Goldmine is starting work on a brand-new, 8th edition of the “Standard Catalog of American Records,” and we’d love to have your input!

From 78s, EPs and LPs to 45s, picture sleeves and picture discs, this pricing and identification guide boasts listings for more than 100,000 records. Got a favorite artist whose records were overlooked in the previous edition? Looking for greater detail about a specific genre or topic that you’d like to have us cover in the next edition? Want to share photos of labels, picture sleeves or album covers in your collection? Tell us about it. Just post your comments with this article, or send an e-mail to goldminemag@fwmedia.com.

We look forward to hearing from you.

White Diamond (bottle in the middle) cleaner can help keep your vinyl records looking pristine, while sleeves such as these can help protect them from getting damaged. Products courtesy of Indy Discount Boxes/Fingerpop. Photo: Kris Kandler.

By Todd Whitesel

How much is your record collection worth? It’s a question that demands some thought.

For most of us, our collections have two different values. There is the market value and then the personal value. And I’m guessing that for most of us, the personal value of our collections exceeds what the market can or is willing to pay. In reality, some of my most “valuable” records aren’t worth more than $10, but that doesn’t make them less important.

Sure, I could purchase a mint copy of Rush’s All The World’s A Stage from any number of record dealers, but it wouldn’t be the copy that I purchased at a record store/head shop in Dayton, Ohio, when I was a 10-year-old kid just getting into the hobby. It wouldn’t be the copy that first sent me over the edge to want to play drums like Neil Peart. And it wouldn’t be the same copy that resides in my collection today, more than 30 years later, and is stored proudly next to the many hundreds more albums that I’ve accumulated since that time.

Whether your collection is worth $100 or $100,000, its value is ultimately determined by its condition. And if you find value in your collection, which I’m assuming you do, it only makes sense to protect it.

Properly storing and preserving that dear vinyl is paramount to maintaining its value. Let’s look at three simple steps to help preserve your vinyl collection for years to come.

Organize It

Like so many other tasks, the best first step to storing a record collection is to get organized.

Before storing your records, it’s best to organize them so it’s actually possible to find a given LP, 45 or 78. Many collectors, like myself, organize alphabetically by artist. Others may divide their records into genres — blues, jazz, country, rock, R&B. Collectors of 45s or a specific genre may want to go further, organizing them by record label. It’s not important how you organize, as long as you do organize.

It may not seem like a big deal if all you have are a few dozen LPs tucked away by a turntable; however, when your collection starts rising into the hundreds or thousands of items, it’s time to do something, for sanity’s sake.

Even the best organizational efforts are only as good as our memories.

I’d like to think that I can remember every album in my collection, but that’s probably wishful thinking. So I took the time to enter all my records into a simple spreadsheet, which I update as I add new items to the collection. Maintaining such a list really helps keep tabs on my inventory.

As well, there are several computer programs written specifically for record collectors, such as Kix Software’s Music Catalogue Master (http://kixsoftware.com/index.html), which automatically enters CDs and vinyl LP records (including track information) from four different online databases with no typing required. Other information and extras, including album art, band URLs, band member info, song titles and track times, are also shown making for handy reference. The program can generate reports in several common formats such as PDF, Word, Excel and HTML, making it easy to keep tabs on your collection, share with friends or upload to a Web site or blog.

While organizing a collection isn’t nearly as fun as collecting itself, it’s an undeniable pleasure to find an item or verify that you own it without tearing the house apart. The better organized you are, the more records you can buy and organize and enjoy!

Protect It

We’ve all seen them — the records that have been abused badly by owners, damaged by actions such as leaving multiple albums stacked on one another, leaving records lying around on a couch so the kids or dog could easily grab them, or just stuffing an album back in the jacket without a protective sleeve.

Over time, these little indiscretions really take a toll. Soon, that shiny 12-inch music maker is reduced to a scratchy remnant doomed for a thrift-store donation, where it then lingers in oblivion. Don’t let this happen to your records!

After getting a collection organized, it’s time to take protective measures to ensure that each item remains in the best possible condition. Vinyl album sleeves are the first line of protection to keep covers from getting dinged, scratched or damaged in any number of ways. Bags Unlimited (www.bagsunlimited.com) has an excellent selection of record sleeves, ranging from a basic polyethylene sleeve to a museum-grade archival Mylar (polyester) sleeve with resealable flap.

Sleeves are sold in different thicknesses, from 1.5 millimeters to 6 millimeters, to cover single-, double- and triple-album sets.

To protect the records themselves, collectors can choose from a variety of inner sleeves, ranging from acid-free paper (with or without label holes) to poly-lined sleeves. If you want more protection, you can go with a heavier cardboard record jacket. Storing records in such a manner is easy and helps keep a collection in the best shape possible.

