Record Fair draws vendors from across the country
By Huda Fitaihi
Photos by Katherine Rountree
SCAD Radio’s Savannah Record Fair yesterday saw people come from all over to sell and trade old records in Poetter Hall. The vinyl discs ranged from country, jazz and blues to rock ‘n roll and RnB.
One of the vendors, Bill, or “the good guy” as he likes to be called, had rockabilly and funk records. He even had a 12 A singer album with one song on it. His prices ranged from a few dollars to $975 for one M’Boom record. He said that if the cover wasn’t a little old and worn the record would probably sell for $1200.
Bill said it was worth it to come down to Savannah from Virginia as did Craig, another vendor, whose prices were a little lower. “Everything is negotiable,” he reasoned.
One of his vinyls, a 1976 George Benson’s Breezin LP, sold for just $2. He left his original collection of 14,000 albums at home. He still had the Dracula albums on his display shelf, his favorite being the Andy Warhol-inspired cover art.
The vendors’ enjoyment of the Record Fair was thanks to the great advertising effort. Kim Herrington, the event organizer, said that there was a lot of social media involved with the advertising and that posting in Connect Savannah was responsible for the full floor. She added that the fair expected to attract 500 people by the end of the day.
Herrington also praised the volunteers and said that they were responsible for the big turnout. They organized everything and helped the vendors set up. She said that the event has helped the increase in record sales for years. This year there were vendors from all over the country because of the students’ love for collecting vinyl records.
The Record Fair used to be a one-day record store, but now there are plenty of record stores in Savannah. The Record Fair also had collectors’ items, which allowed students to start their own collections due of the variety of music available.
Some students like Max, a graduate student who owns his own studio, were a little unimpressed. He said that the Record Fair could have been organized better because the music record genres were all mixed together and finding a specific record was like a “scavenger hunt.”
However, there was one vendor who made order out of music chaos. Wiley’s Book Exchange traded in books and audio books for store credit to buy records, a good idea when trading is what keeps these fairs going.
