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<p>PLAINS TWP. &#8212; It again was time for the event that local music nerds look forward to twice a year.</p><p>On Sunday, collectors of all kinds crammed into the ballroom at the Woodlands Inn for the NEPA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Record and CD Fair.</p><p>Open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. &#8212; with those who just couldn&#8217;t wait being allowed to pay $5 to get early access to the records &#8212; the semi-annual event attracts dozens of retailers and hundreds of customers who are looking to either buy or sell a rare find.</p><p>Greg Spencer, 60, drove from Syracuse, N.Y., to set up shop and sell some albums.</p><p>&#8220;This is only a side hobby of mine,&#8221; Spencer said, adding that he&#8217;s been working in record stores since he was in college. &#8220;I only do about 15 or 16 shows a year.&#8221;</p><p>Spencer said he&#8217;s been traveling to the Wilkes-Barre area for this record fair since it started about 25 years ago. He said that although the response he received when the show started was &#8220;marginal,&#8221; it&#8217;s grown into something big.</p><p>&#8220;Since the vinyl resurgence, it&#8217;s become a very good show,&#8221; he said, noting that the renewed popularity of vinyl records has made the past five years very profitable for him.</p><p>Spencer&#8217;s collection covers a wide variety of genres &#8212; he says he brings everything besides classical music &#8212; but there definitely are some items that people want more than others.</p><p>&#8220;The kids all seem to look for the same records,&#8221; he said, adding that young record collectors stick to classic rock. &#8220;I can&#8217;t keep enough of the Led Zeppelins or the Pink Floyds, but other people want to dig through and see what I have.&#8221;</p><p>Like Spencer, John and Kimberly Hertzog &#8212; ages 51 and 46, respectively &#8212; have been attending the NEPA fair since the beginning.</p><p>The Hertzogs are a husband-and-wife team that owns Extremities Entertainment, a record store in Lebanon.</p><p>&#8220;It almost turns into a family,&#8221; John said about the fair, adding that he catches up with other retailers who have been coming throughout the years.</p><p>But unlike Spencer, the Hertzogs focus mainly on two things: hard rock and heavy metal.</p><p>&#8220;We have a niche,&#8221; John said. &#8220;We&#8217;re not trying to buck Walmart. They can have their Lady Gagas and their Keshas.&#8221;</p><p>While many retailers were coming for the umpteenth time, some customers were attending their first show.</p><p>&#8220;Every time I heard about it, it happened three weeks before,&#8221; said Ryan Hartman, 25, of Nanticoke.</p><p>Hartman was there with Laura Solomon, 30, of Dupont. They said they didn&#8217;t visit to find anything in particular &#8212; just to see what jumped out at them.</p><p>It seemed the fair definitely made an impression on Solomon, who had a bag full of albums, including classics like the Beatles&#8217; &#8220;Magical Mystery Tour.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;But this is the best find of the day,&#8221; Solomon said as she pulled a record out her bag. That vinyl was a rare, limited-edition remaster of New York rapper The Notorious B.I.G.&#8217;s debut record, &#8220;Ready to Die.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll definitely be back,&#8221; Hartman said.</p><p>If you missed Sunday&#8217;s fair, it will be back soon. Organizers said the event will return to the Woodlands sometime next spring. </p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Shoppers rifle through stacks of LPs at the semi-annual NEPA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Record and CD Fair at the Woodlands Inn on Sunday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/web1_record-fair.jpg</photo0><caption0>Shoppers rifle through stacks of LPs at the semi-annual NEPA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Record and CD Fair at the Woodlands Inn on Sunday. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Patrick Kernan</p><p>pkernan@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Patrick Kernan at 570-991-6386 or on Twitter @PatKernan</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Sellers, buyers flock to Woodlands in Plains for semi-annual record fair