Estate Sale

[Teasing the Korean]

As I've written elsewhere, I'm pretty much finished with buying music, except for the odd release here and there.  

But yesterday, driving to work, I passed an estate sale, and couldn't resist the temptation to stop by.

There were a few hundred LPs, nothing really rare, but here is what I loved about it:

The LPs were almost all classical, with some jazz.  They were all mono, and they were all in pristine condition.  Almost all dated from the 1950s.  Many were on Columbia, and the LPs were still tucked inside the inner plastic sleeves that Columbia used in the 1950s.  They were a buck a throw. 

I bought a Stravinsky, some Satchmo, some Benny Goodman, and a Gunther Schuller.

But if I had more money right now, and were just starting a collection, I probably would have made an offer on the whole lot.  It was obviously a well-loved, well-cared for,  deliberately curated collection.  It would have been nice if it could all have been kept intact.  

At any rate, it was a nice window into the life of a neighbor whom I probably never met, and who had great taste in music.  

 

[paul secor]

"At any rate, it was a nice window into the life of a neighbor whom I probably never met, and who had great taste in music."

I liked that thought. Thanks for posting it. 

[Rooster_Ties]

Lovely to find a collection like that.

Which Gunther Schuller album? - if I might ask.

[soulpope]

1 hour ago, Teasing the Korean said:

At any rate, it was a nice window into the life of a neighbor whom I probably never met, and who had great taste in music.  

Expect the unexpected .... as they say .... 

 

Edited February 22, 2019 by soulpope

[HutchFan]

Cool story.  

[Dan Gould]

4 minutes ago, HutchFan said:

Cool story.  

Yes. I wonder if any other patrons of the estate sale thought the same thing, or just breezed thru wondering where the "good" music was.

TTK did you say anything about your conclusions when you bought the items?

[JSngry]

Was the record player for sale as well?

[Jim Duckworth]

3 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

 

At any rate, it was a nice window into the life of a neighbor whom I probably never met, and who had great taste in music.  

 

Exactly.  I was carted through an estate sale in my neighborhood and managed to get interested in some pretty old vinyl wherein Way Out Wardell stood out.  Made me sorry not to have met him.  A longstanding Wardell Gray fan up the street and I never suspected!

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I discovered I lived around the corner Brad Delp from the band Boston, when they showed scenes from in front of his house after he died. It was surreal.

[Teasing the Korean]

23 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Lovely to find a collection like that.

Which Gunther Schuller album? - if I might ask.

Music for Brass, Columbia CL-941.

21 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

Yes. I wonder if any other patrons of the estate sale thought the same thing, or just breezed thru wondering where the "good" music was.

A little old lady saw me with the records, smiled, and said, "Do they have any Queen?"  I'm not kidding.

21 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

TTK did you say anything about your conclusions when you bought the items?

A company was handling the estate sale, so no one had any attachment to the items.

20 hours ago, JSngry said:

Was the record player for sale as well?

No, I'm guessing a relative claimed it, or it had already sold.

20 hours ago, Jim Duckworth said:

Exactly.  I was carted through an estate sale in my neighborhood and managed to get interested in some pretty old vinyl wherein Way Out Wardell stood out.  Made me sorry not to have met him.  A longstanding Wardell Gray fan up the street and I never suspected!

!!!!!

[Dmitry]

3 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

 

A little old lady saw me with the records, smiled, and said, "Do they have any Queen?"  I'm not kidding.

She must've just watched the Freddy Mercury biopic.

If indeed most of the records were from the 1950s, that is strange. I wonder if the person who owned them die 50 or so years ago, or moved out of the household around that time...

 

 

[Teasing the Korean]

3 minutes ago, Dmitry said:

If indeed most of the records were from the 1950s, that is strange. I wonder if the person who owned them die 50 or so years ago, or moved out of the household around that time...

I live in a mid-century modern neighborhood, and there are a lot of original homeowners in their 80s and even 90s still living here. 

Edited February 23, 2019 by Teasing the Korean

[Dmitry]

Understood. Still, did the original owner stop buying records after 1960? Were any of the records in poly outer sleeves? That would indicate that they were cared for more or less recently.  

[Big Beat Steve]

16 minutes ago, Dmitry said:

She must've just watched the Freddy Mercury biopic.

If indeed most of the records were from the 1950s, that is strange. I wonder if the person who owned them die 50 or so years ago, or moved out of the household around that time...

