How it started for me

A long time ago, in the mid-1980s, I was hanging out at Vinyl Boogie, a local punk record store. I overheard the owner, Tante Vinyl (Andreas Kelling) – talk about that vinyl records had a retail markup of 40 %.

At that time, I was a punk kid and had been buying records for around 5 years. Of course, I was notoriously short for cash. 

So with the 40 % profit, I thought: What if I sell records to my friends and through the mail. If I sell 5, I get a free copy for myself. This sounded like a plan.

So around 1986, I started selling records by mailorder, Distributje Bonzki – connected to The Bonzen fanzine. I did order records directly from German labels like X-Mist, Starving Missile, We Bite, Double A. And UK labels such as C.O.R., Earache, and Manic Ears.

For some years, I also did wholesale distribution to DIY stores and mailorders in Germany for local labels Bonzen Records and Destiny.

Around 1990, I began selling records at gigs. This wasn’t common back then. HeartFirst Records had also started at that time.

So, I’ve been selling records the DIY way for almost 40 years. On this website, I talk about my experiences and share anecdotes from the frontlines of punk vinyl record producing and selling.

All the records I’m selling in the HeartFirst online shop today are releases by: 
– HeartFirst bands’ stuff on other labels
– Past and recent bands that are my friends
– Other DIY labels that are run by friends of mine