I leave home at 5am, but there are plenty of sales that start at a more civilised hour, for example yesterday I started at the first one at 6am when it opened, got to the next at 10.30 ready for it to open at 11 and got to the third at 12.40 for it's 1pm opening, as I said I'm a Somerset and Wiltshire booter so don't know Gloucestershire sales, but I reckon there must be some that start later in the morning. Another tip is to find someone else to go with, not only do you split petrol and entry costs, but also have some company and a helping hand when you hit the jackpot and have to carry it all back to the car.
I go to one sale, which kicks off at 7AM. I usually get there about 9AM, and find plenty of goodies. Getting up at sparrowfart isn’t essential.
Down here if you aren't there at the start you aren't getting anything, records, CDs, jewelry, antiques, tools, TVs, Hi Fi, ephemera, cameras, instruments, toys, there are several people, mostly dealers, chasing every category, sure there's still plenty of stuff left at 9am, just nothing great, that usually goes as soon as it's on the table, or often before it even leaves the boot, boot sales are a study of evolution in a microcosm, survival of the fittest and every part of the food chain being filled.
I don’t doubt I’m missing out on things I might like, but I’m finding enough to make the journey worthwhile anyway. Helps that it’s only 10 minutes drive. If I did a 5AM start, then there’s something that I’d definitely miss out on - an extra 2hrs in bed!
I sometimes find good stuff at thrift stores, but nothing too exciting. Recently, I did find a blue-face And Then There Were Three, mixed with with a bunch of junk. Also found: a 35DP of The Stranger, a target of Howard Jones' Dream Into Action, The March Violets' The Botanic Verses, targets of Court and Spark and Learning to Crawl, and a "yellow swirl" of a Donna Summer CD (I forgot which one). Now, exciting bargains in the used bins of record stores--stuff that was accidentally underpriced--that's another story.
Picked up The Very Best of Elton John (2CD) at lunchtime, as new (literally my first ever purchase of any of his music, on any format) No price on it, but they decided on £1.99 at the till.. Also My Fair Lady (OST). Already got this, but the disc had gone AWOL (I blame the missus) - 99p
Not scored anything at the charity shops in the past few months. All of our 9 shops do have CDs, but it's the usual worthless tat, or something I'm not at all interested in. A few also stock records, but again it's mostly junk. One shop also stocks electrical items, and I may pick up a cheap pair of speakers there later this week if they're still around. They had a professional USB audio interface in there a few months ago for about £10 which I thought about picking up - but having checked support sites it seems that there's no drivers available that will run on current operating systems.
Someone's donated several French/Italian/Spanish LPs to Barnardos, Lancaster. Hugues Aufray's "live" 1969 LP, Récital Musicorama à L'Olympia. Not in particularly good condition, but interesting to listen to. 50p A 1970 Italian compilation LP, Il Disco Dell' Anno. A few schmaltzy tracks, but there's an Italian-language song by Sandie Shaw (Papà Dupont), The Four Kents' version of Lily The Pink (La Sbornia), and one each by The Rokes, Patty Pravo, Nada, Mal Dei Primitives, and Sylvie Vartan, none of which I'd ever heard before. Excellent condition, great compilation. 50p
the last weeks been better than I have had in a while. £8.20 has got me : INXS - Kick Electronic - s/t Five Finger Death Punch - American Capitalist The Human League - The Very Best Of (2 cd edition with extra remixes) Chilled Electronic 80s - 3cd compilation Ashes To Ashes - Soundtrack compilation Yazoo - Upstairs at Erics (original Mute edition, not remastered reissue) Lamb - Lamb Crocodiles - Sleep Forever Bedouin Soundclash - Street Gospels Most chuffed about Electronic, Yazoo, and Lamb, as they are hitting the spot. Biggest surprise = Crocodiles. Excellent J&MC styled guitars and lazy vocals, love it.
Picked up a nice Wilson Picket's Greatest Hits CD today, it's not my usual field but I was looking through the notes and tracks were recorded in Memphis and Muscle Schoals and guys like Steve Cropper and Duane Allman are listed in the players. The disc is on Atlantic from 1987 and was remastered by Stephen Innocenzi, sounds pretty good to me.
Which one DM? I've got a hundred or so CDs to get rid of cheap I might need to book myself a stall one day.
PM sent, though I think you need more than 100 CDs for a stall, time to clear out the loft and garage.
I few pages ago I posted a few images of scores I had in Cornwall. One of them was Sonny Stitt and His West Coast Friends Groovin' High, the original Japanese CD. Not really my bag, but I recognised it as a very early CD. Well, it has just sold on discogs for 65 Euro. I'm astonished and tempted to put my copy up for sale. Never mind the Miles Davis 35DP, the mint Led Zeppelin IV target, the Eagles Greatest Hits Vol. 2 target, the Ry Cooder Borderline PDO target, the OOP at the time Japan for US Herb Alpert Blow Your Own Horn, the early Psychedic Furs Japan for Europe Talk Talk Talk that I don't even see listed on discogs, and Abba Greatest Hits Vol. 1 that I didn't have pictured. I left a black face Getz/Gilberto because it was trashed. There was also a Freddie Hubbard Sweet Return target that was scratchy and a couple of Grover Washington Jr. targets. Just an average week really.
Obviously so they can carry on hiring prostitutes without the UK govt intervening? Am I being too cynical? Countries like Kenya and Uganda have endemic corruption so how can we have any confidence in donating to this lot?
There are some fairly strong opinions in both directions here, but I'd really rather we stuck to music hunting and didn't periodically disappear down charity ethics rabbit holes. There are other forums for that.
I always check charity shops for CDs as I'm passing, but these days maybe only one visit in ten will turn up anything worth getting. Last decent CD I found was Show Your Bones by Yeah Yeah Yeahs for the oddly specific price of 45p. Best chazzer shop find for me was a mint condition Monty Python Instant CD Collection 6-disc box set. Can't remember what I paid for it but it would only have been a couple of pounds.
I check all my local charity shops for vinyl but usually leave with cds. The last week got me screaming trees, mogwai, bonny Prince Billy, pj Harvey, monster magnet, 2x John martyn, 2x sub pop samplers, and another 20 or so of similar quality never paying more than £1 a disk. Also scored my first collectable that I'm tempted to sell, 3" rolling stones mixed emotions in lilac sleeve. Also picked up a Sony cd player for £8 from a shop that also had 3 twin cassette decks on the shelf. A good week.
My 8 month old had her first 2hr settle at the nursery she's due to start at, which meant I had time to kill. So my visit to the 3 charity shops at West Malling yielded for £9... Sibelius - Symphonies 2 & 5 Finnish Radio Orchestra & Jukka-Pekka Saraste (Apex) Rossini - Overtures Zagreb Festival Orchestra & Michael Halász (Naxos) Eva Cassidy- Songbird Bryan Adams- Reckless Keane - Hopes and Fears The Lemonheads - Come on Feel The Lemonheads Cannonball Adderley - Somethin' Else (RVG Edition) Travis - The Man Who
Do most of my hunting Glasgow Southside, went to about 8 charity shops in Falkirk yesterday, only interesting cd I saw was Megadeth best of. One shop wanted 25£ for Queen The Works LP, condition somewhere between poor and laughable.
UK - charity shops US - thrift stores NZ - op shops Shops run by charities selling second hand goods that people have donated to them. Prices are usually low, and it’s a real random selection.
