I'm finished with Amoeba.

Sounds like your crew you visited are into that stuff.

I've lived here my whole life. I don't know anyone into anything you said.

Matt Cameron from Soundgarden, Eddie Vedder, Dave Mustaine. Rob Halford moved here as did Ace Frehley from KISS. Frank Zappa went to my high school....Bands like Rocket From The Crypt, POD, Stone Temple Pilots...my friends were into music and all lived by the water.

There were also a lot of great record stores here as the other poster stated.

 

Wow. All the poor customer service. I've been around rude/smug myself and have neither the time nor the patience for it anymore.

I can never not make a mental comparison with selling used records or CDs at DiskUnion in Japan. Couteous staff who look up everything. They provide the seller/customer with a printout of their offer, which includes a price for each individual item. If you don't like the total offer, or the individual item offer, you can remove those from your sale and they'll recalculate the offer. And, if you happen to have a collectible that they are unfamiliar with, you can explain to them what it is and sometimes get a higher offer, at least if they know you as a knowlegeable and reputable seller (which I suppose they think I am).

Very professional operation IMO.

 

For all the complaints about "hipsters" and smug staff, the only people I've had problems with at Amoeba SF/Berkeley are the indignant baby boomers upset they don't have the place to themselves anymore.

 

I think that's part of my issue or I'm looking for a specific title. I did think paying $50 for a used Ron Lane CD that I wanted to replace mine was a bit much. Love the album but can't justify spending that much and it was tin the best shape IMHO.

 

I'm not upset. The more the merrier! I'd rather have Amoeba as imperfect as it is than other at all.

The only time I hear complaints about hipsters are at places like this. Hey, someone has to discover music at some point regardless of format. I mean really those folks complaining about it need to remember THEY were the hipsters at one time...

I've never observed boomers get ticked off but maybe I'm ignoring them (or maybe they smell bad and i avoid themfor that reason...i dunno....)

 

I personally don't think that they should allow staff to have more than one or two titles for hold back. It hurts business for the store and you know that the u der paid staff are hawking it on eBay...

 

Been pushed out of the way at the new arrivals section in SF (a multi-bin area with more than enough room for a few people to browse without pushing or shoving) on numerous occasions, and I'm by no means a bin hog. Lots of grunting, sighing, and under the breath comments when they just have to dig through the same bin I'm at and they need to make it clear they're waiting. Rolling their eyes at kids or women when they ask questions.

 

Well that's pretty rude. Pretty sad.

 

I wish we had Amoeba in New York...I wish we had anything !!

 

Since getting back into vinyl, I rarely go to Amoeba / Berkeley anymore. Rasputin has a bigger / better selection, and, frankly, there are several shops in the East Bay that are better than either of them. If there's anyone who hasn't been to Needle to the Groove in Fremont or its sister store in San Jose, do so. Good selection of quality vinyl at good prices. EconoJams and 1,2,3,4 Go! in Oakland are good, too. And Stranded has good stuff, but I find the shop a bit too precious. Maybe it's the hipster neighborhood that it's in.

All of that said, I've always found the staff at Amoeba and Rasputin to be very nice and most helpful.

As to the prices you get for used stuff, they've gotten so low that I've started giving away anything I don't want to keep. The few bucks I might get from Amoeba or Rasputin are nothing compared to the smile and "thanks" I get from friends when I randomly and suddenly give them a nice record.

 

Along with being finished with Amoeba, the OP was finished with this thread six days after he launched it in 2007 — that’s the last time he posted here.

Yet his snit lives on.

 

I agree with you on Amoeba's high used prices. But, I'll always go to the Haight store due to the location. I like to take the N to Duboce Park and then walk over to Divisadero and then up Haight, and, as I'm sure you know, Amoeba is at the terminus of Haight, so I'll go in there and look around before the return walk. But I only buy in there once in a great while. I spend my money at Rasputin, which always has better deals than Amoeba.

