The Georgia Pile: How 15,000 vinyl records traveled from Georgia to Ohio

I love vinyl records. It is becoming a passion and maybe even an obsession. Never did I dream I would end up with this many records in my garage.

How I found out about them?

I got a text one evening from one of my former teachers asking if I knew anybody who sells vinyl records. When I replied that I sell records online, he proceeded to tell me that a friend of his from Georgia had a brother that passed away recently, and the family was trying to figure out how to get rid of his “large” collection of records. My teacher then gets me in contact with his friend, and we begin to talk about how “large” is the collection. She sent me this photo and believed it to be “thousands of records.”
(When I saw this photo, I thought “Okay it’s probably about 2,000-3,000 records…”)

I then asked how much she was wanting for the collection. She said the family had no idea as to what was in the collection, and didn’t have time to catalog it. The only thing they knew about the collection was it had lots of Classical, Jazz, Country, Big Band, Pop, Rock and Elvis.  When I asked if anybody had appraised it or even thrown out a price, she said no one had done any of that, and all she wanted was a fair price from somebody she could trust. I then talked it over with my wife, and began to plan my strategy in getting those records from Georgia to Ohio.

How I got them to Ohio?

On April 11th, I was going to be in West Virginia playing a weekend concert with the Huntington Symphony. The morning after the concert, I began my trek to Georgia with only my car – a Dodge Caliber. After driving through six states (and seeing a fellow bass trombone friend) I arrived in a little town about 90 miles northeast of Atlanta. I meet this very sweet lady at the storage unit where she shows me the mother-load.  The picture was true. After we talked a bit, she handed me the key to the unit and basically said, “have at it.”

I was very excited. The adrenaline was starting and I could not wait to pick up the 16-foot rental truck the next morning. To keep travel costs as low as possible, I spent the night at a State Park not too far from Gainesville. When I woke up the next morning I high-tailed it out of the campground so I could get to the truck rental store as soon as they opened – If I was going to pull this off, I had to manage my time wisely. When I showed up to Budget Rental 15 minutes after they opened, everyone looked shocked as if they never had seen a customer before. Even though I reserved for the truck to be picked up at 9 am, I was told I would have to wait 30-45 minutes because they just received the truck and it needed to be inspected since it arrived during the weekend. I thought that was not a huge deal, and so I decided to get some Chick-fil-A breakfast since I was in its home state. I  came back an hour later (10:15 am) hoping I can drive off with the truck and car trailer. But for the next hour and a half, somehow I was still waiting. It was a mixture of slow service, workers not knowing what they were supposed to, computers not saving the work, and other factors. Needless to say, when I was hoping to be at the storage unit by 10 am, I didn’t leave Budget until 12 pm. After it was all said and done,  I drove my rental truck – towing my car  – to the storage unit and finally started to load the records into the truck at 1:15 pm. The next 5-6 hours went by way quicker than they were suppose to. Fortunately, it wasn’t super hot, but there was some misty rain which encouraged wonderful humidity. I honestly thought loading the truck would take 3 or  4 hours and I could get home thatMonday night (Google Maps said it would take 9 hours from Georgia to Ohio).

Boy was I wrong about that…..

When it came dinner time, I got a quick bite to eat at one of my favorite fast food joints in the South. After filling up with water and chicken, I headed back to the storage unit to keep putting a dent in the collection. During all of this loading, many thoughts came to mind:

Will all of these records fit into the truck? What have I got myself into? Can I really sell all of these? Will I survive? Am I stupid?

For some reason I kept going. I had gone this far, and I could tell there were some great records in the collection! As it got close to 8pm, I received a phone call from the sweet Georgia lady asking how it was coming along. This led to her coming over to help me finish the final leg. By her coming over I was able to get that second (actually third or fourth) wind to finish this task.  The clock turned to 10 pm and we were finally finished. However, as I closed the door and started to move the truck, I heard this awful scraping noise. I thought, “Uh oh, this is not good.” I got out and the mudflappers were dragging along the road and the wheels themselves were starting to be into the frame of the bed. I had been keeping an eye on this and obviously noticed the trucked was weighing down. Needless to say, I had to do something I didn’t want to do — throw away some records. It was painful but it had to be done. After I finished (around 11 pm), the truck was STILL TOO HEAVY and dragging even after I filled up an entire trash bin. I again had no other choice but to put some records back in the unit until the mud flappers were off the ground. Thankfully, unloading a truck is always easier than loading a truck. I was also able to speed up the process since I had a hand dolly that would make stacking much easier. I quickly unloaded 21 stacks of records that were 3-4′ tall back into the storage unit.

