Acquiring used vinyl...is it worth hunting anymore?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Chester0711, Jul 17, 2017.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Dunno if this is still happening but it was a trend a few years ago. Now it's hard to get much for a big CD collection. Unless someone has the patience to sell one disc at a time they are not getting much for most CDs.

    For the people that dumped their CD collections, I have a feeling they will regret it in 10 years. I have no intention of dumping my CDs. Matter of fact I'm buying more CDs now than vinyl.
     
  2. audiotom

    audiotom I can not hear a single sound as you scream

    Location:
    New Orleans La USA
    in my experience used analog era records if cared for properly 90% of the time sound better than the remaster

    I come here to find the exceptions



    I don't dumpster dive at thrift stores
    pick through things and my local record shop and when traveling

    Go to ebay, key overseas sellers I have a relationship with or discogs for specific titles
    particularly first pressings - "hot stampers"
     
  3. dividebytube

    dividebytube Forum Resident

    Location:
    Grand Rapids, MI
    Given my mostly obscure taste in music, Goodwill and garage sales have always been slim pickings. But ya never know what's going to show up when and where. But honestly, given my lack of time, I usually just order what I want online instead of going on the hunt. *sigh* it's not as fun as it used to be.
     
    audiotom and patient_ot like this.
  4. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    I was at a store the other day that I've found many good things at good prices in the past and walked out with nothing but two used CDs and a magazine. A couple months ago I got five great albums for $25. Many stores are cyclical IME. I found out this particular store is not buying any used vinyl right now and probably just purchasing new releases on credit, so that's why the bins are dry. That and the recent RSD event. Other stores in town are on the same cycle, some a different cycle. If a place routinely has overpriced records in crap condition I don't go back.
     
    thesisinbold likes this.
  5. geddy402

    geddy402 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mid Atlantic
    I think this is similar to most vintage music related things like the vintage guitar market. Things don't appear too frequently in the wild, i.e. yard sales, thrift stores, etc. It takes a lot of luck and being at the right place at the right time to find a stash of really clean records you are looking for. I haven't had much luck finding anything in thrift stores or Salvation Army that are in good shape. But, for 25 cents or a buck I'll still it pick up.

    As someone else mentioned most records are still pretty cheap. I hit MGM local shop at the right time last week and almost 300 bucks later had filled a few holes in my collection. Sure I could have waited 10 years to find unlistenable copies at thirt stores but I plunked down the money. Plus I'm supporting a local business.

    Having said that, I still go to thrift stores when I travel for work or I'm in a new town. You never know what you'll find and maybe I'll find that Mario Lanza album that I've always been dreaming of!
     
  6. keithdylan

    keithdylan Master of His Own Domain

    You have to go to sales that don't list records. The ones that do will already be hit and cleaned out. I also agree with kwadguy, if you know your stuff beyond the mainstream you can still have success after the first wave of flippers. I've got some rare surf/garage/doo-wop out of some well shopped piles.
     
  7. Chew

    Chew Casual Stalker

    I am in the middle of reducing my cd collection by at least 50%. I haven't counted how many exactly, but it fills 5 paper cases. These are disc I have not played in at least 6 years (if ever). I am offering them up for free to my family and friends, as I realize I won't get much for them at a used music store. I will have no regrets letting them go. Ever. I am still buying new CD's, as I hate downloads and not everything new is available on vinyl.
     
    patient_ot likes this.
  8. Many record dealers I've known, who either have store fronts or sell at record shows, find a lot of their records at garage and estate sales. The advantage to having a storefront, people walk in wanting to sell you their records. My local Rasputin Record store started up their vinyl collection with mostly used records. They had tons of LP's in their $1. section where I've seen record dealers buying hundreds at a time. If the used records are in a store, those records have already been found.
    If you want to find records for cheap, garage sales are the best bet, but you better be there early before the record dealers hit it.
     
