. please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information . november 2010 record rama type private industry music retailer founder paul c. mawhinney headquarters pittsburgh pennsylvania pittsburgh pennsylvania united states area served north america key people paul c. mawhinney products records cassettes and cds owner paul c. mawhinney website recordrama.com record rama was the name of a record and cd store in pittsburgh . it was founded by paul c. mawhinney who claimed he built the world s biggest record collection . 1 contents 1 beginnings 2 closure 3 the biggest record collection on earth 4 attempts to sell 5 sale 6 references 7 external links 7.1 further reading 7.2 main links beginnings edit record rama was founded by paul c. mawhinney himself a collector of vinyl records and a significant help in restarting david bowie s career by getting fellow pittsburgher and rca boss tom cossie to re release the album space oddity in 1972 after its initial release in 1969 failed to hit . 2 mawhinney started the shop after his personal collection reached the many thousands . it was his wife who told him to get rid of the records or start up a business around them . by the mid 1990s record rama was doing 5 million 8.0 million today a year of business . 3 in the years that followed mawhinney built the world s biggest record collection . he also cataloged records in a directory he released called the musicmaster . 3 the first edition was released in 1982 and it came in two volumes ; one listing by artist the other by title . 4 by 2003 the business had dropped to 500 000 a year one tenth of what it had been . mawhinney cites big chain stores like wal mart undercutting his prices as the main factor in the drop of sales . 3 closure edit record rama closed in the summer of 2008 during the global credit crunch . mawhinney stated that he d been squeezed out of business by the recording industry and large retailers who can sell compact discs to the public for less than his wholesale costs . 5 the biggest record collection on earth edit mawhinney started his record collection in 1951 . the first record he ever bought was frankie laine s jezebel . he built his collection into the thousands before he founded record rama . after he set up shop he decided to keep one copy of every record he sold in the shop thus the final copy of anything was kept and archived . in 2003 at over 2 million items mawhinney s collection was more than twice the size of the collection at the library of congress . 3 by the time the store closed in 2008 the collection stood at more than three million items and was valued at 50 million 55.0 million today . 6 attempts to sell edit one of the first attempts to sell the collection was in 1997 . cd now offered 28.5 million 42.0 million today for the collection plus a 100 000 year job 147 409 today to mawhinney to administer the archive . 1 6 the sale fell through three weeks later when cd now went to bankruptcy court . 1 the library of congress was set to purchase mawhinney s collection for several million dollars in the fall of 2002 . 3 that agreement fell through because of budget cuts and difficulty in justifying the purchase using taxpayer dollars . 3 in 2008 mawhinney closed his shop and needed to sell the record archive . 7 the collection went on sale on ebay in february 2008 . 8 a winning bid of 3 002 150 3.30 million today came from ireland . 9 the bid turned out to be a fraud a few days later . 10 11 the collection went on sale again on ebay in march 2008 but did not end in a sale . 12 13 by 2012 mawhinney had sold various sections of the archive and various formats to other interested individuals . the remains of a once great collection were housed in a number of storage units which were in danger of being auctioned off due to the cost of maintenance by somebody on a fixed income with no retirement funds . citation needed plans for preservation of the archive were set in motion by the audio preservation fund in 2012 with the intent to open a museum online database and shop under the name the worlds greatest music collection . efforts to raise funds to purchase the collection failed and the audio preservation fund and mawhinney parted ways when once again the prospector went out of business . 14 sale edit in 2013 a friend of mawhinney s told him about a classified ad in billboard magazine record collections . we buy any record collection . any style of music . we pay higher prices than anyone else . mawhinney made contact with the buyer s agent and in the fall of 2013 eight 16 meter long semis pulled up to mawhinney s warehouse . they departed with what remained of the archive . the buyer was zero freitas of s o paulo brazil a brazilian bus magnate . 15 freitas has 17 interns who are cataloging and recording 500 records a day . freitas is planning on opening an online museum . 16 references edit a b c schooley tim april 25 2003 . failed deals for fabled musical archive strike sour note with owner page1 . pittsburgh business times . american city business journals . issn 1549 1927 . oclc 40562053 . retrieved 18 august 2010 . david bowie story at the wayback machine archived july 15 2011 a b c d e f schooley tim april 25 2003 . failed deals for fabled musical archive strike sour note with owner page2 . pittsburgh business times . american city business journals . issn 1549 1927 . oclc 40562053 . retrieved 18 august 2010 . record rama archives blog on blogger . retrieved 2009 10 19 . archived 9 february 2011 at webcite record rama closes . pittsburgh tribune review . tribune review publishing company . associated press . august 22 2008 . oclc 33822100 . retrieved 19 august 2010 . a b michaels sean 19 february 2008 . world s greatest music collection goes on sale . the guardian . the guardian . issn 0261 3077 . oclc 60623878 . retrieved 18 august 2010 . behe regis january 18 2008 . pine record collector selling history of music . pittsburgh tribune review . tribune review publishing company . oclc 33822100 . retrieved 18 august 2010 . van buskirk eliot february 19 2008 world s greatest record collection for sale on ebay wired cond nast publications issn 1059 1028 retrieved 18 august 2010 semmes ben february 22 2008 . record rama collection sells for 3m . pittsburgh business times . american city business journals . issn 1549 1927 . oclc 40562053 . retrieved 18 august 2010 . michaels sean 26 february 2008 . 3m vinyl sale is scratched . the guardian . the guardian . issn 0261 3077 . oclc 60623878 . retrieved 18 august 2010 . mervis scott february 23 2008 . record rama bidder turns out to be a fraud . pittsburgh post gazette . john robinson block . issn 1068 624x . retrieved 18 august 2010 . van buskirk eliot march 24 2008 world s greatest record collection for sale again wired cond nast publications issn 1059 1028 retrieved 18 august 2010 semmes ben march 13 2008 . record rama music collection for sale again . pittsburgh business times . american city business journals . issn 1549 1927 . oclc 40562053 . retrieved 18 august 2010 . paul mawhinney and the worlds largest record collection . chaos cartel . retrieved 2 october 2013 . reel monte 2014 08 08 the brazilian bus magnate who s buying up all the world s vinyl records the new york times magazine the new york times company retrieved 2014 08 08 http money.cnn.com video news 2014 08 29 brazil largest vinyl record collection sao paulo.cnnmoney index.html iid gm external links edit further reading edit record rama closes article on pittsburgh tribune review . the archive video about the plight of the paul mawhinney and his collection on vimeo . main links edit record rama official website . the worlds greatest music collection at the internet archive former official website . v t e pittsburgh history timeline culture dialect media neighborhoods notable people skyscrapers government airport conventions city hall courthouse mayor council events intergov police d.a. 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