Your vinyl collection: thrift store bargains or high-end pressings, or anything and everything?

I got an OP copy of Pink Moon this weekend for $1...
a conservative VG / VG grade.

 

everything, all of the time.

 

that's not the way estate sales work here. everything is usually priced individually. the reason I don't go to estate sales anymore is because they are so popular, and people line up for hours before hand.

 

I collect both albums and 45s. My best 45 finds have almost always come out of the blue in thrift shops, antique malls, etc. for almost no money. I buy mostly used albums and rarely purchase anything online.

 

Yeah, I've heard it's different in different places. A lot of the ones I've heard about around Chicago only allow for bids to be submitted for lots, unless they have specific high dollar amount collectibles in it.

But I'm with you - I don't want to stand in line for hours. Did that for Record Store Day and that was enough.

 

Same as you, I've recently made a comeback to vinyl. At first, I started buying brand new, sealed LPs, but quickly cooled off once I realized that a lot of the brand new ones I purchased were of sub-standard quality. From opening sealed LPs only to find some of them severely warped, to finding many of them full of dirt and debris, to finding some of them sounding murky, dead, dull, lifeless.

At the same time, purchasing old pressings from the '60s, '70s, '80s revealed to me a lot of splendour. Back then, the craft of making vinyl records was at the absolute peak. But on the downside, many of those old records played with a lot of background noise, so it looked like you can't win.

Than an old friend of mine strongly suggested I buy an LP cleaning machine. Which I did, and that purchase literally changed my life! All of a sudden, after I cleaned and vacuumed my old LPs, they came back to life with such force, that it blew me away!

So today I'm mostly buying used LPs, taking the time to clean them very carefully, and then enjoying the music at its utmost glory. Nothing can beat a nicely pressed, nicely cleaned LP made during the golden age of vinyl.

 

Bingo!
Makes it a hassle and stressful having to throw elbows for MAYBE a few decent records. This is suppose to be a fun hobby and this just adds stress.

ngo

 

70s and 80s originals - anything bought in the last ten years came from thrift stores or yard sales.

We are not audiophiles extreme; we do have a nice vintage stereo set up and I do enjoy finding a very clean old vinyl album.

But thats as far as it goes.

 

Update: I found two albums that I wanted in a thrift store on my lunch hour today, cost $1 each.

 

2,000 or so total currently composed of 400 bought new '74-'85 then maybe another 1600 bought used (thrifts were good around the late 90s-mid 2000s then have totally dried up). I've had incredible luck at garage and estate sales tho "finds" have been on the wane the last few years. I've probably bought another 400 new since 2000 thru Amazon, Import CDs, InSound, Best Buy, Music Direct, etc.. I've thinned out the herd thru Craigslist sales down to my current 2000-ish. Just waiting on Import CDs E-Bay store to start their 40% off sale again. Their last sale was off the charts incredible.

 

No thrift store stuff and virtually no used record store items. Mostly bought retail regular releases, audiophile releases, lots of imports, and a boatload of promos.

 

Ain't that the truth. I never go at the opening of a sale. If it's an advertised sale with pictures of (good) records, you see the same old Dallas resellers who get there an hour or two early. My best estate sale score in the last year was on the third day. The sale had about a dozen 180 gr reissues, a couple were unopened MOFIs, all marked down that morning to $5 each and ever one collectible. They had been priced at $15-$25, hence their availability. Supertramp, Floyd, Elton John, Simon and Garfunkle, Bowie, a few others.......

 

May I ask what machine you bought?

 

65% bought new
34.75% bought second hand
.25% bought in a charity (thrift) shop.

I don't see much vinyl in charity shops over here.
If I do it usually in bits or is some awful ktel or show band record.

 

Home

 

Same here, it just became too much of a rat race. The turning point was an estate sale at a former home recording studio where the sign-up list was posted the night before. I drove 20 miles and waited in a parking lot for the the seller to post the address, then rushed there to sign my name, just barely making the top 5. Next day waited in line another hour only to have to share 4 boxes of records with every record dealer in the greater Seattle area and after only buying two records I realized, "I don't want to do this anymore."

