moved out and they stopped putting up Christmas decorations.
He's not like, a "Can't move in the house for corridors made of years-old newspaper stacks, covered in mouse-shit" hoarder but I suspect if my mum had left him (God knows why she hasn't) it would have gone down like that. Every couple of years we go and try and tidy the house, takes a whole weekend with four people at it all day, but you know in 2 weeks it'll be back to chaos.
I vowed never to get like that, so I only bought stuff I'd listen to regularly - not looking for complete catalogues or grip-to-flip stock etc. I'd say after 30+ years of digging I own all the old vinyl I'll ever want and the new music is all digital - thank f*ck. I have a f*ckload of mp3s. Before the internet I would shell out for an album if it had just one track I wanted, but now it's much easier to cop exactly what you need. I would. however, like to cop some Booker Ervin on vinyl off Horseleech wherever he is these days as a thank you for putting me on to him.
