Should I pitch these old phonograph records?

[Stephen Tashiro]

From my parent's house I've inherited some 1940's phonograph records, mostly of classical music. The album covers got extremely moldy from being in a damp basement. Some are not flat from not being stored upright. I'm tempted to discard these things as junk since they have no sentimental value to me. I don't know enough about records to evaluate the condition of the surface of the record. I'd be glad to give them away, but my understanding is that record collectors don't want moldy albums. So, is discarding them a good option?

[Lee Schierer]

I would still take them to a dealer as they could be 78's and some are quite valuable. Also even if the covers are moldy the records may be of good quality so they may want the recordings to put in better jackets.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,
Even if they aren't worth anything as far as records go - they may be made of shellac.
You can dissolve them in denatured alcohol and make a real nice jet black shiny Japan finish.

Wm. Zinnsser @ one time had a black shellac based material (I can't for the life of me recall what it was named) that was sold as a quick dry industrial coating for machinery.

According to the Zinnsser rep we dealt with back then (mid 1960's), they had oodles of the raw material used to make records left over when records switched over to vinyl.

The stuff worked fantastic. It was the only thing made that would adhere to oil covered machines and not fisheye.

[James Jaragosky]

"From my parent's house I've inherited some 1940's phonograph records, mostly of classical music. The album covers got extremely moldy from being in a damp basement. Some are not flat from not being stored upright. I'm tempted to discard these things as junk since they have no sentimental value to me. I don't know enough about records to evaluate the condition of the surface of the record. I'd be glad to give them away, but my understanding is that record collectors don't want moldy albums. So, is discarding them a good option?"


I had a similar situation when my in-laws died last year.
I took around 100 78's into a local record resale shop, and they offered me $8.00 for all of them. There was jazz, big band, swing, & folk music in the lot.
This was a national chain store that did resale of records and books.
I donated them to goodwill instead.
Jim J.

[curtis rosche]

dry the covers out scrap off the mold. restore the albums somewhere that they will rewarp and become flat again. then sell sell sell

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Don't throw it away