The Austin Record Convention is back at Austin’s Palmer Events Center. The local celebration of music memorabilia and music culture is now 40 years old, and that's because a lot of fans find the show addicting.
Thousands of people wander through the Palmer Events Center before the show weekend is over. One guy caught our attention because he was walking around with his luggage. He said his name was Mike Vague, and he admits he's there to both buy and sell. He explained, “The idea is to spend as much as you can and break even and take home what you want. That's what all of us kind of want to do."
Vague said he was happy and sad to see his foreign competition here for the first time since the pandemic. "There's people from Europe that haven't been here for 3 years and they're excited,” he said adding, “I mean I came all the way from LA just to buy and I'm flying back tonight."
Vague notes traders in music memorabilia like to come to the Austin Record Convention because you get to inspect the merchandise before putting your money down. He says, “Find that thing that you could never find before and actually look at it, inspect it in person as opposed to trusting someone's grading scale online which is often not good."
Nathan Hanners runs the show. He says for five bucks people can spend a lot of time here. "It takes a long to time to look at everything. So you can come and spend a few hours Saturday and then if you want come back Sunday and keep going," he says.
But sometimes you can't stop. This caution comes from vendor Chuck Moses who was invited by a friend to help him with his booth at a similar show in Tucson. “And I had a ball,” he says, “It was so much fun. Then he said you should bring your own records. So that's what I've been doing for 5 years."
So enjoy the Austin Record Convention... responsibly.