Recently, I purchased a collection of vintage jukebox EPs dating from the mid 60’s to early 70’s. These EPs differ from regular 45s, in that they had small spindle holes and played at 33 1/3 rpm. They would contain four to six tracks from any given artist’s album and were not sold to the general public.

I think everyone who is a collector has something as part of their colletion that they have no real justifacation for owning. For me, it’s old bootleg albums. I’ve accumulated over 250 of these things in the past few years and god knows why…I never listen to them. Regardless, their history and taboo nature in the record collecting field is pretty facinating.

Every once in a while, there is a collector-related story that receives major media attention, yet, gets a collective moan from a majority of collectors that it should be most relevant to. Remember that Velvet Underground acetate that “sold” on Ebay for over $150,000?

One of the most frequent questions I receive at my shop is how to clean records.

I use a VPI record cleaner, which I recommend to anyone with a sizable collection or resale business. A vacuum- based cleaner like the VPI costs more than $500, so it’s probably not the best option for someone who only has 100 records sitting in the dusty basement.