Record Digging Stories (Please Add On)

[LokoOne]

Been a while since I posted or dug for that matter. had a nice digging moment a month ago thought I'd share.





I go visit my mum one day and when I'm leaving she gives me a hand written note with a number and a name and 'discos' written on it. I ask what gives and she says 'oh i bumped into Vincente the other day and he says he has records to sell'.





Vincente is an old Spaniard guy my dad used to know btid when they were in the gambling scene in Sydney in the 70s. Years later he became a regular at an RSL I worked at and one day chatting we connected the dots about who my dad was etc. He lived down the road from me and one day I saw him on the street and he asked for my dads number, so I walked to my house to get pen and paer to give him the details. It was in that minute or so he saw my record collection and we had a quick chat about that.





fast forward almost 12 years and he bumps into my mum and gives her the previously mentioned note. Cool. So I call him and he says one of his flat mates has about 100 records he didn't want anymore and that he remembered I collected wax. I head over there one day, most of the collection is pretty crap dollar bin stuff I pull about a dozen Motown and assorted soul stuff and then in the last box I find a NM Hot City Bump Band LP... HCBB isnt a major holy grail but a nice raer Aussie funk LP and you dont see that many copies floating around...so that was a nice score but the randomness of it all is what I like. So dude my dad used to gamble with becomes a regular at my work 20 yrs later and a shitload later out of the blue hooks me up with a nice piece of wax....





The bonus beat is his other flat mate has a big collection of latin records in his garage which I have put dibs on... waiting for dude to sort out what he wants so im hoping to add another chapter to the tale...

 

[nebbers]

I remembered another one.





About four six years ago i went to the Camden Record Fair and it was pretty average until i went into the main room and there was a random bloke from essex selling multiple copies of hardcore and jungle 12"'s for ??1 each. I had a chat with him and he said he had a lock up in Essex and i should come up and have a look. So a couple of weeks later my mate drove me upto a train station in essex and along with another guy i knew we met the guy and followed him to a field about 10 mins away. It literally was a scene from Lock Stock as we pulled up to a metal container in the corner of this field next to a scrap metal dealer. He opened it up and in the middle of the container on the floor were about 30 boxes of records. As we started digging a load of the record were literally covered in bird shit as if they had been left outside but we as we cracked on we started finding multiples of some classic records. We had arrived at about 6pm so the light was fading fast so we were literally speed digging. I think i ended up taking 250 records at less than a pound each and my mate took about 150. As we were leaving though he mentioned that a dealer from the Camden Record Fair had visited last week and taken 1000 records. Doh!!!

 

[tripledouble]

ok i got a story from last week that isnt on some expansive ocean of holy grails for a quarter, or naked sex puppets, et etc but still touches on the sublime coincidences that happen in the world and especially in the world of record hunting.





so a couple Fridays ago, i was in my house, doing some spring cleaning with my housemate, listening to tracks on youtube and kind of letting the youtube suggestions on the right side of the screen influence upcoming selections. Somehow we got to Lil Brown's "paint it black" , which i dont think i had ever listened to before. halfway through the song, my housemate and i looked at each other and both commented on how sick the track was. good lord, why hadnt i ever picked this record up before?!? i had intended to for over a decade, but never had. well, shouldnt be THAT hard to find for under twenty bucks and now it was on my mental list.





next day, i was driving around the city doing morning errands and thinking about the rest of the day. I was slated to play records for a couple hours at a friends birthday party, so i mulled over what would go over well with his crowd of people. I also tried to think of good birthday songs, so my thoughts immediately latched on to Jimi and Curtis Knight's birthday monster. I would have to go to my folks' house and search around for the record, which would take some time, but would be well worth it. While driving and strategizing, I decided to swing by a past-its-prime flea market that i used to frequent regularly before it had entirely jumped the shark. it was a gorgeous spring day and i was happy to stretch my legs for twenty minutes. soon enough, at the flea, i found an uninspiring crate of records with cyndi lauper and such in it. what was interesting was the discovery of 3 silkscreened posters that highly resembled the art of my friends Tom and Andrew, from a particular Philly art collective. I bought all 3 for a buck from the old lady and continued walking. Less than a minute later, i hear "hey tone, you causing trouble?" I turn around and it is the aforementioned Tom, who I hadnt seen in months (and it had probably been years since i saw him at a flea market). So of course I show him the prints, which he immediately recognized as being from his colleague, the legendary Espo, who made them as album inserts for a philly group "Need New Body".