Finally! The truck had less weight and could be drivable through the Great Smoky Mountains. I reattached the car dolly and left the storage unit at midnight. Thanks to my supportive wife, she found a hotel about an hour away and booked it for me. As I started driving I quickly caught on to a fact: When driving a fully loaded 16-foot moving truck while pulling your car, realize that the ETA on your GPS will gradually add more time to your trip. So even though the hotel was an hour away, I didn’t pull in until 1:30 am.

The next morning I got up and headed out as quick as I could. My GPS said it would take about 9 hours, and I knew I would be losing time during the trip. As I drove through the tips of the Appalachian Mountains and the Great Smoky Mountains, I was able to see some great views on a gorgeous (and sometimes rainy) day. What helped with the sight-seeing was I was able to drive at the “fast” speed of 25-35 mph up some of the mountains. Yes, semi-trucks were passing me, but I didn’t care – I was hauling a bunch of records through 5 states! (sometimes this was a sarcastic thought)

As I started nearing home, I was feeling happy. Yes, my 9 hour drive turned into a 13 hour drive, but again, I didn’t care. I got home, went to bed, woke up the next morning and started to unload the records. I carefully laid out a bunch of storage shelves used in the storage unit and was easily able to stack records on them. All in all, it only took me 6 hours to unload the records and neatly stack them in my garage.

 The moment of truth came – I needed to get an estimate of how many records were moved. Reminder, I was thinking a ballpark of 3000 records.  Once, the stacks were in the garage they were about 3′-4′ high. I first double counted the amount of stacks: 71 total.  Even though there were some stacks higher than the one I was counting, the stack I counted was the average. The number in that one stack?

217

71 x 217 = 15,407 records

Wait what?! I chuckled when I saw this number. I then began to really think about the total number (15,000 + the remaining records in the storage unit + what I threw away). HOLY BATMAN! How can you personally own this many records?! I have heard stories of people owning thousands upon thousands of vinyl – I just never thought I would become “that guy.” My wife even counted a stack to make sure I wasn’t off my rocker. My oldest brother thinks it’s hilarious. My college students think I’m crazy.

So What’s Next?

There is so much great music in this collection that needs to be heard. Plus with the “vinyl revival” taking place in other music genres, why can’t it happen with classical music? For those reasons I plan to sell them. I have already started cataloging the inventory as well as listing them in these marketplaces:

1) eBay – the largest independent marketplace in the world.

2) Discogs.com – the largest vinyl record marketplace in the world.

3) Instagram – one of the largest platforms for photo sharing.

4) Personal requests – collectors and buyers who send me a list and pay in person or through PayPal.

If you click on each link, you will be directed to the Last Row Music Stores. With Instagram, each vinyl the is included from this collection will be given the hashtag, #TheGeorgiaPile. Be sure to follow and/or ‘like’ Last Row Music on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

What can YOU do?

With a collection like this, it will take some time to catalog and price EVERYTHING. I will say there is quite a variety in this collection – The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Benny Goodman, Dave Brubeck, musicals, soundtracks, and countless others. But the biggest part of the collection is Classical Music – probably about 80% of what I have looked through so far. There are some rare early albums as well, such as a few Chicago Symphony recordings with Frederick Stock as conductor). The previous owner took great care of these, and I will do my best to do the same. People have already asked if I have a found certain albums. I would suggest and encourage you to email me a list of artists, composers, orchestras, specific albums, etc., that you would be interested in purchasing. People have already started doing this and it will help me know who wants what. The more you buy the bigger the discounts, and these albums won’t be sold for high dollar, necessarily.

If you have any questions or would like to send me a list of requests, pleae email me at [email protected].

If you would like to see a list of the inventory so far, click on this link.

Alright time to go back to the garage!