This month: The Vinyl Hunters

Jake and his grandad Dave Kapusta are affectionately known online as The Vinyl Hunters. Dave was a black cabbie who has been collecting records since the 60s, ranging from prog through to heavy metal.

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Jake followed in his footsteps and started collecting records of his own – they both have hundreds. They share their vinyl-hunting journeys on YouTube on their channel The Vinyl Hunters. Jake says: “I know if you like this article, you’ll love to watch our adventures.”

What do you collect, and why?

Jake: I like to collect a variety, ranging from soundtracks from my favourite films to original albums of prog, death metal, folk – if an album contains a song I like, it’ll be on my wants list! My life revolves around music but when it comes to vinyl, the main reason I do it is for the fun of hunting, to tick things off my list.

Dave: I collect prog firstly – my favourite band is, and has always been, Uriah Heep. I once had almost every Vertigo swirl among other rare prog gems before selling them in the 80s in favour of buying Royal Doulton character jugs. It’s just what happened. Everyone was into The Beatles and the Stones whereas I liked Love and Vanilla Fudge and The Doors. No one had heard of those bands, so I started collecting.

How big is your collection?

Jake: I have around 450 albums.

Dave: I have around 1,000 now. That’s taking into account the ones I sold in the 80s for pennies in comparison to what they’re worth now. I have since had a clearout of 25-50 per cent of my collection in order to save space and please my wife. I went onto CDs like most other people, and I have 1000s of those, too. My collection now spans multiple rooms, wardrobes and cupboards – whichever wardrobe you open, you’ll find vinyl, CDs, books or copies of Record Collector magazine in there!

What do you think it is worth?