A kind of pop-up store is doing a steady business in Uptowne Olds.
A couple of weeks ago, Jed Butters of Olds set up 50,000 records in a former bridal boutique on 51st Street.
Within a few days that collection was down to about 43,000 records.
When interviewed, he was selling them for anywhere between $5 a piece to $4 for 50.
Butters obtained the collection about five years ago.
“I bought it from a trucking company who got it from a widow. She was a farmer in Manitoba and her husband was a record collector,” he says.
“When she sold the farm and the acreage, the moving company came to move her and she didn't want to take the records with her, so the moving company ended up with the records.
“I'm a record collector. I bought the collection because there were a lot of albums I wanted, so I picked through the ones I wanted and the rest are for sale,” he adds. “It's not every day you run across a collection of 50,000 records.”
He kept the collection in storage for several years before deciding to sell it now.
“The opportunity came up. I was just ‘seize the opportunity,'” Butters says.
The categories range right across the music spectrum.
“Blues, jazz, country, folk, rock. We've got about 200 hip-hop rave dance hits. Twelve-inch singles, you name it. Lots of classical, lots of new wave rock. It's a bit of everything,” Butters says.
He agrees that's a wide range, but he has an explanation for that.
“I suspect that he was also buying collections. You'll buy a collection because it's got 30 per cent of what you want and then you end up with stuff left over. So I can't imagine the same guy would be into The Grapes Of Wrath and Harry Connick (Jr.). I don't see that,” Butters says.
Business has been good.
“The first day I counted 28 people in at once. On the weekends it's packed. During the weekday there's always people in the store. You know, three here, four there, eight there,” he says.
He says a wide variety of people are coming in to buy.
“All walks of life, all ages, 15 years old to – I had an 80-year-old in here buying some stuff. It's just all sorts of people,” he says.
Butters' plan is to remain open for the rest of the month.
When asked what he'll do if there are still records left at the end of the month, he says, “well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there.”
You'll buy a collection because it's got 30 per cent of what you want and then you end up with stuff left over. So I can't imagine the same guy would be into The Grapes Of Wrath and Harry Connick (Jr.). I don't see that."JED BUTTERSRECORD COLLECTOR
