Oxfam Music Shop, Glasgow. Photo: Crispin Hughes/Oxfam

There’s money to be made in old vinyl, so Oxfam has started taking its donations seriously.

People have long been searching in charity shops for buried treasures. Now, Oxfam has got on the ball and started to make the most of the records on its shelves. Keith Munro, deputy manager at Oxfam’s specialist music store in Edinburgh, thinks they can make life better for all concerned.

“It’s about making the most of the resources we’re given,” he explains. “We do get a lot of rubbish, obviously, but we also get decent things like Gram Parsons, Jefferson Airplane and just being aware of that can make a big difference.”

Oxfam Music Shop, Glasgow. Photo: Crispin Hughes/Oxfam

What he is currently keen to stimulate is donations from people with what he calls “proper” collections. “I like it when we get big donations of dance stuff, sometimes from DJs that have hung up their needles,” he says. “There are also a lot of established DJs that get sent promos they’ll never play, but that someone might really like. Once we had one bloke come in and say, ‘My entire youth is in this box.’ And it was 200 first editions of really good reggae, Lee Perry and other greats.”

Oxfam is the first charity to not only realise that they can make serious money from the dusty crates dumped on their doorsteps, but to do something about it. Perhaps the best way to find out how it works is to help out at one of the shops, even some of the non-specialist stores with big music sections, such as the one in Manchester. Keith explains that even four hours a week “filtering out all the crap” can make a huge difference.

Anyway, that’s how he started. “I’ve been working here full-time for six months now and they let me look after the dance section,” he says with pride. “And just by sorting it and getting rid of the rubbish, sales of 12 and seven-inches have already doubled.”

Specialist music shops are currently located in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Reading, Exeter, London and Southampton.

Visit the Oxfam Music Shops homepage for more >>

A full-length version of this feature appears in the latest issue of T magazine, available from Oxfam shops.