Despatches from the Frontline of Collecting.... (Part 2)

Bumped into Nick The Record the other day, the proprietor of the very fine DJ Friendly record service. Well, I say bumped into, I was actually out in Brighton and so was he. Not surprising since he lives there.

He told me yet another story to warm the cockles of your rarest Preludes. While on a recent record buying trip to the States, while in Philadelphia, he was filling his hire car with bags ready to head to another Secret Squirrel destination sniffing for vinyl. He was gone a mere few minutes to grab more bags from the hotel reception. When he returned, the side window on the car had been smashed and the bags grabbed. Thankfully only a few records were gone, but his laptop was lifted, along with $4,000 in cash hidden in one of the record sleeves.

Obviously gutted, he debated whether to just cut his losses and come back home or continue on into the dark night of the vinyl hunter. Two days later his assistant Kate rang him to say she had received an email from a man in Philly saying he had something valuable and could he call him. He rang the guy and, sure enough, he had found the records abandoned by the side of the road, with the cash intact. Rather than keep it for himself, as would many, he Googled the name on the money envelope (DJ Friendly) and tracked Nick down.

Elated, Nick gave him a generous reward, content in the knowledge that the world is not quite as shitty as he had previously imagined.