Interview: Jim Kaufman, New Owner of Last Vestige Record Shop

Interview with Jim Kaufman, new owner of Last Vestige Record Shop

Interview by Chad Koenig

On June 1st, countless people throughout the region collectively gasped, felt their heart skip, or had a brief bout of anxiety as they scrolled through social media posts regarding Albany’s treasured Last Vestige Record Store. Whether you were reading from the official page of the store, or through those who shared it- those first words posted of: “WELL… 13,353 days ago, I opened LAST VESTIGE”, automatically gave you a lump in your throat.

In the world we live in, it’s sad that we fear the worst while reading the first words of headlines, especially about small businesses because, most of the time, it IS for the worst. But as those who didn’t stop and actually read on, you saw that the store did not close, but that Jim Furlong, who has owned this mecca of vinyl treasure, was retiring after a storied career, which, earlier in 2026, saw him win the prestigious Eddie Award at the Capital Region Thomas Edison Music Awards and welcomed Jim into their Hall of Fame, alongside local stalwarts Ernie Williams, Eddie Angel, the Founders of the Van Dyke, Lee Shaw, Dominick Campana, and the Heavenly Echoes Gospel Band.

And although his retirement was bittersweet, the story did not end there. The announcement was made that Mr. Furlong sold the company to his beloved long time on again-off again employee Jim Kaufman, who has expressed his loyalty to the store since his employment began on Memorial Day of 1999.

No worries, folks- the beloved shop, which has been located at 173 Quail St. since moving from their original location across the street from there in 1994, isn’t going anywhere. It just changed hands, and I’m happy to say- the RIGHT hands.

I always loved this shop- and it’s former sister store in Saratoga, which I frequented more often as a native of Ballston Spa. So after hearing the news, I ventured to the iconic pink storefront to interview Jim Kaufman, the man who will be responsible for carrying the brand into the future. And after the interview I was confident that the Capital Region and beyond will be enjoying Last Vestige for generations to come.

 

RRX– Congratulations on the acquisition of Last Vestige. You have inherited a local institution. When you started working here when you were younger, did you ever think that someday this would be all yours?

JK- I wished it. I know it sounds cheesy, but the first time I walked in here felt it. I was so into owning music at that point, and the prices were great for a 14 year old (in 1994) with no money. I could walk out of here with 4 or 5 CDs and an armful of records. And the more I came in here, the more I thought “this is what I want to do”. And I got hired on Memorial Day of 1999 and said “well, lets see how this goes”!

RRX- You stated in your Facebook post when you announced the purchase of the store that you bought a KISS record here in 1994. As a collector, what are your favorite bands or styles to collect?

JK- Collectors can say “I collect everything”, which is true. But my favorite bands were Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd, and if I saw something I didn’t have I grabbed it. I went through a huge KISS phase, but those guys are just too hard to collect, you know? They have everything. Besides the physical media, they have all of their merchandising down pat so I couldn’t collect all of that.

I like a lot of hard rock and psychedelic rock. I like heavy metal but really love classic Metal from the late 70s and 80’s. Judas Priest and that kind of stuff. I also love, what you call “stoner metal”. The real sludgy stuff. About 20 years ago I got into collecting a lot of real underground metal, but for the past 10 years or so, I’ve really done a 180 and started collecting jazz. I went down that rabbit hole and my jazz collection alone is now in the 1000s.

RRX- I’m not surprised that as a Black Sabbath fan that you would be into jazz. Bill Ward is 100% a Jazz drummer. Those jazz drums are really the foundation for heavy metal.

JK- Ginger Baker, too. Ginger Baker had a drum-off with Buddy Rich. Art Blakey too, I think. That’s a type of jazz drumming that I can’t even comprehend.

RRX- Have you ever watched the drum clips of “The Velvet Fog” Mel Tormé? He had drum-offs with Gene Krupa. Who would have thought? He was a great drummer. And Karen Carpenter as well.

