The Brazilian Bus Magnate Who’s Buying Up Vinyl Records

https://gist.github.com/anonymous/12240984d874d428ef51

http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/magazine/sao-luis-reggae

While record shopping in Hong Kong I managed to get over to Kowloon to a tiny walk-up record store that had 1000s of used LPs stacked in boxes. The store was so crowded no more than 4 people could be in it at one time and searching LPs involved having the owner do feats of acrobatics to shuffle boxes around. Most of it was junk, but he did have some gems if you told him what you were looking for.

After buying a few inches worth I talked to the owner a bit: He had, by his estimate, 200k LPs, most of which were off site in storage. He had moved to Kowloon from the mainland without a dollar to his name and lived on the street. When CDs hit the scene (I'm guessing mid-80s to early 90s) the status-conscious HK residents started literally dumping their LP collections out on the curb. Decidedly forward-looking for a homeless guy, the owner started collecting them in one pile on whatever street he occupied. He slept under the same plastic tarp that protected his collection from the rain for 20 years.

When the vinyl resurgence hit he did a fairly brisk business, was able to buy some property and a Harley. He met the president of Harley Davidson while he was in HK -- something that got him visibly excited when he talked about it. Pretty cool guy.