so we walk and talk for little over 3 minutes before i spy with my squinty eyes a crate of records, slightly obscured by a boogie board. I stoop to look and Tom continues on his path, searching for hood ornaments for a piano installation he was putting together. half way through the box of chud, there it is, AFrica-music of Lil Brown. Ok Wow. as i pull it out, the reveal is even crazier...right behind it in the crate was the jimi and curtis knight Happy Birthday record. Boo ya!!! how the hell does shit like this happen??? the rest of the crate was populated by frank sinatra, dean martin and one I-threes record (which i copped).











toms piano installation:

 

[Rockadelic]

Great story T......I can't count how many times shit like this has happened to me!

 

[behemoth]

Rockadelic said:Great story T......I can't count how many times shit like this has happened to me!




this kind of reminds me of this one time....





i received a call from Middletown,NY. a guy had saved my ad from the paper for almost a year. i arrive at his house. he tells me he worked for a distributor called Handleman and Co. every week he used to bring LPs and 45s home. he was half Puerto Rican/half Italian. really nice guy. pointed out the boxes. 6 of Latin stuff. one of disco. a box or 2 of 45s and on the shelf was soul and jazz. he didn't collect rock stuff...





for about a year my friend was asking me to find him the Ambassadors LP on Arctic. i always would tell him i found it and then told him i was kidding. this was about to be the boy who cried wolf. because the previous night i had a dream that i pulled that LP. and when i got to the alphabetized shelf the first LP was a WLP copy of the record. i knew it was going to be a great day. i pulled about 2 boxes of minty soul and jazz titles and then bought all 6 boxes of Latin stuff...





it would be my biggest and best Latin haul of all time. i am talking 6 boxes of gold label Fania's in shrink, full runs of Cotique titles, Rey Davila on Orc, Orlando Marin, Sabu Martinez, King Nando, Earl Coleman, just amazing stuff. most in the shrink. most minty. all first pressings.





i told my friend about the Ambassadors and he didn't believe me. so i just showed up with it at the house one day and he was extremely appreciative.

 

I had a great time at a garage set this Saturday.





I arrives early and started through the dollar bins for clean Lp's. I am browsing and this tri-colored cat with a bright orange collar moseys out of the backyard. I can tell he is a young tomboy and, from the bright orange collar, I take caution. Sure enough the cat takes to a tree and starts climbing. Then the seller says to his wife, "the cat is in the tree." I am expecting the wife to freak out, however; she say that it's ok.





Just a little later the wife says, "oh, there is that familiar 45 buyer who you like to wrangle with, why don't you go inside and get some 45's that he hasn't seen yet."??





So those two, the seller and the buyer, start negotiating and being noisy. The cat comes to see what all the fuss is about. Finally the two settle down and as a gesture of kindness the seller picks up the cat asks the buyer if he wants to hold it...





The buyer politely declines, but the seller insisted the cat is soft and friendly. Well, the buyer must not have seen that bright orange collar because he agrees to hold that cat and as soon as he did the thing got ferocious and fur got all over the place.

 

[LaserWolf]

:face_melt:

 

[DB_Cooper]

BearClaw said:I had a great time at a garage set this Saturday.





I arrives early and started through the dollar bins for clean Lp's. I am browsing and this tri-colored cat with a bright orange collar moseys out of the backyard. I can tell he is a young tomboy and, from the bright orange collar, I take caution. Sure enough the cat takes to a tree and starts climbing. Then the seller says to his wife, "the cat is in the tree." I am expecting the wife to freak out, however; she say that it's ok.





Just a little later the wife says, "oh, there is that familiar 45 buyer who you like to wrangle with, why don't you go inside and get some 45's that he hasn't seen yet."??





So those two, the seller and the buyer, start negotiating and being noisy. The cat comes to see what all the fuss is about. Finally the two settle down and as a gesture of kindness the seller picks up the cat asks the buyer if he wants to hold it...





The buyer politely declines, but the seller insisted the cat is soft and friendly. Well, the buyer must not have seen that bright orange collar because he agrees to hold that cat and as soon as he did the thing got ferocious and fur got all over the place.

