I commenced collecting records seriously soon after I arrived in Bournemouth in May 1968.

[1] START COLLECTING:


There were more than a dozen junk shops in and around Bournemouth at the time, most of these dealt in ‘house-clearance’ stuff which often included records. Consequently nearly all of these shops stocked a small selection of secondhand records, mainly 45s, but also some 78s and a few LPs.



Used 7” records at that time tended to cost anything from one shilling (5p) to one shilling & sixpence (seven & a half pence).

[2] BECOMING A DEALER:
In the Autumn of 1968, I was living in Bournemouth and working contentedly as a bus driver, which left me plenty of free time to trawl the local junk shops at least two or three times a week. I could continue on the buses, while accumulating interesting old records and hopefully selling them at a profit via adverts in Record Mart and elsewhere.



At this time, record collecting was in its infancy, especially collecting 7” records.