It's interesting how two people can look at the exact same thing but yet see something completely different. Indeed there's always more than one way to look at anything in life. This fact was recently confirmed for me at Lola's large apartment in Rego Park, Queens. That is the NYC location of the vast unique record library, built over a lifetime of collecting by Lola's late husband Eddie, that was recently acquired by Amoeba Music and will go on sale July 21st at the Amoeba Hollywood store.

To collectors and music fanatics like myself (who spent a week packing this eclectic record collection of 30,000 units to ship cross-country back to California) and to Amoeba Marc and Kent from Amoeba Berkeley (who both flew out to New York to spend a full three days poring over this vast record library), it is a true treasure trove.

Full of nearly all sealed copies of rare records or rarely seen in such mint condition older records, dating back over several decades and covering many genres (both imports and domestic), it was described by Kent, who has been evaluating and buying records and record collections for thirty years, with words like "incredible" and "mind blowing!"

However accolades such as Kent's did little to impress Lola's long time neighbor and friend Zoya who has lived down the hall from her for many years. Born in Russia but living in the US for four and half decades with her husband, Zoya took me aside one day while we were busy packing up boxes of recordsand confided in hushed tones, "If Eddie was my husband, I would have divorced him. This many records is just too crazy!" she said shaking her head. "Too crazy," she repeated, this time clicking her tongue for added effect while offering a sentiment felt by many subjected to sharing living spaces with obsessive record collectors like Eddie.

I count myself among those blessed (cursed?) to be an avid life-long record collector and I have long considered my collection of approximately 10,000 records to be a hell of a lot of vinyl. But truth is that my total number of records constitutes a modest collection compared to a lot others out there. Regardless, I have long dreaded the day that I might have to pack up and move my records. Just the thought of it is daunting in itself. But recently I got a taste of what that job might be like (only times three and with help) when I had the task of packing and shipping the vast 30,000 unit record collection from a Queens, NY private collection that Amoeba recently acquired.

My task was to pack up this entire collection and safely ship it cross country back to Amoeba Hollywood where this vast eclectic record collection (including lots of rarities) will go on sale July 21st. The 30,000 records (plus several boxes of CDs and cassettes) all made the 3,000 mile journey to Amoeba in LA safely and, in the process, I learned all the intricacies of what goes into packing and transporting vinyl. It's not quite as simple as it at first appears.

This expansive record collection occupied two big rooms of the fifth floor Queens, New York apartment owned by a sweet lady named Lola, a former singer from the Bay Area, that I got to know over the course of the week it took to pack up this vinyl treasure trove. The records were the lifelong collection of her late husband Eddie who kept most of them in shrink-wrapped, mint condition. The task of packing and preparing them for shipping back to Amoeba was something that took quite a bit of pre-planning. And for a novice like myself, that meant extra homework in the art of packing records. Luckily Amoeba Marc and Kent from Amoeba Berkeley (both of whom had flown out to NYC for three days to appraise the collection) gave me some invaluable guidance since they had done this task numerous times before.

If you're an avid record collector or an Amoeba regular then you might have already heard something about the incredibly large and eclectic record collection that Amoeba Music acquired recently  from a private collection in Queens, NY. This collection will be presented for sale to Amoeba shoppers at the Hollywood store starting on July 21st. Perhaps you read the enthusiastic preview of this collection by Amoeba Hollywood's ever-discriminating classical music expert Rubin who, in his four decades of working closely with classical releases, says he has never viewed a collection quite like this. "The most eclectic collection of classical music I have ever seen," he wrote in his recent Amoeblog Huge Vinyl Collection to Hit Amoeba Hollywood on 7/21. Eastern European Classical Gems Galore! 

Beyond the Eastern European and other classical (primarily 20th Century composers) that Rubin addressed, this vast treasure trove of vinyl - 30,000 units in scale - includes lots of different types of music. Among the many other genres that are liberally represented are a whole lot of jazz, an eclectic mix of soundtracks (movies and stage shows from the US, Europe, and beyond), and a refreshingly unique selection of spoken word. Even more impressive is the fact that the majority of these records were never opened, and are still shrink-wrapped and perfectly preserved.