Shakespeare on Vinyl--The Price is Right?

So eBay can really let you know where things stand.


That Orson Welles 78 rpm vinyl set of Shakespeare's entire Twelfth Night? Someone else's set was listed for $18 and it didn't sell at all. Plus it weighs at least 10 lbs. and would be a nightmare to ship.  A nice gentleman at a local classical record store said there are a lot of LPs from the 1930s and 1940s out there, and there just aren't many buyers. (All the classical folks switched to CDs, he said. Understandable.) Hello, Recycled Reads Austin Library store.

I've got dramatic highlights from Julius Caesar featuring Marlon Brando. (Wow, is he hot in that photo.) I've got Hamlet with John Gielgud. I've got the Old Vic players doing Romeo and Juliet. I even have Chaucer's Canterbury Tales on 33s. That may sound cool to someone, but seriously, it's not. I like Chaucer, but I don't need him on LP, and unfortunately, I don't think it's worth much. I will still keep googling around to check values, but when some of these actually go for about $8, it's just not worth the hassle of shipping.


I imagine one of my grandparents put together a set of the Bard on LP from a garage sale, but who knows. When my grandfather first passed away, I think we found one if not two 8-track players plus a pretty good collection of tapes. In their time, they had quite the media collection. I think 2012 is an okay year to usher out the 78s and just keep CDs and mp3s around, though I confess I have a few cassettes. Oh well. It's not like they're 70 years old yet!


Twelfth Night eBay listing here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/390433409362?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649