Fresh spin on record sales wins EBay award

They’re the type of guys you’d expect to see in a store that sells rare vinyl records — young, hip and shaggy music lovers.

But Pat McNally, 25, and Matt Oehmen, 23, don’t work in a conventional record store. The pair sells records through an online store on EBay, and business is good.

So good, in fact, that the owners of Honest Red’s Records were named EBay Canada’s young entrepreneurs of the year.

A year ago, Oehmen came to Ottawa with a truckload of old records and no job. He had been doing online sales for a record store in Halifax, so to make some money, he began auctioning off his records.

His first sale, the Beatles’ Abbey Road, sold for $1,000, and the business grew from there. Now, they’re averaging 100 records per month to buyers around the world.

“It’s actually a lot of work,” said McNally. “We spend a lot of time looking around for records.”

“You have to be willing to just buy a whole stack and hope there’s something good in it,” Oehmen added. “It’s a lot like gambling.”

Their recent award netted the duo $2,000 in prize money, which Oehmen said they will use to augment their stock of 1,500 records and 1,000 45s.

Despite their success – or maybe because of it – they have no plans to open a real store.

“Online is definitely the way to go. You don’t have to pay rent. We store all our stuff in the basement. It’s just way easier,” Oehmen said.

[Metro News]