First off, the odds and ends:
$4 for a mini Shop-Vac brand wet/dry vac that's going to form the basis for a homebrew RCM, based on a few threads around here.
$2 for a pair of physically perfect white Minimus 7s (oddly enough, from a very overpriced estate sale). I haven't tried them out for functionality yet.

Then, the LPs. Went to my usual array of thrifts today, and stopped at a new flea market. The only thing I found was a very nice copy of Van Halen's 5150 for $2. A decent score. Then, I called a guy who emailed me about a collection of records for sale. For an extremely reasonable amount of cash, I left with my old 3-series BMW loaded down with 450-500 LPs of classical, a bit of world music, a couple of London Phase 4 discs, 350+ rock LPs, and a Benny Goodman 78 folder. I left behind at least as many discs of gospel, soundtrack, country and various Reader's Digest/Longines Symphonette Society box sets that didn't interest me, as well as 150-200 78s (mostly classical).

The gems so far:
The Beatles: MFSL "Abbey Road, "Reel Music," (featuring selections from their movies), "1st Live Recordings, Hamburg, Germany, 1962" on Pickwick
The Doors: "13," "Waiting for the Sun," and ST (stereo, unfortunately, but I'm not complaining)

There will be more gems to report! A lot of these discs are in heavy plastic protective sleeves - apparently part of the collection (including the Doors discs) were owned by a rather serious audiophile at one point.

Wow. It just kept getting better for you as the day went on. Maybe you should go out again, you're on a roll.

Good stuff :thmbsp:

nice score for sure

Do you see any valuable/collectible classical in those 500?

Do you see any valuable/collectible classical in those 500?

I really don't know what's valuable/collectible in the classical field. I know that I like the sound of DG and Philips, so I always grab all of those that I find. There are a few 6-eye Columbias in the mix, most are a bit scuffed. One of those I'm keeping even if it's trashed, it's from my hometown symphony. I think there are a few shaded dog RCA Red Seals in there, too.


I'm not even one box into the pile. Right now I'm forming three piles - donation, keepers, sale/trade/maybe keep if tests good. They're running about even.


Another MFSL has come from the pile - Supertramp "Crime of the Century." It's a bit marked, but it looks like it should play fine.


I almost forgot - I did get the seller to pull some Sinatra out of another box and include it - a bunch of Frank and a couple of Nancy.

sounds like you had a fun day! Now you get to sort thru all that stuff. Kudos on the MFSL beatles!!!

Steve

I've been sorting these...so far I have one box jammed full of my "donation" pile (well over 100 albums at this point) and another equally large (if not larger) pile of sell/trade/maybe keep/maybe donate. The "guaranteed keepers" so far are sitting at around 50 with two boxes to go, not including the box-and-a-half of classical. The GW donation/tax deduction should make a serious dent in the purchase price of the pile.

One oddball has popped out of the classical pile during a brief look - an RCA Bluebird. I've never seen classical on anything other than Red Seal from RCA.

Kudos on the MFSL beatles!!!

Steve

It's a damned fine-sounding album. I think I'm going to play it again shortly. Just got done with the three Doors discs.

Sorted through everything. 255 albums back in the car to take to GW or the DAV tomorrow. Around 100 are guaranteed "keepers" (if counting box sets and doubles separately, probably around 140 hunks of vinyl). There is somewhere between 200-250 in my garage to use for sales, trading in need of testing. I'm going to load up the Digitrac 200E for the test job, that way if any of them are really jacked up I'm not risking a higher-end stylus.

RCA BlueBirds are budget reissues from 78s. A few of them are valuable collectibles, but most of them are not.

RCA BlueBirds are budget reissues from 78s. A few of them are valuable collectibles, but most of them are not.

Odd. The feel of the vinyl, sleeve and label gave the impression of early 50s.