UK Charity (Thrift) Shop CD Hunting

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by MC Rag, Jan 17, 2016.

  1. beccabear67

    beccabear67 Musical omnivore.

    Location:
    Victoria, Canada
    I asked at one Canadian junk shop if they ever had any 45 singles. For some reason the proprietor thought nobody would want those and just never bothered to put out what he had, but said if I came in again later when his one assistant could cover the counter he'd haul out the boxes. The LPs in this place had been pretty good and cheap so I'm thinking I'm on to something! Visions of rare picture sleeves and obscure local garage groups dancing in my head, or at least maybe a Four Seasons or Bill Haley I don't have. I come back later and he's gotten out two really dirty cardboard boxes with stacks of old 45s nobody has gone through, I can take what I want two for a dollar... never seen such a collection of dogs! Took forever to go through and desperate to find something rather than nothing all I bought was one hammered single on the Allied label of Rich Little impersonating Canadian prime-ministers Lester Pearson and John Diefenbaker. So much for being the first to go through two boxes of all pre-1976 45s. I bet the guy was disgusted too. There were awful records from telephone companies and tourism bureaus, language courses and polka combos, all 100% boring. :shake:
     
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  2. gohill

    gohill Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow, UK
    The one thing that really bugged me for a while is Oxfam had a habit of pricing rare or desirable albums at top value as per seen on ebay but paid no heed to the condition. You would have Island Pink Label albums out at £60 with a sticker saying "condition: good" then take it out and it was absolutely scratched to bits. They seemed to think that an albums value was based solely on its rarity irrespective of its condition. Crazy.
     
  3. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
    Not just Oxfam guilty of that, funny how so many people can learn to read a price guide well enough to look records up, but totally fail to read any of the bits that refer to grading and how much condition dictates the price or the fact there are different pressings of things.
     
  4. Jim B.

    Jim B. Senior Member

    Location:
    UK
    I don't think you have anything to even faintly feel guilty about or defend your actions over. That's surely the whole point in why many of us spend time going through crap in charity shops - the hope one day we will find something special.
     
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  5. beccabear67

    beccabear67 Musical omnivore.

    Location:
    Victoria, Canada
    You could tell these people pricing based on ebay to at least look at what actually sold under completed listings, or better yet tell them about popsike which collects only actual sales.
     
  6. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
    Even Popsike has plenty of sales that weren't completed, a few years back a huge number of Reggae and Ska auctions were deliberately wrecked, I'm talking many thousands of items bid up and never paid for those auctions are still distorting Popsike, likewise when looking at Popsike it's best to look at what things have fetched recently rather than highest prices which can often be what something was fetching more than five years ago, lots of records have actually come down in price since the internet made many more copies available and burst peoples delusions of rarity.
     
  7. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    You shouldn't feel guilty and, IMO, you didn't need to justify what you did either. The original question was nonsense anyway.
     
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  8. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    You definitely have to take some of the data with a grain of salt and also accept the good with the bad. You can't just look at the high prices and ignore the auctions that were low. You also can't just look at the final results. You need to see if there's any data re: condition and I agree, filter to see the most recent auctions prices. I've come across plenty of examples where the highest prices were very different to current prices.

    I think it's best to use Popsike, Discogs, Ebay (sold auctions) and Collectorsfrenzy as guides. Study the detail to make sure you are comparing like for like.
     
  9. Mister President

    Mister President Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Just picked up a vinyl mint condition original press of this for £5. Saw on discogs it goes for a LOT more...2PLS with gatefold.

    [​IMG]
     
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  10. irwin69

    irwin69 Forum Resident

    Location:
    France
    The sun was out and so I popped into local charity shop on the way to work this morning and came out with:

    Status Quo - Piledriver - Vertigo Swirl (looks like at least EX) with inner sleeve £7
    Rolling Stones - Out of Our Heads Mono Groove (looks like EX+) £18
    Three Tenors - Scarce 1994 2LP set £3
    Pink Floyd - The Wall Japan - Black Face CD £3.99
    Queen - Greatest Hits - Japan Red Face CD £1.99
    Roxy Music - Avalon - Orig W.Germany 'EG CD £1.99

    Looking forward to comparing Avalon against the SHM SACD.
     
