An article about collecting vinyl records, including a conversation with collector Doug Leftowich.

Leftowich once bought a box of master tapes for the Byrds from a former employee at Columbia Records. "In this box was a tape labeled 'Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention,' which I thought was strange because he was never a Columbia recording artist," he said.
It turns out, Zappa and his group had cut a demo in 1965 when they were "shopping around for a record deal," Leftowich explained. Columbia never signed Zappa but kept the tape. Noting its historic value, Leftowich called Zappa's record company, Barking Pumpkin Records in North Hollywood, to see if they wanted the tape. They did.
"I didn't have a lot of money into this thing, and I was doing it mostly as a gesture of good will," he said. For his good deed, Leftowich was awarded $25 and an autographed Zappa album.