Thousands of records and other gems, like classic rock posters and hard-to-find tapes, were on offer across the weekend for crate diggers to discover.

The reason Rob Walmsley's collection of classic heavy and thrash metal is marked "only played once" is because as a teenager, he would record them straight onto cassettes - which he still has on display as proof.

His copy of Venom's 1987 double LP 'From Hell to the Unknown', with b-sides, is one of two '80s vinyls from his own collection he has up for sale.

Across the aisle, Daisy Bailey, who runs a vintage shop in Bacchus Marsh, excitedly showed off her original pressings of Joy Division's 'Closer' and The Cure's 'Pornography' - with the Australian-exclusive 7-inch, of course.

In another corner, Les Royal and his son Jason, who are KISS experts, according to Lord Lucifer himself, carefully unfolded a rare cardboard 'tent' that came with The Aztecs' Live at Sunbury LP.

With Japandroids on the stereo and all sorts of strange things on the wall - KISS facepaint! Tim Burton's Batman soundtrack! Strange Japanese limited editions! - Housey Housey became a music geek's paradise for a few hours.

That's kind of the ideal, according to Lord Lucifer.

Choosing to go by his nom de guerre, and relentlessly promoting his radio show (The Devil's Jukebox, also streaming online!), his Lordship said he aimed to bring something different to the usual vinyl marketplaces.

"I tell the vendors to try and have a speciality - they can all bring rock and pop, but maybe someone's got three crates of reggae or soul or funk," he said.

"And also, make sure of the quality of the things you sell, there's a record grading system and I have a minimum standard when I'm doing my sales - if I wouldn't have it in my collection, I wouldn't sell it.

"My view on record fairs is don't bring your Kamahl and other op shop classics, because you can get that anywhere, but you come here because you're chasing some 1960s James Brown record, and you say 'unreal! That's the holy grail, I'm looking for it."

What was interesting was the range of people checking out the wares - from young Mac Demarco fans picking up 'Another One' to a crateful of obscure reggae being pored over by the far-too-fashionable.

In an age of streaming music, where rarities can get lost (though upon searching out of curiosity, this reporter was surprised to see a pair of left-field covers on a popular service - maybe they are getting better?) and bootlegs especially become harder to find, record fairs provide an opportunity to go on a treasure hunt and go home with something real, where the exclusive rights won't get sold.

That's another reason why Lord Lucifer continues to return to Ballarat - there's only one second-hand record shop.

"We've got traders from Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide, Melbourne, Geelong and Ballarat, and they're specialising in '50s to mid-'80s vinyl - the stuff you can't get again," he said.

Michelle Murphy, taking a break from selling her own records from her vast collection, was spotted amongst the crates.

"You just find things you've never seen before - I picked up one of Bon Scott's first records, from when he was in The Valentines," she said enthusiastically, holding a copy of Sweathog's 'Hallelujah'.

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