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About two years ago the NSA dumped a few thousand 78 tpm records despite our protests. It was a legal matter. Had a lot of bousy and hawks and other stuff. Shai On 4/16/2010 5:12 AM, Steven C. Barr wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > From: "Tom Fine" <[log in to unmask]> >> The big problem I read from the somewhat poorly-written newspaper >> story is that the collection is large and mostly common reissue LPs. >> So it has little value, even to scholars. This sounds like 450 boxes >> of mostly dollar-bin records. The university seems to have made a >> correct decision, given limited resources and time. >> > It DID seem to be reissue LP's of 78-era recordings; however, these > are not always "common!" > I used to own (long story) a couple hundred British reissue LP's of > vintage 78's (another chap > used to buy them from UK dealers and tape them, and then sold them to > me for VERY low > prices...!)! I couldn't have afforded either the purchase of the > original 78's or the huge cost > of shipping them to Canada...so I happily accumulated the LP's! I > suspect the chap who "stole" > my LP's (gave about $100 for a thousand LP's plus the industrial steel > shelf unit on which I > stored them...?!) had no idea where to sell those albums...?! > >> The lesson here for people on this list -- an accumulation of numbers >> is not a collection in the useful sense. Careful culling and careful >> selection of what makes up your collection makes it valuable and >> worthwhile. A huge pile of disorganized and common old records is not >> of much use to anyone. Also, as time goes on, condition matters more >> and more. If you've cared for your collection, it will be of more >> value to someone other than you. >> > As I read it, the original collector of the LP's did so because he was > specifically looking for > 78-era recordings, but didn't want the "hassle" of assembling a > quality 78 player...?! It > would have been much easier to accumulate LP reissue albums of the > vintage original > recordings, for which players are/were easier to acquire...?! >> >> All of this is hard to hear by some old guy who's spent years >> accumulating, but it's how it is today -- and frankly how it's been >> ever thus. I'm hoping that academia and other endowed repositories >> are concluding that numbers don't matter, it's quality and focus that >> matters in a collection. Much better to have a little pail of golden >> wheat than a silo of chaffe. >> > As I already commented, university-level music departments almost all > view "pop music" > as beneath them?! Would it have been more likely to have been kept if > it were an equally > large collection of CLASSICAL LP's?! One wonders...?! > > Steven C. Barr