PORT TOWNSEND — Organizers of the inaugural Port Townsend Record Show are hoping to make it an annual event, joining the local festival landscape along with such events as Strange Brewfest.
“I’d like to do this every year, on the first Saturday in March,” said Jim Overly, who with Quimper Sound co-owner Mark Hering is organizing the event.
“We can even do it twice a year if it catches on.”
The show will be from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 5 at the American Legion Hall, 209 Monroe St.
Public admission will be free, while exhibitors will pay $40 for an 8-foot-long table.
Overly said about a dozen people have expressed interest and he would be happy to draw 20 vendors to the nascent event.
Merchants like Hering will exhibit while many of the sellers will be people with a large record collection who want to swap stories with like-minded people and earn a little cash.
“Anyone with more than 200 records they don’t want anymore can do this. It’s a good way to sell,” Hering said.
“But it’s $40 for a table. If you don’t have many records, it might not be worth your while.”
The idea for the show came out of a Seattle record show in October where Hering was exhibiting for the first time and Overly came as an attendee.
“We looked around and said we could do this in Port Townsend,” Overly said.
Hering, who shifted his store’s focus from CDs to vinyl in 2013 after moving into the Undertown, didn’t need convincing.
‘Untapped market’
“No one is doing this on the Olympic Peninsula. It’s an untapped market,” Hering said.
“If you are into records, going to a show is a great way to go find what you are looking for or get a good deal on something that you’ve wanted for a while.”
Hering said he is most interested in having a good time and isn’t worried about profits.
But, he added, he stands to gain in two areas.
“It’s bringing people to downtown Port Townsend for another event,” he said.
“And people who come for the show might end up visiting my store.”
Overly said other goods such as CDs, posters and memorabilia will be on sale, but most attendees will be looking for deals on records.
Vinyl records
Vinyl records were displaced by CDs in the early 1990s, with production at nearly zero in 1993, according to Statistica-The Statistics Portal at www.statista.com.
Sales numbers worked up to the 2.5 million units per year in 2009, then shot up to 11.9 million in 2015, according to the site.
The 1960s is perceived as a popular music renaissance, so it’s not surprising that many collectibles originate from that era.
“Early Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash records are valuable, which is not true of those from the middle or end of their career,” Hering said.
“Rare groups from the 1960s, one-hit wonders like the Seeds, the Shadows of Night and the Sonics, are valuable because there wasn’t very many of them.”
Music from the 1960s is best heard in mono, Hering said, because that’s how they were made.
“It’s one step cleaner and one step closer to how it was recorded,” he said.
“Back then, all the record players were mono along with the radio stations, until they started recording in stereo in the 1970s.”
Hering said the only way to listen to the Beatles albums up to “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” is in mono, adding that at that time, stereo records were created as an afterthought.
Original mono pressings of 1960s music can be valuable, he said, but their worth is falling as many of them are reissued.
“You can spend a lot of money on an original mono pressing or you can buy a reissue — which gives you a smooth, clean sound with no pops or noises — for about $26,” he said, adding that reissues mean he can’t charge as much for an original pressing.
“The appeal of vinyl records is the sound, although it’s not a good medium for phones and iPads,” Overly said.
“There is also a 12-inch-by-12-inch space for art, which you don’t get in CDs or digital music.”
For more information, go to www.ptrecordshow.com or call 360-774-2171.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