JK- Ya! She was an INCREDIBLE drummer! She’s amazing.

RRX- What is your holy grail vinyl in your collection- maybe both personally or value-wise?

JK- I’ve got a first pressing mono Velvet Underground album with the banana cover, but without the banana unfortunately. But its in pretty decent shape. I’ve got some metal albums and jazz albums as well that have some value. There really is no “holy grail” because when you find it, you are always on to the next one. A lot of them are just out of my price range.

RRX- Speaking of the price point, is there a record that has eluded you that you’re hoping to find someday or maybe come through these doors?

JK- There are. And, and believe it or not, the ones that I’m holding out for aren’t really valuable. It’s more just that I want to get them here. The fact that I don’t have a is the butcher cover (referring to The Beatles controversial cover to 1966’s “Yesterday and Today”) gets to me. Both of my employees have one. One of them came in last year and one of the guys bought that, and a couple years ago one came in that was in a little rougher shape that my other guy bought. I mean, I can just go online and buy one, but I want to get it here.

RRX- Ya, I get it. That’s something generations past us never really got to experience- “the joy of the hunt”.

JK- You can go on eBay and buy whatever you want, but when you wait for them to come in it means more that way. I can go and get on eBay in 10 minutes, but I don’t want to, I want to wait for it to come in here or find it at somebody’s house when I buy their collection. So yeah, “the butcher cover” is probably my top record just because of what it is.

RRX- What do those fetch these days?

JK- The last one we sold for 500. And the one before that was around 250 or 300, but we’ve seen some in the four digit range. It depends on the condition of the jacket and the peel job, if it even is peeled.

RRX- That’s our generation. We remember what it was like for us to wait all day for a music video to come on MTV, or to record a song that we waited to come on the radio. Immediacy is great, but when you wait for something to come to you, or just find it one day, it means more when you finally get it and can truly appreciate it.

JK- And I’m not a patient person. So when it’s something I really want and I have to wait for it, it’s agony. Right?

RRX- You are also a local musician and the drummer for Hot Cousin. When did you start working with that band?

JK- Charlie, who also works here, started a band with a couple of his friends around 2003. I joined a couple of years later and left to do other things. His wife Nicole started singing in the band around 2011 and then I joined them again around that time. I’ve been on and off with them for about 20 years. We gig a little bit. We have four or five gigs this summer. It’s getting harder when everyone has jobs and families.

RRX- Obviously Jim Furlong had faith in you to pass the torch to you. Do you remember the moment where he knew you’d be the best person to take over?

JK- Yeah, actually, literally standing right here in the middle of the store while I was filing stuff away. He just walked up to me. He said “Hey, listen, do you have X amount of money”? And I’m like, “Nope, but I can get it!”. But we actually talked about it with ALL of the employees about three years ago. He said that his wife was going to retire soon and wanted to spend time with her. He asked “Would you guys want to carry on? Because I don’t want to let it go. This is my baby”. I was like, yeah, hell yeah, I’ll do it. And everyone else was on board, too, but I may have been the most enthusiastic one about purchasing it.

Then it kind of went by the wayside. We didn’t really talk about it again. We had a couple of our employees had some personal issues they had to work through. One of our employees was in a car accident. So we tried to shuffle around employees. We really dropped the prospect of that for a couple of years. And then one day, like I said, I was sitting here filing records. And he said, “I think I’m done- do you want to do it? I’m like, “Yeah, hell yeah, I want to do it!”

I wish I had a little bit more preparation and time to move my finances around and save some money but it worked out.

RRX- As Jim Furlong grew up in the boom days of vinyl, getting Beatles albums in real time, and starting the company in the heydays of cassettes and CDs, what perspectives of somebody who obviously loves vinyl, but young enough to have experienced the digital and streaming platforms, might you bring to your vision of the store?

