Vinyl Revival Hits Bayville With 'The Vinyl Dinosaur'

BERKELEY, N.J. — Bavyille's new music store is called The Vinyl Dinosaur, but interest in their retro technology isn't prehistoric. The Vinyl Dinosaur rides the wave of vinyl revival, the modern-day surge in LP sales.

The store opens at 11 a.m. Saturday at 521 Atlantic City Blvd. Owner Steven J. Baeli, 59, grew up on vinyl. His first album purchases were Alice Cooper's "Killer" and Black Sabbath's "Master of Reality," which he said he bought "to the chagrin of my mother."

"When I was a kid and we went to the record store, that was an event," said Baeli, who also plays guitar in local bands. "We couldn’t wait to get there. You’re bugging your parents, ‘Let’s go, let’s go.’"

Baeli grew up around his parents' music collection. They gave him two Beatles albums: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and half of "The White Album." His first 45 record was the Rolling Stones's "Honky Tonk Woman."

"For about 10 years, I had no idea that there was another half of The White Album, so I got to listen to that like it was new," Baeli said.

The times changed, and Baeli stopped collecting vinyl in the 1980s. But time, like a record, is a flat circle. Baeli teaches history at Ocean County and Burlington County Colleges. A Burlington student loved vinyl and got Baeli back into it.

Vinyl records didn't go the way of the dodo. They went the way of the phoenix, and times show this bird you cannot change. Vinyl sales increased 250 percent nationally between 2002 and 2012. Americans bought over 6,000,000 records in 2013, according to Statista.

Record sales surged like moss growing fat on a rolling stone, and Baeli got caught in its path. Next thing you know, he had piles and boxes of albums.

But the records piled, and Baeli knew he'd never get around to listening to many again. Much of his personal collection will populate The Vinyl Dinosaur. The store also features 1,100 8-tracks — some still sealed from the 70s — CDs, stereo equipment and memorabilia.

The memorabilia includes Peter Max patches in their original packaging. John Lennon called Max, a visual artist, personally, to work on The Beatles's animated film, "Yellow Submarine," according to Westchester Magazine.

The Vinyl Dinosaur includes plenty of variety: from the easy listening of Abba and Barbra Streisand to the jagged riffs of Alice Cooper and Aerosmith to the zany Frank Zappa to jazz, soul, R&B, country and big band. Baeli says one day he might be able to fit his classical collection too.

Customers can also bring their collections for potential trade-ins. But currently, the unopened store is full, and Baeli's mostly looking for rarities and it depends on their condition.

"If you’re going to bring me the same Jackson Browne album I have six copies of, I don’t want it. I’m sorry, I can’t. What am I going to do with it? If you have a Beatles ‘butcher cover’ album, well now we’re talking," he said, referencing The Beatles' banned album cover (warning: graphic even 53 years later). "That’s thousands of dollars, and I suggest that gets put into an auction or something."

The store already generated buzz. Someone walked by the location Thursday and ached to get inside. Baeli welcomed them in.

Vinyl isn't just about music but the hunt for new collectables, Baeli said. And despite his long relationship with music and vinyl, the store has offered him some surprises.

"A lot of stuff I hadn’t even heard of," Baeli said. "It’s kind of cool because I’m listening to these albums that I’ve never heard of, or stuff that I had heard of over the years but never really listened to."

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