Estate Auction finds

[kerosene]

I wasn't sure where to post this, so I will put it here.

Dakota(bf) and I managed to make it to an estate auction yesterday, after a long friday night-saturday morning disaster (meant for another thread). What an experience the sale was! A day of two auctioneers rattling off prices for all kinds of items (boxes of linens, china, antique furniture, ugly chairs, farm equipment, vehicles, fabric, kitchen utensils, everything a person owned at the time of her demise). The place was crawling with Mennonites and a few antique dealers. Despite the vulture like atmosphere, in a matter of several hours, I happened to acquire some neat things:

a few boxes of OLD 78s (1940s-1950s)
A console record player
A box of old textbooks from the 1950s
A vintage 1950s kitchen table with 2 expansion leaves and 6 matching chairs (excellent condition!)
An antique armchair fit for my desk
a few odds and ends...

All in all, we spent 59.00 total yesterday.

Some of the items we missed were:

A console phono/radio combo from the 1940s (it sold for 5.00 to an antique dealer! Argg!!)
2 full sets of vintage silverware (solid silver) in boxes (couldn't justify spending too much on them and ended up giving up a bidding fight for them)
An antique bedroom set from the 1930s (sold to a mennonite for 10.00. We had no room for it)

We arent avid antique collectors, but when we run across good deals on furniture for our house, we tend not to let them pass us by. I had been looking for an old console phono player, and was thrilled that I found it, and that it came with so many records. There are probably close to 200 78s and 45s. They range from Elvis Presley to The Platters to Marty Robbins. Most of them are playable with a few scratches, but a few are broken or cracked. We spent the greater part of last night and this morning fixing the turntable on the console, since it wouldn't spin (we just took off the table, pulled it apart underneath and cleaned and re-oiled all the parts). It works perfectly now.

Anyway, does anyone have any idea what I can do with all these old records, besides sell them on Ebay? I think about selling them, but then I feel that I can't part with them for the cheap prices they would bring individually on Ebay. Maybe I ought to start a collection? Does anyone else collect records? What is the best way to store the old ones that don't have covers anymore?

I have a bunch of newer records, too, but nothing older than the late 70s, so it was a blast playing them once we got the player fixed.