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Headway Brain Injury Charity

Big Tabs

Big Tabs

looking backwards, going forwards
I have been sorting, grading, cleaning and selling records for Headway brain injury charity for quite a few years now.
Back in 2008 I was taking a break from Oncology/Palliative Care Nursing, so turned my hand to writing for a motorcycle magazine. I had barely started when I had a life changing road/traffic accident. (T-Boned is the term think)
Four years after my accident, all I had was music/hifi to keep me sane. That is when I found pfm and Discogs.
I would frequent the local Headway charity shop, trawling for interesting records. It was easy to recognise that they were practically giving records away rather than getting a fair price for their donations. So I spoke to the manager and offered my time and experience. I have a brain injury, so it makes sense.

A lot has changed since that first chat.
The vinyl is no longer stored on the floor in the shop! (back-breaking/impossible to peruse) and the records are now kept close to the counter, as shoplifting is very common :(
I sell the more expensive items online via Discogs, but, very slowly I am able to sell vinyl at increasing prices in the shop.
The manager has allocated a small area in a glass cabinet for more expensive records. This works very well. I hate giving Discogs/Paypal a percentage of the sales, so selling in store is the preferred market.

I clean and play everything that goes for sale. I wouldn’t feel happy asking for £9 for an album that didn’t play well. Albums and 12” Singles sell for £1 upwards. 7” Singles sell for between £1 and £5 so far.
I do keep a box of less sort after Singles for 50p and a box of even less sort after Singles for 20p.
There is a loose version of stock-rotation, stuff that doesn’t sell within a few months gets reduced. I also pass on stuff to other charities if there is no interest, or sometimes records go straight in the bin. Nobody wants Harry Secombe o_O
It used to upset me throwing nr/mint records away. Not anymore. I do save inner sleeves, they have a value, and it means that I can replace ripped inners without any cost to me or the charity.
I do throw away any records that are scratched beyond use, all of the stock is VG+ or better.
Nobody wants to spend money on something to find it has the intro ruined by loud repetitive clicks, or undiscovered pressing noise. Even if it is just worth a £1.
(that said, some of the 20p records have some noise… :eek: )

There are probably only about 200 albums/12” Singles in the shop, and maybe 200 7” Singles! Space is tight, I would like more room to sell stuff, but it isn’t a record shop (!.)

Today, by accident, I took some freshly priced vinyl to the shop, and the Headway shop area manager was there doing a visit. (I had no idea who she was, and had to phone and ask later)
Apparently the Headway shop that I stock is the smallest Headway shop, but takes the most money in Vinyl sales. Over double what the next best shop takes :) . This is most pleasing.

If anyone near Mansfield, North of Nottingham has records that they have no longer a use for, then bear us in mind. Gift Aided donations also much appreciated.

Donate here, or come see what I am selling

Headway Charity Shop
47 Station Street
Kirkby-in-Ashfield
Nottinghamshire
NG17 7AN

more information about Headway charity.

https://www.headway.org.uk/
 
stevec67 said:
Good work Bigtabs. I had a head injury in a bike accident in 2009 and Headway do good work. If I'm down your way I'll bring some 'records
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If it wasn’t for the volunteer stuff I do for Headway, then I would meet and talk to nobody apart from The Wife in any given week.
I used to be very gregarious and outgoing. Nowadays I would rather hide than speak to anyone.
That makes it sound like I converse with other volunteers at the shop! I don’t as I have trouble finding words and often stutter or get lost in my head trying to find words.
Also a lot of the volunteers have brain injuries as well, so communication can be very stilted.

Probably looks/sounds very funny. It isn’t.
 
Big Tabs said:
If it wasn’t for the volunteer stuff I do for Headway, then I would meet and talk to nobody apart from The Wife in any given week.
I used to be very gregarious and outgoing. Nowadays I would rather hide than speak to anyone.
That makes it sound like I converse with other volunteers at the shop! I don’t as I have trouble finding words and often stutter or get lost in my head trying to find words.
Also a lot of the volunteers have brain injuries as well, so communication can be very stilted.