 

If wonder that's that rare with people from that generation. When the time for my mother (now nearing 95) comes outsiders might probably think the same if they should lay their eyes on her records. A certain number of CDs was added in the past 20 years (all classical, some spoken word), but as for vinyl, it's all 1950s and early 60s, very, very little post-1965. My mother did the record buying among my parents and for some reason what they bought up to around that time was good enough for them and remained that way.
No need for browsers to want to check, though. It's all classical (mostly a dime a dozen at secondhand clearout sales anyway, so no huge treasures I guess), and a scant few chanson LPs. All her jazz (not that much, mostly 3rd stream-ish, but including a nice orignal MJQ Fontessa on black-label DG Atlantic) and even assorted oddities such as a 10" of the "Music to do your cooking by" variety from the early 50s she had brought along as one of the souvenirs from a lengthy visit to her uncles in the St. Louis area in 1953 found a place in my collection years ago. 

Edited February 23, 2019 by Big Beat Steve

[Teasing the Korean]

6 minutes ago, Dmitry said:

Understood. Still, did the original owner stop buying records after 1960? Were any of the records in poly outer sleeves? That would indicate that they were cared for more or less recently.  

No outer sleeves.  I've met older people over the years who had LP collections from a particular period in their life, and who more or less stopped buying music at a certain point.   My father-in-law had a bunch of west coast jazz LPs that he bought as a young man, and beyond that, he had only a few classical CDs that he bought in more recent years. 

[Dmitry]

Another possibility of why they look pristine is they were never touched for 50 years because the owner had them transferred to reel to reel tapes. People who cared about their records used to do it then, and later with cassettes. I did it to play the dubs in my Walkman and in the car.  

[Teasing the Korean]

1 minute ago, Dmitry said:

Another possibility of why they look pristine is they were never touched for 50 years because the owner had them transferred to reel to reel tapes. People who cared about their records used to do it then, and later with cassettes. I did it to play the dubs in my Walkman and in the car.  

Yes, that thought had crossed my mind.

[Dmitry]

Odd that they had an estate sale on a weekday...must have sold the house and need to get out asap.

 

[Big Beat Steve]

17 minutes ago, Dmitry said:

Another possibility of why they look pristine is they were never touched for 50 years because the owner had them transferred to reel to reel tapes. People who cared about their records used to do it then, and later with cassettes. I did it to play the dubs in my Walkman and in the car.  

It can get a lot "worse" with pristine records from the older generation. A few years ago a friend of mine asked me if I'd care to take a look at the record collection that the deceased husband of her colleague at the local library had bought decades ago and that were now available free as the widow wanted to move house and clear out the house. All from the late 50s to early 60s - but there was a snag. No outer sleeves AT ALL! Like it often happened with 45s at the time. For some reason the orignal owner had had boxes made that held about a dozen LPs each and had filed the records (numbered according to a filing system probably only known to him) but with only the names of the artists/bands scribbled on the inner sleeves (those that had no center hole for the label). Pity ... apart from the usual classical and world folklore stuff from that period a good deal were the kind of records people bought across the board to have a sampling of currently popular stuff for moderately pop-ish listening and partying. But it sure would have been nice to have had the sleeves too because the vinyl was virtually MINT throughout: Buddy Holly, Everly Brothers, Fats Domino, Joey Dee, Johnny & The Hurricanes, Jimmie Rodgers, Chet Atkins, Floyd Cramer, Marty Robbins, Johnny Horton, etc. etc. I took them anyway (and have since found sleeves for some of them at clearout sales) but what a waste anyway ...
Luckily the 10" records escaped that fate and netted me a few quite nice items.

Edited February 23, 2019 by Big Beat Steve

[Rooster_Ties]

3 hours ago, Dmitry said:

Understood. Still, did the original owner stop buying records after 1960? Were any of the records in poly outer sleeves? That would indicate that they were cared for more or less recently.  

My mom (the only music purchaser among my parents), had about 200 LP's, a bit of classical, mostly folk and broadway musical cast albums, Tom Leher, Bob Newhart, and the like.

She was born in the mid 30's ('34, iirc), and she mostly stopped buying albums for the most part by the early '70 (probably not coincidentally I was born in '69).

She did buy a couple dozen more broadway cast albums in the 80's, but all on cassette.

[Dan Gould]

4 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

I live in a mid-century modern neighborhood, and there are a lot of original homeowners in their 80s and even 90s still living here. 

Go! Talk to them!!  Find out what treasures await in their estate sales.

[Teasing the Korean]

7 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

Go! Talk to them!!  Find out what treasures await in their estate sales.

I'll encourage them to have a pre-estate sale!