Patrons at the $1 fall sale at Elizabeth’s Records in Columbus. Photo credit: Courtneyu Voisard | Lantern reporter
Elizabeth’s Records hosted it’s fall $1 record sale at Ace of Cups on Sunday. The sale is a popular event where record stores sell vinyl records at a cheaper price to reduce stock and to update the collections of old-fashioned analog music lovers and people just starting to expand their vinyl collections.
As a format that once seemed to be dying with the advancement of online music streaming, vinyl is trending once again, due in part to the nostalgic appeal and the rich-sounding quality of analog music. The sale was inspired by the remembrance of a time when records were priced more reasonably, according to David Lewis, the owner of Elizabeth’s Records.
“I feel very democratic about records. They should be easy to come by,” Lewis said. “I’ve noticed in the last two years when everybody was saying ‘vinyl is back,’ that a lot of stuff that shouldn’t be more than a dollar, is like suddenly four or five dollars at some stores.”
The idea of making analog more affordable to collectors and a lingering bit of music obsession is what caused Lewis to open up his own store, after working at Borders Warehouse for 14 years, according to Lewis.
“The first thing we did with Elizabeth’s Records started in our garage because I had all these records left from all the collections I bought,” Lewis said. “So we had this big garage sale and I jokingly took a picture of our daughter and blew it up and put ‘Elizabeth’s Records’ on it and that grew into the store, its named after her. She’s 12 now.”
Boxes were filled with collections of records from artists like The Beach Boys, Nirvana, Cher, and EP’s from local Columbus musicians.
“It kinda grew into a bigger event, we used to just have it out in front of our store,” Lewis said.
The dollar sale event was also a good opportunity for vendors who do not own a store to showcase their collections, according to Bradley Watson, owner of Vinyl Shock Records LLC.
“We have a lot of local 7-inches, we sold a lot of disco, we sold almost a whole box of hip hop, and the classic rock does really well, like The Doors and that kinda stuff,” Watson said.
Elizabeth’s Records has not planned a date for their next dollar sale, but they typically hold these sales during the spring and fall, according to Lewis.
