Decluttering

Mr Zero

If you get guys of a certain age together, they’ll start talking about how they need to get rid of their old vinyl records. I have a buddy who is moving this weekend and after giving his adult kids anything they wanted, he ended up donating the rest of his LPs to the local thrift store.

I’m in a similar situation. I was the Music Director of our college radio station and a nightclub dance DJ on the weekends.  I have about 80-100 vinyl records that have been stored away in a couple milk crates for more than 30 years.  They’ve gotten a few spins on my son’s turntable since then, but I don’t think the hipster vinyl record renaissance quite hooked him.

I’ve been thinking of decluttering my basement of the records for some time, but it’s been more work than I wanted to invest time in.  The vintage record store near me, Mr Zero’s, said that there are only about 20 albums that are worth anything: some Beatles, AC/DC, Rolling Stones, U2, and Led Zeppelin.  All of the rest of them gather dust in his store until just the right person comes along.  He’s been selling old records for more than 15 years, so he seems to know what he’s doing.

I’m sure a few of the albums I have are worth something.  There are some specialty releases and dance club remixes that were pretty rare.  Madonna, Talking Heads, Prince, U2, Springsteen, and other 1980s classics.  Still, I’m thinking most of them aren’t in prime condition or in high demand.  

Rather than spend my time sorting through them and trying to ascertain their value, I’m thinking I will just “donate” them to this vintage shop and let him profit by getting them into some collector’s hands.  Kind of like my “reverse shoplifting” approach to antiques.

Related: Antique Store Reverse Shoplifting

After all, he’s a great small business owner who doesn’t seem to be getting rich with his cool vintage shop. He gets good reviews on Google. “Mr. Zero” takes his name from an episode of The Monkees (“The Devil & Peter Tork”).  I’m happy we have a cool store like this with old stuff and happy to have him get the benefit of my long-term storage.

Are you sitting on a “gold mine” of old vinyl LPs?

Images: Google Search

8 thoughts on “Mr Zero”

  2. I have a large sized tote container filled with old vinyl and a milk crate filled with CDs. My sons have retro video games from when they were growing up in the late 1990s through early 2000 actually are valued in the $100 to $200 range. Seems like a lot, but I imagine if you calculate the average annual return it doesn’t work out to that much.

    I am aggressively de-crappifying my garage, but do not anticipate getting rid of the vinyl. It would be really fun to play for Grandchildren, if we ever get them, some day.

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    1. “Decrappifying” LOL. A great phrase for this point in life!

      That’s a good idea to keep a few LPs for family history sake. From my collection, maybe The Beatles, U2 Joshua Tree, Eagles Hotel California, and Bing Crosby Merry Christmas.

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      1. Cannot beat Bing and his peers for Christmas and spinning vinyl would make it seem special.

        Reminds me of a funny anecdote told to me by my son’s very good Catholic K-8 music teacher. One of his students was surprised Frank Sinatra could sing so well and clear and he didn’t know they had auto tuners back in his time. The teacher explain, “No, he was really that good.”

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      2. Bing and Frank were quite a pair. Nat Kjng Cole and Steve Lawrence are favorite crooners, too. I also think it’s terrific when current singers take on the old classics.

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  3. Thanks to moving many times we have decrapped, but it still piles up. I have not had the ability to spin vinal for over thirty years and my records went out in a garage sale in the early 90’s.

    I wish that I still had to LP of the Red Sox season from 1975. This was a compilation of radio play by play including the Bernie Carbo home run to tie up game 5 and Carleton Fisk home run at 12:30 am, the home run heard all over New England.

    1975 was one of the last years that the World Series was made up of team grown talent as Free Agency was in its infancy. Yaz, Fiske, Evans, Rice had long tenures with Boston.

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    1. I remember that World Series very well! I was a 9 year old baseball fan / card collector and my favorite team was … the Cincinnati Reds! I can still name the Reds’ starting line-up by position. We lived in Southern Michigan at the time … close to the Ohio border.

      Here’s a recording of that album for you … (you can also find on eBay) … https://youtu.be/Q9Iqjpooj9I?si=dNWLqTEw1uS3PPSO

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