Been spending a good amount of time on Whatnot recently.  If you’re unfamiliar, Whatnot is essentially live eBay. Vendors auction their wares via quick (often under 30-second) digital auctions. People sell all sorts of stuff on Whatnot – fashion, electronics, storage unit liquidations, random shit you could just as easily buy on Amazon. Collectibles are huge on the site.  “All My Friends Are On Whatnot” appears to be a crowdsourced slogan of sorts.

Check it out via this link. If you buy something, you get $15 off and I get a bonus!

My son turned me on to the platform. He’s doing quite well selling sports cards on the site (check him out @sidez_sportz_cardz).  He’s selling cards to save money for college next year, which is good, because my life savings is going into buying records on Whatnot.  Slight exaggeration.  Only slight. 

I recently wrote about shopping for vinyl records in the latest issue of Ventura Blvd Magazine. What can I say? It’s a cornerstone of my soul. Shopping for records on Whatnot has some similarities to IRL – the randomness of what you might see, the music fandom vibe. Added is an element of competition to grab that slab of wax your collection can’t live without.  

What makes the Whatnot experience truly great is the culture and community surrounding the different vendors on the platform. Each has their own process and methods. Some are brick-and-mortar vendors (people selling from record stores), most seem to be home hobbyists.  Some sellers are, in homage to Severance, “outies” – those who appear on camera where they have a little lo-fi talk show where they address their audience, vs “innies” – people who mostly just show their hands and voice over their auctions.  You might think the outies are the extroverts, but actually, innies can be how David Letterman once described Tom Hanks – gregarious and approachable.

There are many vinyl record sellers on Whatnot, everyone awesome in their own way. I’ve bought from some of them, but there’s something I love about all of them. I feel compelled to profile a few standouts:

@vcvinyl

Often averaging over 100 viewers per show, these guys are the 800-lb gorillas of Whatnot vinyl record sellers.  VCV is a volume play, and their endless reserve of inventory is mind-boggling.  99% of what they sell are new, sealed albums. In one show, they might move 1,000 units. A record store owner would cut off their ear for that kind of action in a week. They appear to be operating out of an office space, but it’s not a record store. More like a Jacksonville strip mall, in my imagination. Their selection is a panoply of sound – you might see them go from Taylor to the Stones back to Taylor to the Beastie Boys Root Down EP of all things to Elton’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road to a shit ton of Disney soundtracks, oddly. The rotation of sellers is energetic young people, which is fine, because – and this seems important – they are music fans. They may not know Tom Waits’ oeuvre, but damn if they didn’t sell me a sealed copy of his classic Swordfishtrombones. You’re not going to find your “grail records” on VCVinyl, but it’s a good place to build your collection with new albums.

@eskee_knows_vinyl 

Throughout history, men have been gatherers. We collect shit. This tends to make record collecting a male-dominated endeavor, ripe for a woman to join the quest.  In fact, there are several women who seem to be successful on the platform. Eskee seems nice and genuine, and definitely knows her shit. This too is important— when it comes to old records, people want their salesperson to be accurate in describing what they’re selling.  They want to know whether it’s a new press or old, OG or reissue? Does it have the original insert?  180 gram. 150 gram, seems weird, why not splurge the extra 30 grams?  Is it mint?  VG+? VG?  Only good? Never mind. Eskee knows vinyl. It’s right in her name. She’s way ahead of you. As for her inventory, she has a good mix of old and new, mostly used, rare, and common. One show Eskee will drop OG grails on you, and another show will feature $5 records for building your collection, which is nice. Sometimes you just gotta drop a Lincoln on Billy Joel’s 52nd Street, knowhatimean? 

@purenostalgia 

This dude is the mailman of the vinyl world of whatnot. Rain or shine, he’s delivering, often wearing a furry wool sherpa hat. His inventory ranges from high-end grails to higher-end grails. I rarely bid on his stuff; the grails are too rich for my blood. Despite never being a customer of his, his knowledge and high-quality inventory inspire me to watch his show like I’m a conservative with Fox News on in the background. Turn on, tune in, drop $100 on a Japanese press of Aladdin Sane. 

@recordlady

Oh Record Lady, the mystery woman with the eclectic record collection. The unifying quality of music sellers on whatnot is that they are all music fans. I often see sellers bidding on records from other sellers. They have a convivial relationship with other sellers, and they “raid” other shows by sending their viewers to other sellers when their show ends. And they are salespeople— they are there to sell you stuff and have a personality to do so. 

Record Lady is not that. 

Record Lady sells from an anonymous room and never, ever says anything. She doesn’t do the whole “okay…this is a reissue of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, still in the shrink wrap, VG+ on the wax”  mumbo jumbo. She quickly flashes the vinyl so you can sorta see the quality and runs it for 10 seconds. It moves so fast that there are times where it’s unclear what you are bidding on. She often has random old hip hop 12”s but then out of the blue will be selling Unknown Pleasures and Pleased To Meet Me. What the who?!  She doesn’t seem deeply aware of her inventory and doesn’t give a shit. In my mind, I picture Record Lady as the conduit for someone who attains the product, and she is just the seller, dreaming of working outdoors or doing something that enriches her soul. The whole thing is completely humdrum. It’s riveting. 

In its purest Zuckerberg fever dream, social media is about connections and community and finding your people. Whatnot is in many ways the ideal realized. No rancor, no shameless ads, no algorithm trying to influence you. Best of all, no politics! Just a bunch of music lovers who buy and sell records. The whole thing is so welcoming it justifies the ridiculousness of buying old dusty plastic discs that can easily be heard on the streaming service of your choice.

After about a month of submerging myself on the platform, I WANT IN. Last weekend I acquired a library of old records from the 70s and 80s, many UK first presses.   TONIGHT is my first show.  Tune in tonight at 8:45PM PDT for my debut show! Buy a record, it will warm your soul.  And don’t forget to use the intro code!