 

[ROD1]

Indi_Lbl_HE@T said:I was in Colombia last summer for work but had about a week of vacation time to dig around a little bit, party, and put in some quality time on the beach. The city where I spent 3 days of that week (Santa Marta) is not known for its abundance of records, but I tried my best to find some stuff nonetheless. After hitting up all the antique stores in town, going through a closed shop's stock (mostly mid to late 80s turds, but I did find the first Son Palenque LP in there), hitting up the local radio station (only to find out they had sold all their vinyl 6 years earlier to a famous DJ from Barranquilla), & numerous other dead-end local leads, I was just about to throw in the towel.





The end of my 3rd day there I was calling a final contact from a street corner Llamadas stand (vendors who let you pay to use their cell phone). The contact turned out to be yet another dead end lead. I was seconds away from giving up and heading out to the beach resort I had reservations at (thus ending my digging opportunities), when the teenage girl working the Llamadas stand overheard my phone conversation and said she used to clean someone's house that had thousands of old records. She gave him a call for me and within 15 minutes he picked me up from that same corner and drove me to his house (he also happened to be a taxi driver).

Turns out this dude was a champion local salsa dancer and collectionista, and did in fact have around 2,000 records. Pulled around 50 choice titles from him and had a great time smoking cigs, drinking beers and jamming out to descarga tunes on his loud sound system. At one point he pulled out a bag of percussion instruments and handed them out to his brothers and me and we played along to Kako's Tribute to Noro Morales LP (which I copped from him that day as well). Thank you Pepe Salsa!

damn...I would give an important body organ up for a trip to Colombia to dig....one day. Great story!

 

[ROD1]

behemoth said:Rockadelic said:Great story T......I can't count how many times shit like this has happened to me!




this kind of reminds me of this one time....





i received a call from Middletown,NY. a guy had saved my ad from the paper for almost a year. i arrive at his house. he tells me he worked for a distributor called Handleman and Co. every week he used to bring LPs and 45s home. he was half Puerto Rican/half Italian. really nice guy. pointed out the boxes. 6 of Latin stuff. one of disco. a box or 2 of 45s and on the shelf was soul and jazz. he didn't collect rock stuff...





for about a year my friend was asking me to find him the Ambassadors LP on Arctic. i always would tell him i found it and then told him i was kidding. this was about to be the boy who cried wolf. because the previous night i had a dream that i pulled that LP. and when i got to the alphabetized shelf the first LP was a WLP copy of the record. i knew it was going to be a great day. i pulled about 2 boxes of minty soul and jazz titles and then bought all 6 boxes of Latin stuff...





it would be my biggest and best Latin haul of all time. i am talking 6 boxes of gold label Fania's in shrink, full runs of Cotique titles, Rey Davila on Orc, Orlando Marin, Sabu Martinez, King Nando, Earl Coleman, just amazing stuff. most in the shrink. most minty. all first pressings.





i told my friend about the Ambassadors and he didn't believe me. so i just showed up with it at the house one day and he was extremely appreciative.




great story as well....full fania and cotique titles, holy cow.

 

[Anto99]

I think I've asked or mentioned this before, but is anyone thinking of compiling these into a book of some sort? If so, I would love to contribute with any resources I can offer. I really think there could be a market for this kinda thing.

 

[DuttyBabylon]

thanks so much for all these

 

[DustedDon]

BearClaw said:I had a great time at a garage set this Saturday.





I arrives early and started through the dollar bins for clean Lp's. I am browsing and this tri-colored cat with a bright orange collar moseys out of the backyard. I can tell he is a young tomboy and, from the bright orange collar, I take caution. Sure enough the cat takes to a tree and starts climbing. Then the seller says to his wife, "the cat is in the tree." I am expecting the wife to freak out, however; she say that it's ok.





Just a little later the wife says, "oh, there is that familiar 45 buyer who you like to wrangle with, why don't you go inside and get some 45's that he hasn't seen yet."??





So those two, the seller and the buyer, start negotiating and being noisy. The cat comes to see what all the fuss is about. Finally the two settle down and as a gesture of kindness the seller picks up the cat asks the buyer if he wants to hold it...





The buyer politely declines, but the seller insisted the cat is soft and friendly. Well, the buyer must not have seen that bright orange collar because he agrees to hold that cat and as soon as he did the thing got ferocious and fur got all over the place.







