Local record store collection sold on eBay
February 23, 2008
Perhaps one of the largest eBay auctions to date, the Record Rama Sound Archives 3 million-album collection is currently under agreement to a buyer from Ireland. Paul Mawhinney, collector of the recordings and owner of the Ross Township store, has decided the time has come to sell it off and retire after 41 years. The 68-year-old Mawhinney is legally blind now and has watched his business erode over the last several years due to music sales moving online. The store is expected to close within a few months according to Pittsburgh Business Times.
The unidentified highest bidder bid $3,002,150 for the collection and has a month to pay in full. However, Mawhinney has a plan in place should the bidder not come through. Seven others bid over the minimum bid of $3 million – none of them are from the US. Mawhinney values the entire collection between $70 & 90 million and is confident that one of the bidders is legitimate. His hope is that the rarer recordings will be donated to a museum.
UPDATE: (2/24) Several sources, including the Post-Gazette, have reported that the original bid mentioned above was a fraud. The registered bidder claims that his screenname was the victim of ID theft. The collection has been relisted in a different section of eBay where the bidders are screened.
