Dealers

I'm beginning to realize why i never ever find good records lying around at thrift stores, garage sales and goodwills in Portland.

There are so many dealers that they a grabbing everything. It's routine for me to go to a yard-sale and find that someone has shown up early and taken all the vinyl. There is a goodwill on my bike ride to work and I showed up at 9:10 to see a guy with a basket of vinyl he already pulled. On a whim I lined up at the door today at 8:55 and there were two dudes in front of me - including the same guy form the other day who must hit that place at opening every single day.

It sure makes it hard for someone with a job to score records. I'm just wondering if other people experience ethos or if it is a vinyl-obsessed Portland phenomenon.

 

Here in the other Portland I think we experience the same thing. I know I have never scored a find at Goodwill despite showing up early (if only I was a Jim Nabors fan....). We have a number of used stores, and I do occasionally find something, but more often than not the bins look pretty similar to my last visit.

 

I don't shop Goodwill or yard sales for vinyl so I can't speak to that. But yeah, Portland is a vinyl-obsessed place and I've been beaten to a few prime LPs by early-morning hipsters who were just a minute or two ahead of me at the record shop. I admit it really torques me because I know they're either going to destroy it on a Crosley or hang it up on a wall.

My folks live in rural Washington so the few times a year we visit them always includes a trip to their local record shop. I can always score stuff there.

 

Nothing new here. A decade ago, these guys were doing the same thing for CDs.

As a collector with a real job you can't hope to compete with those who are just in it for a buck and for whom this is the way they make that buck, except if you get very lucky. This applies to yard sales, Craigslist, etc.

In the old days (before eBay and Craigslist), turning this stuff into profit was a lot harder, and you didn't have a whole subculture devoted to bottom feeding. Now things are different.

I can still beat these guys because I know a lot more than 99% of them about the odd corner stuff that is valuable but doesn't show up in a standard UPC scan, or else in a quick search of eBay. So they will pass over stuff of actual value on occasion. But beyond that, you have little hope.

 

Darn those early-morning hipsters and their Crosley rekkid players.

 

It's impossible to view this entire vinyl / Goodwill snipers / hipster-bashing / Crosley-stereotyping /. First World problem scenario as anything but a Portlandia sketch.

 

Happens in some form almost everywhere, I would wager. Keep in mind, for some of these guys, it's their job- they sell vinyl and finding a score at Goodwill almost guarantees high profit for them, so the motivation is there to check those places constantly. I know two local dealers here that do it, even though both of them have warehouses chock full of vinyl aside from the inventory of their stores. One of them readily admits he is a hoarder and the thrill of the chase, of finding something great, spurs him on daily. But it's not just vinyl- there are dealers of all sorts of things that hit those places every day- looking for high-end clothes, electronics, toys, kids clothes, artwork, silver, you name it, there is someone searching for it.

 

i don't even bother anymore. most of these guys are sycophants, and they're in a hurry. i love most of our record stores, as they're putting stuff out throughout the day, every day.

i've found roughly 50% of my large collection by patiently looking through the new arrivals bins and patiently inspecting every LP of interest. i don't, however, really hit up the thrift stores anymore. i don't think most people are too desperate to donate their vinyl like they were in the early 2000s.

 

I don't know if the dealers in Toronto hit up thrift stores or garage sales but I do know they hit up the record shows and buy up a lot of $10 records which they will then sell in their stores for $20-25. I see them at the record shows all the time in the early entry line standing next to me. They come out with a crate or two full of records.

 

I take resentment to that bottomfeeding comment. People can make a buck however they want to. Nothing wrong with that

 

Just an update. I lined up before opening today and got originals of licensed to Ill, Kings of Rock and purple rain for 8 dollars. So the wax i still out there - I was starting to despair

 

Complaining about other record buyers that are on top of their game is unseemly.