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PAGE 10, WITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY. AUGUS' 30o, 1989 A rare cleto By Trudie Zavadovice «N.ever got rid of anything because chances are that some- body on this planet will want it -- and always buy firat editions.» That's Alex Pilepic's advico te teday's consumers. «If r'd bave kept my Batmnan comics -- today I could buy a bouse.» Altbougb he didn't keep bis comics, be did keep bis records and today bas a personal collec- tion. of about 6,000 records worth an estimatod $100,000. "I have. alwaiys loved music," says Pilepic. "I started collecting records at about 13 years old. I would buy 45s and it sort of started fromn there. I neyer got rid of anything." «Whon I was 18 yoars old, I spont $4,000 on a stereo system. Back. thon records were about $3.99 to $4.99 eacb. "I remember moving from apartmentto apartment and the bardest thing to movo was my record collection. I got rid of about fivo to six bundred records and started picking up nower things. «It was in 1980 that I started looking for rarer records. I star- ted gotng to record shows and was facnatod at bow big the shows were getting. Eventually, I became a vendor. "TMe hobby got sort of crazy. I put ads in the paper saying I hought-records. I'd buy and trade. I migbt buy -100 records and there would be 10 I really wanted. I would seil the rest.» --He came, to Canada from Yugoslavia when he was six. Since then be's lived rnostly in Durham Region and bas settled in Whitby. His records now occupy about 25 bours a week of bis time and are evolving into a business yen- ture. Ho is a tennis instructer by p rofession and bas taugbt at Nick Bollettieri's in Florida one of the most respected and pros- tigious tennis schools in the world. Canada's Carling Bassett is a former student as are many top tennis pros from around tbe world. Ironically, Pilepic is self- taugbt Nineýty-five per cent of bis records are-originals. There are various factors that contribute te the value of a record. If soineone got hold of the first «record" Elvis Presley ever recor- ded, Pilepic says it would be wortb millions. To be precise, it's not tbe first record Presley ever recorded and had'édistributed, it' tbe original be made , That's Alrigbt Marna,' recorded in a sound booth and given te bis mother. Pilepic believes that it is now on display at Graceland.. "People think Elvis's first record, recorded and sold, would be, worth about *$5,O0. That's not so. The thinigs that are really worth money were neyer sold." He bas a nuinber of pro- motional records (with music on onI7 one side, usually. sent- to racto stations) and among them are two by Buddy Holly, 'Maybe Baby' and 'Its So Easy.' One of the most valuable records he bias had is one by Johnny Burnett and bis Roc and 1i Trio. What makes, it valuable is that it's the only time Johnny. sang with bis brother Dorsey Burnett. Pilepic recently sold it for a SEE PAGE là