Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 19, 1993 TAG: 9309190102
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
They were looking for oldies - records that sold a million copies as well as rare and little-known issues.
To record collectors, old albums and singles are just as valuable as gold.
Just ask Edward Robertson, a Franklin County country music fan.
Robertson has 2,000 country albums and records. He has recordings by Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Roy Acuff and many other legends in country music. He is a special fan of Barbara Mandrell, and has all her recordings.
On Saturday, Robertson and dozens of other collectors crowded into a conference room at the Holiday Inn Civic Center seeking records to add to their collections.
The show featured several dealers with thousands of records in all types of music - rock, country, pop, jazz, rhythm and blues, religious, punk rock and others.
For some music fans, collecting records is like collecting baseball cards - a hobby that can become a passion.
They'll pay up to several hundred dollars for rare records.
At Saturday's show, some rock 'n' roll albums, especially those by Elvis Presley, were selling for $70. One dealer had a James Brown album estimated to be worth more than $200.
A boxed set of eight John Lennon albums was priced at $100. A Stevie Wonder album sold for $40. The Statler Brothers' first album on the Columbia label in 1966, "Flowers on the Wall," was priced at $20.
Old albums by such country stars as Marty Robbins, Porter Wagoner and Loretta Lynn were selling for $25 each.
Sometimes, record collectors became dealers, despite the conventional wisdom that collectors make bad dealers. That's because collectors want to keep all of their records instead of selling them.
But Robert Harkrader of Bedford County, who helped organize Saturday's show, A lot of people try to go back and get a record they liked when they were in high school and dating. Robert Harkrader Record collector and dealer who helped organize Saturday's show has made the transition successfully.
He has been collecting records since he was a boy. His father worked for a record company and could get advance copies of records that were given to disc jockeys.
Harkrader, 33, has been buying and selling baseball cards and old records for more than a decade. It's a full-time business. He sells records at shows like Saturday's, but he depends heavily on his mail-order business.
He has about 6,000 albums in his business and a personal collection of about 1,000. His collections include many records from the 1950s and '60s by such bands as the Drifters, the Coasters and the Beatles.
The old-record business is good now, Harkrader said, because many people who grew up in the '50s and '60s hunger for the music that was popular when they were teen-agers.
"A lot of people try to go back and get a record they liked when they were in high school and dating," he said.
"They can't find the albums and songs in record stores. The only place they can get it is here at record shows," he said. Most everything in record stores now is on cassettes and compact discs.
Harkrader finds many old records at flea markets and yard sales.
Some collectors buy old records as investments, particularly Elvis Presley albums. There's a big demand for Elvis' early recordings and original releases, Harkrader said.
Some of the Beatles' early albums have sold for as much as $1,000.
Like Harkrader, Norina Roberston is both a collector and dealer. She's been collecting for 30 years and estimates she has about 50,000 records.
A retired nurse, Robertson has been helping run the Oldies Record Shop in Vinton. And she has helped organize the Rockin' Robins Oldies Club.
But she said the store will close because business has not been as good as the owners had hoped. "It's kind of sad that the store will close, but the oldies club will continue," Robertson said.
Gene Wine, who collects and sells records as a hobby, said many youngsters don't even know what a record album is, because of the change to cassettes and discs.
Wine said record collectors are a subculture who travel to record shows and spend hours searching for a particular record for their collection.
There's even a magazine for record collectors, appropriately titled "Goldmine," which is published every two weeks. It includes stories and interviews with past and present recording stars, and advertisements for the sale and purchase of old records.
Not everyone at Saturday's show was looking for oldies, however.
Some came to shop for punk rock records they can't find in record stores. Thomas Wells of Vinton said he's paid up to $75 for a punk record. Among other bands, he was looking for records by the Smashing Pumpkins.
by CNB