Wayne Mullins picks up the album by folk singer Karen Dalton titled “In My Own Time.” This was the last album she recorded, which was released by Paramount Records in 1971. Since a movie about her tragic life and death was released in 2020, interest has renewed in Dalton’s music. “It’s constantly selling for over $100 online,” he said, as he carefully put the record back into a case at Vintage Vinyl SC, the shop he’s owned for eight years. A sticker on the album reveals it once sold for 44 cents.
Mullins, 57, has taken his love for music to amass hundreds of vinyl records for sale in his Augusta Road space. He sells new and vintage vinyl records, some for as little as a couple of dollars, and others worth much more. In an era in which music can be found anywhere in so many different formats, vinyl is having a moment. Taylor Swift, Lana Del Ray, and Billie Eilish led the sales of vinyl in 2023, which increased for the 16th straight year, according to Music Week. New artists are releasing special collections on vinyl. Classic rock bands such as Rush are reissuing vinyl in special editions. There’s also a revival in finding older music on vinyl, offering a sound unlike that of a CD, the best online streamer, or a cassette. And finding a rare record, well, that’s a collector’s dream.
Mullins pulls out Jethro Tull’s “Thick as a Brick” out of a case reserved for his rare finds. Thousands of the ‘70s rock band albums remain in circulation, but this one contains all the inserts, including a mock newspaper. A Pat Benatar album with a “hype sticker” also has a postcard for her fan club. Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” still contains the posters originally sold stored in the album sleeve. It’s these kinds of touches that make older vinyl records more valuable.
Mullins, who moved to Lexington in 1988, had been a fan of music even before he went to his first concert, watching Elvis Presley perform in Charleston, West Virginia. “Growing up in West Virginia, there was hunting, fishing, and music,” Mullins said. When he opened the shop in 2017, he stocked the store with a lot of country music, thinking he was speaking to the market. Instead, he found that his clientele wanted more classic rock. And he found many of his younger customers looking for singers such as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and the Rat Pack of the 1950s. Classic rock continues to sell well. Elton John, Grateful Dead, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the Allman Brothers also do very well.
Mullins offers tips on beginning a vinyl collection:
- Invest in a good turntable. Many of the turntables sold have basic parts that could damage a record. A fully manual turntable can sound the best, but it requires paying attention to when the record is over. Playing records is intentional; it’s not just putting on background music and hoping for the best, he said. “So, sit back with a glass of wine or whatever you want to do and just relax and drop the needle and look at the album cover, read the liner notes.”
- Store records in a rice paper inner sleeve. Regular paper inner sleeves have an off-gassing effect that could stain the record.
- A good album cover doesn’t have frayed edges, so those albums you loved as a teen might be too worn out to be valuable.
Mullins and his daughter, Anna, run the shop together. She orders and keeps inventory and maintains their Facebook page. She and her father bond over music, a “universal language,” Anna said.
Vintage Vinyl SC
4202 Augusta Rd.
Lexington, SC 29072
(803) 317-9129