Scotland Yard to second-hand vinyl
You’ve just notched up ten years at Time Machine Records, but what did you do before selling secondhand records?
I was a Detective Sergeant at New Scotland Yard. But when my wife Julia and I got married we moved to Chichester. Julia is from here originally and has lots of old school friends, but we made many more lovely friends through the shop. I walked in with a box of vinyl, a trestle table and some optimism, but record shops are real community hubs; people love them and like to come in to chat and trade records.
So vinyl collectors are bonded by that old adage that music is the universal language?
Definitely. But the imagery plays a part too. I like displaying album covers on the wall (you never have to decorate!), but the artwork side of vinyl is special. LPS often came with posters or inserts. And vinyl is tactile.
An original 60s album, for instance, has deeper grooves and gives you a sound that you won’t ever get with modern vinyl. Anyone who buys vinyl walks out with it tucked under their arm rather than putting it in a bag. It’s something to celebrate.
Who are your customers?
People of all ages, but I’d say that a third are just starting to collect, a third are adding to existing collections and a third had a collection but threw it away and are now rebuilding it. I’ve got several customers whose collections are nudging 10,000 LPS. I have one collector who never got rid of his records (at a time when everyone else was taking them to the tip). His collection is over 15,000. We hold wish lists for people, usually for rare stuff or things they are trying to replace. When people see that you’re fair and that you care about the records, they come. I never sell anything that I wouldn’t play on my own record deck.
What makes something super collectable?
If a record absolutely bombed then it might be rare. David Bowie’s first album was released on the same day as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and so it died. Now it is really collectable. The records I stop at when I’m looking at a collection are those I’ve never heard of. People contact us with collections for sale, or I go ‘crate digging’ for vinyl at record fairs and car boot sales. But don’t take your CDS to the tip; there will be a time when they come back. And don’t throw out old gig tickets or vintage flyers either. They can be worth a fortune. We’re always happy to give advice.
The next ten years?
More of the same, please! We are in the Almshouse Arcade in The Hornet and it’s a great community of independent shops and businesses. People get to the end of East Street and assume it’s the end of the town, but there is a lot more to discover.
For more information visit www.timemachinerecords. co.uk