3 of 6

Write now Article Tools

For those of you who love music and particularly the artists and the music created by those artists of years past, you must also have a great many phonograph records. Such is my case and I'm still finding recordings made by those artists.

Their songs were recorded on 78 rpm records, 45 rpm records and 33 1/3 rpm records. Naturally, I have a turn table that can play all of those types of phonograph records and I do play my recent additions to my record collection as soon as I have time to do so.

For those of you who also collect phonograph records you are well aware of the space required to store your ever growing collection. In my case I had to build shelf space for my collection so as to be able to sort, catalog and preserve the condition of each of the records within my collection.

I've been collecting such records for more than 50 years and I'm happy to discover that some of my records are now worth a great deal of money only because I took proper care to preserve the appearance of the album cover and/or record jacket that protects the record itself.

Then again, the place where to store your record collection must be a clean, a cool and a dry place. You see, as time passes the records in your collection will appreciate in value because other people aren't as careful to maintain the playing quality of their phonograph records. Those records usually end up in a very hot attic or a very damp basement. Either of those places will cause serious damage to the value of those covers and the records themselves. Foxing forms on those covers and the heat causes those records to warp.

A really warped record is no longer playable and is worthless. So too, a dirty and/or moldy record cover decays within a very short time and is also worthless. Nothing lasts forever, but if your collection is properly maintained it will most certainly appreciate in value because you can easily record the music or whatever is contained on your records to a better playing medium such as a CD, cassette tape or a reel to reel tape.

In my case, over the years I have used all three methods of transferring the music to a medium that can allow me to hear the music without having to play the record each time that I want to hear that music. Because of that fact, the hundreds of dollars that I spent to buy those records can now make several thousands of dollars for me if I sell the entire collection. My hobby and my love of music now makes it possible for me to earn some extra money during my retirement years.

Some people claim that the best way to store records is to lay them flat in stack of less than 50 records. Well. I line them up side by side, just like books. However, you must be carefull not to cram them together as to damage the covers. So far, none of my records warped and the covers are as good as the day when I purchased them. Happy collecting.

Learn more about this author, Joseph Malek.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Record collecting: How to store your vinyl records?
We want to hear your view. Write now!