Probably looks/sounds very funny. It isn’t.
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I sympathise. My head injury wasn't as severe as yours, but still enough to cost me 2 years out of work, personality changes etc. It took me a long time to learn my way round the new me. I went to a couple of Headway socials but it was heavy going. I remember coming away from one and feeling profoundly grateful that I was walking into and out of the place and going back to my car while other poor sods were in wheelchairs being pushed about. I won't forget going into the Gents and one of the people in there had to be pushed in there by his carer so that he could empty his pee bottle into the urinal. It wasn't a great time in my life but it was a reminder that there's always someone worse off than you. All the best.
 
stevec67 said:
I sympathise. My head injury wasn't as severe as yours, but still enough to cost me 2 years out of work, personality changes etc. It took me a long time to learn my way round the new me. I went to a couple of Headway socials but it was heavy going. I remember coming away from one and feeling profoundly grateful that I was walking into and out of the place and going back to my car while other poor sods were in wheelchairs being pushed about. I won't forget going into the Gents and one of the people in there had to be pushed in there by his carer so that he could empty his pee bottle into the urinal. It wasn't a great time in my life but it was a reminder that there's always someone worse off than you. All the best.
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Years ago I went to a couple of sessions a bit like that with a friend who suffered a very serious head injury. He was having a completely shit time but that was his take on it too. Like you say, you count your blessings I guess.

Great job on the record sales @Big Tabs - I'd love a shop like that nearby. Would make a pleasant change from flicking through all the scratched £10 Klaus Wunderlich LPs : )
 
paulfromcamden said:
Years ago I went to a couple of sessions a bit like that with a friend who suffered a very serious head injury. He was having a completely shit time but that was his take on it too. Like you say, you count your blessings I guess.

Great job on the record sales @Big Tabs - I'd love a shop like that nearby. Would make a pleasant change from flicking through all the scratched £10 Klaus Wunderlich LPs : )
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I can do you a great deal on swing jazz box sets. Go on...
 
paulfromcamden said:
Years ago I went to a couple of sessions a bit like that with a friend who suffered a very serious head injury. He was having a completely shit time but that was his take on it too. Like you say, you count your blessings I guess.
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You do, but there are hard times as well. One of them is that it's a hidden injury. A lot of my friends thought that once I got my arms out of plaster that was me sorted. It wasn't, far from it.I had an eye that wouldn't move for months because of the injury, memory loss, you name it. I did manange to duck some of the worst options, notably epilepsy, which apparently is a common result of injury. It also took me 4 years to learn about frontal lobe injury disinhibition, I learned of it on Radio 4 and NONE of the doctors had so much as mentioned it. Thanks a f***ing BUNCH for that, you tw*ts. If I'd known about that I could have managed it better. There are a greater proportion of people with frontal lobe head injuries in prison than you would expect. Yes, some of them will have received injuries as the result of a criminal past, but not all of them. Disinhibition is felt to contribute to this.
I've said before and to a few people that having a head injury is like being handed a pack of really crap cards and being forced to choose half a dozen. You don't want any of them, but you have to and you just have to hope that you don't pick up any of the real stinkers.
 
@stevec67 I didn’t know about the disinhibition frontal lobe thing until now.

That might explain why I call people very rude words without pausing for breath when out, and why my temper has no fuse.

re: eyes - I had bleeds inside my eyes from my accident, so when I came out of my coma I was blind.
To treat it, they suck the jelly bit out of each eye and replace it (?) ‘Vitrectomy’

I think it was about 7-8 months post accident that I got some sight back, but like you the eye on the impact side had a mind of its own, ‘boz-eyed,’ was the unfortunate term back in the Seventies.
I think I am a fortunate one. Wish my knee and hands worked better, but I look healthy if you don’t look too hard.
 
Big Tabs said:
@stevec67 I didn’t know about the disinhibition frontal lobe thing until now.

That might explain why I call people very rude words without pausing for breath when out, and why my temper has no fuse.
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Quite possibly. I was very difficult to be around for a while. I think I was very fortunate not to get battered in more than one pub when someone kicked off and I got straight into it without any of the physical skills to back it up. Fortunately it transpires that 9 times out of 10 a sufficiently bad attitude will make most people decide it's not worth it and walk away. It's a useful tool around a factory when I get some arsehole production manager who thinks he's some sort of hard man throwing his weight about and suddenly this little 5ft 6 guy turns into a *total* bastard, doesn't give a sh*t and gets right in his face, but I took a while to learn when turn it on and when to keep that nasty little bastard in his box. The nasty little bastard has learned when to ensure that he doesn't have an audience of more than 1 if he wants to keep his job.

