Record Store Horror Stories

Why are you not getting this? Had he not come in to get the records when he did, they could have been sold. When you order something, it's for you, not whoever happens to see it on the wall. His order should have been kept behind the counter, not just put on the wall for anyone to buy.

Ed

 

I'm not talking bootlegs, which countless stores sell; I'm talking counterfeits of major-label albums.

 

yeah, pretty much what you said. i don't get it at all

 

The Reckless system would annoy me if the grading wasn't accurate, but i think over the past 7 years i've passed on 1 record that when i visually inspected it I felt it wasn't accurate. They've always done ok by me

 

Still, selling a CD full of alternate takes of Pink Floyd studio songs is probably not entirely on the up and up. Perhaps bootleg is the wrong terminology. Semantics.

Although it's cool to be able to get a cd of alternate floyd takes, I don't know that a reputable record shop should be selling them.

 

15-20 years ago, I went into a record store in Minneapolis or St. Paul. They had a decent selection of CDs in a front room, but toward the back of the store they had shelves and shelves of LPs. There was some pretty cool stuff there, without price tags. I picked out a couple and took them to the register. The guy looked at me with a very puzzled look. He asked if he could help me with anything. I told him I wanted to buy the records, and asked how much he wanted for them. He said, "Those aren't for sale."

I asked, "This is a record store, right?" He said it was, but they didn't sell LPs, only CDs.

Not knowing how to respond to that, I told him that I didn't want anything, then, and I left the store. It was so bizarre as to be surreal. To this day I cannot figure out why a record store would have LPs out on shelves and not be selling them.

 

I hope y'all have seen the film, High Fidelity. It's a good movie to see after reading this thread.

 

from a collector standpoint, i give a shop more kudos if they have this kind of stuff in stock

 

Seriously. I know a Floyd buff who would drive 2 hours each way to buy that CD!

 

He did not accept. He mumbled, looked down and started nibbling on his paint-it-black fingernails. Something like that.

One thing I noticed about Amoeba (L.A.) is, from day 1, the checkout people there have been nice and often interested in whatever it was I was buying. Pretty sure that's by design.

 

The one on the left.

Darryl

 

The only 2 experiences I can think of happened at the same store. Sadly it's the only remaining CD store in Rotterdam.

Asking about Judee Sill's album Abracadabra: The Asylum Years, a girl behind the counter replied "That's not Judee Sill, that's Steve Miller".

Years later, asking about Bob Dylan's Another Self Portrait boxed set, the people behind the counter told me they didn't have it because I shouldn't be buying it because it was way too expensive and offered very little extra value to the regular 2 CD set. When I replied that I had done my homework, knew what I was getting, wasn't happy with the price either and asked if they could order it they simply refused doing so, repeating the same arguments.

 

Two weeks ago I visited a record shop in Hermitage, PA.

What a bloody disaster...

I took my GPS because that part of the state is totally foreign to me (I live near Pittsburgh). Never been there and never going back. It's about 80 mintues away, not a big deal.

Till the GPS got me lost.

Without going into lots of boring detail, I took the turnpike and my GPS had no idea what it was doing. When I was at the correct exit (according to the sign), the GPS told me that the correct exit was a half a mile away, so I got off, expecting to see the correct exit shortly thereafter. But it wasn't there, and the mistake cost me about 30 minutes, plus more money in tolls.

When I finally got there, the building was unimpressive. In fact, I didn't even know if it was open. I went in, and most of the building was dark. The owner said she'd turn the lights on for me, and it was super cold in there, too (it's still cold here about 7 degrees Celsius) because she didn't have the heat on. She told me that her heating bill was $2,000 last month so she is careful about using it. I went to the car and put on a spare sweatshirt and went back in.

Lots of records, as promised. As I started to dig (and shiver...) I noticed a few things...

1) Literally 90% or more of the albums were not priced
2) Literally 90% or more did not have a plastic sleeve
3) Literally 90% or more were pretty beat

Instead of leaving right away, I figured I'd have a look around. It took me long enough to get there, so I might as well.

I spent three hours looking around. Most of what I found was destroyed/unplayable, including a Kinks album (Kinda Kinks) that was missing a chunk of the vinyl. Looked like someone took a bite out of it.

I did find some things I wanted to buy....an EX Sticky Fingers (PR press, Broadway label), the Monkees Instant Replay album, Miles Davis 6 eye Columbia pressings, a MO of Strange Days, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke. Good stuff.

As I said, none of them were priced.

When I got to the register, the owner started to put the albums in stacks according to price. After a few minutes, there was a $25 stack, $30, $40 and $100 (She had a sealed US copy of the Wall, seal Neil Young Sleeps with Angels). She said "that stack is $25, that one is $30" etc. I took that to mean that each stack was $25 total.

I was horribly wrong.

