Los Angeles area record stores

Amoeba has always been cheap buying. They think 2022 is 1995.

 

Oh yeah... just not one of the titles you want to pay collector's prices for. Most common of the original SD titles out there with several pressings to choose from. Several mixes out on silver disc as well.

 

I paid $2.99 for mine about 8 years ago at Soundsations on Tijera near LAX.

 

I bought mine when it came out at E.J. Korvettes in Port Chester N.Y. when it came out on vinyl, still sounds great.

 

Your location says Denver so how are you able to comment so much on LA stores?

 

I don't think they hoard the good items to sell online. I'm not sure about vinyl, but their online used CD selection is a complete joke, and not representative at all of what they have in the stores. They've had the same small number of used CDs sitting on their website for years. I don't know why they even bother, because the online selection of used CDs is small and horrible.

 

Because at one time you could rent cars from Hertz for $135 a week and drive through Colorado, down to Flagstaff, pay for the trip dumping a car of books/CD's/records on Bookman's.....then go to Phoenix and Tucson and hit all those Bookman's and stores then go to L.A. and catch some shows and hit stores and the Ralph's in Malibu....then stay in Vegas for two days avoiding those stores and eat buffets (not anymore)....beats looking at snow. I'm sure Amoeba puts their great stuff online. I miss Rockaway's parking lot sales....and the other places that had them.

 

This sums up the problem for anyone who is older than a certain age:

Finding and buying great stuff at cheap prices was possible for decades, if you like spending time in used record stores--and even in the early days of eBay. But now it's really hard to find gold. There still is some, but since online sales are the great equalizer and everyone thinks viyl is worth a mint, not a lot. Really, the hot deals now are gonna be in the dusty corners--weird versions of vinyl not well cataloged, weird formats not well cataloged, etc.

But it's not nearly as much fun as it once was.

 

Not the case in Seattle - Found a Led Zep II RL in a used bin for six bucks not long ago, VG. Several used stores there still appreciate their customers' thrill of the hunt. I never managed to go to any stores in LA thes week but thanks for your posts. Guess i didn't miss much.

 

Kwadguy is 100% correct....the "no fun" aspect is correct. Record shows are just battles for what the sellers battled each other for before the general public comes in left behind......common million selling albums (or times 5) should never be as priced today at shows and internet.

 

My opinion is that the record show sellers are bringing out what they have not been able to flip online. Anything super hot that is bound to attract a deep-pocketed buyer from Japan or Aust is being held back (not on display), or offered up at a higher price than the online listing.

But if the buyer has $500, maybe $700 in their pocket and they want to pick up a few nice items regardless of cost, then that record show may have something perfect for that buyer.

Back in the 80s to late 90s I would go to record shows with an $80 to $130 budget in mind. And I only went over that budget a couple of times when I found something that I am not going to find again at that price, and just had to have it.

 

I should add that all of those albums have fans (on this forum in fact) that swear that these albums are very underrated and in fact pretty near brilliant.

 

Wow Amoeba getting stingy with their trade-in credit. Always got a fair deal at the old location, first time taking stuff to the new location they low-balled me.

 

Wouldn’t that decision be made in the corporate office? When I’ve brought CD’s for trade at Newbury or Bull Moose they simply run the bar code.

 

I didn't stand there while he looked at the stuff, but from previous experience I'm pretty sure the buyers at Amoeba make the decision for how much to give, and only consult the computer when they aren't sure. They never used to scan everything.

 

The cash sell vs store credit ratio has gotten ridiculous. I've been trying to downsize as far as "stuff" goes and don't exactly wanna offload a bunch of stuff just to be able to get more of it, lol, so it's not even worth it anymore to sell stuff at Amoeba for a little cash.

 

Yeah what's up with their cash vs credit ratio? He said 35 cash or 47 credit. Huh? When I worked in a record store, to determine credit we halved the cash amount then added that to get credit amount. So 4 cash would be 6 credit. Or 8 cash would be 12 credit. It's like they're just pulling numbers out of thin air. I should have taken the stuff back. I know I could have gotten over 100 online for it. Never again will I bring stuff there.
On a positive note I did find a really rare 2CD set for $4.99 which goes for $30 on Discogs, not sure how that slipped through the cracks.

 

Well, they're kind of in a bind, because if you were to ask/complain about the lowballing they'd probably say something along the lines of "well, physical media isn't worth much anymore" but then they'd have to explain their continued existence and I'm sure the lease on the building is ungodly.

 

Btw, one of the last times I was in Amoeba, I saw Henry Rollins in the buy counter line with like 3 boxes of stuff.

 

They could always do another go fund me campaign, the last one got them nearly $300,000.

 

Yeah what they forgot to mention in that gofundme campaign info was that Amoeba owned their previous property in Hollywood and sold it for $34 million in 2015.

 

That's surprising, I thought he kept everything in his home archive. He even keeps the mix tapes he made decades ago. Maybe he's saving up for some new $200,000 speakers.

 

The Go Fund Me was hilarious when they sold their property for 34 million. They've always been lowballers. They size up the sellers then lowball to the people who have no idea of worth. eBay completed works.

 

Good to know. Now I don't feel so bad asking them to remove the $0.35 surcharge per transaction for staffing costs.

 

Yet they exist off other people's old junk that they pay pennies for and sell at as much as the new junk lol