Universal Vinyl

Universal Vinyl is a Colorado Springs record business operating through an antique-mall booth, an online vault, and record shows. In this interview, Geoff discusses record knowledge, careful grading, and building a sustainable buying business.

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Interview with Universal Vinyl

Geoff, Universal Vinyl is set up inside an antique mall on North Academy — Booth WE1 — with an online vault for the rarer pieces. That's a specific way to run a shop, different from a stand-alone storefront. What's the origin story, and what made the antique-mall booth the right way to build the business?

I started buying and selling records beginning in the 1990’s when you could still find rarities in out-of-the-way shops, garage sales and in discount bins. I would take the stuff I didn’t want to add to my collection and sell them on eBay or to other shops in town. It wasn’t much of a business then but it helped to build my knowledge about collectible records massively.

Over the last 15 or so years, I have built up a good reputation with some regular sellers and made a lot of connections locally so records always seem to find me. Having a traditional retail storefront is probably the easiest way to get records as they come in the door. I can work differently and cut out the overhead of a dedicated store front so it’s really the best of both worlds - plenty of stock coming in and very low overhead. That being said, we are seriously considering opening a standalone physical location - a traditional record store - at some point in the future.

Colorado Springs has a real record scene — What's Left, Independent, others — plus the record show circuit that runs through the Front Range. What role does Universal play in that scene: booth traffic, record shows, online buyers, or a mix of all three?

We are involved in all three for sure. The booth space contains the $40 and under standard/popular fare (Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Sly and The Family Stone, etc), the online store on Discogs contains the rarer/more expensive titles and the show boxes are the high-end collector quality stuff - Beatles butcher covers, rare Blue Note monos, Nick Drake LPs, rare punk, metal and jazz.

You position Universal as "the Springs' most knowledgeable record buyers and sellers." That's a specific claim. What does that knowledge actually mean in practice — pricing, pressing IDs, condition-grading — and what does it get a seller who brings you a collection?

We take a lot of pride in being extremely knowledgeable about records with a focus on garage rock, Northern Soul, metal and jazz. By touting that, we are aiming specifically at sellers with good, dedicated collections so they know we know what we are looking at and what a fair price is to pay.

For example, I recently bought a small collection that had some very rare garage rock 45s — a few $100-plus titles and a couple of $300-plus titles plus an unreleased acetate recording of the garage soul band The Misfits. We paid VERY well for the collection and the seller was very happy. We get a lot of repeat business from recommendations from happy sellers - phone calls that start “so-and-so told me you guys pay well for records” are fairly common.

I have sold records in the past where I was taken advantage of and I do my absolute best to make sure we never cross that line. Another recent example: a repeat buyer offered me a copy of Lee Morgan’s Indeed! - a rare and sought after Blue Note 1500 series record.

We met and I went over the record, determining it was an actual first pressing, listening to it and creating three pages of notes on the release and condition. Then I showed the seller all of the recent sales of the record and we agreed on a price that we were both happy with.

When somebody walks in with a box of records to sell, what makes a collection an easy yes for you in the first thirty seconds — the tell-tales you look for before you've even started pricing?

Condition. Condition is key. When you start in on a collection and everything is well kept, clean and nearly devoid of wear, they will be much easier to sell.

Your online vault is where the rarer, more expensive records live — separate from what's in the booth. What's the honest picture: what makes a record vault-worthy in your judgment, and what stays in the booth for casual browsers?

Rarity is usually the biggest factor here.

If there is a NM Led Zeppelin II Robert Ludwig, putting that in the booth for people to handle means it’s open to handling mistakes, wear and damage and it’s not the right place to have it available. Also, if there are obscure titles at high dollars, there is a very small audience for those at the booth and a much wider audience online.

Colorado has dry air, high altitude, and cold winters — actually pretty gentle on vinyl compared to humid climates, but the dry cold and sun through Front Range windows do their own damage. What condition damage do you see most in Springs-area collections?

Sun damage is rare as I think most people know to keep their records out of direct sun here.

It’s mostly scratches which are pretty common all over. Unlike Chicago, where flood and water damage were common. I can’t tell you how many excellent records I saw that were flood damaged there.

Being a record-show vendor puts you in front of the specialist-collector crowd that a typical walk-in shop doesn't reach. What's the wildest or most memorable record — or collection — you've moved through the shows or acquired at one?

As far as one that I acquired, another dealer had an original copy of the Sam Gopal record — notable for having Lemmy, pre-Hawkwind, singing and playing guitar.

We worked out a trade and I got to add it to my personal collection. Never thought I would see one. As far as what I have sold, there are a number of rare titles but the most expensive was a stereo first pressing of Joe Henderson’s Page One on Blue Note.

I traded to that same dealer for a number of records including a killer Northern Soul 45 - Annabelle Fox “Lonely Girl” on Satin.

Running a record store as an antique-mall booth plus an online vault plus a record-show presence is a very specific model — different from opening a storefront. For someone thinking about starting a serious record business without the full storefront overhead, what did you learn early on that you wish someone had told you?

That’s a tough one - but I think I got lucky knowing some very serious and knowledgeable dealers early.

I remember Dante Carafanga telling me repeatedly about how he paid well and from that got a lot of repeat business - something I absolutely took to heart. I also spent a lot of time looking at auctions in the 2000’s to track what kind of records were getting to be popular with collectors and look at the market like a commodity trader might.

Knowing what is starting to become collectible allows you to purchase titles from retail outlets and online sellers and then move them on to collectors a short time later. For example, when modern boogie started to take off, I used to be able to go into Independent when they were still around and find 45’s in their stacks for a few dollars, sit on them for a bit and then sell them when the market picked up. I pulled a copy of Rodney Swain And The Trigger Band “I’m Tryin’” from there for $1 and sold it for $1650 a few years later. It’s obviously much harder to do this kind of buying and selling but it can work out if you do your homework and pay very close attention. When I started really getting into spiritual jazz from labels like Strata East, Black Jazz, Tribe and EPI and the litany of private press releases, I saw prices moving up fast and bought a lot of titles before they were priced out of reach. Those are personal collection titles but if the time ever comes to sell them, I’ll be in a good position to do so.

I’m kind of digressing here, so going back to your original question, paying well means happy sellers and happy sellers mean you will get repeat and constant referral business. It’s a win-win.

Last updated: 2026-10-16

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