Music
50,000 records found in an abandoned store are being given away
by Richard Howard
October 4, 2016
It's the stuff vinyl collectors' dreams are made of.
In the Newton Heath area of Manchester, a haulage company hired to clear out an abandoned store discovered a massive trove of records in the basement. Estimating the number to be between 30,000 and 50,000 records, the company quickly realized that attempting to salvage them would be beyond their means – but they didn’t want to just haul them to the dump. So a Marvelous Marcus Ltd employee (great name, by the way) posted on Facebook about the find, hoping to get ‘a few’ collectors down to the building. Obviously, we know what happened next:
Collectors quickly swarmed the store, donning disposable hazmat-style coveralls dust masks in order to brave the no-doubt foul underbelly of the building for the chance at collectible glory. While many of the records had been damaged due to flooding, the haulage company said collectors had been filling entire vans with what they found to be salvageable. To add to the fun, there’s a component of mystery to the story too – the collection may or may not belong to a former record store owner who famously fought a protracted legal battle with his landlord after much of his enormous collection was damaged by – you guessed it – flooding.
All I know is when Honest Ed’s packs up and leaves, I’ll be across the street with my hazmat suit on waiting to charge down to the basement with the first removal guys.
