UK Charity (Thrift) Shop CD Hunting

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by MC Rag, Jan 17, 2016.

  1. MC Rag

    MC Rag Forum Resident Thread Starter

    You're right, never heard of him. When I typed his name into Ebay it wanted me to turn the search into "Rusty Wire" of which there was more for sale!
     
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  2. Dave S

    Dave S Forum Resident

    I found a copy of John Cale's Music for a New Society CD in a charity shop once. The oddest part was the CD being displayed in the shop window. Clearly someone thought it special enough to display, but not special enough to charged anything more than £2.99.
     
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  3. Brummie

    Brummie Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    Today I went to an upmarket area of the city to see what I could find and this is what I have realized.

    • UK charity shops are full of junk when it comes to records unless you like Johnny Mathis or Matovani.I found one place PDSA with its own record section but the prices for what was on offer were a joke a bit like what was on offer actually.
    • All CDs seem to be Ibiza house anthems compilations
    • I only have found one place that deals with electronics and this is Barnados so I take it Health and Safety regulations are in place for the rest of the shops. I see posts on what our cousins across the water find and got to admit I am jealous.
    • On a positive note if you like books of all sorts in new condition for pennies charity shops are the way to go.
    Rant Over.
     
  4. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    Don't forget all the old Top Of The Pops LPs. Still searching for a new home after nearly 50 years!

    I thought it was just where I lived that the shops were crap. I'm not saying I've never found anything I wanted in a charity shop, but it's certainly not as often as I'd like.
     
  5. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    Also, according to the charity shops near me, everyone who has ever bought a Beyoncé CD in the area has immediately gotten rid of it.
     
  6. bosskeenneat

    bosskeenneat Forum Resident

    I guess it's the viewpoint from two separate shores, but I'm actually more fascinated by the UK albums & cassettes that are floating around there, simply because they've been far more generous to the music buying public in terms of royalties & such. The US issue of an album averages 10 to 12 tracks, rarely more. But UK product averages 14 tunes and often 10 songs PER SIDE when talking anthologies & hits packages. And with that kind of generosity on the grill, I'd definitely be replacing, say, Eddy Arnold, Henry Mancini or Connie Francis US product, if the prices were next to nothing. Rock material? Don't EVEN get me started!
     
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  7. JP Christian

    JP Christian Forum Resident

    I still make regular visits to charity shops - you don't really get the great finds that you used to years ago, and several shops have got 'savvy' when it comes to vinyl - however, not savvy enough as they never seem to take condition into account, I remember seeing a Steppenwolf LP in Oxfam for £15 that looked unplayable - some fool probably bought it though.

    My best ever charity shop find was a 1969 LP by Velvett Fogg - I bought it for 50p and sold it on ebay for £150!
    The second best charity shop find I kept for myself - an early 70's issue White album with 1/1/1/1 matrices and in mint condition - that was also £1.
     
  8. therunner

    therunner Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    In my area, most charity shops only charge 50p per CD (60 cents) so I use them to buy albums from bands I just fancy trying (new or old) then if I don't like them I just give them back to the shop. But quite often I find keepers this way eg. Ash, Doves, Elbow, Idlewild, The Thrills, Turin Brakes, Echo & The Bunnymen.
     
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  9. normanr

    normanr Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    I think the charity shops in the UK are wise to the fact that some books and records are very collectable and others are practically worthless. Oxfam check the market value of books and vinyl and if they're worth more than a few quid they sell them online. Currently they're selling a Charlie Parker 78 for £245 and a John Mayall album for £120 on their web site.

    I've seen some unusual stuff in their shops, though. Was passing one in Yorkshire and saw a copy of Buona Fortuna by Italian prog band Pooh in the window. Wish I'd bought it really.
     
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  10. JP Christian

    JP Christian Forum Resident

    Yes, I mainly pick up CDs in charity shops these days - the most I generally pay is £1 per CD and you often get some really great ones - sometimes some really sought after early CDs appear in the regular shops I go to so it's always worth popping in on a regular basis.
     
  11. detroit muscle

    detroit muscle MIA

    Location:
    UK
    There are on occasion some good CD finds, but you have to wade through dozens of unwanted Robbie Williams, Take That, Susan Boyle and later Madonna discs to find them. I will try to pick up things to rip as FLAC files and then take the CD's back or give them away or use in the car. I do however avoid Oxfam. As much as they should try to maximize what they can get for donations, what they expect for common CD's is often well over a reasonable second hand price. I bought a Blondie Greatest Hits CD at a record store for £5.00 and saw the exact same CD (used) in an Oxfam shop the following day for £5.00
     
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  12. Brummie

    Brummie Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    To JP Christian is that a rare Enid Blyton book in your avatar, very clever.

    Barnados price at 5 CDs for £1.99 and 5 books for the same.
     
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  13. hutchenstance

    hutchenstance Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Arlington, VA
    US thrift stores aren't all that lately for buying records or cds.. honestly, i've gone back to the record stores....its just not worth it to stop at a thrift store 100 times for that one time they put out something decent..
     
  14. serendipitydawg

    serendipitydawg Dag nabbit!

    Location:
    Berkshire UK
    Brummie, thanks for starting this thread.

