DALTON — As the owner of 8,000 vinyl albums, Dale Cornell had one object in mind on Sunday: “thinning the herd.”

With holdings at his mother’s house and his own, he’s doing his best to bring his collection under control.

At 72, "I don't want to saddle my wife or my son with it," he said.

Music enthusiasts check out some vinyl records at the Central Berkshire Record Show at the Stationery Factory in Dalton on Sunday.

He was one of 25 vendors at the Central Berkshire Record Show held at The Stationery Factory. About 400 people came through browsing EPs, LPs, 45s, CDs and cassette tapes as a DJ spun records on two turntables.

Andrew Garcia, owner of Berkshirecat Records, who hosts the show, said the return to vinyl has been taking place for about a decade. He credited Taylor Swift for popularizing the trend.

A music enthusiast check out some compact discs at the Central Berkshire Record Show at the Stationery Factory in Dalton on Sunday.

“It’s been on the increase that music’s being pressed on vinyl,” Garcia said. “[People] are really picking up on the fact that you can get rare pressings and new pressings of old records on Audiophile Vinyl or 180 gram (vinyl) or different colored vinyl. So we’re starting to see different variants.”

With a waiting list of 10 vendors at his sixth annual show, he said he’ll plan to expand into the next room for his seventh in 2027.

Kristina Burkey is a serious record collector.

Music enthusiasts check out some 45 vinyl records at the Central Berkshire Record Show at the Stationery Factory in Dalton on Sunday.

“I found a lot of colored vinyl that I was looking for,” she said. “That’s always something that’s an easy sell for me.”

Cassette tapes for sale at the Central Berkshire Record Show at the Stationery Factory in Dalton on Sunday.

While she was hunting for new music, she picked the soundtrack to “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion" and "Buckingham Nicks" by Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham.

Burkey and her husband have spent time in the United Kingdom collecting, sending home $800 worth of albums at a time. At Sunday's show, they spent around $200 on both CDs and vinyl.

"We like to stay home a lot," she said. "So having a lot of cool things to listen to is just really important to us.”

Burkey spoke about the appeal of having tangible sources of music.

“I own a stationery store, so I’m very much into analog and just tactile media,” she said. “So I like that you are opening something like a paper album to put music on, that’s on something that you’re touching. The fact that there’s colored vinyl adds another fun element to it.

Music enthusiasts check out some vinyl records at the Central Berkshire Record Show at the Stationery Factory in Dalton on Sunday.

“You can read the liner notes, there’s pictures, there’s sometimes other kinds of other paper media that you can look at,” she said. “It’s just more of like a present experience than just hitting 'play' on Spotify.”

So, where does Cornell store his 8,000 albums?

“Everywhere,” he said. “Closets at home, a spare bedroom. I rented a storage unit for a while, but my mother had a nice big spare room she didn’t use, so a lot of my collection went there.”

Miles Carvalho, 9, and his mother Nora check out some records at the Central Berkshire Record Show at the Stationery Factory in Dalton on Sunday.

He was attempting to sell country and bluegrass, including Patsy Cline Live at the Opry, which featured both her first hit, “Walking at Midnight,” on side A, and her 1962 hit “Crazy” as the closing song on side B. The price was $9.

“If I didn’t have versions of these songs on two other records, I probably would hang onto that,” he said.

He’s not willing to part with any of Husker Du collection.

“They’re worth a lot of money to people that collect punk and new wave,” he said. “I wouldn’t even know how to price them.”