Collection of 21,000 vinyl records donated to thrift stores

MADISON — A Platteville man has donated more than 21,000 vinyl record albums to raise money for a thrift store chain in Madison.

Agrace Thrift Stores will begin selling Jerry Roh's albums Friday morning. Genres include rock, country, religious, polka, children's, classical and blues music.

"A lot of people are going to be interested in this," said Dave Zero, owner of MadCity Music Exchange. "It'll be interesting to see what's in there. For Agrace, I'm sure it's going to be fantastic. People are going to be looking for gems, and I'm sure there will be plenty in there."

The Wisconsin State Journal reports (http://bit.ly/2okQnxt ) that most of the records will sell for $1 to $4, but others that are more collectible could fetch $10 to $60, depending on artist, title and condition.

"The goal is to definitely sell in quantity so the prices have to be a little lower," said Zero, who assisted Agrace with pricing and organizing the collection. "Anytime you have a collection this large there's going to be some junk, that's just the way it goes, but some people just love coming in for sales like this and finding that $1 record. Hopefully Agrace can make a lot of money off of it."

Roh spent years building the record collection. He says he tired of the hobby about three years ago, and decided last month to put it to a good cause.

"It's significant," Judy Purcell, retail business manager for Agrace Hospice & Palliative Care in Fitchburg, said of the donation. "Day in and day out we can sell albums for $1 apiece so those dollars really add up and give back to the mission."