Anything's a Hat (If You Make it a Hat)

The collection should be in the Library of Congress. I can't believe that they haven't even expressed interest

This collection deserves to be bought and cared for. If not by a private buyer, then a museum.

At $3 million, it's even possible that the cost might be recouped by digitising and selling rare tracks that are out of copyright.

cool...he's right here in pittsburgh! i cant believe that one of the universities or museums here havent expressed interest...

cz - How did you find out he's in Pittsburgh?? I'm in Pittsburgh!

We need to visit this guy!!! What's his address? What's his phone number? How do we contact this fine gentleman?? Please respond!

Have Paul Allen buy it and put it in the Experience Music Project Museum.

Wow. Incredible. I hope he'll let me come visit.

I'm sure he would love to have folks visit him and talk to him about his collection if not to raise awareness then to educate folks about his work.

I also wonder why such institutions like museums and most notably the Library of Congress hasn't expressed any interest in the collection?

Really?All kinds of musics r available?

Maybe nobody cares...?

This is probably the same reason why old film is degrading, and animals are going extinct. You don't realize its value until it's gone.

What! It only contains American music - no Beatles, no Pink Floyd, chuh! I realise youve got to draw the line somehwere when collecting stuff, but really, to miss out some of the most influential music of the 20th C is pants!

@wormlady:

So that rare ROLLING STONES record he showed is American? He has to focus on something, but don't assume that's ALL he has.

astounding.

what is with the human need of collection?

wormlady - i love the use of pants as an insult, makes me giggle every time

Eh oop!
The reason I thought he only has American stuff is cuz it says on his website under "Whats in the collection " that "Every genre of American music is represented"
Ya know - so I thought thats why he only has American music - cuz thats what it says!
Tsk...
:-)

The problem with this collection is that about 5% of it might be rare, but the rest of it are things you'll pick up at flea markets and dollar bins all over the place.

The *only* thing he's got going for him is the fact that he conveniently has every crappy Anne Murray, Firestone Christmas, Carpenters, Saturday Night Fever (and at least 20-50 copies of each of those) all in one location.

I used to travel from NYC to Pittsburgh when he was still an operating store and he'd try to sell a five dollar Beatles record for 50 based upon its "cultural importance."

That Rolling Stones record is nowhere near as rare as he wants it to be -- if I can find the completed Ebay auctions, it actually sells for about 75% of that...

Okay, negative ninny-ing over.

Good luck to you Paul. It's always hard to give up something you love because of health reasons. Take care!

Does anyone know the music he played in the video?

I'd think maybe Ripley's would want it for the craziness of its size. If indeed the desireability of the majority of the recordings is low, then looking for a collector interested in the content is not the way to go. Most of the recordings probably are already in the Library of Congress. The impressiveness is simply the scale of the collection.

I'm finding with my art that people who want content, want content they want, not just a huge amount. Size perhaps doesn't matter here.

Peace.

That's a pretty nice little film. I was surprised by just how poignant I found the bit at the end that started around 5:45.