“You pick your album, you pull it out, you brush it off, put it on, drop the needle. I mean, there’s a whole process to it,” said owner and operator of the Record Parlor of Muncie, Derek McNelly.
Upon entering the Record Parlor of Muncie, customers see a variety of used vinyls, with a wide range of genres and artists. While the establishment does carry newer releases of music, the owner wanted to focus on used records. He said the promotion of newer artists’ music “kind of does its own thing” regarding mediums that can easily advertise their work, such as social media.
“I feel it’s a part of my duty as a shop owner to promote and preserve old music,” Derek said. “As well [as] make sure it doesn’t get lost or forgotten.”
Listening to records has always been a passion for Derek. He recalled his father teaching him and his brother how to play pool after dinner most nights, while records played in the background. Derek explained how those albums he listened to were the first ones he became “connected with,” making him want to start his own collection.
Older forms of media have made a “comeback” over the past couple of years, with cassette tapes increasing in sales by 440 percent from 2015 to 2022, according to a 2023 PBS News broadcast, with mainstream artists such as Taylor Swift, Harry Styles and Billie Eilish “capitalizing on the fad.”
Upon entering Muncie’s Dave’s Video, the space is filled with a vast collection of film and music. Rows along the wall feature older film and video games and columns of bins are filled to the brim with CDs and cassettes. Customers line up with old pieces of media of their own to sell to the establishment, East Central Indiana’s largest selection of these materials, according to Dave’s Video’s Facebook page, hoping they one day become an item in someone else’s collection.
Manager of Dave’s Video, Rob Calhoun, remembered receiving his first VCR on Christmas Day in 1985. He remembered how “awesome” it was to take a VHS tape out of its jacket and place it into the VCR machine to watch films that were not available on the limited TV channels he had. Rob explained that VHS tapes and other forms of older media are what he grew up with.
The establishment started as a retail store chain, but it was eventually sold to sole proprietors, Rob said.
“We are one of the last ones,” he said.
Rob has been working at Dave’s Video for 25 years, with the establishment adapting over the years by switching to DVDs, then to Blu-rays, and then into collectibles, featuring a wide range of old media.
“Adaptation is key, you always have to [adapt],” Rob said.
Rob used to be a collector himself, collecting VHS tapes and other forms of movies, but now he claims that the fun of collecting items has “worn off” and now views this as his everyday job.
Regardless, Rob said he has had many favorite encounters with customers, describing Dave’s Video as a “blast of nostalgia.” He explained that Dave’s Video has been here “forever,” saying the business “minds their own business” and “just treats people right.”
“We’re not fancy. We don’t want to be, we don’t try to be,” Rob said.
Unfortunately, not every encounter with a customer is a positive one.
Rob recalls moments when customers come into the establishment to trade personal items of value in exchange for cash, not for pleasure, but as a necessity.
Rob said that some people bring in items because they are in a “serious bind for cash,” even when he can tell they do not want to get rid of the items they have. He explained that at the end of the day, he has to separate it from the business, despite it bothering him.
“When a young family comes in and says, ‘We just need $10 for diapers,’ and you think, ‘Wow, I’m fortunate,’” Rob said.
Derek said he is “very attached” to several things in his old media collection for various reasons. He recalls people who have donated their collections, and he would find notes either tucked in a vinyl jacket or written in certain places, almost feeling that people were “giving up a part of themselves,” he said.
Derek explained that these music items people give to him to sell are not just placed in bins and a price tag is put on them, but, instead, are treated with care and respect.
“I can’t wait for [vinyls] to find the next home where they are going to be loved and preserved in that way,” Derek said.
While Rob has worked for Dave’s Video for 25 years, it is quite the opposite for Derek. Derek started the Record Parlor of Muncie July, 2025, after getting “frustrated” with his last job in insurance.
Derek’s wife persuaded him to finally start the record store after he had been discussing plans to open it for 10 years. He explained how music is essential and can have a “profound effect” on people, wanting his establishment to be a “hub for music” in downtown Muncie.
“[Music] can be really therapeutic and healing. I want to provide that to the community,” Derek said.
It’s not just small business owners who have a love for older media; many students do, including Ball State University fourth-year student, majoring in construction management, Ariel Herrera.
Ariel first got involved in older media through one of his cousins. Ariel’s older cousin had a Game Boy as well as a Game Cube console. His cousin lived with Ariel for a period of time, and both of them would play video games together. Despite his cousin being older than him, Ariel explained that he was “just happy to be there and get to play.” Ariel’s love for old media only grew from there.
Not only is he interested in retro video game consoles, but Ariel also collects old magazines. He said he owns a couple of National Geographic magazines from the 1960s, and even an original Life magazine from the same decade featuring Marilyn Monroe on the cover. He also has the first five original comics of Neon Genesis Evangelion, a manga series published in 1994.
Ariel said he enjoys older forms of media because he feels that many pieces of modern media are repeating themselves, or are a “remade version” of something that has already been made before.
Despite Ariel not describing himself as a collector, he said that he received the older consoles as a kid. He explained that these items he had as a kid are like a “marker on the timeline” for him.
“They don’t make shit like they used to anymore,” he said.
Ariel explained that nostalgia is a huge part of vintage media, explaining that everybody keeps going back to what we “used to like.”
Older media forms have made an impact on individuals for decades, whether that be by “bringing them back to childhood,” for individuals such as Ariel, or “giving back to the community,” for individuals like Derek. Regardless, older media grows more popular as the years go by, with different generations rekindling their interests.
This article is a part of Ball Bearings Fall 2025 magazine: The Archival Edition. Read more stories online at ballbearingsmag.com and pick up the print edition of the magazine across Ball State’s campus now.
