My experiences are usually just the opposite,dealers/store owners,who will sick 
overinflated prices on the most common of 60s rock Lps, but toss mint Michael 
Rabin records in the dollar bin.

Roger

 





________________________________
From: Cary Ginell <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wed, August 18, 2010 12:52:51 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] music man murray record collection & Murray Gershenz, 
music collector extraordinaire, is parting with his entire music library.

I remember the store on Highland. I think it was called The Record Collector. It 
was chiefly classical records, and a good supply of it at that. Not the 
bottom-of-the-barrel stuff that Murray housed. The Highland shop did have a few 
10-inch jazz and folk LPs, which I scarfed up at a decent price because the snob 
who ran the place looked down his nose at them. It was like in the Three Stooges 
short where Moe, Larry, and Curly are thumbing through a stack of hundred dollar 
bills: $100, 200, 300, 400, 500, oh! here's a five," and they toss it away. 


Cary Ginell

> Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:22:09 -0500
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] music man murray record collection & Murray Gershenz, 
>music collector extraordinaire, is parting with his entire music library.
> To: [log in to unmask]
> 
> I recall the excitement when first moved to LA at the prospect of going to
> Murray's. Then I went. Dashed hopes. Only to be outdone by the music shop
> on Highland at Santa Monica, with a shopkeeper even more arrogant than
> Murray. I hate to see record (and book) shops close but when their "owner"
> behaves as these folks have, give me the internet any day.
> 
> Alan Carrie
> 
> On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 12:23 PM, Cary Ginell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> > The point differentiating "stock" from "collection" is well-taken in this
> > case. To my knowledge, Murray as never been anything but a shopkeeper. He
> > has no private collection to my knowledge and really isn't all that
> > concerned with the finer points of discographical research as are serious
> > collectors. He never worked hard to make his a better business. He just
> > opened his doors and expected to sell his schlock for whatever ridiculous
> > prices he posted on them. He has been reviled in L.A. for decades as being a
> > grumpy, mean, brusque, and difficult person. The last time I visited his
> > shop was maybe 25-30 years ago, when it was on Santa Monica Blvd. near
> > Western, a bad part of town even then. What he's got now is most likely the
> > same stuff, only rifled through even further. There may be some choice items
> > that he set aside (some of which he has displayed during interviews), but I
> > can almost guarantee that they are a miniscule percentage of his holdings
> > and certainly not representative of all that is there. If his business were
> > doing well, he wouldn't need to find a new profession at his advanced age.
> > He could have just dumped what was left and gone off to some island in
> > blissful retirement. But creating a new image of himself as a "lovable old
> > coot" on TV shows is easier for him and probably earns him a much better
> > income than selling records. If these records end up in a land fill
> > somewhere, they probably won't be missed.
> >
> > Cary Ginell
> >
> >