Don Lindich’s Sound Advice Blog

Sound Advice
By Don Lindich

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Q: I was reading about “old records” in your column and wondered if you know of a place to sell them. I have many that I would like to sell.

– SHEILA DUNNIWAY, Ben Lomond, Calif.

A: After the column ran I received many e-mails such as yours from people looking to sell old records. There were quite a few others from those looking to add or upgrade a turntable, clearly showing the renewed interest in vinyl that was mentioned in Time magazine recently.

Others were impressed with my pictorial tour of Jerry’s Records in Pittsburgh and wanted to know if I knew of any such used vinyl stores in their area. I don’t have a national listing of stores, but I am going to start one. More on that later.

If you have large stacks of records to sell, your best bet is to find a local store since it would be quite expensive to ship them via UPS to a store like Jerry’s, assuming you have something he would be interested in anyway. You should realize upfront that unless you have a mint condition, rare record and have a collector ready to buy, your records will not be worth much to a resale store. At least when you sell them you will get a few bucks in return, while doing the good deed of keeping them in circulation for others to enjoy. Throwing them out is shameful when they still may have a lot of good use left in them!

Start by visiting Half Price Books and Music at www.halfpricebooks.com. They operate stores in 15 states and have a store locator on their Web site. They have several stores in my area with a good selection of records, and they always seem to be buying. However, if you have something exceptionally old such as 78s, this probably isn’t your best bet.

If you want to donate your records to a good cause, consider giving them to an AMVETS thrift store. They will be sold to benefit the American Veterans National Service Foundation. You can find a store near you at www.amvetsnsf.org.

Q: I am looking to upgrade to a digital SLR camera but want something small like my Kodak P-880 so I can take it with me everywhere. Are there any digital SLRs that small?

– W. ZIELINSKI, Allison Park

A: There’s nothing quite that small, but the Olympus E-410, E-420 and E-510 come pretty close. I’d recommend the E-510 for its image stabilization system. It’s a very well-made, very capable camera that is easy to use yet has advanced features you can grow into as your skill develops. It’s also a fantastic buy right now at $749 retail, $649 online in a kit including two excellent lenses. You can see it at www.olympusamerica.com.