Bill Binkley owns the oldest record store in Florida and has the largest stock of vinyl records in the USA. Abe Livert Records has been in business since 1936, and Binkley has owned the store and sold records for more than thirty years. A Jacksonville native, Binkley also works at the King’s Pawn Shop in St.Augustine, a music store that he also owns and works as a vehicle to sell some of his cheaper merchandise. Still, in that small store there are about 2,400 records, and an even bigger number of single 45 records. He has about 100,000 records in his warehouse in Jacksonville, 40,000 of those in pristine, like-new condition, something that sets his inventory apart from other vintage vinyl record stores. Vinyl specialty magazine Goldmine and the more well known Billboard magazine have written articles about Abe Livert Records.
When asked about when he started to collect vinyls, he said, “I don’t collect records, I sell them.” And he means it, Binkley has clients as far as Japan and the rest of the world. He sells a lot of his records through Ebay as well. He often goes to “shows” in which he exposes his most priced records with other vintage record sellers.
Binkley, a tall, bald man in his late 60s (made even more intimidating by a handgun hanging from his belt), has been surrounded by music his whole life. Binkley started selling records at the age of 17 for his stepfather, Abe Livert, and started to work with the wholesale aspect of the business when he was 18. Now he owns the store and operates it mostly by himself, but in the heyday of the record sales industry he had up to five stores in Jacksonville. An aficionado of vinyl, Binkley’s business never stopped selling vinyl like many stores did once better technology was available. That’s why he has such a large collection of sealed, brand new, vintage records, because the left-overs of all kinds of music since the store opened were kept and are now considered rarities.
A musician as well, Binkley knows his music. He has been a drummer for bands of all genres, from blues, to soul, to funk, and has even played in his nephew’s indie band, he is a true lover of music. He has done studio work in Nashville as well, and even published a music journal named “Nashville Now”. About his time as a music journalist he said, “I would review about 12 concerts a week.” He said, “It was a fun job, but very hectic.” During the time he published the Nashville Now he met all kinds of artists, from Judas Priest, to Barry White, to Muddy Waters, Earth Wind and Fire, and even The Beatles. He has pictures of all the musicians he interviewed in his St.Augustine Pawn Shop. He reminisced about seeing Jimi Hendrix live, “When me and my date got back from the concert to my 1965 Mustang (and that thing is loud), I tried starting the car but it wouldn’t do it. Finally my date came out of the car and screamed why am I turning the car on and off so much. My ears were ringing so much I couldn’t even hear my own Mustang!”
When asked about what are the most prized records he has, he mentions that the records that fetch the most money are the old-school punk records, as well as the original garage rock records by bands like MC5. He also mentioned “Northern Soul” as a distinctive kind of soul music that developed in England that is also highly sought in vinyl. He said the most expensive vinyl usually go for hundreds of dollars. In the King’s Pawn Shop there are two Jimi Hendrix rare vinyls that caught my eye. A rare first and limited edition of “Electric Ladyland”, the one in which the cover has a bunch of exposed young women (worth about 100 dollars), and an extremely rare, Isle of Wight live performance vinyl. When I asked Bill how much was the Isle of Wight album, he said, “That’s not for sale yet.” And told me that he planned on selling that one online for the highest bidder. Oh the goodies that mortals can’t afford.
Abe Livert Records
(904)-396-0408
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