Max Brzezinski - Vinyl Age: A Guide to Record Collecting Now

Did you go to school for this?

Id never been asked that before. Id also never thought about whether a degree program for record buying could or should exist. As a record dealer, Ive lost count of the number of folks who have invited me into their homes to encourage me to make an offer on their record collections. On each of these house calls, chances were good that Id find myself in a colorful conversation, and all bets were off as to whether it would even be about music. On this particular occasion, I was sitting in the sellers living room, surrounded by their records, and peering at a desirable disc that I was holding horizontally to see if it was warped. In doing so, I evidently looked very studious or very silly.

No, no I didnt, I responded to their question with a bit of a laugh. But this made me think: How can one learn about buying and collecting vinyl records?

One way is to engage in buying and selling over many years. My friend Gary Burgess, who has dealt in vinyl for at least two decades, makes periodic references to his education: the innumerable records hes bought, and continues to buywhether from flea markets, thrift stores, retiring collectors, or other dealersthat fall short of his hopes for what they could be in terms of collectability and monetary value, in terms of sound, or both. (They often go hand in hand, after all.) If asked how he knows so much, he invariably responds that hes paid for a lot of lessons. Hes rightso much of what you might simply call intuition is cultivated through an iterative trial-and-error process, earned one record at a time. Truly, theres no substitute for experience; its a mighty teacher, even if it isnt the most efficient one.

In my beginning collecting days, the early 2000s, I discovered a few key resources: friends and fellow volunteers at WXYC (my college radio station), local DJs and collectors, magazines, and internet message boards dedicated to funk, soul, and crate digging in general. But I craved more, and it turned out that a Burgesslike method worked well for me: purchasing records used and new, researching their value, listening to them, figuring out what I liked, and so on and so forth. Now that the internet has grown up, it offers a staggering array of record-related websites. This makes me feel both envious of newer collectors and overwhelmed on their behalf. If I were new to the game now, Im not sure Id know where to begin. Anyone looking to learn about vinyl for the first time, or learn more about vinyl, can benefit from a means of cutting through the sheer volume of info out there.

Thats where Vinyl Age comes in. Within these pages, youll find that Max Brzezinski, Carolina Souls marketing director, has crafted an insightful and thought-provoking work. Hes done so to give us, the readers, the benefit of someone elses experience, to accelerate the vinyl learning curve so we can more quickly build our own philosophies, quickening the assembly and maintenance of a record collection that is most meaningful for each of us.

There are many ways to build a record collection that youre passionate about. The best way, of course, is the one that feels right for you. I can tell you that even in my own home there isnt a consensus on the ultimate approach. My wife, Hollie, has collected records for years and fits into Maxs description as a record omnivore: In her somewhat extensive collection youll find a variety of wildly divergent genres and styles. The vast majority are pieces that she acquired at yard sales, thrift shops, and library sales for $1 or less. She didnt set out to accumulate a collection of great monetary worth; instead she revels in the constellation of sounds she might never have experienced if not for happenstance and affordability. For her, sticking to a low price point means that she feels free to take a chance on records that seem interesting, and she also feels just as free to eventually discard those that do not speak to her, while savoring the ones that truly do.

Im more of what Max has termed as a fundamentalist. Ive worked hard at collecting mostly within a single niche area: Ive assembled a robust representation of independently released soul music from North and South Carolina in the 1960s through 1980s. This body of music has captivated me since I was twenty-one years old, volunteering at WXYC. The excitement of finding something obscure yet amazing, and doing so in my own backyard, initially drew me in. I loved the process of learning about the rich network of unheralded musicians that operated in the region where I grew up. Even today, I still serendipitously encounter local records that I havent seen before and that deserve a wider audience. I love this music so much that it seemed to be the most appropriate name for the business that I eventually founded and still operate today, Carolina Soul.

Over the last decade, Carolina Soul has grown out of my focused interests into a brick-and-mortar storefront in Durham, North Carolina, and an online storefront that routinely sends multiple genres and formats to collectors all around the world. In brief, going into business allowed me to work in a field that I was passionate about and enabled me to continue collecting within my niche area while selling my other finds to support the endeavor. In my early days of dealing, I would search out local sellers who might be offering a local record and I would look through everything else they had and make purchases, with an eye toward both education and resale. At home, I would sort through the purchases and figure out what to keep and what to sell. As is still the case now, my main avenue then for selling was through eBay auctions. I would personally describe, grade, photograph, and prepare sample recordings of each item, and then list them one by one on eBay. Eventually, I brought friends on board to help with the sales process. Along the way, we opened up our auctions to consignments from our personal connections, meaning wed sell their records on their behalf. Today, the majority of our eBay sales are consignments, and these come to us from the public at large.