I don't think I could contemplate a car booty just yet. I can't imagine how they're going to work. I can see myself going to some in the late summer though. I haven't been to many for years as I was working when they were on or just too tired now, but I'm not working at the moment.
Wide spacing, one way system etc., to be honest the streets near me are likely worse, young people don't seem to care any more, plus I'll be there at 6am and gone before it gets busy, I have plenty of gloves as well.
The last time I was in a UK charity shop, Oxfam Leeds in July, somebody seemed to dump a load of 1985 CDs. Bronski Beat, China Crisis, Kim Wilde, Kathrina And The Waves, The Cult and New Musak. They were all from the same guy because each one had a tiny blue sticker on the spine. I picked up the Kim Wilde cd because I knew it was rare.
Exactly how I am feeling. It's starting to really have an effect, the longer it goes on. As for New Musik, I found a "Nice Price" 90s reissue of the 1st New Musik CD early last year and was pretty happy about that. There's the Lemon reissue, of course, but you never know what those might be like. EG.
I don't know much about New Musik, but they seem to have that very of the time thing that makes early CDs rare. Like how the Men Without Hats CD is rare and valuable.
I do! But I'm not quite ready to be going out and about yet where there's a ton of people. To the woods yes, down to the river Severn for a walk yes, otherwise no. I haven't been to a supermarket since lockdown started. Mart you must be desperate if you're willing to share dibs at your favourite carbooty
I'm beyond desperate, been looking at car hire, but unless you can get to the airport it's ridiculous money, give me a lift and you can go off and explore the lovely Somerset countryside while I risk my life to get vinyl. I'll let you have all the Classical CDs.
Do you have any idea what might be wrong with the car? I could call some friends in Bristol to see if they have any car mechanic mates. Are car repair places still totally closed?
From A To B (the 1994 CD I found) has been reissued a few times! Wow. Currently on its 3rd incarnation at least. Same with Anywhere. EG.
Well it won't start as it's been sat for 3 or 4 months, battery has been charged to no avail, garages seem partially open, not sure, but ideally it just needs someone to come and look at it, it's a 90's Rover so probably worth less than the cost of a tow, it's in Totterdown if you know anyone with the right skills that way. I don't drive so have never messed with cars, but I have seen every episode of Fantomworks and do have a socket set, maybe there's a Youtube vid I can watch.
You're like me totally clueless when it comes to cars. I have a buddy that side of the river, I'll call him tomorrow but don't get your hopes too high.
The mention of Oxfam online upthread, combined with comments my mum (a currently idle Oxfam volunteer) had made about them being much busier, sent me to look at their CD collection. Wow, talk about scattergun pricing! It ranges from slightly-cheaper-than-eBay to absolute WTF. I'm guessing it's all done by individual stores with no central coordination. Postage is rather high at £3.50, but that's a constant regardless of how many things you buy. Most of the better (but still not great) prices were in Classical. I checked out with the following: Mozart - Le Nozzi De Figaro (Mackerras/SCO on Telarc - 3CD plus libretto) - £5.99 Mozart - Eine Kleine Nachtmusik / Posthorn Serenade (Mackerras/Prague on Telarc) - £2.99 Sibelius - Lemminkainen Suite / Nightride and Sunrise / Pohjola's Daughter (Jarvi/Gothenburg, DG) - £2.99 Haydn - Complete London Symphonies (Jochum/LPO, DG - 4CDs) - £10 I'd say Figaro and the Haydn are a few quid below the eBay going rate, and the other two are par - add the postage and it probably comes out in the wash. But I got what I wanted - the crate-digging feeling, and the limited selection made me look at things that it would never have occurred for me to type into an eBay search box (although I confess I've been chasing that Figaro for a while - I have the Mackerras/SCO Don Giovanni, and it's excellent). Nice example of the random pricing - they also had a highlights CD of the afforementioned Don Giovanni from the same Mackerras/SCO Telarc series, and wanted £7.99 for it, £2 more than the entirety of Figaro! They also had the same Haydn/Jochum set for £16. One definite bargain there - Sufjan Stevens' 5CD Songs for Christmas set for £5.99, £1 less than a copy of Leisure by Blur (50p at every car boot sale).
Oxfam’s prices have been much discussed on this thread and in other places. The ‘highlights’ disc being more expensive than the complete work is a common Oxfam trope. Just before lockdown, I did a sweep of Oxfam Alderney Edge and discovered they basically wanted to get rid of a load of classical stuff for 50p a disc (regardless whether it was a double-disc set or not). Had to stagger back to the car under the weight of my purchases! I do miss charity shops.
My only guess for that one is that someone looked on Amazon, and saw one of those gouge prices that seller algorithms apply when they detect they're the only person offering a particular item, and priced against that. Total madness. My local Oxfam charges £3 a CD as standard, which is £1 - £2 more than their immediate neighbours, and not really justified by the quality or selection. That said, I'm happy to pay that for something I really want, the cause is good, and I appreciate the value of the immediacy enough not to just grumble about being able to get it for 80p less from Music Magpie. But that's a whole different world to trying to shift car boot fodder like Blur's Leisure for £7 + £3.50 postage online, where it takes two clicks to find you can get it for about £2 delivered. Just a bit bewildering and sad, and I can't see them ever shifting them. I got the old EMI fatboy, booklet and slipcase version of the HvK/Schwarzkopf Rosenkavalier for 10p(!) from my local hospice shop. £20 on Oxfam online!
Amusing post-script on the Oxfam Online experience. I’d assumed that dispatch would be centralised, that Oxfam would use some low-cost courier channels or something to move the CDs to a central location, then send them out, hence the flat fee. Nope! They’re all being sent independently by different shops at different times, leading to a fun trickle of emails as each is dispatched. Nachtmusik from Oxfam Books in Carlisle, Figaro from a store in Sheffield, and the Sibelius from a store in Ulverston. That puts the flat £3.95 postage fee into perspective - I’d imagine they’ll lose money on that, in this transaction.
After many phone calls we managed to borrow a car and go booting, it was drizzle all morning which definitely kept the numbers down, but I still managed to find 33 LPs, some Johnny Cash CDs and a few books, also saw a pair of Quad ESL 63 electrostatic speakers, but they weren't cheap, or small. Third photo is an entire stall of CDs, a mixture of Pop and Metal, I didn't buy any, but bet some people would have had a field day with the Metal, it was great to get back to some digging and it turns out you can inspect vinyl very easily while wearing rubber gloves.
Glad it was a good day out Mart. How do they price CDs like that? Individually, or anything for a pound? What's the world of Indian miniatures all about? I collect antique miniature Indian bronze deities but I guess that's not what those books are.
Apart from one box of sealed CDs which were £2 each they were all 50p, if I knew Metal I'd imagine I'd have got them down to 3 for £1 at the very least for quantity, maybe 25p each if I was buying 200+ as it was very damp, I do regret not spending some time going all the way through the CDs, but a quick look suggested nothing for me, the Johnny Cash CDs cost me £3 in total from another seller. The books are on miniature paintings, I haven't read them yet, but the Danish art book is excellent, very pleased with that, I left several other Indian books behind at £1 each, I'll remember you are into bronzes in future, the problem with books is they are heavy and I don't like trips back to the car and also I'm low on space at home which makes me more selective. Apart from two Bjorks and Sinead which were proper money all records were £1 or just over/under, which was a nice change, one seller has thousands more to bring so fingers crossed on next week's weather.