On a Saturday night in 1979, Gary Johnson convinced his brother Wayne to take him to a record swap meet in Hollywood. It was the now legendary "Capitol Swap Meet", where collectors would park their cars in the Capitol Records parking lot and sell old records out of their trunks or put boxes on the ground. Both Wayne and Gary were avid music lovers, but neither knew anything about "collectibles". They were so amazed by what they saw, old records selling for as much as $100, they decided to start a new "hobby".

They started going to garage sales and swap meets looking for old records, and soon found enough to become a vendor at the following month's "Capitol Swap Meet". This was the start of "Rockaway Records", which quickly became one of the best mail order collectibles businesses in the world.

In 1982 Rockaway purchased "Rainbow Records", a small (700 sq ft) well-known record store in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles. They now started selling new and used records and cassettes in addition to collectibles. Rockaway grew so quickly, they had to move 2 more times, before moving to the present 5000 sq ft Silver Lake location in 1992.

In 1984 another brother, Alan, opened a Rockaway in Mesa, Arizona. Sadly, that store is now closed.

Then in 1992, yet another brother, Scott, opened a Rockaway in Brisbane, Australia.
Be sure to check out his online store.

And the Rockaway Records story continues....