I'm finished with Amoeba.

I've been boycotting Amoeba Hollywood, but I didn't tell anyone else, other than a few people on this forum - you know maybe three or four people total.

They don't have enough used vinyl to satisfy me, my own collection has far more unique titles and interesting pressings already.

 

It's been that way for many years. The best music has already been recorded and released anyhoo!

 

haha, if you like shallow blondes with fake tits, none of them here in Tokyo, and I don't miss it...the real breasts part I do miss though...

 

Just bought a new slab of vinyl from Hollywood on line (lowest price I could find and free shipping) - not delivered yet - we will see.

Visited the Haight store last month (used to be Park Bowl - a bowling alley - lol)

It was too intense and overwhelming, kind of cancelled out my buying anything. Was only able to buy ONE item and leave it at that, just too much to take in at one time for me.

Also I had people with me who were getting bored - next time I will go ALONE! It really wold take me all day in there.

Didn't find people to be particularly rude though.

 

Long live the snit. !!!!!

 

I do it with CDs as well, though less often because I haven't bought any in ages. This vinyl habit has become something of an addiction.

I guess that makes us akin to dealers .... The first taste is free.

 

Rock n Bowl for its last 15 years.

 

I go there once or twice a year. Never had issues with rude behavior from clerks at any of the Ameobas, must be that Masonic handshake that Mark Weinstein demonstrated at the Berkeley location.

 

I recently ordered six import CDs online, no complaints. They even gave me two Amoeba stickers.

 

I've been going to the Amoebas in Berkeley and SF since they both opened, and I have only encountered rude staff on a couple of occasions, and both were buyers. But most of the time the buyers have been fine, and a few of them were super friendly.

I have generally found the cashiers at the Berkeley location to be a bit more personable (chatting with me about my purchases), which is probably due to that being a smaller store without the long, never-ending lines.

 

Ha!

 

I really like the vibe of the Berkeley Amoeba, but to be honest there's been a dearth of good used records for a few years now. There was a time when I was able to score used LPs of Ryan Adams promo Gold on red and blue vinyl, Wilco's Mermaid Avenue and Summerteeth, Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend, Smashing Pumpkin's Siamese Dreams on orange vinyl (all for less than $20 each), and so on, at Amoeba. Those days are long gone. It's now mainly a good place to buy new vinyl. But I still like the feeling when I walk into the store.

 

Rasputin in Berkeley is much better for used vinyl than Amoeba is.

 

I have to say, this hasn't been my experience - I've found Rasputin's vinyl to be overpriced and frequently in very poor condition. I can't tell you how many times I've seen an only marginally difficult to find used LP costing $15 with scratches and scuffs. In my experience, when Amoeba charges that much for a similar LP, it's going to be in good shape (and if it's scratched/scuffed, it'll likely be in the dollar bin).

Granted, I've been out of the country for three years, but when I came back home for the holidays last year and made several trips to both stores, the situation didn't seem to be any different.

And I'm not totally knocking Rasputin - I have found lots of good stuff there over the years, and you can find good used CDs there for pretty cheap; but I have had very little luck with their vinyl over the past decade or so. Their used vinyl selection may be pretty robust (the owner, Ken, is rumored to have millions of LPs stashed away somewhere in storage which are pulled out for sale as needed), but see my complaint at the top of this post.

 

SF Amoeba is still worth a visit for any music fan visiting SF, while not my first choice for used vinyl it's still great for used CD's and new vinyl.

 

I'm with you, I have no idea why so many people are saying they prefer Rasputin. I've been told Ken (the owner) personally oversees all pricing of used stuff. Well, there's only so much one guy can know, so the pricing can be very wacky at times. You'll find soundtrack LPs that no one in their right mind would pay more than $5 for, sealed up and priced at $20 or $25. But the flip side is that sometimes valuable stuff that Ken knows nothing about will slip by for $4. But as I said earlier, you have to sort through a lottttt of dollar bin/borderline-dollar bin crap to find those deals. I find it's just not usually worth my time or effort. Amoeba is much more curated, in my opinion.

 

++1 Yet all stores are hit and miss, I still love visiting the stores, but it's the climate of the retail environment that has changed as well.

 

For me it's more a question of selection; seems like Rasputin's in Berkeley has a lot more used titles that come across as "finds", but I have had a couple instances of buying those $15-20 used records and going home to find a skip. I did find an early UK press of Elvis Costello's 'This Year's Model' with the Barney Bubbles misprint cover in their $1 bin and it actually played pretty well (some surface noise, but no skips). I guess I've had the most luck there in the last few years and it has a little better vibe for looking being in a relatively quiet basement, so for me it's probably the first place I think of to look for vinyl in the Bay Area...

 

Hey to all the NorCal folks, btw.

 

Hail Snit!

 

Amoeba:

Go for the music; stay for the attitude!

 

Man, nothing I love more about this forum than the rampant sexism. Yikes.

In other news, I visited both Amoeba Berkeley and Rapsutin yesterday and found plenty to buy.