So Many Mishandled Records

I like to look at records, lots of them, whenever I can. Like at garage sales, thrift stores, book sales, wherever.

I see the ones at thrift stores all the time, because unless someone buys them they set there virtually forever. There was some guy in the area who was reportedly using them for wallpaper in his basement, the covers, so he would periodically swoop in and clean out all the crap. But he must have finished that project because the crap has come to stay.

It's amazing too, because a lot of the crap records would actually be decent records to own -- currently there's some great '60s country albums that I wouldn't mind having, except for one thing: Whoever owned them originally didn't take care of them.

It always makes me wonder how records get so abused and yet manage to end up in the proper cover. And even in the paper insert in the cover. It's absurd. If you totally messed up your record, scratched it, gouged it, stepped on it, whatever, why are you also being meticulous about putting it in the inner sleeve?

As for me, I hate scratches and pops. It's tough to believe someone was just oblivious to scratches and pops and purposely mistreated the things, then went to the trouble of putting them back in the inner sleeve, etc. Don't get me started.

The big downside to these showing up at the thrift store is that virtually no one is going to want them. The market is way down for records for one thing. And two, anyone with any discriminating taste will look at them and say, That's crap, because they've been mishandled.

Then there's all the religious records. By unknown groups and individuals. Some nutty looking guy usually. Or some group in big thick suits, weird '70s haircuts, and terrible album design standards. You could come up with a heck of a collection of oddball records if that's what you liked. I saw a place that had some of the worst covers of all time, and some of them were these religious records. I see candidates for the worst covers of all time ... all the time.

I crave getting some decent records. I know there are thousands upon thousands of decent records that would be worth buying ... but they don't show up that often.