The owner of a record store who is offering “a unique and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live the High Fidelity life” by selling his music shop online has been inundated with offers but needs to sort the genuine bids from the tokenistic ones.
As previously reported, Tim Derbyshire the owner of London-based On The Beat Records is selling the store he first opened in 1979 through eBay for £300,000, and tells NME that interest has boomed since his unique offer was picked up by global media.
“It’s been chaotic. Australian TV have done some filming here, Germany has been calling, BBC News have been round,” says Derbyshire, adding that picking out the legitimate offers has been difficult. “There have been some bids, but whether they’re serious? That’s hard to tell on eBay.”
Located in Hanway Street, in London’s popular Soho district, and listed with a ‘Buy It Now’ price tag of £300,000 (approximately AU$ 506,531) for the vintage shop’s lease, which its current proprietor believes is a bargain.
“If I’d had the time to sell it in dribs and drabs, I could have got more money for my stock. But I decided it has to be the whole lot that sells,” explains Derbyshire of his store, which stocks an impressive collection of vintage records, second-hand items, CDs, music magazines, and memorabilia.
“£300,000 is a nice round figure, and three is my lucky number,” he says of the asking price. “It’s a price that means somebody needs to seriously consider it. It’s not cheap, but it’s worth it.”
(Image: On The Beat Records. Source: eBay)
Funnily enough, the 60-year-old’s online On The Beat auction is the first time he’s sold anything through eBay. “I woke up one morning and thought ‘What can I do?’ I thought of eBay and it seems to have worked. I thought I might as well sell something on eBay once in my life and I thought ‘Why not make it worthwhile?'”
The original listing for the record store reads: “if you’re at the stage in your life when you don’t have to worry about making money but can live the bohemian life, meet interesting people every day and the occasional pop or rock star, here’s your chance.” But despite visits from the likes of Paul McCartney and David Bowie over its 34 year history, Derbyshire admits that celebrity shoppers aren’t as common as they used to be.
“I wouldn’t recommend buying the shop as a chance to meet famous people,” he forewarns, with little disillusion that On The Beat is the moneymaker it once was, especially during a tough economic climate that has brought even major record chains like HMV to their knees. “Anybody that takes it over can’t run it as a business. If you see this as a business, it’s not going to work,” he tells NME.
“I need some energetic person to take it over from me. I’ve served my time, really,” he adds, noting his plans to retire should his sale be successful.
The eBay listing additionally reads: “I’ve given it my heart and soul for all these years but it’s time for me to step down and let another passionate music lover take over… The Beat must go on. Keep my dream alive!”
Despite Derbyshire’s warnings, it might not be such a bad time to invest in an independent record store, with sales of vinyl in the UK at the highest they’ve been in a decade, as Billboard reports, with indie record stores experiencing a 44% boost in sales as a result – helped in large part by the success of this year’s Record Store Day.
