People will ask me what is the size of my collection. I tell them it's "a few more than some, but a lot less than others". I collect 78s, 45s, LPs, CDs, cassettes, videos, DVDs, books and magazines on the Blues. When someone asks me what rare records I have have in my collection, I just answer with, 'If I don't have it, it's rare to me.' I believe that you'll never have 'em all, so I am very happy with what I have gathered in the past and anything that I can add to the collection in the future is just a bonus.  As you know there are all kinds of collectors in music. Some collect one type of music, like the Blues. Some of those like to collect the original recordings on whatever format they first appeared on 78s, 45s, 331/3 LPs and even now on CDs. Why, one reason is historical value, but there maybe other reasons.

Let's talk about historical value. Again some like to just own a piece of some kind of history whether it's a house, a car, a lamp, you grandfather's watch or a recording, it's part of your inner being. I like old recordings of the Blues because it's an actual item of a time gone by. They don't make 78s, 45s or LPs for the mass market any more. To me even though there is the convenience of playin' a CD, I still like puttin' on the old records on the turntable, watchin' them spin around and then hearin' the original sounds out of the original grooves. I like this feelin' I get and I still feel old recordings sound better in their original format than on CD. Some collectors of Blues records won't play the original recording for different reasons. A few might have got into collecting for a financial investment and don't want to lower the quality of their initial payout. They see their investment increasing in monetary value over the years. If I believed this I would have bought a house. To me records were meant to be played, if you don't get out of them there original purpose then you defeat their existence. One of my friends is a pre-war Blues collector and almost every time we get together he always says, "here goes another $50", as he drops the needle on an original Robert Johnson 78.

I never bought records as an investment, but I couldn't stop them from increasing in value either. At the time I started pickin' up Blues records it was for the purpose of tryin' to listen to as much of an artist output as I could hear. Yes, there were the King's, Muddy, Wolf and Hooker LPs, to name a few, available, but to hear artists, for example, like Amos Milburn you had to find their 78s and 45s because there were no LPs yet that you could get. Over the years though I've seen the value of these records increase. I used to go to Chicago on record hunting trips back in the early 70's to satisfy my hunger to hear more music. One of the shops I went to was on Maxwell St. and was owned by a guy who originally recorded Little Walter and Jimmy Rogers in 1947 on his Ora Nelle label. Mr. Abrahms' shop was loaded with 45s and 78s. I found four copies each of those 78s and bought them for 50 cents each. When I got back to Toronto I kept one copy of each and gave the rest away to Blues friends as gifts. Yesterday I was browsing the internet and came across an action list for Blues records. The Little Walter Ora Nelle 78 was up for a minimum bid of $750 U.S. Other record collectors may go after certain labels they like and only go after them. One guy I used to know only collected the SUN record label. He had to have everything on SUN and he didn't care who the artist was or what type of music they played. He didn't even like Blues. Some collectors only collect certain artists, some only 78s, some only 45s, some only LPs. I guess the latter part is what you would call medium collectors. A few of them will take anything recorded on that particular medium whether they like it or not. To me personally, this is just quantity as opposed to quality in record collecting. If I believed in this theory I would in the early years have grabbed as much as was offered to me and right now I could tell you that I would have a collection of over 500,000 78s alone. But my heart and soul were attracted to hearin' the Blues so that is what I ended up collectin' and not the other way around. If you love the music called the Blues and you want to learn more about it, increase your knowledge and you do it by asking questions and listening to the music. You just want the music to listen to, nothin' else matters.  Eddy B