:face_melt:

 

[BallzDeep]

nm

 

[skyl4r]

I randomly ended up at the house of Money Mark's brother to dig, completely by chance. This was earlier this year, but still a cool story. In the middle of the week, I went out to a yard sale on impulse, to a small house in Gardena, CA. When I got there at the exact time the sale was supposed to start, I found an old Hispanic dude who had purchased all the records already (thousands) at a dirt cheap price for his flea market. As the old guy was slowly loading his truck, the seller allowed me to pull records out behind the old guy's back to hide. The cover-up to justify me digging through the records still was that I was looking for records to purchase from HIM (not the seller - since they were now technically the old guy's property). At the end, I "bought" one record from the guy for $2... and in reality had probably 70-80 stashed in the seller's garage.





Anyway, as I was digging, the seller and I got around to talking. He asked me if I had heard of Money Mark, and when I confirmed, he mentioned that he was Money Mark's brother... I saw the resemblance. The collection he was selling belonged to their father who had passed away (nothing crazy in the lot unfortunately). We got to talking about the music industry, and random things, and the guy gave me a sealed copy of "Change Is Coming" that they had a bunch of. In the end, after the old guy had left, he let me take all the records I had pulled for maybe $15. Cool guy, and memorable digging experience since it was so coincidental.

 

[El Prez]

DB_Cooper said:BearClaw said:I had a great time at a garage set this Saturday.





I arrives early and started through the dollar bins for clean Lp's. I am browsing and this tri-colored cat with a bright orange collar moseys out of the backyard. I can tell he is a young tomboy and, from the bright orange collar, I take caution. Sure enough the cat takes to a tree and starts climbing. Then the seller says to his wife, "the cat is in the tree." I am expecting the wife to freak out, however; she say that it's ok.





Just a little later the wife says, "oh, there is that familiar 45 buyer who you like to wrangle with, why don't you go inside and get some 45's that he hasn't seen yet."??





So those two, the seller and the buyer, start negotiating and being noisy. The cat comes to see what all the fuss is about. Finally the two settle down and as a gesture of kindness the seller picks up the cat asks the buyer if he wants to hold it...





The buyer politely declines, but the seller insisted the cat is soft and friendly. Well, the buyer must not have seen that bright orange collar because he agrees to hold that cat and as soon as he did the thing got ferocious and fur got all over the place.









rlmao

 

[Frank]

nevermind

 

[kala]

my son collect funk45

 

[Rockadelic]

Rockadelic said:

Rockadelic said:


Part III to come.......




Three of us head out to the Gas Station....one member of this board and a young dude who owns a local store. Always good to share leads with folks who reciprocate and know a wide variety of genres, my philosophy is that there are enough records for everyone. On the way there we inevitably speculate that 100K might actually be 1,000 or maybe 5,000....seldom is 100K an accurate description.





We get there about 9:00 and it's really 100K....maybe more. It's laid out in a variety of ways....all the Christmas, Soundtracks and Country were filed, alphabetically on shelves......the rest is piled up everywhere.....2-3 foot high piles and maybe 300 -500 of them. He tells us that most records will be $1.00....some $0.50......so we start digging. About an hour in I've seen enough white gospel to build a stairway to heaven but have found 20 or so solid records.....at hour #3 my young store owner buddy pulls a copy of Marvin Peterson & The Soul Masters. Our host takes us across the street for lunch at the only local restaurant and after lunch we dig for 4 more hours.





When it was all said and done we left with about 4-500 records...cherry picked like a motherfucker........some rare titles.....and the three of us only got through about 75% of the stuff.......I've since sent another friend there who pulled a few hundred LP's and plans on returning.



UPDATE: Earlier this year one of the guys who went on this digging trip asked me if I still had the dude's phone # because he had just opened a store and was thinking about going there and buying everything he had. I told him I didn't but I remembered his name and it shouldn't be hard to find to find his #. I Googled his name and the small town he was in and up pops a bunch of news stories about the guy. Not long after we had been to his Watermelon Stand/Gas Station the dude was busted for child porn and he was serving 20 years. To top it off he had been making the porn with young boys in the gas station! We found the # to the gas station and my buddy called....he was told the owner of the records was "on vacation" and they would pass the message to him.....that was months ago and as expected, no reply.

 

[kala]

thats just some disgusting texas gas station record repugnancy man