Phonograph record storage

[Ralph]

I'm sure I'm not the only one here with lots of old phonograph records (you know, the vinyl LPs). Between DW & I, we have about 400 of them, and now that we've decided to "move in" to our basement (we've lived here three years & are just now arranging the finished basement into a somewhat livable area!), I'm looking for a good way to store them for easy access rather than in the moving boxes.

How do any of you with larger collections store your's?

Can anyone direct me to stores or web-sites that sell containers of this sort? I've searched EBay, Half.com, Google, etc., without much success; "phonograph record storage" gives few if any results and any other wording becomes too vague and gives a lot of irrelevant results. I guess what I'm likely looking for are those open wooden crates that you'd see all the time at used record stores, but if you've got a better solution, I'm all ears.

TIA!

[Grace]

The only thing I can think of off the top of my head Ralph, is The Container Store. They have so many solutions for so many things. But I get probably 10 catalogs a day (seriously!), and I will keep my eyes open for something that might fit the bill!! I'll let you know if something catches my eye.....

[Vanessa]

Hi Ralph:
TRy the following web sites which offer different storage solutions for your LP collection.......

www.silverflight.com/sc/vinylstorage/
http://cabcoproducts.com/recstorbxs.htm
www.multimediashelves.com/vinyl

[sushibones]

Half of ours are actually stored in a record cabinet: a cabinet with a pull-down door that slants. A fortunate purchase I picked up years and years ago at a garage sale.

The other half are just stored on the bottom shelf of a stereo cabinet. The front is open (no doors) with shelves for VCR, tape player, etc. If you can find one of those with multiple adjustable shelves, you could perhaps just remove a couple of the shelves so the records would fit. A bookcase that was 12 or 13" deep would work if it were sufficiently heavy duty.

Now that I think about it, all those modular stereo cabinets would not hold up under the weight of the records. Mine works because the records are only on the bottom shelf and have a piece of wood wedged under the cabinet to support it.

Many stores sell stackable plastic cubes that would probably be the right size, although you probably couldn't stack them. Those records are HEAVY.

Nice to hear from someone else who still has records. Years ago we recorded a number of our records onto tapes; it would be nice to be able to convert them into a more portable listening format.

[Ralph]

Thanks for your help & suggestions.

Grace, I've thought of the Container Store. I'm just afraid no one there will know what a record is!

Vanessa, thanks for the web sites! Silverflight & Multimedia Shelves look the most plausible. Cabco only has cardboard boxes which I'm not looking for.

Susan, if only garage sales provided advance catalogs!;) We've thought about milk crates (plastic cubes), though, and even though it's going in the basement, DW isn't the biggest fan of milk crates from an aesthetic perspective!

[RebeccaT]

Awww, Ralph, give us some credit! Even we young ones know what records are - - I had a Fisher Price Record Player when I was a little girl, and my favorite record was the Carpenters!

So there! <insert stomping foot, with hands on hips>

:p

[MrsReber]

My brother had a party for his daughter when she turned 8. This was 2 years ago. My SIL sent out invitations for a "disco" party with a 70's theme. The invitations had records on them and none of the girls knew what they were!

I guess they've gone the way of the 8-track, though I still have a turntable and play my records!

[LaraW]

DH and I refer to records as "those big round black flat things".

One thing that was funny - the president at an my former company came into work one day and was lamenting how old he was. Apparently his daughter who was 10 was asking him what "the flip side" meant.

Made me feel old too!!!

[emily]

I have to agree with Rebecca with the foot stomping. There are PLENTY of us who know what records are. My SO happens to be a dj and spins exclusively with vinyl (alright, so maybe we don't call them phonographs anymore ;) ) but it's the same idea. He keeps his in milk crates and I completely understand your wifes aversion because they definately detract from our living room (it's a good thing I'm never in Dallas to see it :D). So one avenue you may not have considered is searching dj equipment.

Out of curiostiy, I ran a search for record cabinets (http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&query=record+cabinet) on ebay whcih brings back a bunch of (ok, 9) results.

Good luck.

em

And looking back, I see you too ran a search on ebay... oops :o

[HRJ]

Not only do we still have "vinyl" -- we just bought ourselves a new turntable about three months ago. (Well, there aren't many new turntables out there -- ours is a reconditioned one).

We use a storage unit we bought at IKEA -- I see from their website there's one in Chicago, and you can also order online or by phone, www.ikea.com

We actually have two units stacked on top of each other. Each unit includes four "cubes" -- two up, two down -- with glass doors, so there are eight units in all -- it's about 6 feet high, total. Each cube is the perfect height and depth for an LP.

I tried to find a picture of our unit on the IKEA website, but I can't seem to find it -- we bought this about 10 years ago, so they may have discontinued our particular model, but I'm fairly certain they would still have something like it.

As I recall -- and I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP -- the name of the model was "Ralph" -- maybe it was spelled "Ralf." (IKEA names their furniture after the designers who create them).

BTW -- I was telling a friend about our new turntable, and her 9-year-old daughter asked me what a turntable was.

Helene