The effects of it are variable. If you tend to be violent, it will make you more so. Verbally aggressive, likewise. It is just as it says, disinhibition. Roald Dahl had it following a plane accident in WW1, it was after this that his writing took such a fantastic course. Unfortunately the effects on me are more prosaic, I'm just an obnoxious so and so if provoked.
 
stevec67 said:
The effects of it are variable.
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I have never been physically aggressive or violent (pre or post accident) but my mouth has a mind of its own now.
More commonly, I just forget what I am saying, or the topic, mid sentence. Or I make up a word. This can be very funny, but mostly frustrating.
 
Big Tabs said:
I have never been physically aggressive or violent (pre or post accident) but my mouth has a mind of its own now.
More commonly, I just forget what I am saying, or the topic, mid sentence. Or I make up a word. This can be very funny, but mostly frustrating.
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Speech disturbance. That's another one of those crap cards I was talking about. We all have to pick a few, unfortunately.
 
stevec67 said:
Speech disturbance. That's another one of those crap cards I was talking about. We all have to pick a few, unfortunately.
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When the brain surgeon eventually (about 9 months??) made a replacement bit of skull bone for my head (about a third?) and fitted it, the bloody thing wasn’t fixed properly - as I moved my head, the skull prosthetic would move about 2cm and make a noise as it slid about. Literally would ’clunk’ as I turned my head to one side.
Surgeon said it would sort itself out!
A year later I had to have more skull surgery to get it fixed in place, plates and screws I think. Bodge job. I can feel the screw heads on my skull. It still doesn’t feel right, but I don’t fancy anymore poking about in there.
 
This is great. You have my (and my family’s) full respect.

My youngest brother was killed in a motorcycle accident in October 2007 (head injury obviously) and we collected donations for Headway.
 
Big Tabs said:
When the brain surgeon eventually (about 9 months??) made a replacement bit of skull bone for my head (about a third?) and fitted it, the bloody thing wasn’t fixed properly - as I moved my head, the skull prosthetic would move about 2cm and make a noise as it slid about. Literally would ’clunk’ as I turned my head to one side.
Surgeon said it would sort itself out!
A year later I had to have more skull surgery to get it fixed in place, plates and screws I think. Bodge job. I can feel the screw heads on my skull. It still doesn’t feel right, but I don’t fancy anymore poking about in there.
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Jesus!
 
It’s great what you are doing but I can always spot when someone that knows what they are doing starts in our local charity shops, all the prices go through the roof!
 
garyi said:
It’s great what you are doing but I can always spot when someone that knows what they are doing starts in our local charity shops, all the prices go through the roof!
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That is a fair point.

I have been cornered in the shop by old men who want to pick up something for nothing. I get accused of stripping the stock of anything “good,” and keeping sort after records.
I have put a disclaimer in the shop, all of the records are priced below or close to the average Discogs price.
It would be possible to buy from the shop I stock and resell the items to make a profit, this is a deliberate policy as we know that dealers sweep the shop looking for easy profit. What we don’t do is sell £50+ worth of an album for 50p

It is a balancing act.
If the prices were too high, and the product wasn’t worth it, then we wouldn’t sell anything.
As it is, I carefully price records to appeal to everyone.

for example >
I put this album in the shop last week. It is near mint vinyl and VG++ sleeve. Cleaned and both sides play-tested - currently on sale for £14.
Rare, and an unlikely find in a small East Midlands town.

The Beach Boys – Surfin' Safari


More images

Label: Capitol Records – T 1808
Format:
Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono
Country: UK
Released: Apr 1963
Genre: Rock
Style: Surf, Pop Rock
 
No I totally get it, I am not one of the miserable men! I do raise an eyebrow though in clothes though, dead men’s shoes that used to be a tenner now 65 quid because they are loake (and knackered)

it is as you say a balancing act.

I have had some terrific bargains from bhf furniture shops. I got a spectral hifi unit for 40 quid. Could not argue with that. But equally they sell ikea malm units at five quid under retail price. It can be bizarre sometimes.

I love charity shops!
 
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