I only did one record show in Columbia, and that was at Dutch Square Mall. Back then, the mall was full of shops and shoppers. My tables were located near one of the entrances. It wasn't a prime spot, but it was okay. It was sort of near a barber shop.
As I have written before, I sold music videotapes. They were not commercially available at the time and could have been considered "bootlegs". I didn't like that word. I preferred to say they were "unavailable elsewhere". It was all in how you framed them. "Unauthorized". "Imports". "Promos". "Not commercially available". It all meant the same thing. And, the picture quality varied from great to poor. There was no such thing as digital quality back then. If you wanted it bad enough, you didn't care. All sales were final.
One of my most popular titles was Elvis Presley's last concert that was shown on CBS TV right after he died. The show was an hour long, and the tape also had the original commercials. I had a lot of customers who loved Elvis. The only problem with the tape was that the color was faded, due to it having been copied from the original TV broadcast and then copied a few more times. My copy was a third-generation tape, so the ones I sold were fourth-generation. The sound was still good, but the picture just wasn't very clear.
As luck would have it, a busload of senior citizens from Florida stopped at the mall for lunch. One woman saw the Elvis tape on my table, and she started talking about how much Elvis meant to her. She remembered that show and wanted a copy of it. She asked me if the quality was good. I told her it was. She was from Jacksonville, so I didn't think I would ever see her again. She then asked me that if she wasn't satisfied with it, could she mail it back to me for a refund? I told her no, that all sales were final. She said she would take a chance and gave me the $10 for the tape. I am sure she has long-since departed this world, but I still would like to apologize to her. Maybe, she didn't care after seeing it. After all, it was Elvis.
