What To Do With 78RPM Records?

10/1/15 | Originalbuckeye

[originalbuckeye]

Does anyone have any ideas what can be done with old 78 rpm records? It seems such a shame to throw them out as some are in pretty good shape. I just cannot keep them anymore.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Depending on what you have you might be able to sell to a collector if they are in good shape.

[CGASMIA68]

Sorry you are correct

[Samurai_Jack]

PRESERVE THEM!!!

Vinyl is coming back and those 78’s are worth a MINT now.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-biggest-music-comeback-of-2014-vinyl-records-1418323133

[zeebee]

Throw them out unless they give you joy.

[Heart-Rest]

Maybe you could upload some of them to youtube before passing them on to someone else.   Here are some beautiful/interesting old songs on 78 RPM records which other folks have uploaded to youtube:   (There are many others there too.)

"The Tennessee Waltz" - Patti Page

"Mocking Bird Hill" - Patti Page

"Wabash Cannon Ball" - Kay Starr

"Freight Train Blues" - Roy Acuff And His Crazy Tennesseeans

"The Church In The Wildwood" - The Chuck Wagon Gang

"Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" - The Andrews Sisters

"Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?" - Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters

"When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" - Bing Crosby

"White Christmas" - Bing Crosby

"That's All Right Mama" - Elvis Presley

"Great Balls Of Fire" - Jerry Lee Lewis

"Rock And Roll Music" - The Beatles

[editor-surveyor]

All of those you listed were available on 45s too.

[kcvl]

Donate them to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cinncinatti.

[x]

If they're classic American folk or jazz or early country from the 1920s and 1930s, Joe Bussard would be interested.

But the records he likes is very rare indeed, not stuff like Eddie Fisher's "Oh My Papa," which my grandparents had in the house for years.

[Heart-Rest]

"All of those you listed were available on 45s too."

---

They're also available on CD's now.   The value of hearing the old original versions (which the folks heard like that back when they first came out) is more of a historical and nostalgic value (which also gives them their collector's value, as some of the originals are worth much more than a more recent version on newer technology with a "cleaner" sound).

An analogy would be the priceless, faded, yellowing, original version of the "Declaration of Independence" vs. a fancy replica (below) which you can get at Amazon.

[XEHRpa]

After an internet search, I was just about to post the exact same image!! Great minds think alike.

[Rappini]

I have a 1947 Rockola Juke box that I refurbished and approximately 200 78’s to play on it.

[editor-surveyor]

They weren’t rough and scratchy like those Youtube links you posted.

78s sounded OK until about the 20th time they were played. The records were a hard material that lasted fairly well.

My Father, who was a professional musician in his youth, had a huge collection of big band and jazz, and they sounded clear, not scratchy.

He used to just use a needle two or three times, and then toss it. (this was late ‘40s - early ‘50s)

[Hot Tabasco]

You could try vintage record stores but it's unlikely they would have any resale value in them.

I had several hundred which I tried to sell to every such store in my geographic location and they just shook their head at them.

I even tried to give them to a friend who is a collector and he didn't want or need any of them.............

Post the titles on Craig's List and maybe you might get some takers.............

[Does so]

Put your birdfeeder on a cable, and run the cable through the 78s. Squirrels can’t get by... :)

[Vendome]

Pull!!!

[Up Yours Marxists]

Why can’t you keep them any more? I have nearly 600 78’s and play them regularly on my 1960’s AR belt driven record player.

[moovova]

Start at half.com, an eBay store. HUGE resale music inventory of everything from barely acceptable condition to brand new CDs, tapes, vinyl. I buy lots of oldie goldie music on CDs. Prices range from $.75 to a few hundred dollars. Each sale costs $3 to ship. Just takes an eBay acct to buy or sell. Goodwill sells a lot there.

[Heart-Rest]

"He used to just use a needle two or three times, and then toss it. (this was late ‘40s - early ‘50s)

My guess is that not many people changed phonograph needles nearly that often back then.   Obviously, many of the 78's you hear on youtube have background noise, and that was also how every 78 I've ever heard (handed down in my family, and others in other family collections I've heard) sounded like those youtube ones, and most people I know who remember them, remember them sounding like that also, with that kind of background "static".

And as for 20 plays ruining them, my guess is that many of them hit 20 plays in one day.

[moovova]

$19,000 for the top-of-the-line model. Wow. Interesting concept though.

[ViLaLuz]

Sell them on ebay. I’ve made beaucoup bucks like that. Just make sure you package them well as they’re a bit brittle. Or sell them to an antique shop.