  11. smartiepants

    smartiepants Senior Member

    loads of charity shops here in Bedfordshire but usually bugger all in them apart from the usual tat

    I made a stupid bet with someone a while to collect a copy of all the Top of the Pops volumes from charity shops, i think there are over 80 to get, even these can be hard to find but its just a bit of fun as they will never get played and will more than likely go back to the various charity shops when I have completed the task
     
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  12. Leepal

    Leepal Forum Resident

    Location:
    Swindon, UK
    I once bought one of those TOTP albums just to hear their version of "Pretty Vacant".
     
  13. parkgrover

    parkgrover Forum Resident

    There was a good charity place called Emmaus near where my mum lived in Bedfordshire UK, had a few good finds there last couple of years:
    David Live 2 x Lp set - £3
    Pet Sounds 1966 original Lp - £2 - nearly had a heart attack coming across this!
    John Lennon - Shaved Fish LP - £3
    Scott Walker LP comp £2
    Crosby Stills and Nash original LP - £3

    Never found much in Charity shops in London in terms of LPs though, but some good CDs such as Bee Gees Odessa for £1
     
  14. Dave S

    Dave S Forum Resident

    I guess Avalon is the regular WG silver stock disc and not the red face version. Good score nevertheless. I never see the early Roxy discs in charity shops.
     
  15. JQW

    JQW Forum Resident

    There were 91 volumes issued in the original run between 1968 and 1982. The series was relaunched in 1985 with Volume 92, but that was it. In addition there were over a dozen compilations covering the 'best' music of an individual year.
     
  16. Dave S

    Dave S Forum Resident

    Yes, I collect early CDs. But some indie CDs also do not have barcodes. That's the annoying thing about Bowie RCAs. They have unique barcodes.:cussing:
     
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  17. irwin69

    irwin69 Forum Resident

    Location:
    France
    Yes. The regular full silver version with blue rim in a Polydor jewel case.

    First time I have come across an early Roxy disc. Even those I bought in the mid-1980s were later UK pressings.
     
  18. Brummie

    Brummie Forum Resident

    Location:
    England


    I might take this challenge up but throw in Ktel to make it harder.
     
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  19. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    I was a victim of those reggae & ska auctions being wrecked. :realmad::realmad::realmad:
     
  20. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    I had a similar challenge going with a friend. All Status Quo's albums from charity shops and car boot sales without paying more than £1 for each one. We both found loads. We both cheated on the rarer ones!
     
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  21. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    What's the story behind that story? I never heard about until it was mentioned here. Sorry to hear you got caught up in it. I hope you didn't lose any money at the very least.
     
  22. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
    It's kind of complicated and it has often been distorted in the telling, but the vast majority of the auction wrecking was carried out by a guy from Mexico, we had his name, address, photos the whole lot, but eBay did nothing, it was only when somebody set up a network of sellers to share and block his latest identities that we started to win the war. Some auctions he just wrecked others he would wreck to ensure that another of his IDs was the winning under bidder at a very low price, the whole story from the very start is documented on the Pama Forum, but that forum went private in response to the auction wrecker, I'm not sure any other site has as accurate a telling.
     
  23. serendipitydawg

    serendipitydawg Dag nabbit!

    Location:
    Berkshire UK
    More adventures in record collecting - The UK charity shop.
    Note the thread title. Am I being pedantic in requesting members who are not in the U.K. to desist from posting their bargains?

    By all means post comments & ask questions, but there are multiple threads for thrift & op-shop bargains already.

    All IMHO of course:)
     
    irwin69 likes this.
  24. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    I didn't lose anything but every time me or a friend listed a rare original 60s ska or reggae 45 it would go for a serious amount of money, a lot more than expected. Then the winner was always somebody from abroad (Mexico, if I remember correctly) with a zero feedback rating and they never paid for. This was about 7 or 8 years ago. I'd completely forgotten about it until it was mentioned here.
     
  25. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    What a d**khead that person was.
     

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