rock | Saying nothing in particular

I guess it’s only human nature to hope that the things we’ve collected over the years have some value beyond the sentimental. Especially if we inherited said items and have dragged them from hither and yon like a yoke around our necks!

But guessing the value of old records is a crapshoot as far as I can tell. The above recording of The Tone Poem Don Quixote was sold with a linen cover as a part of the Soria Series of classical recordings produced by Dorle and Dorio Soria for RCA Victor probably in 1958. Each came with a booklet written by experts on the subject. For Don Quixote, the booklet was written by Walter Starkie, an “authority of Spanish history and culture, an eminent scholar and writer” and illustrated by the artists inspired by Cervantes’ (Dali, Picasso, Goya and Dore)

From what I’ve been able to tell, this album plus booklet is only worth about $30 to collectors. So we shall hold onto it. I never made it through Cervantes’ masterpiece so perhaps it shall give me the motivation!

On the other hand, this album is highly sought after.

All I can say is Ugh. I guess there are a lot of conspiracy theorists out there!

I also counted about a dozen “Live on Stage” albums in our collection. I don’t really understand the allure of the live-on-stage recordings. Who wants to listen to the applause or the back and forth with the audience? Not me. However, the following recording might be interesting. I was in grammar school when it came out as was my husband so how it came into our possession is anyone’s guess.

Unless my prim and proper MIL had a Walk on the Wild Side? Noooo.

I’ve gotten tired of researching the value of old records and so I will conclude with the most valuable record set I found. From around 1946, the six record set of The Merry Widow. Estimated value $60-70.

I’m not sure I’ll be able to play this set on my record player. The discs are only 10″ and very heavy. But we’ll see. If not, I know a near-by thrift store that might welcome the donation!

My husband is a collector (okay, borderline hoarder) but I have learned over the years how to put a kink in many of those perversions. Let’s just say that things that have sat ignored in a closet for over a decade have a habit of disappearing and rarely does he even notice. Last week we had a heat wave and since I don’t get along with hot and dry weather, I decided to tackle the closet wherein seven boxes full of vinyl records have been stored since 1993.

The truly scary part of this endeavor was, those records had not even been sorted by genre before being dumped into cardboard boxes for the move!

Does anyone remember Soupy Sales? Think this album might be worth something?

Now, if I’d been smart I would have taken the boxes to Rasputin’s (our nearby “we will buy records and vintage clothing and jewelry” hippie dippie thrifty place) and donated them all. But I hated to do that without giving our children a chance to claim some part of their wacky childhoods. And so I spent two days categorizing and then alphabetizing the records. The closet is now empty and the totals are below – in case you’re interested.

We had over 300 albums or album sets in these approximate genres:

Rock & Roll, Rhythm & Blues, Jazz
Funk, Folk, Punk, Soul, Raggae
Grunge, Live on stage albums and What-the-Hell is this?

Most of them are in very good condition but worthless. Too common; too many sold.

Maybe not this one. Now how would you classify this album?????

There were around thirty albums I classified as Classical (Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, etc.) Another twenty that there were Classicalish:

Leonard Bernstein conducting symphonies for “everyday consumption”
Lawrence Welk’s favorite waltzes
Soundtracks from various movies
And … does anyone know Greek?

This album was so treasured it’s still got its plastic wrapping but who are they?

From my Mother-in-Law (who was a kindergarten teacher and loved to travel) we had one full box of:

Children’s records
How to Learn either Russian, German or Spanish
Music from Hawaii, Mexico, India, Java, etc.
Easy listening and popular hits by Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Julie Andrews, Burl Ives, etc.

I did run into a couple of albums I thought might be valuable. One because it was beautifully packaged and the other because it was so tragic. After some research it turned out I was right about both . . . although by valuable, they’re probably worth what someone paid for them!

I’ll get to my treasures tomorrow, if you’re interested! Let me know!