  9. Duophonic

    Duophonic Beatles

    Location:
    BEATLES LOVE SONGS
    i just chucked maybe 100 pathetic old records in the trash a week ago.
     
  10. Dr. J.

    Dr. J. Music is in my soul

    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    It's certainly an end of an era. When I got back into vinyl after a long hiatus eight years ago, I went absolutely ape $hit knowing that it was about to get out of hand price wise. For about a year I stopped by 4-5 thrift stores everyday after work and would come home with 10-20 dollar albums at a time, including Stones and Beatles albums (even a mono Sgt. Peppers!). Now when I hit these very same places I leave with a single cd at best, usually of a title I regret buying afterwards--just to say I found something. Sad really.
     
    The Sage likes this.
  11. ChrisInKansas

    ChrisInKansas Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kansas
    I don't have a whole lot to add that other posters haven't already said, but you can still find great rare stuff out there, if you're not looking for the typical rock records. Not a lot of people are hunting down 80s country or obscure 70s/80s 45s, so we often walk away happy. Last year, we found a Rex Allen Jr. LP for 50 cents at a thrift store while visiting friends in Palm Springs...the husband had been trying to hunt down a copy online for quite a while. The only US copy he could find was fifty bucks and overseas! So my advice...keep hunting!
     
  12. n.phelge

    n.phelge Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dallas
    One Saturday last year running errands I stopped by a garage sale that had just been open for a while and there was a guy going through the boxes of records. I went to look at the one box remaining and pulled out what appeared to be the only good stuff (a dozen classic rock and a Decca Hobbit 4 LP narration box). The guy went to complain to the homeowner that he had waited in line before opening and then I came in and got the good stuff. The homeowner just stared at him and said that there wasn't really anything he could do about that.

    A month ago I actually got to a sale when it opened, but there were already a line of folks waiting. They ended up clamoring for the Beatles Capitol LPs, and I got originals of ? and the Mysterians, Music Machine, Philles Christmas Gift WLP, Steppenwolf WLP mono, Ragged Glory, and a bunch of other stuff that they passed over.
     
    Man at C&A and patient_ot like this.
  13. Malcolm Crowne

    Malcolm Crowne Forum Habitue

    Location:
    Portland OR
    Garage and estate sales are for fun but not necessarily results. The "just to say I found something" comment above, hey I feel ya. Been there. Estate sales, I go down to the basement and check out the old man's tools and stuff. It is definitely the end of an era now that anyone can look up ebay prices with their smart phone, and all the other info too like labels, etc. So depressing.

    And hey, frankly my local record stores' used stuff is priced a little high considering condition. I have better luck on Ebay for a lot of things. I want to support local but 1)they don't grade at all, 2) they put out very worn records; and, 3) vg+ and better copies of a lot of rock albums aren't too much from ebay sellers especially when it's a popular title and there's a lot on offer. I pick one and bid the minimum and win often. (if you're an ebay seller hoping to get a bidding war on a copy of something that sold a million in the 70s, well, a couple dozen people are hoping the same thing!)
    I remember the era when vinyl was well and truly on the way out out and there was mass lp's in goodwill -- mostly the old junk but if you wanted old pop, country or even jazz it was fairly common there up through the mid 2000's in my recollection.
    I agree it's not what it was and it's time to lower expectations and savor music that not a lot of collectors are looking for. Buck Owens, or Bow Wow Wow. It's all good man!
     
  14. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    Yup...It happens :)

    It's like when you're in the used record store, and the guy who got to the bargain bins is pulling stuff frantically left and right. At first you think "oh no, what did I JUST miss...?" And then you see what he's pulling, and it's all junk that couldn't be interesting no matter what. And then you go through the same bins and find some actual cool stuff.
     
  15. Uncle Meat

    Uncle Meat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, Tx, US
    Sure it is...
    I find a copy of Leo Kottke's Guitar Music on Lp this weekend, sounded amazing !!!