EACH album started at about $25. Yup, that's $30 for Strange Days, $30 for a Brubeck Time Out, $25 for a run of the mill Zep II, $40 for the Monkees....and best of all...$250 for a US White Album.

I almost fell over. I told her that in Pittsburgh, NO ONE charges that much. A Zep II in Pittsburgh is $10, tops. Same for Strange Days. I've bought super nice copies of the White Album, full sets, for $20.

She said she knew her prices were high, but that she had to pay rent, etc. She also said that she can get those prices, that those albums are tough to keep in stock. I asked her if she'd rather make money now, or have those albums sit for months and months.

The area where the store is located isn't a high class town at all. It's actually lower middle class.

Like I said, I was there for 3 hours and only saw two other customers. I'm pretty sure they were friends of hers, because they talked a while and left without buying anything.

So I walked out with a copy of Ozzy's No More Tears album ($18) and Otis Redding The Great Otis Redding ($30). Total rip off on Otis. I bought Otis Blue at Jerry's last month for $10.

The thing is, that Ozzy album is pretty rare. It's an early 90s album, and you know how pricey they can be. I called ahead, and when she said it was $18, I figured the rest of the prices would be fair.

But $250 for a US White Album????

Needles to say, I won't be going back. Spent all that time, money (took a 1/2 tank of gas to get there, plus tolls) for just about nothing.

 

Well, if your friend has access to an inkjet printer, a CD burner and the internet to download a copy of the compilation, he could save a 4 hour drive and $25. That was seriously the quality level of the merchandise being sold.

It just struck me as a good shop trying to rip off people that don't know better which I think is a little devious.

I guess value is about perception though.

 

Johnny go s house of music the owner is a local music writer

 

I have not made that trek in over ten years. What decent shops are left?

 

Maybe the reason its still in business in Japan. Shopping for records, or anything really, is a delight in Japan.
I did have my only unpleasant experience in a record shop last week, at Jazz Tokyo in Ochanomizu, part of the Disk Union chain. The stock is phenomenal, the staff genuinely friendly and the pricing competitive, except original Blue Notes that go for crazy money. I was going through the recent vinyl arrivals and had almost finished perusing one of the bins when I felt a hand on my stomach. Some guy who couldnt wait for me to move along was trying to flick through the stuff I was leaning over. I give him a hard stare but he doesnt stop, so I move aside and almost go flying over a small trolley suitcase he had put down next to me. At that point I gave him a short lecture about manners, first in English then in my best Japanese. He said nothing and left. Other than this one peasant it has been nothing but fun.

 

Holy Cow... was this in Baltimore? The "local" chain that only has one store in Towson now, maybe?

 

There is a thrift store near me that has started using eBay to price the records that are donated. They price them based on an average price of completed auctions sold - regardless of condition. I've lately noticed that they are accumulating a large stock of junk records

 

You should turn this into a Yelp review if you haven't already, so that you can persuade others from wasting their time.

 

Good idea

 

This kind of sounds like 101 Music in San Francisco. But there, the LPs are all crammed in a dank, musty basement, where they have stacks of LPs in plastic crates, sometimes stacked five high, crowding up the aisles, in addition to more crates stacked directly on top of some of the records in the racks. The racks of some aisles are just completely buried under these crates. There's just no way you can look through anything without doing some heavy lifting. None of the LPs are organized in any way. And none of the LPs are priced, either, but at least up until the last time I was there several years ago, all LPs were a flat $5, while most 12" singles were $3, if I remember correctly. Occasionally, a particularly rare record might go for a little more. Of course, the vast majority of what they have in there is dollar bin junk. And you might spend a lot of time flipping through that junk before you find anything worthwhile. But then, I've found numerous super rare and elusive records there over the years, and while $5 is too much to pay for the most of the crap they have there, it was an absolute steel for many of the hard-to-find records I've stumbled on there.

Fortunately, I don't have any horror stories from the place, despite how I've described it. I suppose the worst that happened was walking out empty handed, though I did once see a couple of rare LPs I really wanted which were so badly water damaged that no one in their right mind would pay even a cent for them.

(The shop has a smaller sister store around the corner, where the LPs are organized and have price tags (and are priced much higher), but I've never found much there.)

 

My chief complaint is when stores offer a "buy one, get one 50% off (or free)" sale, and when you buy a bunch, try to charge you for all the most expensive ones, and give you all the less expensive ones at the discount. When they try that, I'll sort them two-by-two and purchase them individually by pairs.

The local FYE and one of the local independents tried this on me.

 

I've seen thrift store prices fluctuate over the past couple years. I think it mostly has to do with management (my theory). $1.99-$2.99 is pretty standard here in Chicago with some of the non-Salvation Army/Goodwill thrift stores selling for $0.99.

Every now and then they'll try to raise prices and when I come back after a few weeks, the prices are back to normal.

I did see a Gerry Rafferty City to City for $5.99 at the local SA yesterday. It did have the shrink, but still.... Great album; however, a dime a dozen.