And never put dirty records in clean sleeves or place a clean record in a dirty sleeve. Other collecting nasties, such as record rings and those impressions on album jackets created by records pushing against each other in storage, can be avoided by using record jacket inserts to alleviate the pressure on the jacket.

Store It

Rule 1: Always store records vertically, with one spine providing vertical support, and other adjacent albums providing horizontal support. Laying records flat, one upon the other, is a surefire way to turn a beautiful collection to junk.

Rule 2: Where you store your records is as important as how you store them. A clean, dry and temperature-controlled environment is ideal. Some collectors go to greater lengths, requiring storage in a smoke- and/or pet-free room.

The most obvious cause of damage is often environmental. It’s important to keep records out of direct sunlight and away from rooms with very high or low humidity. Garages, basements and attics typically are very poor places to store vinyl records. Garage spaces must withstand auto traffic, dirt, insects and weather extremes; basements are notorious for taking on water after one of those “100-year floods” that now seem to happen every decade; and attics can get outrageously hot in summer and cold in winter. Don’t be tempted to toss your collection into any such space, thinking you’ll deal with it next weekend. Go for dry and clean and temperate, and you won’t be sorry.

Now that you’ve picked a space for your collection, it’s time to get those records into some type of container. For rooms with ample wall space, collectors can opt for a wooden or metal record shelving system. These are typically very sturdy and handsome, but they are also usually very expensive. Another downside is that it’s easy for a collection to outgrow its intended space.

Perhaps the best all-around (economical, portable) storage option is one of the many corrugated cardboard boxes available from dealers such as Bags Unlimited and FingerPop (www.fingerpop.com). These containers are sturdy, lightweight (important when you want to move a box full of records) and make it easy to keep a collection in order as it grows. They also protect record corners and edges from scuffing, bending and other unwanted harm. Also, the boxes are stackable, which helps collectors get the most storage from a given space.

Bags Unlimited even has a cool new product that allows collectors to stack boxes, while still providing access to each individual box, using a slide-out “file cabinet” outer box to protect the LP box. These 250-pound-test boxes can be stacked four high and are an excellent option if you access your collection often.

Once records are in the box, you’ll still want to be able to find individual recordings without spending 30 minutes going through the alphabet. LP record dividers are very handy to keep records organized, whether alphabetically or categorically. These tabbed dividers make it easy to find the “As” and “Bs” in your collection with just a quick look over.

Display It

Maybe you have an ultra-rare record or a mint copy of an album that has great sentimental value, and you just can’t stand to have it lingering in obscurity with the rest of your collection. Why not display it for you and others to enjoy?

After all, some of the greatest pop art graces many of those favorite record jackets and sleeves. Whether you want to display an album jacket, picture disc, record, record and jacket, or an inside gatefold, there is a product designed specifically for that purpose.

Or maybe you have several such records but not enough space to hang them all? Worldwide Marketing (www.albumframes.com) has the perfect solution: an album frame that can be changed from one record to another in less than 30 seconds. Each frame comes fully assembled with a protective Plexiglas front and a choice of three colors (black, silver, white). All formats — LPs, 12-inch picture discs, 7-inch picture discs, 45 rpms and picture sleeves, and 78 rpms and jackets — can be accommodated.

And there you have it — three simple steps to get your collection in order and keep it protected for a lifetime, and one way to show off your favorite records, as well. Happy collecting.

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Collecting

For related items that you may enjoy in our Goldmine store:
Download our Goldmine Seminar Series: “Learn How to Condition Grade Your Records” (WMV file)
Get a book on the complicated world of auctions: “The Everything® Online Auctions Book, All you need to buy and sell with success – on eBay and beyond!”
Check out a download of the Top 50 Vinyl Records

Buzzy Linhart
“You Got What It Takes” b/w same,
Kama Sutra KA 548 (1972)

Did Mick Jagger really ruin Buzzy Linhart’s music career?

The way Buzzy remembers it, Mick sent out the word he wasn’t too pleased that the latest album by his band wasn’t getting as much radio attention as Pussycats Can Go Far by Buzzy Linhart.

In an instant, toadies moved throughout the industry to freeze out Pussycats from radio, retail, the media, and… pfffft… that was the last album Buzzy Linhart was allowed to make.

Of course, this being the recollection of the present-day Buzzy, who has suffered through professional, personal, and physical hardships like Job on a bad day, details may be, well, fuzzy.

No matter. Whether the 1974 album failed because of industry politics or a fickle public, it’s still a pop-rock classic.

