Marco Polo Platters

When I first started getting back into records, much to my wife's chagrin, I said quite emphatically that I had no desire to buy anything new. I was content with what I could find in the charity shops and used record stores. For a couple of years there was a great little place a few minutes away that had hundreds and hundreds of sketchy records that were a dollar each. They weren't all shit either. Oh to be sure they needed a little love and attention and I had my spin doctor and vinyl vac and later my ultrasonic cleaner and the results were often rather amazing.

Anyways, on occasion I'd find myself abandoned at the mall while my wife went shopping. At first I'd try to keep up, but inevitably I'd farther and farther behind, until she was out of sight. I wasn't worried, she had her phone ... I'd text "Marco" and she would eventually answer but over time repeated texts for help failed to yield the mandatory response "Polo" ... so I would go and check out the record store in the mall ... I'd often mutter about the silly prices and generally complain how stuff was cheaper when I was a kid, dagnabbit. Then an odd thing happened. I discovered there was a small clearance section. I browsed through it on several occasions and then one day something caught my eye. I left with a new record ... that was cheaper than most of the better stuff at the used stores. 

A win ... and a loss.

Over the last year I've probably picked up a dozen or more of these clearance albums. Sometimes I knew what I was getting, sometimes it just looked cool and was cheap. 

These I refer to as my Marco Polo Platters.

If you happen to see a post where I talk about being abandoned and end up in the cheap bins at the record store this is where the name comes from.

Now you know.