The duplicates were a part of the culling that I had been dreading for a long time, but was necessary if a full and true culling was to be done.
When I acquired my friend Dalton’s record collection years ago, there were suddenly duplicates in my collection. Duplicate Pink Floyd. Duplicate Kiss. Duplicate Led Zeppelin. We did have similar taste in music and Dalton unearthed his old collection and was buying new stuff too before he passed.
The process for duplicates is simple. Pick the one that looks best, clean it and then play it through. If there are no issues, that is your keeper.
Simple enough, but I had 2 copies of “Jackson Browne – Running On Empty”. Side 1 on one copy was pretty scratchy, but side 2 on the other was just as bad. I wrote a post it on one copy and noted the imperfections. The next time I got those albums out, the post it had fallen off and I had to do it all over again. What a pain.
Surprisingly, after writing the above, I decided why the hell am I keeping 2 flawed copies when I can just buy a new one, I discovered that Amazon only sells third party copies and I couldn’t seem to find a sealed copy. Hmm…
I’ll give you an idea of the complexity of the process with Jethro Tull.
I have loved Jethro Tull since the aforementioned junior high days. I heard Jethro Tull on the radio and ended up buying as my first foray into Tull the double live album “Bursting Out”. I was hooked.
As I write this I am staring at 9 duplicates. Some from Dalton’s collection and some from the dollar bin.
Now in all likelihood the Dalton copies are going to be in the best shape, but although I’m a gamblin’ man by nature, I will spend the time to listen to each.
I took the time to look at each duplicate, pick the one that appeared to be in the best shape, including the cover, and inners if there were any. Did you know that in the fake newspaper inside “Jethro Tull – Thick As A Brick” there is a naughty connect the dots drawing? I actually have 3 copies of “Thick As A Brick” and 2 of them, including Dalton’s copy, have the drawing completed. One in pen for some crazy reason. I kept the clean copy and the best looking vinyl to create an album for review in the duplicates process.
Then I busted out the record cleaner and cleaned each one.
If I listen to each and they are clean, then the duplicate in the backup pile gets sold. I don’t need to have duplicates of these.
It’s well worth the effort though. Take the case of “Jethro Tull – This Was”. My 2 copies looked pretty much in the same shape, but the one on the right was from the Discount bin. See the 99 cent sticker?
The one on the left I bought from the now defunct “Play It Again” that had a small but cool record section. They had very distinct price stickers.
Despite the record from Play It Again looking far better, the copy with the 99 cent price tag was very very clean. There was hardly a pop or scratchiness between songs. I was surprised, but, this is in fact exactly why I am doing this.
Then on to the the Pink Floyd…
Then on to the Led Zeppelin…
I only have 1 copy of “Song Remains The Same”, “Led Zeppelin II” and “Led Zeppelin III”. I have 3 copies of “In Through The Out Door” but they are different letters (those who know, know). I’ll actually be keeping all those. The cover for the dup of “Led Zeppelin IV” was displayed in Dalton’s apartment and lives with Josh now.
In order to have a clinical listen to these while I am in my office during the day I have opted to go old school corded headphones. I bought a 10 foot headphone cord. Ignore the dust!
Yesterday I listened to a duplicate of “Kiss – Alive II”. I was rockin’ out to Paul and Gene but not disturbing our office airwaves. Cyn and I share an office wall.
I was able to hear the record condition and listen all the way through all 4 sides and determine that the copy I listened to was a keeper. I bagged it and put it in the pile to be refiled.
The other copy made it to the “sell” pile.
Interestingly, when I got to “Kiss -Alive” it seemed clear which copy I would keep. One was a Dalton original (left) and one almost pristine copy I bought for under 3 bucks (right).
So I played the version on the right and the records were clean and I was about to bag it up when I noticed something. The covers were different, on the inside. Below you can see Dalton’s copy on the right which references old Kiss albums and the newer one on the left which has now substituted 2 newer Kiss albums in the 3 cover shots.
So then I had to listen to Dalton’s copy, which was totally clean as well. In the end, since nostalgia won out and I kept Dalton’s copy. His copy also had the insert! Glad I looked at both copies.
Another incident was “McCartney”. I discovered I had 4 copies of “Paul McCartney – McCartney”. Now this seems ridiculous, but one copy cost $2.99 and the 3 others were only 99 cents.
I listened to the $2.99 copy and it was clean and so I put the others in the pile to go. When I put the “expensive” copy in the record cleaner something occurred to me. This one was on the Columbia label. I checked the others and they were ALL on Apple records.
Could I keep a Columbia copy and get rid of 3 copies on Apple? Nope. So I grabbed the best looking Apple copy and gave it a spin. Though it was a bit scratchy, it’s the one I’m keeping. Again, nostalgia wins. Not all records would I do that with. Some I wouldn’t care, but… Apple Records. Right?
It’s things like this that will make this a slow process and weeks of some concentrated listening, but worth it.
The last phase of The Great Culling will be the sorting. I’ll go through all the records that are on their way out and sort them into worthy of taking to Strictly Discs to sell, and those that will go to Frugal Muse or Half Price Books.
Future me?
The Aural Retentive 