“James Taylor calls it the greatest rock album of all time,” Buzzy beamed recently from his Berkeley pad. “He gave away more copies of this album as gifts than any other.”

Again, whether this is entirely accurate, “pop-rock classic” holds true for all four of his albums, which started with Buzzy on Philips in 1969. (True aficionados, however, know the man’s recording career more dramatically debuted as a member of The Seventh Sons, a Greenwich Village mainstay in the mid-’60s, with one rare, essential album released in 1968, 4 A.M. at Frank’s, on ESP Records).

Actually, Buzzy’s career began long before that and continued in another entirely different direction after his recording days. The subject of this latest Picture Sleeve Archive affords an overdue look at the interesting career of another of rock’s underappreciated journeymen. Buzzy Linhart never had hits on the popular level, but his success in several different areas is history. For example:

• Bill Cosby and his mid-’70s hit variety show, “Cos.” That was Buzzy as his sidekick and musical director.

• Jerry Paul & The Plebes, “Step Out,” Holiday Records, 1960. Yep, that was Buzzy playing piano and singing background in his first recording experience.

• Bette Midler singing “Friends,” over and over and over again. Yep, that’s Buzzy’s song.

• Greenwich Village in the 1960s. Yep, that’s Buzzy playing vibes with Buffy Sainte-Marie, Fred Neil, David Crosby, Mama Cass, Tim Hardin, Richie Havens. Who didn’t he know during those heady times?

When it came time for his third solo album, Buzzy, recorded for Kama Sutra in 1972, he enlisted the efforts of other friends, like Moogy Klingman on organ (co-writer of “Friends”), future Steely Dan/Doobie Brothers session man supreme Jeff “Skunk” Baxter on acoustic and electric guitars, and Ten Wheel Drive’s Luther Rix. In the engineer’s seat: Todd Rundgren.

Buzzy relates that Todd’s involvement was constrained by his schedule. He was probably the most-wanted producer and engineer of the era, an industry superstar. The recording sessions at the Record Plant were plagued with equipment breakdowns.

“A tweeter was broken in the right-hand speaker of studio B when we were mixing.  All engineers thought they were losing their hearing. When we finally found out and fixed it, there was no more time to finish the record.”

With the final tapes having to be delivered in a matter of days, Rundgren was called in on the weekend to finish the record. Only problem: He had to fly out to England on another job at 4 a.m. on Sunday.

“He mixed so f**king fast. Fortunately he had a golden ear and a golden touch,” remembers Buzzy. “What a cheat!”

The resulting album, which included some stone classics like “Tornado” (co-written with Artie Traum), “Sing Joy — Tutti Frutti,” and “Tell Me True,” also included worthy covers of “Take Me To The Pilot” and — in a disputed choice as a single — “You Got What it Takes.”

Kama Sutra label head Neil Bogart chose “You Got What It Takes” as the album’s first single. Buzzy disagreed with that choice. Having first been heard as a massive hit for Marvin Johnson in 1958, the song was a perennial with well-known versions by the Dave Clark Five, Joe Tex, even Johnny Kidd & The Pirates. Although a charming, rather laid-back remake, the song didn’t have the dynamism of other tracks on the album.

“Bogart didn’t believe we could get airplay with a song that ended, only one that faded,” Buzzy said. This was pretty arcane reasoning, but you couldn’t argue with a label head.

“You Got What It Takes” was released to radio stations with a very nice promo-only picture sleeve, showing Buzzy lifting up his new wife, Jeannie, in front of the New York building they lived in at the time. All was happiness then, but it was soon to take a darker turn. Despite having glowing industry reviews on the sleeve’s back cover (raves from Record World, Cashbox, Billboard, etc.), the single disappeared. And with it, the whole album. The marriage didn’t go well, either.

After 1974’s final try for the pop limelight with Pussycats Can Go Far (and the possible Stones’ shutdown), Buzzy moved to movies (“Groove Tube,” “Rush It”) and television (“Cos,” “Fox And His Friends”), and continued songwriting. There was no lack of interest in his material. Folks as varied as Barry Manilow, Jake & The Family Jewels, LaBelle, John Sebastian and Mother’s Finest all performed his songs.

Jumping to today, Buzzy Linhart works out of his Berkeley house on various projects, including the imminent release of two CDs from the archives, Buzzy Linhart Live at Café Au-Go-Go, and the official reissue of his debut album from 1969, Buzzy. His Web site (http://www.buzzylinhart.com) is filled with all sorts of interesting history and trivia. Drop by and say hello. It’s good to stay in touch with friends.

Stephen M. H. Braitman is a writer and music appraiser in San Francisco. His Web site is http://www.musicappraisals.com.

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