If you don't care to read this page of what made me get into this business - that's OK - you can skip to the LPs - the rest of you might find this interesting! When I moved here to Virginia from Sunnybrook,Maryland(population 500 - it's about 15 miles north of Baltimore) in May of 1971 I started out as a DJ(radio announcer) at a small station here in Roanoke - however - it didn't take me many months to realize that if I were to stay in the broadcasting business I wouldn't be able to make a decent living at it (radio DJs still don't make a decent living 37 years later! - my late father was right - he told me before moving to Virginia that "whatever you do - try to be your own boss - you'll never make a living working for someone else") - I started to go to area flea markets & pick up record LPs as a hobby - it was(and still is) a cheap way to pick up a lot of neat music - this hobby would've stayed a hobby had it not been for a meeting I had with another local DJ in January 1972 - who after seeing my collection said one of the records(a Chuck Berry 45 on Chess) was worth $10(a good price back in 1972!) That started me thinking about doing this as a business - but I wasn't ready yet as I needed to learn as much as I can about records - in Feb. 1974 I met a local record dealer in nearby Salem,Va. who showed me how to make at living at this & over the next 2 & 1/2 years I visited used record stores in Charlotte,N.C. & Philadelphia,Pa. to see how the dealers there ran their business - during this time I continued to pick up LPs & 45s in this area & in mid-1975 started to advertise in GOLDMINE magazine to pick up names for my mailing list - by the early part of 1976 I was just about ready to start this venture but now I needed a location - I found a small flea market in northwest Roanoke(now out of business) & with $300 & a dream in my heart officially opened Roanoke's Record Room on August 1,1976 - unfortunately the flea market only lasted 6 months & by Feb. 1977 I didn't have a location - at this time I decided to make this business a mail-order operation only(which it still is to this day!) - in June 1979 I was let go from my DJ job here in Roanoke & proceeded to live entirely off this business - but unfortunately I ran out of money (literally!) & had to go back into radio in Jan. 1980(which I didn't want to do - but when you're out of money you don't have a choice!) - in Nov. 1987 I left this station for good & proceeded to run this business full-time - the first few years were rough - but by 1991 things started to improve - in Nov. 1993 I purchased a collection of some 1,600 LPs from a local estate - which in itself would not be remarkable except that it contained 104 still sealed copies of a psychedelic group known as the Music Emporium - at that time I was the ONLY person in the world who had these LPs - keep in mind that these LPs were officially unreleased & so they sold rather briskly & were all gone in one month(if you want to know the value you can look it up in the price guides!) Talk about an incredible shot in the arm! Needless to say I was able to expand & grow this business the way I wanted to - in 1991 I added a fax machine & a 2nd phone line - in 1996 I added a computer & since 1998 all these lists have been generated by computer - if you think it's been a total bed of roses - by 1997 things started going downhill - but like any business you have to adapt - in November 2001 I added my own website to the world-wide web - in June 2002 started using e-mail instead of the postal service to let people know when my next lists were coming out - in Sept. 2005 I started selling 45 rpm records on the eBay auction website & as of June 2007 I'm set up at Happy's Flea Market here in Roanoke Sunday mornings from 8 AM to 12 Noon May thru October(unless it rains)selling record LPs at $1.00 each - so if you're in the Roanoke area that day just stop by & say hi!(and maybe buy a few records!) - in December 2007 I started selling 8-track tapes on the eBay auction website - as you can probably guess I stay pretty busy - but you know what - I wouldn't do anything else in the world! As former talk show host Johnny Carson said on his last "Tonight Show" in May 1992: "I must be one of the luckiest people in the world - I found something in life I really enjoy" - and he is absolutely right! My only plans for the future are to continue finding & selling the best record albums that America has produced in the last 60 years - and with God's help & a little luck I'll still be doing this 18 years from now - wouldn't that be something! Over 50 years of selling record LPs! I want to thank ALL of you for making this business the sucess that it's been & especially thanks to those customers who have been with me a long time(some of you have been with me over 28 years!) Thanks for reading this - there's some more biographical info here - now you can go back to the LPs...