JK- Right now, I don’t have any prospects of changing anything. But, I mean, I’ve always loved vinyl as the medium for me. You know, the size, the artwork is always better. And we can talk about fidelity all night long. My thought was if it’s made to sound better on vinyl, then it’s going to sound better on vinyl. If it’s made to sound better on a CD, it’s going to sound better on CD. But vinyl- I just think it’s a cooler format.

I’d like to maybe investigate ordering new vinyl, because we don’t really do that, as we’re strictly used. And, but we’ve dabbled in the past and were very successful, but it’s a much different overhead and markup. So that’s something that’s going to probably happen in the fall, after I get on my feet a little bit.

I’m going to look to order X amount for when the students come back, or X amount for record Store Day. Even though we’re not going to participate in Record Store Day, I want to have something to show the customers.

RRX- Will you be adding more of an online presence, maybe host podcasts, etc.?

JK- Yes, 100%. My relaxation routine is sitting on YouTube and TikTok and watching people go through the records. I mean, it’s as nerdy as you can get.

There’s a lot of really good YouTube channels out there of people who own shops, people who review records. They just grab a stack of vinyl and start going through it. And a thousand people are watching them do it. I’m one of them. I think that’s great. So I definitely want to do that.

I want to have more of a social media presence for sure. More of an online presence as far as, like you said, podcasts. I’d love to get a podcast going. We actually have somebody that I know who might be lending a hand when it comes to that. And she not only has that attachment to the youth that we don’t have here, because we’re all in our 40s and 50s, but she also knows her way around social media and podcasting and running a radio show. So I think in the next couple of weeks, I’m gonna meet with her and see what she can do for us. So I would expect to see a significant change in that kind of thing.

RRX- I see we have this lovely cat here watching the interview. There’s always been cats here in the store. Who is this cat?

JK-  They are always here. And Jim has an amazing heart for animals. And Clem, who’s the black and white one, is probably upstairs stuffing his face. He was here first. Jim found him outside when lived on Lark Street. He was in Jim’s neighborhood and brought him in the shop and got him all fixed up and everything and got his shots. And he’s been here for about 12 years, maybe 14 at this point. People come here just for him, which is insane.

I’m not big on Reddit. It’s the one social media platform I really haven’t gotten into. But there’s a Reddit page for him. And people are like, “oh, if you want to see a cat at a shop, come to Last Vestige. Clem’s there”. They’ll walk in and they’ll sit at the counter and pet him and give him treats and stuff like that, and he just, he eats it all up. He loves it.

And this cat, Jolene came along with a similar story. My co-worker Kim found her on Lark Street. They couldn’t find a home for her so I said “bring her in” and within two hours she was ours. She was jumping up on the counter at the register. She will sit at the chair and hit buttons on the computer and access pages that I don’t even know how she got to. I think she may be a spy. She was on the country records just hanging out for hours and we decided to name her either Roxanne or Jolene so being she was sitting there we went with Jolene.

RRX- When buying used products, what are you going to be looking for? Are there types of music you are really pushing to acquire and is there stuff you aren’t interested in buying?

JK- Classical used to be a big one. I love classical music. But it hasn’t been selling. In the past couple of years, people have been asking for it, so I keep some around, but generally we don’t pay for it because it’s so abundant and doesn’t really sell. Anything pre-1950 doesn’t really sell. Sinatra sells so we keep that, but musicals and showtunes rarely sell apart from “West Side Story” and “Fiddler on the Roof”.

We have music from all around the world. I’m interested in everything if I can sell it, but has to be in very good shape to buy it. Especially for CDs. People think CDs are indestructible, but I’ve seen CDs come in and say “what did you do to this this thing?”. I mean, they had to go out of their way to do this!

RRX- The Last Vestige eBay store has successfully sold over 40,000 items in its years of operation. Will you maintain the same way or do you plan on making any changes on that or selling additional merchandise?