    Charity shop vinyl bargains are mostly a thing of the past, sadly. I mostly buy CD's (the prices of which seem to be declining).

    In the suburban Berkshire town where I live there are currently eight charity shops. I regularly trawl them every week and the last " vinyl bargain" was in 2015 !

    The halcyon days of charity shop vinyl IMHO were the late '80's and early '90's

    In 1984 I bought 43 LP's (in a branch of Oxfam no less) for less than £20.
     
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  15. DTK

    DTK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    In Sweden you can pick up some good cds cheap, but the vinyl sections in charity shops are totally useless.
     
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  16. Alexlotl

    Alexlotl Forum Resident

    Location:
    York, UK
    I hit charity shops occasionally here in York, and while the CDs are largely dross, there's the occasional gem. From a quick look at my rack, here are some of my finds from the last few years:

    Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch (McMaster)
    The Breeders - Pod
    Final Fantasy - He Poos Clouds
    Elliot Smith - XO
    Mercury Rev - Deserters Songs
    Air - The Virgin Suicides, Talkie Walkie and Pocket Symphony
    ABBA - The Singles: The First Ten Years (fatboy, WG silver-to-core discs)
    Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (Legacy)
    Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
    Ben Folds Five - s/t debut
    Beth Orton - Daybreaker
    Björk - Post
    Pixies - Trompe Le Monde
    Booker T & the MGs - Definitive Soul Collection (nice sounding 2CD best-of)
    Finn Brothers - Everyone Is Here
    Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (original silver-to-core German grey-face RCA)
    Jarvis Cocker - s/t
    Neon Neon - Stainless Style
    Sufjan Stevens - (Come On Feel The) Illinoise
    Teenage Fanclub - Howdy

    Plus a few more. The car boot sales are my favourite place for cheap CDs, but the charity shops are good hunting in the off-season.
     
  17. CrazyCatz

    CrazyCatz Great shot kid. Don't get cocky!

    Well in Burton on Trent our High Street is jam packed with Charity Shops, some Good,some Bad ..some Rip Off!!(you wouldn't think items had been gifted) anyhoos both Me and Missus have had some Good finds ..mostly CDs St.Giles(which do a lot of books) also have a fair few Mint Condition CDs and Records..Whereass Bhf think if Torvill and Dean been at CDs that they are worth more..trust me no amount of polishing is gonna sort em..
     
  18. Leepal

    Leepal Forum Resident

    Location:
    Swindon, UK
    I've mostly given up on charity shops for vinyl. There was one in my town that was quite good, there wouldn't be complete bargains but at least they would usually have a few LPs that were interesting. That place moved a short distance away but changed the way they do things, they do have a lot of vinyl but it's all junk.
     
  19. Leepal

    Leepal Forum Resident

    Location:
    Swindon, UK
    Sounds about right. I started going around charity shops in the late 90s, that was in London where I lived at the time, but vinyl had already dried up it seemed.
     
  20. Willowman

    Willowman Senior Member

    Location:
    London, UK
    Pop in regularly. Stuff will turn up. A couple of years ago, my local Oxfam had maybe a hundred classic post-punk singles and LPs, all mint, which it put out a few each week.

    Several gaps in my collection were filled for a good price.
     
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  21. Raving Russell

    Raving Russell Forum Resident

    Charity shops have got much more savvy and I find little there nowadays. However, one of my local ones has an enormous classical music section and I keep picking up historical recordings in MINT condition. If you like classical music then it is a great hunting time.
     
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  22. JP Christian

    JP Christian Forum Resident

    Not a charity shop but there used to be a great second hand record shop in Devizes, Wiltshire - the guy who ran it was Australian I think and I became a regular when I worked nearby - his classical LPs were also always mint and only £1 each - I also got my original UK Philips Scott (Walker) 2 and 3 from him for only £12 and £14.
     
  23. Dave Gilmour's Cat

    Dave Gilmour's Cat Forum Resident

    I've found so many great CDs in charity shops over the last few years. A couple of hundred at least. Usually you pay £1. Some excellent stuff – Bowie, Beach Boys, Gene Clark, Floyd, Miles, Zeppelin, Rush, Soul Jazz compilations – and many happy hours of discovery. You just have to be patient and look regularly.

    Edit: I usually list purchases here: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/search/40748502/
     
    Last edited: Mar 12, 2017
  24. dtuck90

    dtuck90 Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    I got an A1/B1 of CSNY Deja Vu yesterday in oxfam for £15. First time I've had a decent charity shop purchase for ages
     
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  25. action pact

    action pact Music Omnivore

    I kinda depends on what you're looking for. I like a lot of oddball lounge/exotica type stuff, and there's still plenty of that out in the wild.

    In the past couple of weeks, I found two really good jazz LPs at thrift stores, which is very uncommon. I found a near mint copy of "John Handy Recorded Live at the Monterey Jazz Festival" (1966) and a really nice 2-LP collection of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Big Band on Blue Note/United Artists.

    On a related note, when traveling in other countries, I find thrift/charity stores especially fascinating. When I was in Quebec City last summer, I spent an entire day hitting every thrift store in the city.
     

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