Here we are looking at a 45 collection I want to sell…it is a LOT of pieces.
We’re looking at about 6000 45s here – most have sleeves, but some don’t, and some of the sleeves are not worthwhile. I have no true idea how it breaks down, but most of them seem to be sleeved, and the sleeves are OK. The way that I am estimating the number of these is by linear foot. I measured them, and assumed 1.5 inches is about 20 45s.
To try to display these in a meaningful way, I laid about 4000-4500 on my kitchen table. I left maybe 2000 others in the closet, so as I refer to them here as either “table” or “closet” singles, you know what I am referring to.
So, the origin story of these, or how I got them anyway, is that I bought out a hoarder who died, up in the North Carolina mountains. I met his family, and they wanted it all gone – the guy had at least 7 full outbuildings filled with vintage vinyl. I bought it all, but the family sold the 45s out from under me…these, were mostly simply extra ones that the other 45 guy didn’t take. I don’t know if he saw them, and couldn’t manage them, or why he left them – no rhyme or reason to any of it. It was an unbelieveable collection, and it took me 3 trips with a 26 foot truck to get everything I did get…which was FAR from all of it. I never went back, so have no idea how the rest ended up – it was a sad story, really. The guy had an amazing collection, but wouldn’t sell stuff, then he died and his family didn’t have a clue what to do with it all. I did, however. 🙂 I got well over 50,000 pieces, including all kinds of LPs, 78s, and 45s. I have been listing LPs for 4 years, and I am still not even close on those either. Then, I have the biggest 78 collection on the planet. I only skimmed the 45s once, 4 years ago, very quickly. Then it all went into my closet, and hasn’t been moved since.
I know that he collected from the 40s thru the 80s, did shows, and it seems obvious he bought out other dealers – what that means to these 45s, I don’t know, but it is their origin. They came to me from a number of air conditioned units – some were in the main house, some were in the outbuildings. The family stopped running the A/C right before I got there, so there wasn’t a lot of weather damage to stuff, but there was a little dry rot here and there. Not a lot of buggy stuff either, which was nice for a collection like this.
I had thought I would eventually list out these 45s, but I am simply nowhere near to it, and it’ll be years before I get there. I am an old man, so I would rather cut them loose than deal with looking them up, pricing them, and mailing them anywhere. Someone else can enjoy all of that! I am not interested in piecing them out at all, I would much rather take a loss and get my floor space back – these have filled my office closet for the last 4 years, and it’s time to let them go. All of ’em!
The Table 45s
These boxes hold the ones that came from the main house – so these were likely the ones he was gonna or was working in some regard. You’ll see penciled notes on the sleeves, but I tend to ignore them, because his prices and grading was almost always wrong.
I thought there was no real rhyme nor reason to the way he boxed these, but sometimes I see stuff that suggests otherwise, like a bunch of Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, or something like that, all grouped together. So he was grouping and sorting them, but stuff is all over the place. likewise, I would imagine his 45s conditions are all over the place too…his LPs certainly have been.
That being said, there absolutely could be a box of psych, or garage stuff in here – but his taste wasn’t necessarily the coolest on the block. He liked buying records, that much is clear as can be.
On the table, I saw stuff from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and maybe even a couple of 80s ones (there were some 80s country ones, like Mickey Gilley and Dolly Parton, and a few random pop hits, like Morning Train). The 70s-80s stuff is not there in numbers that I saw in browsing them – there’re a few sprinkled about. The main vein, is 60s stuff, but there was a lot of doo wop and other 50s in here too. 50s and 60s pop is the majority, but there was jazz and country too. Some cool jazz names.
I saw a lot of major label stuff, and ALL the requisite hits – but I also saw some lesser labels, and other things that perked interest – like white label promos, and labels I didn’t know at all. There is just so much of it – lots of the boxes look like I didn’t get into them at all, which is probably true. I only skimmed this stuff once, 4 years ago, very quickly.
The Closet 45s
In addition to the smaller boxes, I found a bunch of long boxes in the last outbuilding on my last trip – the white boxes in the closet. Each of these holds about 200 45s, and they were older – I figured he likely had packed them in New York before he moved to North Carolina (in the 70s) because this outbuilding was more of a huge airconditioned barn, packed floor to ceiling with 45s, LPs and stereos. It was stockpiled. I left all the damaged boxes there, but took all of the ones that were still intact. I know that other 45 guy grabbed a bunch of these white boxes, too…but we left a ton there to rot. (There were THOUSANDS of records I left there, simply because I couldn’t take any more of them – it is hard to describe).
But back to the point, I don’t know what to say about the closet 45s, in any way different than the way I described the table ones. We have all the main labels here – Chess, Motown, Coral, Columbia, RCA, etc., but I did see some weird little labels too, which to me, is the right direction in 45s. I didn’t bother looking anything up, but there was some stuff in just glancing over them that i would have definitely looked into.
There are 2 really big boxes in the bottom of the closet, and both are full too – I didn’t even open one of them when looking at stuff, and I only looked at those 2 top boxes…no telling what is in the other 4. The brown boxes you see in there were from a different collection I got just prior to the hoarder’s stuff, so I was going through those boxes when the avalanche of vinyl fell on me, and I stopped. I will throw those in, too…maybe there’s something good in there. They hold about 80 records in each of those boxes.
The records I looked at varied in quality…some were very clean and nice, some were beat to hell. If I ever see something unplayable I would pull and pitch it – but again, I have not spent any reasonable time on these 45s, so I can’t say. I know his LPs are all over the map – some are pristine, some were hammered to death, and all of them were next to each other.
I am pricing these very affordably, because I want them gone – I need my office back. I guarantee there is a LOT of money to be made off them, but I will take way less than they’re worth to get rid of them all at once. If there is more info I can provide, lemme know…they are your mystery to solve as far as i am concerned. Click any image below to see it bigger, using the browser to get back here.
