Vancouver’s sole record store for sale

Deciding to get out of the business doesn’t seem all that unusual, given an industry outlook published by California-based research firm IBISWorld in 2013. The analysis cites competing forces, such as big-box store CD sales and online digital music and streaming services, as reasons behind slumping record sales at brick-and-mortar stores. It said independents are closing at an average rate of 6 percent per year. The report projected a continuing downward spiral over the next five years.

Wassman said his store bucks the trend with a mix of hard-to-find used albums that appeal to the shop’s specific customer base. A selection of used vinyl caters to baby boomers and their offspring, who crave 1970s rock.

“They want to hear what they listened to in high school,” Wassman said, “bands like Pink Floyd, Jefferson Starship, Cream, Jimi Hendrix and Alice Cooper.”

Many patrons also like jazz takes from the likes of Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis, said Wassman. He insists that the vinyl LP is making a comeback.

Wealthy buyers, he said, seek the needle-to-record sound from high-performance turntables, which has prompted some new artists to release sounds on vinyl.

Despite online trends and the next generation of laptops and tablets, which do not have CD drives, “A lot of people don’t want to think about an MP3 download,” Wassman said.

Still, he admits his boutique business is susceptible to the fickle nature of consumers and the up-and-down economy.

“Some months are not as good as others,” Wassman said. His best sales are during the holidays and in the spring.

He believes Clark County has a wide enough customer base to support the next owner of Everybody’s Music.

“The minute you open this door, people are coming in and buying stuff,” Wassman said, describing his store’s two-fold business model. Customers bring in and gradually sell off their personal collections, an activity that

ramped up to full speed when the economy faltered.

Wassman pays cash or store credit for used items, which are marked up and resold.

“There are still a lot of people bringing in stuff to sell,” he said. “You don’t really need money to leave here with something.”

He believes time and enthusiasm are the main ingredients for making a profit at his for-sale record shop, located in space that now leases for approximately $2,000 per month.

“The business makes what you want it to make,” Wassman said. He started the venture in 1992 with his own collection of vinyl, tapes and compact digital discs as a base inventory.

At the time, “I only planned to stay in this business for maybe five years,” he said.

Wassman, who was part of a popular 1980s punk band called Theatre of Sheep, said he might go back to work as a professional drummer.

He started the store, in part, because the hours were more conducive to his changed status as a family man with two small children at the time.

With his children now grown, Wassman confessed, he is tired of answering the same old questions at Everybody’s Music. He wants to try something new.

If the store doesn’t sell on Craigslist, Wassman expects to host a large “going out of business sale,” he said,

Part of what prompted him to sell the record store was a dream about his mother, who died three years ago.

“She said, ‘Brian, you need to sell that business and start living your life,'” he said.

Cami Joner: 360-735-4523; cami.joner@columbian.com.