Another Oxfam irritant is the fact that they sell off all the CD's that don't sell in a very short time cycle (two weeks I think) to Music Magpie for 15p! In my part of the world Oxfam seem to have standardised CD prices to £1.99. They never ever reduce slow selling stuff, to,say, £1. They always have lots I wouldn't pay £1.99 for but would snap up for £1. I never get the chance due to this short sighted policy. Deeply irritating! I am not imagining this: I have seen a courier in a Music Magpie polo shirt collecting from my local branch.
I have 3 or 4 thrift stores that I try to hit about once a month. They sell CDs between $1 and $2 and I've come away with some oddball things and/or staples that I never owned. The vinyl is usually a mess, so I half heartedly flip through them. CDs are easier to skim the spines, so I spend more time on them.
As some others have said, you got to go regularly. I have found the following CDs Pink Floyd - Meddle Japan for Europe black face £1 Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon hybrid SACD 50p Tangerine Dream - Firestarter soundtrack 99p Pat Benatar - Tropico early Sonopress 99p John Cale - Music for a New Society Yellow Moon £2.99 (this one was placed in their window and was OOP at the time) Nick Drake Bryter Layter remaster sealed 99p Various Klaus Schulze CDs including Picture Music and Audentity £1.99 each. Depeche Mode - Speak & Spell WG with the metallic blue stripe £1.99 Abba - Greatest Hits Vol. 2 early WG Polydor 50p Barclay James Harvest - Ring of Changes red face WG Polydor £1 Eurythmics - Revenge Japan for US 99p Kenny Rogers - They Don't Make Them Like They Used To Japan for US 99p Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel of Love WG picture disc £1.50 Various targets including rare PDO versions of Elaine Paige Stages and Al Jarreau High Crime (50p-99p) Various classical CDs including some Japan for Japan Denon issues (50p) I'm sure there are more.
We also have some op shops that know records are valuable and price them as such. Unfortunately, they have no idea what is valuable. Non-collectable 78's are "old", so they are valuable, and priced at $15 each (when they are actually worth 50 cents). "Old" LPs are rare, so they must be valuable, so they put $40 on a 1950's very damaged disk of "South Pacific" (with equally damaged sleeve). Along side these jokes, are 1980's disks in excellent condition for $1 which might be reasonably priced at $10. What really gets me is when I try to talk to them about the pricing and try to educate them (they are a charity, and I would like them to make money). Every time they don't want to know. Just like the time one op shop had about 10 cardboard boxes full of records in good condition. I wasn't interested in any of them, but I'm sure that they would have sold quite quickly given the titles and condition of the vinyl. The drawback was that the covers were all very damp, right through to the record. I suggested that they take the records out and air dry the covers, and told them how this could be easily done. I explained that if they didn't the records would be stuck to the sleeves and all the sleeves would be stuck to each other, making the complete set unsellable. I received a blank look in response.
I would be excited by exotica/lounge at the thrift store, but these days all I see are the later Denny albums that are straightforward pop tune covers - nothing with any atmosphere. I don't think I've ever seen a Les Baxter or Esquivel lp worth buying. All my Arthur Lyman titles came from Goodwill.
i have noticed that thrift stores for some reason attract suspicion and distrust .. on the part of staff and buyers.....its kind of a weird con game... so even if your intentions were right on the money and your advice could have saved them hundreds of dollars i bet their reaction was based on the fact they probably suspected you of trying to pull one.... i see so much cheapskateness and nastyness at thrift stores..its unbelievable.. the amount of people that will steal a $1 cd from the case for example.. the haggling at the end... ughh
It seems that two more fast movers for the future "Barbra Streisand/Andy Williams" thrift store award are Diana Krall & Norah Jones. More and more Whitney Houston & Michael Bolton titles are also hitting the bins. Man oh man.....If this is definitely the way the ball bounces for these kinds of artists, I have news for Taylor Swift & Adele they may not wish to hear.
I seen a Jackson C Frank LP original in a UK Oxfam shop they wanted £50 quid for it, wasn't mint ..good condition. But, that was a decade ago.
Well, it might well be just a matter of perspective then, because, I've always been fascinated by UK's charity shops each time I crossed "the water". Whenever I stumble upon an Oxfam shop or a similar boutique, I enter because you never know what you'll find inside. One day I found a copy of "Plastic Ono Band" by John Lennon in Southampton (Oxfam). And it wasn't a reissue. It was an original UK copy (which is hardly ever foundable where I live).
Checking Goodwill's auction site, I can see where a lot of it is going now. Everything from Barbara Streisand to autographed Bee Gees to duct-taped Johnny Cash records getting bid up to the stratosphere on there, some understandably. Most not. My local thrift stores don't seem to participate in online auctions and sales, but still have been dry of good vinyl for months.
I agree that regular record hunting is what must be done to get the best bargains at Charity shops. My all time best finds: 1. Beatles White Album First UK Mono No.0003964. Near Mint vinyl. £1 in Trowbridge, England. 2. Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon. Solid blue triangle. First UK. Found in a disgusting PVC cover. Cleaned up to Ex+. £0.50. Found in Trowbridge, England. 3. Deep Purple. Shades of Deep Purple. First UK. Bought for £5. Sold to a Russian buyer for £158. Found in Yeovil, England. 4. The Fool LP (as in Pepper Fool). Near Mint. £5. Trowbridge, England. 5. Roy Orbison. Only the Lonely. Test pressing. One sided. Best sounding version heard by anybody? £5. Sold to a Roy Orbison fanatic for £125. Swindon, England. I have never found a "good find" in either Bath or Bradford on Avon, two rich places!
If anybody likes Jim Reeves or Perry Como then these are rich picking times for sure! Mrs Mills is frequently seen too. The days of seeing No Parlez on each visit have greatly diminished, though. Perhaps there was a sacrificial bonfire!
The Apex Predator is still the Record Hunter. DVD man is far more mild mannered but also more inconvenient as he is slower and more ponderous in his decision making. He does not have that crazed, addict look about his eyes... Two record hunters hitting a charity shop simultaneously can never end well...
I've never given up on charity shops for vinyl and up until a year or two ago I was frequently finding worthwhile stuff, as well as some incredible rarities occasionally. Some of my most treasured and valuable records have come from charity shops but they are now getting very few and very far between. I did get an original Julie London - Calendar Girl for £5 as well as a Modern Jazz Quartet original album from the 50s for £1 only a couple of days ago from a market though, so I'm still finding cheap and unusual records. I hope it continues, if it doesn't I can't complain. I've had more than my fair share of luck!
Never really thought about it, but I haven't seen a Rolf Harris LP in ages, so maybe they have thrown them out. I often wonder what they did with his potrait of the Queen.
A few weeks ago I bought this collection of Beatles singles for 99p each, all in excellent condition. Strawberry Fields picture sleeve included. You can still strike lucky occasionally.
95% of the LPs I have bought from UK charity shops have been in unplayable condition once I have got them home for a proper check. warped, scratched, dirty (which is reparable when put through my cleaner). Yes I do check them in the shop as best I can but these things only show up when checked at home in more appropriate conditions. I take them back to the shop and give them back, maybe they can sell `em to someone less finicky than me. It`s all for a good cause innit? Although I don`t bother buying LPs from them any more.