to find room for. Cassettes and CDs are really making a comeback. A lot of the old cars need cassettes for the kids.”
Even with the expanded inventory of items, Sorensen said it’ s been more of a challenge with this store. Since her store is located on the back, east side of the Chisholm Mall, she is limited to advertising and can’ t put signs in the front. Using social media, like Facebook, has helped.
Another challenge is even though she has quite a range of music to offer, she is always seeking out more. She only buys collections in bulk in order to make a reasonable profit.
Sorensen is so dedicated to her record reselling business that all vinyls are treated equally.
“ I clean every single record. I use a special cloth and then I listen to it. Sometimes I reclean it and listen to the whole album again,” she said.“ I listen to all the records in the store and then I grade it. If there’ s a skip or if the needle gets stuck, I throw it away.”
She has a rule to only sell good quality albums.
“ Even the bargain bins have been cleaned and listened to. If they’ re 50 cents, I treat them like a hundred dollar record because I want everybody to be happy.”
She also listens to all of the cassettes before adding them to the store inventory.
Research is vital when it comes to pricing.
“ In the dead wax, the black part, there’ s an etched in number. In every record you have to look up that etched number to find out what pressing it was. Like it could be Terre Haute or Los Angeles. Each one is different. So you could have five Led Zeppelins, but it could be five different pressings, five different dates, or there could be a re-release.”
She credits“ Lefty,” a man in Lincoln, Nebraska, for teaching her how to research records.
“ He was amazing. He’ s retired now, but yeah taught me everything I know.”
She estimates that, on average, she sells about 400 albums a month.
“ That’ s why I need another collection. My best way to get it is if somebody has a record collection and they come to me and say, my dad passed away or my brother, or I’ m tired of them. Can you come take a look? And I can buy 50, 200, 500, a thousand at a time record collections. That’ s the way I do it.”
Music popularity is regional, she said. In Nebraska, she sold a lot of the same stuff, but there were also 80s and jazz collectors.
“ Here in Duncan, I would say everybody wants heavy metal, Iron Maiden, Metallica, J. O., Danzig, Black Sabbath, Motley Crue.”
She also has the unexpected, from J. Geils Band to the less popular, Jim Croce, Seals & Croft and even good-old fashioned 1950s country.
Sorensen makes it easy for any age to buy from her store, having a QR code for Venmo payments as one method among the usual ways to pay. She loves being able to stay up-to-date on more than just her store inventory, which includes fun items like stickers, retro magazines, and even gamer and gift items like miniature“ vinyl” drink coasters. She’ s open Tuesday through Saturday and shoppers will have to enter through one of the main doors of the mall. She can be reached via her Facebook, or by calling 402- 714-0612.
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