Record $3 million record collection sold to lucky Irishman
Going for a song
PAUL MAWHINNEY, 68, has been passionately compiling a massive music collection for 50-odd years. But now, due to poor health, financial concerns and a miffed missus, the Pittsburgh-based publisher has sold what is thought to be the biggest physical music collection in the world - on Ebay.
A buyer from Ireland agreed to shell out a whopping $3,002,150 for the collection which had a record minimum reserve price of only $3 million. The price tag is apparently one of the highest ever recorded by Ebay Inc., surpassed only by the sale of a Gulfstream II jet sold for $4.9 million.
From Thomas Edison to American Idol, every genre of American music is represented in Mawhinney's collection; rock; jazz; country; R&B; blues; new age; Broadway and Hollywood; bluegrass; folk; children's; comedy; Christmas, and all the rest of the music that shaped and defined five generations.
With over six million songs on three million records and 300,000 compact discs, the collection includes 78s, 45 singles, EPs, LPs and CDs. No other collection in the world – publicly or privately held - even comes close. To get some perspective, Wired reckons that buying the whole lot on Itunes would set you back a cool $5,940,000. Others reckon the value of the collection could be more than $50 million dollars.
Mawhinney added and added to his amazing collection over the years until, one day, on passing the 160,000 mark his exasperated wife told him that either the records went, or he did. Wimpy Mawhinney caved and the records went into a 16,000-square-foot climate-controlled warehouse where they've been ever since.
Mawhinney says he kept collecting because he believed "someone had to preserve the music ... the history". Mawhinney was seeking a buyer who would keep the whole collection in one piece and even suggested that it could make a half decent tourist attraction if "cleverly arranged and displayed, and surrounded by additional cultural memorabilia". µ
Comments
Value of Collection
I'm surprised Forever Vinyl and Recordweb Communications LLC weren't mentioned in this article since I was the person contacted to verify the value of the collection by Regis Behe of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for Paul. That value for the collection for $50 million dollars was based on the many rare and collectible items Mr. Mawhinney had in the collection. This was certainly a one of a kind collection. Forever Vinyl has been appraising collections for dealers, collectors, estates and insurance claims for years. We were happy to participate in the valuation of Paul Mawhinney's massive and wonderful music collection. Scott Neuman - President http://www.forevervinyl.com and http://www.recordweb.comOriginal article:http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/living/music/s_547964.htmlWow
Hope he needed that money REALLY bad. He got a shitty deal.Sale Was a Scam
Tomorrow or perhaps Monday you will all learn that the buyers account was hijacked and this sale was a fraud. This is a normal occurrence on eBay, the elderly seller of these records will only be refunded the final value fee. He can relist the item in hopes it sells but if it does not he will never recover charges he was billed for listing it. An article in Forbes a few weeks ago estimates eBay makes about $107 million per year on these lost seller fees. I am sure this seller will eventually sell this wonderful collection but many eBay sellers are not so lucky.After the May feedback changes take effect on eBay, this seller has no option but to leave the fraudulent buyer positive feedback. Even though the account was supposedly hijacked, he still cannot warn other sellers to beware.
eBay sellers have been on strike since Feb 13th to protest this as well as other policies.
Unbelievable
I'm utterly stunned, after calculating. This comes down to buying 7.5 records/discs per Hour for 50 YEARS!?!?!? How the heck do you do something like this?BBC record collection?
Does anyone know how does this record collection collection compares with the size of the BBC archive? I'd have thought that it would be substantially bigger - unless it has already been sold off...I hope he paid with eBay Mastercard
That $10 off the total might come in handy.