Somebody gimme 3 million dollars!
If you’re looking for a sign that we live in a digital world that cares not for the physical manifestations of our analog past, you need only look at Paul Mawhinney’s record collection. At over 3 million records, it’s the largest in the world. He’s trying to sell it due to his advancing age and health problems. Unfortunately, as he puts it, “no one gives a damn.”
Paul’s been building his collection for most of his life. He used to run a record store, and while running it he never sold the last copy of any album or single, instead keeping it for his archives. Over the years, those really added up.
Now, at an advancing age, stricken with diabetes and legally blind, Paul wants to sell the collection. It’s been appraised at about $50 million, but Paul is asking a mere $3 million. He’s had no serious offers, and an eBay auction back in February fell through.
In a time when you can access pretty much whatever music you want online, hard copies of albums are declining in value, both monetary and sentimentally. But to see such a mindblowing collection as this sitting in a basement, unwanted, is really heartbreaking. This is historic, no matter that we live in the iPod era or not, and it belongs in a museum. If only one cared enough to buy it.
