LONG BEACH >> Toxic Toast Records, a new business on North Pine Avenue, exists in part because of two trends:

One, a college education does not necessarily result in students getting the jobs they expected.

Two, vinyl records have escaped the milk crates of history to become an increasingly popular option for music lovers.

A third key factor in the store’s founding is the work of its owner, Andy George, who opened Toxic Toast Records on Dec. 5 after deciding he needed an actual storefront to make his business grow.

“I made my living selling on eBay over the last four years,” he said. “It got to the point where I couldn’t run it out of my bedroom anymore.”

George said he studied the Japanese language at Long Beach Poly and later sought to immerse himself in Japanese culture by enrolling at Temple University’s campus in Tokyo. Although he graduated with a degree in political science, he returned to the United States in 2008 with aspirations to use his language skills and love of music to find work as a concert promoter.

But finding a job at someone else’s company didn’t happen for George. Instead, he invested a sizable amount of his savings ­— he said the sum exceeded $10,000 — and opened his own store.

Taking its name from the title of a Mighty Mighty Bosstones song about punk rock, youth and inebriation, Toxic Toast Records is a new record shop in a city where collectors can already find a wealth of vinyl LPs for sale.

So where does Toxic Toast fit in exactly, aside from its small space at the corner of Eighth Street and Pine Avenue, that is?

For one thing, the store’s inventory reflects its owner’s time spent as a college student in Tokyo. For another, George’s homage to The Mighty Mighty Bosstones could signal to collectors that many of the store’s offerings would be of interest to those who have a fondness for ska-core, the 1990s genre that fused the Jamaican rhythms of ska with the aggressive sounds of hard-core punk rock.

“If you want Japanese imports or ska, you would come here,” George said.

Toxic Toast’s racks are stocked with several Japanese pressings by artists that include The Beatles, Queen, Weezer, The Dead Kennedys and The Clash. Fans of rock history may be interested to learn The Clash’s first album, which was self-titled in its U.S. and U.K. pressings, bore the more provocative title of “Pearl Harbour ’79” in Japan.

Collectors can also find LPs by Japanese artists at Toxic Toast, among other vinyl records and CDs.

“For fans of jazz or ska, I have Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, and for fans of new wave, Devo kind of stuff, I have the Polysics,” George said.

Given his own niche, George doesn’t see himself as necessarily in competition with other Long Beach record store owners who have their own specialties.

“I think it benefits Long Beach if people come with the idea that they’re going to visit three or four record stores,” George said.

George bought a display rack from Mick Gaughan, who owns The Hub of Long Beach music and clothing store in the Retro Row area of Fourth Street.

“I talked shop with him for quite a while,” Gaughan said, recalling a key piece of advice: Any business owner should set aside a nest egg of savings.

Gaughan previously owned Durty Mick Records in the East Village. The new name, along with a bit of a shift from the old store’s punk rock focus, came with the move to Retro Row in September.

“We’ve kind of brought in a lot of classic rock stuff,” Gaughan said. “We call it ‘The Hub’ because it’s kind of a one-stop shop for everything. We’ve got music, moto and skate.”

Vinyl records represent a small fraction of overall music sales, but sales of the once-obsolete format have increased, even as overall industry-wide numbers decline.

Through the first six months of this year, U.S. retailers sold an estimated 4 million vinyl albums, up 40 percent from the same period in 2013, according to Nielsen SoundScan, a sales data provider. Overall album sales fell 14 percent to about 180 million units sold.

Rand Foster, owner of Fingerprints Music in the East Village area, said some listeners have switched from digital music to vinyl because they like having something physical to go along with the sounds of music.

Plus, vinyl sounds better than an MP3 file, he said.

“Compared to an MP3, I don’t think there’s a comparison,” Foster said. “When people hear something great on vinyl, it kind of knocks the wind out of them.”

Toxic Toast Records is at 757 Pine Ave. in Long Beach. The phone number is 562-999-2156.