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PLAINS TWP. — It again was time for the event that local music nerds look forward to twice a year.
On Sunday, collectors of all kinds crammed into the ballroom at the Woodlands Inn for the NEPA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Record and CD Fair.
Open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. — with those who just couldn’t wait being allowed to pay $5 to get early access to the records — the semi-annual event attracts dozens of retailers and hundreds of customers who are looking to either buy or sell a rare find.
Greg Spencer, 60, drove from Syracuse, N.Y., to set up shop and sell some albums.
“This is only a side hobby of mine,” Spencer said, adding that he’s been working in record stores since he was in college. “I only do about 15 or 16 shows a year.”
Spencer said he’s been traveling to the Wilkes-Barre area for this record fair since it started about 25 years ago. He said that although the response he received when the show started was “marginal,” it’s grown into something big.
“Since the vinyl resurgence, it’s become a very good show,” he said, noting that the renewed popularity of vinyl records has made the past five years very profitable for him.
Spencer’s collection covers a wide variety of genres — he says he brings everything besides classical music — but there definitely are some items that people want more than others.
“The kids all seem to look for the same records,” he said, adding that young record collectors stick to classic rock. “I can’t keep enough of the Led Zeppelins or the Pink Floyds, but other people want to dig through and see what I have.”
Like Spencer, John and Kimberly Hertzog — ages 51 and 46, respectively — have been attending the NEPA fair since the beginning.
The Hertzogs are a husband-and-wife team that owns Extremities Entertainment, a record store in Lebanon.
“It almost turns into a family,” John said about the fair, adding that he catches up with other retailers who have been coming throughout the years.
But unlike Spencer, the Hertzogs focus mainly on two things: hard rock and heavy metal.
“We have a niche,” John said. “We’re not trying to buck Walmart. They can have their Lady Gagas and their Keshas.”
While many retailers were coming for the umpteenth time, some customers were attending their first show.
“Every time I heard about it, it happened three weeks before,” said Ryan Hartman, 25, of Nanticoke.
Hartman was there with Laura Solomon, 30, of Dupont. They said they didn’t visit to find anything in particular — just to see what jumped out at them.
It seemed the fair definitely made an impression on Solomon, who had a bag full of albums, including classics like the Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour.”
“But this is the best find of the day,” Solomon said as she pulled a record out her bag. That vinyl was a rare, limited-edition remaster of New York rapper The Notorious B.I.G.’s debut record, “Ready to Die.”
“We’ll definitely be back,” Hartman said.
If you missed Sunday’s fair, it will be back soon. Organizers said the event will return to the Woodlands sometime next spring.