On the weekend of October 24th and 25th, 2015, Rockaway Records set up a booth at the inaugural WAX Record Fair in the parking lot of the Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood. It was very poignant for us at Rockaway since my brother (and Rockaway co-owner) Wayne and I first started selling records in the adjacent parking lot back in 1978! That was at a monthly record show informally called "The Capitol Swap Meet", although, unlike the WAX Record Fair, there was no formal connection to Capitol Records itself. The location certainly brought back some great (and not so great) memories of those days.
WAX Record Fair, Oct. 2015
We would get there on Saturday afternoon, unload the station wagon, set up and not actually leave until Sunday morning. We would stay awake all night and sometimes freeze, but we were a lot younger and it was easier then. Occasionally, we would have records stolen and the "punk rock" kids (at least that's what we thought they were at the time) would run through and trash our display.
Capitol Swap Meet, 1977
Nevertheless, it was a unique, magical moment in time. Modern record collecting had only recently begun and the first price guides had only just been published. We really didn't know anything about the value of records, so we just winged it. In those days, it was relatively easy to find collectible records at garage sales, swap meets, jukebox distributors, etc. - Elvis Sun records for a quarter, Beatles Butcher covers for a dollar, a Swallows blue wax King 45 for a dime - so when we would find a record for fifty cents and sell it for $10, that was just incredible to us! The price of rare records was a lot cheaper then, of course. A very rare record was $100. A super rare record, such as a Beatles SEALED first state "Yesterday and Today" Butcher cover, was $500.
Later, we discovered that the swap meet was not only a great place to sell but also an amazing place to buy. For instance, promo records and picture discs were in abundance at the Capitol Swap Meet but considered rare outside of Los Angeles, so we began buying them at the Meet and selling them in Goldmine magazine.
An example of what some prices were like back then compared to today is vividly illustrated in a story related to me at the Wax Record Fair by Mike Fiske. In 1976, he was at the Capitol Swap Meet when a guy he knew came over to him and asked "Have you ever seen one of these?". For the first time in his life, Mike was looking at a U.S. picture sleeve for the Rolling Stones "Street Fighting Man" 7-inch single. It was one of several Rolling Stones picture sleeves the guy had just bought from a woman selling records out of the trunk of her car. She had priced each of them at $2.50 using a piece of masking tape(!) as the price sticker. The guy had carefully removed the masking tape from the Street Fighting Man sleeve, leaving no signs of damage or residue. Mike asked if it was for sale and he said yes, that's why he was showing it to him. The seller was trying to raise money for band equipment but Mike wasn't sure what to offer. Then he remembered that a friend had recently returned from a record show in New York City where a "Street Fighting Man" picture sleeve was sold for $50. So, Mike told the seller that the going rate was $50, and it was a done deal. $50 was a good amount of money for a record back then, especially a picture sleeve! Mike still proudly has it in his collection today. Fast forward to about a week before the Wax Record Fair and Rockaway sold a VG+ condition copy of that same sleeve for $15,000 to a Japanese Stones collector. From $2.50 to $15,000 in a little less than 40 years!
Wow! The Capitol Swap Meet was where the Rockaway Records story began and where we met many wonderful people we continue to do business with these many years later. In addition, we also met some fantastic people who are close friends to this day, such as Jeff Gold, Bob Say, Cliff Yamasaki, Ron Zimmer and Mark Roman, among many others. As George Harrison so eloquently sang, "All Things Must Pass", and the Capitol Swap Meet eventually did just that in early 1981 after having moved across the street into the Palace parking lot (now the Avalon). But, as with the song, fond memories remain.
Gary Johnson, Co-Owner Rockaway Records
