In Islington, London where I live there is an Oxfam shop that only sells books and records. I went in these once and it is really nice and smart but not cheap, and also it doesn't have that awful charity shop smell. Up the road in hipsters Dalston there is a huge Oxfam shop and Jarvis cocker from Pulp once played a DJ set in there. I didn't see him but I did see him buying a pack of fags in my local shop once...
Can't tell on the Billy Joel - no mention of JVC in the 'ring' text, just the cat no. (DIDP 109) plus a few more numbers - very hard to read. No, The Eagles CD is just the standard Asylum CD manufactured by GmbH Alsdorf, but it's rare to see any pre-barcode CDs in charity shops at all these days!
I live in Skipton, Yorkshire. Our local Oxfam is barely worth a look most days. A few months back, I happened to pop in there to find a selection of vinyl Zappa/Mothers, early Beefheart originals, Mallard (I collect the early Virgin), Ivor Cutler, Third Ear Band, Kevin Ayers, original Tangerine Dream `Atem' on OHR in Mint condition....just about everything you DON'T find ever in an Oxfam shop. They had come, not surprisingly, from one benefactor. They had luckily taken a sensible approach to pricing, and I ended up having a couple of £100 sprees in there before the word obviously got around and the good stuff went. Things like that don't happen very often, but sadly, a lot of that generation are passing on, and I guess we might find a lot more collections of that quality turning up.
Not a Charity Shop as the OP indicated, but Dealz is a Poundland subsidiary in Spain and Ireland. They have that 'Reconditioned CDs' bit going on whereby they clean 'em up and stick them into new jewel cases if they are cracked etc. You have to plough through an awful lot of Dido, Robbie Williams, Toploader, Texas, Shania Twain, Space, S Club 7, the usual, but one can get lucky and find the odd nugget. Thing is, everything is €1.50. That's £1.34 or $1.75 equivalent based on today's rates. It's one of those things you go in ten times, eight of those you come out with nothing cursing yourself for spending the time flicking, one time you get one item, the other time you find a dozen you'll gladly relieve them of.
As it happens, someone added the JVC disc to discogs (the same disc has also been uploaded to the regular CSR entry as well). It should not be confused with the early crude font CSR discs (image borrowed from Keith Hirsch site). As a collector of early CBS discs, I'm always on the look out for oddballs (red stripe Austrians need not apply, unless they are that rare Billy Joel Attila CD). The regular Japanese CSR for Europe disc on discogs has the 11A1 matrix. It is may experience that CDs with just "11" and "11A1" matrices are quite hard to find, so your Billy Joel CD might be quite rare whatever version it is. I did once find the West German picture disc in a charity shop for £1.50. Not the Japanese edition pictured here, but the regular, but limited to 10,000 copies European edition. Not easy to find. Also found the Terence Trent D'arby one in That's Entertainment at around the same time for £2.99. Never seen Faith nor Bad.
I know, but sometimes the discs are OOP (but common) and the wrapping is unofficial (in fact, most CDs sold in the UK are unwrapped: wrapping is a dead giveaway. So too are some unoriginal CD cases). There may be exceptions, but not mainstream or classic rock.
I do search for Rolling Stones releases, but they are not common in charity shops. In fact, most classic rock is uncommon.
Ah ok, but anyway for £1 they are fine, if you want that CD if course. I have never bought any but I have bought a couple of DVDs, I wonder if they are refurbished as well?
DVDs could be refurbished, but I have a feeling that suppliers are more likely to dump DVDs (especially once the title comes out on Blu-ray). I have seen original wrapped DVDs in charity shops. Mind you, I've also come across original wrapped CDs as well.
There are some oddball S&G European issues. Imagine my surprise when someone on this forum quoted my dr database entry for Bridge Over Troubled Water. Album details - Dynamic Range Database Same as the Mastersound gold edition. Album details - Dynamic Range Database Of course, since finding out, I've never seen another copy. One for your searches perhaps.
Judging by those first two images looks like mine is a JVC disc - I assume that's better? Is the mastering the same?
The JVC disc is rarer, but the crude font isn't typical of your CSR releases. The CSR entry on discogs has the matrix DIDP-109 11A1 +++++. The "+" symbol is characteristic of CSR releases.
Chanced upon an unplayed-looking I'm Your Man (LP) by Laughing Len in a charity shop on Saturday. One pound.
I always like to find a target. £1 from the local Air Ambulance shop. It's an upgrade to an earlier copy, that I also found in the same charity shop.
Occasionally you can find gems if you have the patience to look. I think my best find was the Carpenters LP 'A song for you'. The vinyl and cover were immaculate.
A new charity shop opened near me and for the first couple of weeks no vinyl. Then yesterday a box had all the usual suspects, Ray Conniff, James Last, Kamahl, Herb Alpert, Patty Weaver. There must be an endless supply of these albums just waiting to get donated.
These artists sold millions of records, records that nobody now wants. Look at Sydney Devine, a singer most forum members have never encountered. Albums sold: 15 million, 3 for every one of his native Scots. His shows routinely sold out. No wonder the Scottish music hall society gave him a lifetime achievement award.
Picked up Here Come The Tears by The Tears (Bernard Butler & Brett Anderson's brief union project) for £1. I actually bought this on iTunes years ago, and it's merely OK (some great music, but Anderson's lyrics are so trite these days), but happy to have it on CD. Also tried to buy Ellipse by Imogen Heap for my wife, only to find the CD inside was a Pipettes EP (Stop the Music). When I pointed this out, they gave it to me for free. Free jewel case, I guess!