I have scored well a few times though. There are times where I've been the only record guy to show up at an estate sale somehow, literally had several hundred early pressing classic rock LPs to myself to browse once. I showed up an hour late to another sale once to find an entire closet full of unpicked, pristine oldies. It was surreal.

 

Wow! I guess you never know!

 

Not a thrift store, but used bin at local shop.
This LP has been there for over 3 years, priced at $3 (date code on price sticker).

I was on a Herbie Mann mission last night looking for some old stuff, I had flipped past this album 100 times because of the writing on the cover, but I finally opened it last night, and was amazed!

Inside was a strong VG+ original copy of The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced
(Track 612 001, UK, mono).
Who knew about the super rare one-of-a-kind cover?
Thankfully I had a 10% off coupon too!



Album — Postimage.org

 

Inside was a strong VG+ original copy of The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced
(Track 612 001, UK, mono).

Awesome. I saw the sleeve and was wondering where you were going?

 

Back in the 80s & 90s, I was not too picky about condition (as long as it played).
I figured if it was cheap enough I could always upgrade later.
I would get stuff from several different places...
Record shows, thrift stores, garage sales etc.
Now since I got back into collecting vinyl recently, my attitude has changed.
I am more picky about condition. I will not pick up records that I'll have to upgrade later.
I do not do the thrift stores or garage sales any more because most of the records I see there are not in the condition I want them in.
I will however browse the dollar section of my local record store.
I have gotten some nice pieces in excellent condition.
HPB is a crap shoot, but I usually only get one peice of vinyl when I visit there.
Often putting back several pieces because of less than ideal condition.


Darryl

 

I found these, in perfect shape, in a thrift store today for $1.29 each (times three for the 3 LP Dolphy boxed set) . This kind of thing almost never happens!

 

I wanted to do all imports/original pressings but gave up due to pricing.

Comes down to - I just want good artwork/the music physically and it's way faster and cheaper to go to the record store and buy a ton of $3 prog records than it is to pay $15 shipped for a UK copy if I'm lucky and over $30 for a ton of them - so, I get what I can from record places, always used and the one's I can't find/never expect to find I will buy online or import if I want them or am missing one album in the set.

I have a few LPs that look and sound fantastic. I have a few that don't. The latter ones, I always have foobar ready to proper listen if I want to.

 

I buy my vinyl from a variety of places but these days it is mostly online due to lack of availability.

I mainly collect original or early 60's & 70's pressings and favor pressings made in the UK, US, Japan,Australia, Germany, France & Holland.

This means that whilst i can still land a bargain it is not the norm in 2018. I do have some cheap records sure but far more that are of some value say for eg: $40-$100 USD skyward.

I do attend Record Fairs, visit Record Stores & the odd thrift shops.

Ebay has been my main go to for 14 years but in recent times i have rapidly fallen out of love with it. In 2017 i bought over 100 records on the Bay and 40% were either over graded or damaged due to incompetent packaging. Maybe my new go to will be the SHF for records if i can figure out exactly how it works?

 

All over the place, for sure. The majority of record stores that are left deal primarily in used albums so if I'm in the mood for some "religious" shopping around, I'll go to one of them in my area. It doesn't even guarantee I'll find something I'll buy...the process of "looking" is what matters most. Actually finding something is like a happy bonus. There's only one store around me that offers a huge amount of new pressings so I'll go there if I'm looking for something specific. If i don't find it I'll look online. But there's no single preference in any shape or form. The only certainty is having the constant desire to look, buy and listen.

 

I am always buying new 'high-end' pressings, but several weekends ago when I was out of town, I stopped by an antique store and the had a box of $1. LP's. There were quite a few in there which I didn't already have and they were in decent condition, so I bought maybe 10 or more of them. There were several record sections inside the store and they wanted too much money for most of them, many not in good enough shape for the prices on them. I think I made out like a bandit.