    And even better, found a copy of "Surgical Lectures" on LP for my niece, as a gag gift, she just got a record player...( and yes, it is a real record about how to perform surgery)...I'm giving her the Kottke as well, I already have a copy..somewhere

    [​IMG]
     
  16. Where are you Simon

    Where are you Simon Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Wales
    I think if you love Records?
    The thrill of the chase/ hunt will always be there.
     
  17. ericc2000

    ericc2000 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tulsa, OK, USA
    I did the exact same thing, except through thrift stores. I wound up with near mint mono and stereo copies of everything.
     
  18. Granadaland

    Granadaland Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    One can pick up great sounding and excellent condition used records for a few quid. Grace Jones - Nightclubbing springs to mind. I buy these when I see them but have given up obsessive hunting these days as it mostly leads to overpriced disappointment. Prefer to invest in new analogue releases such as the Bernie grundman Neil Youngs etc.
    Having a lot of fun collecting CDs now they are so cheap. Mainly off the back of recommendations on this site.
     
  19. nosliw

    nosliw Delivering parcels throughout Teyvat! Meow~!

    Location:
    Ottawa, ON, Canada
    I'm the same way as well, as I'm acquiring original/early CD's as they are significantly cheaper to buy than the LP's themselves.

    Earlier this year, I did find a used early CD copy of Metallica's The $5.98 Garage Days Re-Revisited for $1 at a local thrift shop, followed by CD singles from Front 242 and Nine Inch Nails. Now is the time to get original CD's before pricing become entirely nuts.

    As for the subject matter itself, I still believe finding used records for relatively cheap is still out there. Though this means having to resort to trading records from one person to another, visiting random record stores, have an eagle-eye on the stores' social media sites of their upcoming sales, going to flea markets/thrift shops constantly (YMMV), and even going to your closest local record convention. The latter, I managed to acquire a lot of great records for much cheaper than Discogs/eBay sold pricings, so it's only a matter of luck and very observant.
     
  20. Arkay_East

    Arkay_East Forum Resident

    Location:
    ATX
    Having a good local is a blessing for sure. So much more fun that driving all over the place for slim pickings.
     
    Scroller likes this.
  21. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    I must be lucky, last Chattanooga trip to McKay's netted me a nice near mint mono "Beat Of The Brass" for $.99. Only the second time I've seen one in the wild. Seen a lot of Stereo pressings.
     
  22. Chester0711

    Chester0711 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Minneapolis,MN
    My "luck" with Herb has been limited to stereo....but at $1 record in good shape I wont complain....and I love the music!
     
  23. Chester0711

    Chester0711 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Minneapolis,MN
    My last garage sale was a success though....and I got there after a team of two that was scouring the streets for vinyl gold (per the guy running the sale).....

    Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
    Jethro Tull - Benefit
    Simon and Garfunkel - Bookends
    Bo Diddley - Go Bo Diddley (trashed, but cool for $1)

    All the above are original first press ........and a fistful of other for $1 each......that to me is success!

    I will say, every time I start looking at the records the owner of the sale will come over and say something to the effect of, "hmmmm, well, the only thing we have sold today so far are records...had a couple people waiting to look when we opened!" "What's going on with the interest in all the records? seems to be all anybody is looking for!"

    Everytime almost, then they get this distant look that says, am I making a mistake? as I pick through the bin....
     
    bluesky likes this.
  24. Luvtemps

    Luvtemps Forum Resident

    Location:
    P.G.County,Md.
    Oh yeah,it's worth it if you're a vinyl junkie like me...[the thrift store is a vinyl junkies best friend]nothing beats finding something rare and in mint condition.
     
    bluesky likes this.
  25. AZRunner

    AZRunner Forum Resident

    Location:
    SW FL
    I've pretty much given up on the hunt. I've never found anything worth buying at goodwill and the record shows I've been to have been overpriced. I don't have the desire to go to garage sales on the off chance that there might be some vinyl. If I'm really looking for something specific, I'll search online.
     
    musictoad likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine