Thanks to Doggface, Beat Box Records can now get $15 for Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 Rumours album. It used to be a dollar-bin item.

Since the shutdown of our venues county-wide in March, record sales are trending upwards for most of our local record vendors. One reason for the uptick in sales is that old heads are sharing the needle-to-the-groove experience with quarantined post-millennials.

Local collectors I’ve spoken to report an almost magical allure to music on vinyl. They say playing the right 12-inch or 7-inch polyvinyl chloride spinning discs subliminally cues young San Diegans to put down their cell phones and convene by the music source and its accompanying loudspeakers. Especially if a current Billboard Hot 100 artist sampled the record playing. Take the early 70s hit “I Love You For All Seasons” by The Fuzz. The groms might wonder why 21 Savage and J. Cole aren’t rapping in between the verses.

Nathan “Doggface” Apodaca on the video that made him famous (and $340,000 wealthier).

In my household, face-to-face communication experiences near the record player begin when I recount a memory jarred by the song playing. Then if I’m lucky, I’ll transition into something of a pep talk before my kids pick up their phones again.

Another father, Nathan Apodaca, parlayed his love for ’70s jams into pep talks with a national audience. In late September, the Idaho Falls resident reportedly started his day with a broken down vehicle. Bummer, right? Not for Apodaca. He hopped onto a San Diego-manufactured Sector 9 longboard and skated to the potato processing factory where he worked. On the way there, the 37-year-old man created a selfie-skate video lipsynching to Stevie Nicks’ lead vocals on the circa-1977 Fleetwood Mac song “Dreams.” He uploaded the clip onto his @420doggface208 account on TikTok on September 25. A day or so later, the video went viral. It currently has 11.7 million views and counting. The thing is, much of TikTok’s audience is from the post-millennial sect. Reportedly 41 percent of its users are between the ages of 16 and 24, making their grandparents probable listeners of “Dreams” when the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1977. About 43 years later, and three days after Apodaca’s selfie-skate video was uploaded, “‘Dreams’ racked up 2.9 million on-demand U.S. streams and 3000 in digital download sales – numbers up 88.7 percent and 374 percent, respectively,” reported Billboard. Apodaca became a 2020 viral sensation, and in two months, reportedly made $340,000 in donated monies and swag from Sector 9, Sayer Nissan, Vivint, and Ocean Spray — and appeared on national news, and radio shows spreading good vibes.

Fast forward to Christmas season 2020, and I recently sold two Best of Fleetwood Mac cassettes with “Dreams” on the track lists, thanks to Apodaca.

“That’s because they are re-releasing the Walkmans,” Bernie Fishman said to me. Fishman owns Beat Box Records in Logan Heights.

“And the Rumours record with ‘Dreams’ on it?” I asked.

“The most I’ll sell Rumours for is $15. I’m sure other spots charge more, because they’ll probably get it.”

On a quick search on eBay, I found a couple of vendors selling the Rumours record for over $1500 apiece.

“It’s not a rare record, they sold millions of them, and they used to be in one-dollar bins for a long time, but they have dried up.”

“And are parents buying records from you, or younger kids?” I asked.

“Nowadays, parents are buying their kids record players because they are cool gifts. And the kids are looking for records, like Rumours, so that they can share good memories with their parents back home. It’s come to a full circle.”

Walmart.com has over 30 different record players available, many of which start at $45 apiece. That’s almost the same price they sold for when “Dreams” first dropped in 1977.