And, WTF, I just answered a seven year old post. Doh!

 

I'm not finished but who knows when I'll get back there. My last visit was ten years ago this month. It was my first stop after landing at LAX and renting a car. I was in CA on two other occasions in '03 (SF) and '02 (SF and Berkley), and made a point to get there. Do they still give away T-shirts if you buy a certain amount? What was it, $100.00? That was a cool surprise for me last time I visited.

 

This prediction's at least five years off

I go to Amoeba Hollywood at least twice a month; I'll be there agin' tomorrow. In 14 years of shopping there I can count on three fingers the times I didn't find at least one disc on my wish list. The last few visits have been wonderful--several impossible to find Jonathan Richman titles for 6 bucks, Gordon Lightfoot DREAM STREET ROSE for 8, etc etc. I rarely interact with staff as I know what I want and where to look for it so the "hipster" tag impacts me not. I am very grateful Amoeba is there and so close.

 

That's an option I also try to pursue when I know of someone with a record player that might actually appreciate the record. It's easier with CD's, but either way it's well worth it.

 

God I miss Amoeba! Having lived in the Bay Area for most of life until 2011, I went to Amoeba in Berkeley on a weekly basis, and ventured across the Bay to the SF Amoeba once a month. No, they're not quite what they used to be, but that's solely because fewer people are selling them good used records and CDs, so the second hand stock has taken a hit, and prices have gone up considerably for the stuff that is in the racks (especially at the SF store). And Amoeba, in turn, is offering much less money for used product than it used to. But I'm still able to find great stuff there, and all three locations are wonderful stores.

I've been living in Slovakia for the last three years and have yet to find a single record store in central Europe (not just in Bratislava, but also Vienna, Prague, etc.) that could come even remotely close to Amoeba. Everything in the region (that I've found so far) pales in comparison.

People who live near an Amoeba are extremely lucky - please stop complaining!

 

I have been shopping at Amoebas on Telegraph ave since it practically opened. And Rasputins next door even longer. I always, always have a great time. Sooooo much music. The vinyl is more picked over, but there are so many cds for great prices. I was living in Kansas City for 6 years, and there were a few good small shops, but nothing mega like Amoeba or Rasputins. I am thankful these stores are here,

 

I find less rudeness at Amoeba than I endured in the era of Tower Records at Colombus and Broadway in SF.

 

That happens even here, though I see it from younger guys as often as older. One of the owners of the record store here is a woman; I've seen her get completely ignored when she answers a question. When one of the male staff members repeats what she said, suddenly the customer hears it. It's pretty annoying even from a distance.

 

I would stop there on the way home from work in the early 1990's. They had the prototype "too cool for school" record store clerks. But a great selection, and a separate room for jazz.

 

I was in a record shop looking for The Yes Album blu ray. 2 RS men said to me 'there is no demand for blu ray discs' I said what about sacd .. They did not reply. Checking their stock I noticed they had about 20/30 SACDs ..mentioned to one of the men close by ' oh you have SACDs ..he immediately went over and took away the Sacd display card i remember where they were and i started to look tbrough them, Byrds , Dylan etc ..about 10 minuets later he comes back and puts the unaltered SACD display card behind the discs. Either some shops are making too much money or their fussy who they want to sell their stock to.

 

At the Hollywood location you can find the odd deal here and there - I usually find something that surprises me at how cheap it is while other things seem higher than other stores. I have fun going there with friends and looking for a couple of hours. I only wish that they had a bathroom!

 

I've noticed an annoying trend, at Amoeba LA at least, of whenever something is reissued on 180 gram, $20 + vinyl, suddenly even a beat up old used copy of that same album is all taped up in plastic and selling for the exact same price as the reissue :/

 

I'll be in Hollywood and downtown SF next month with limited time so I'm wondering whether it's worth trekking up to Haight Ashbury and/ or Berkley if I spend time in the Sunset store.