Don’t trash your old albums yet

Rule No. 1 when you clean out the garage is: Never open the box.

If you don’t, you’ll never miss what’s inside. And, if you ever did need what you gave to the thrift store sight unseen, you’ll think it’s still inside one of the other boxes waiting for the next house cleaning.

Cleaning the garage isn’t a communicable disease. If it were, more cars would be parked inside garages. It does have a fever associated with it—one that ebbs and tides, depending if you just need a map to find your way through the maze or you finally reach the point where you can’t get from the big door to the little door.

But, assume that you have the "fever" and can’t resist the mystery of what’s inside and you do open just one box.

If you strike it rich, it’s the box that’s filled with round time-capsules. Your eyes open wider, you take a deep breath and you smile. You’ve found your old album collection—and maybe a 45 or two.

Close your eyes, turn around 33 and1/3 times, tap your feet, and suddenly you’re in Nostalgia Land, filled with pressed vinyl.

Music is the international language and old albums translate memories. You might even think that you’ve discovered the only remaining copies of Paul Revere and the Raiders or Percy Faith’s orchestra.

How often do you hear orchestra associated with music other than classical? It’s a sign of the past.

Sadly, the fact is that most of the albums you have stored in your garage don’t have big-buck value—no matter how old the pressing. Even when an artist passes away, the value of his music doesn’t drastically increase as an autograph does. You can make copies of the music, but you allegedly can’t copy the autograph.

What’s of value is material produced that was an aberration from the normal work of the artist. This occurred when a group tried something new. Generally, it wasn’t successful at the time because it was too different from what the fans expected.

Experimentation usually occurred when the artist had made so much money that if crossing over into an uncharted field was a disappointment, they used it as a tax write off.

101 Strings during the 60s released such an album that featured psychedelic guitars. This was way out there for the lush sounds associated with this non-far-out studio orchestra. Needless to say, it didn’t sell then. Today it’s sought.

Rummage through your collection for albums that you hardly ever played. They may be worth their weight in gold.

LPs were extinct

In 1992, black vinyl LP’s were a thing of the past and small silver CDs were the future. But, selling the past can be profitable. Think about garage sales especially one for yourself and eBay.

"The resurgence in LPs is coming from teenagers as they learn that groups their parents grew up with have now influenced their favorite groups," said K.C. Staples, owner of The Record Outlet (Used) in Thousand Oaks where hundreds of LPs are bought and sold.

Staples added, "Rock music has been around long enough to repeat history and create a generation thing as reflected in customers’ ages that go from pre-teen to octogenarians."

CDs penetrated the market in 1989 and the impact on the record business out-stripped what industry specialists had projected. They expected to keep pressing records through the 90s. They wanted LPs and CDs too.

But in two years, by 1991, the LP business had dried up and only the most popular material continued to be released on LPs and cassette tape. So much for the projections.

Over the years, this limited activity has flourished into today’s healthy demand for albums. A large pressing plant, Record Technology, is located in Camarillo. The record industry forced obsolescence, as it had with 45s pushing out 78s; LPs obliterating 45s, and CDs trampling LPs. Eight track was almost dead on arrival.

It took time, but an industry of the past forged ahead. Collecting is a basic human characteristic—as you well know by looking in other people’s garages to make yourself feel better as you slowly cruise down the street.

The music industry for years released what were known as "write-off" bands. These were groups and vocalists produced and released as tax write-offs. Record labels even quietly assisted name groups in recording something that had little market value, just to keep them happy.

The market was flooded with this product. And it helped foster the mistaken belief that finding one of these obscure albums translates into value. It doesn’t.

One might as well have an album that their brother recorded in the neighbor’s garage because it wasn’t jammed to the rafters. Granted, it’s a one-of-a-kind, but there’s no perceived value by the purchasing public or even their family.

How much is it worth?

"Gold Mine Price Guide to Collecting Albums" is an excellent source for determining value. It’s similar to the infamous "Kelly Blue Book" for cars, which provides a range of prices, depending upon condition. A good research and trend forecasting magazine is Cool and Strange Music. Look closely, you may find quite a bit of this in your garage collection.

Right now, a "hot" collectible is exotica albums or space age bachelor pad music from artists such as Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman and Esquivel.

Two albums that Staples has on his must buy list are "Alice Cooper’s Best Hits" and "Muscle of Love," both in quadraphonic sound. This is the 70s version of home theater sound. Also of interest is quadraphonic reel-to-reel material.

The most sought after albums are always classic rock like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. These will have some value if the jacket and the album are in good shape.

The stuffed closet

Remember how certain teachers relentlessly influenced you to be a DNA research chemist?

Well, Staples credits his seventh-grade science teacher, John Nichols, with broadening his interest in music by sharing unusual records featuring groups like Family and Hawk Wind, who weren’t getting air play on radio stations because they weren’t main stream enough.

"After seeing a picture of Mr. Nichol’s closet stuffed with albums, I was so impressed that I decided right then that someday I was going to have something like that and I started collecting."

Staples garage is absolutely stuffed with albums. But, you can walk into his closet in Thousand Oaks, browse through the bins stuffed with hundreds of other people’s memories.

Who knows, you might even find a couple of platters to add to that box you decided to keep a little longer in your garage. After all, golden memories don’t take up much room and you might be able to rent storage space in your neighbor’s garage in between recording sessions.