About Us

Rockaway Records started in 1979, shortly after brothers Wayne and Gary Johnson attended the legendary “Capitol Swap Meet”. It took place in the parking lot next to the Capitol Records tower in Hollywood, where collectors and sellers would park their cars to buy, sell, and trade records.

What began as a part-time mail order business quickly grew through the years. By 1992, Rockaway had become the largest - and one of the most respected - record stores in Los Angeles, specializing in rare and collectible vinyl and memorabilia. Rockaway swiftly gained a reputation throughout the world for its honesty and expertise.

Wayne and Gary travel worldwide buying valuable collections from collectors and music industry executives. Music industry collections are especially interesting to Rockaway, since they are usually very diverse and can have everything from records, posters, autographs, RIAA awards, t-shirts and more. Rockaway is one of the few, if any, businesses that has the expertise in all these fields to evaluate and acquire all these items. Often times they pay much more than the seller was expecting. Seldom outbid on valuable collections, none is too large for Rockaway either. They recently paid close to $1,000,000 for an enormous Beatles collection!

Today, Rockaway no longer has a traditional retail record store. Instead, most of its sales are done online, but there is also an appointment-only showroom in Los Angeles. It regularly contains some of the most amazing records and music collectibles, attracting customers from around the world, including Jimmy Page and Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin, Steven Tyler from Aerosmith, and Chris Robinson from the Black Crowes.