JK- eBay’s a little tough. Discogs is more up our alley. It’s more geared towards music lovers. You can find just about anything on Discogs. eBay’s good for the rare things like autographed items. Or if you get something that’s a promo that I can’t find on Discogs. But eBay has a great audience, and has a great market. But their fees are a  little bit too much. And it’s oversaturated.

I’m going to keep eBay up, for sure, but I’m going to be a little bit more selective on what goes up there. Discogs is much better for us, and Kim is meticulous with what we sell. No scratch gets past her. She runs our mail order and Discogs page. She’s why our ratings are through the roof. Plus, we have a great return policy.

If I can avoid putting it online and have somebody see it in the store, I’d rather do that. But some things are just, you know, “who’s going to buy this here, but somebody in Montana will want it”.

RRX- The vinyl boom is back in a big way, with artists releasing collectible box sets, reissues, colored vinyl and all that cool stuff. Much of them carrying a heftier price tag. What will influence you on what new product you decide to bring into the store?

JK- The way we went about it last time is that we wanted to bring in popular titles that we can’t keep on the shelves. For example, “Back in Black” by AC/DC- we never see that because its so popular, but it’s hard to make a profit when the distributor is selling it for $15, but you can get it on Amazon for $20.

I would definitely buy more new copies of heavy metal records because we can’t keep that in stock. When we advertise metal records coming in, they sell immediately. Another one is “Pet Sounds” by the Beach Boys. We can’t keep that in stock, so something like that we will look into. As for the specialized editions and colored vinyl- it depends on what we can get it for, since we are competing with online retailers.

RRX- Every April, artists and fans around the world celebrate Record Store Day- when independent record stores can acquire releases only available starting that day. We are about a year out from the next one, but do you plan on participating in them going forward and selling those exclusive items?

JK- It’s difficult for us to do those exclusives, again, because of the markup. Also, the space. We don’t have the space. There is so much stuff that comes out on Record Store Day and we don’t have the space for everything. And a lot of the times, people will buy the items just to sell them on eBay and that’s not what we want to represent. I once spent 5 hours waiting in line for an exclusive that we were told only 1000 copies were made, and they eventually officially released it a few months later.

But, my plan on Record Store Day is that we will will have a big sale on items that people want. We have two sales a year- one in the fall to celebrate the anniversary, and then one in the spring. I think the spring one will be on Record Store Day so we will definitely have something special on that weekend.

RRX- Are there any changes within the store that you are looking into making, or considering selling any different merchandise that was sold here before?

JK- No, not really, but one thing that we got in recently that I was skeptical about first but have been selling VERY well. And that’s Pokémon cards. We had a Pokémon rep come in and said they were looking for alternative outlets to sell Pokemon cards in so we hooked up with them, and they have been flying off the shelves. I want to let people know that we have them, and we are open to stuff like that going forward.

We do have some used stereo equipment but we can’t sell speakers due to space, but I might look into retooling our basement in the future, so maybe we can sell speakers here because we get asked about them often.

RRX- Is there anything that you would like to say to the readers of Radio Radio X, and the community at large, and maybe let them know what to expect with the future of Last Vestige?

JK- Definitely pay attention to our social media pages. Especially Facebook. I’m still working on Instagram (@lastvestigemusic). I’ve turned my Tik Tok page to the company Tik Tok page so check that out (@jims.vinyl.collect.). Keep your eyes out for our podcasts and any big news will be on our Facebook page. So keep checking that. And thanks for the support. Without the community, there would be no Last Vestige. It’s incredible the customers that we have here. Kids, teens, people of all ages and backgrounds, and a lot of women of all ages buying vinyl. When I was working here at 19 there were little or no women buying vinyl so its great! So tell your friends!

RRX- I worked for a decade in a major record store chain. I loved it but hated the corporate aspects of every single thing in the store. I always tried to make customers feel like they were coming into a store like this, and I got that from coming in to Last Vestige over the years. On behalf of all music enthusiasts like myself, we wish you the best of luck, and thank you for keeping this shop alive, and if Radio Radio X can ever be of help, please let us know!