Amazon AU price watch thread...

I was wondering how the lockdown had effected shops in Melbourne. I've definitely noticed many closures in Sydney, although Marrickville (my old stomping ground) now has some decent record shops that I need to check out. I know that Melbourne has quite a few Antique Emporiums where you might have some interesting finds, away from the general record hunting crowd.

 

It was a religious ritual for me to be at the Camberwell market at 7 am every Sunday during the 1980's - often with a raging hangover.

 

interesting, someone told me it has closed down

 

I have generally found record shops much better to buy from than antique markets. Many market sellers don't know much about records except that they are now popular, they have no idea how to grade a record, don't look after them - no plastic outer sleeves, everything has the same price $30 -$40, and their stock never moves.

Most record store owners know what they are doing, (not all I admit!) a Kamahl record is not worth $10, a scratched Sting record will not sell for $40.

A record store owner in my area takes stock to the op shop if it doesn't sell after three months, I wish market sellers would do the same.

 

Will also give a thumbs up to Vicious Sloth, they get in some really rare stuff, not cheap but very good quality - Mint means Mint, and really nice guys to boot!

 

That's all true I'm sure. A record dealer should know their stuff. Although you would be surprised how many don't, especially when it comes to matrices, they probably dont have the time. I remember pointing out to one record store holder that a certain Aussie copy of Abbey Road had the identical -2/-1 as a highly rated UK first press. He had no clue. Maybe we are all nerdier here than many professional dealers. I can imagine how Antique dealers mostly don't have a clue BUT that can also work to your advantage if you do! I think the days of picking up rarities in Op shops are long gone. I know that Vinnie's for instance will actually get experts in to appraise vinyl which then never reaches the shop floor.... leaving behind just the usual fayre of Mantovani, Andy Williams, and an ocean of banal classical box sets!

 

Not Amazon (We're not seeing too many deals there at the moment) but Sound of Vinyl AU has a code TAKE20 for an extra 20% off their SALE items only. Shipping is around $15 so that might suck up the discount in a single album!!! But if you were to get a few it's still the same flat rate so is better value. The cheapest in the sale are $38 but after claiming the extra 20% discount that's around $30 each. So three albums including shipping would cost about $105. There's a few Blue Note Classic at that price point.

Sale – The Sound of Vinyl AU

 

It would be hard being a record store owner and keeping abreast of all the nuisances of record collecting - although I would have thought that a record store owner would be on top of Beatles stuff as it is so collectable.

I was a little surprised when I was in a record store the other day and a customer asked if he had any Delbert McClinton records and the owner said he had never heard of him!

It's really tough to find quality records in op shops these days, still plenty of good CDs available through! I just wish op shops would occasionally bin old stock that will never sell, there is an op shop near me that still has the same records I looked at three years ago!

 

Heres a few more Blue Note Classic at that price point. So that's about $30 each after the extra 20% discount.

Sale – The Sound of Vinyl AU

 

"....unless I literally want to live in a record shop atmosphere!" - I'm drooling!

 

I'm quite sure it's a diagnoseable disease.

 

GHD

 

Beatles cartridges? If so lemme know!

 

You'll finally complete your collection Jae! How are you? I'm back in Oz as you might have noticed

 

I have many! See, most Australians who say "oUr ReCoRdS wAs RuBbIsH!1!" are making a sweeping statement based off a very small sample size from the 1970s, coincidentally not much unlike your list.

But what about the 1960s, where most Australian releases of overseas records - outside of CBS and Astor - were pressed from imported metal parts; ie siblings of the same parts the overseas pressings used? These sound quite comparable, and if some comments across this board are any indication, some are preferred to the equivalent overseas pressings.

Nice thick virgin vinyl back then too. Indeed, it was only CBS who went to thin vinyl in 1969 because they realised the thinner the vinyl the quicker they could press.

By the 1970s, though, local record companies preferred to import tapes and cut locally. That's when quality decreased. Muddy, veiled, bright, etc, no argument there. Indeed, there are numerous period articles from the industry and record companies themselves lamenting the lesser quality of local masterings, so no real revelation there.

But by 1978, with EMI's introduction of Maxicut and RCA's equivalent - along with engineers such as Don Bartley, Paul Bryant, Warren Barnett, Otto Ruiter etc - things changed again and our pressings improved to largely be on par, if not superior, to anything coming out of overseas. Not everything of course, but one must be careful not to provide sweeping statements on something so variable, which would be akin to someone saying "All US pressings are the best!".

Sleeve-wise though, yeah, ours sucked. Got even worse in the mid 70s when we went to even cheaper, matte printed cardboard.

On the plus side though is that all the comments about how bad our pressings were (which I hasten to add are usually made by Australians moreso than anyone elsewhere) means that those who know better can pick up some great sounding discs, pressed from overseas parts, for a fraction of the price of the equivalent overseas pressings.

 

Oh wow, I didn't notice! Welcome back

 

The frustrating record company is Phonogram. They used both ARC/CBS and EMI to press their records. This means the copy of Black Sabbath, for example, you pick up could be an EMI pressing while the copy the next guy picks up could be an ARC pressing. And they couldn't sound more different! Murky, warmer EMI vs brighter, clearer ARC. Unless you knew the difference you could say "The Aussie Black Sabbath album sounds so murky! It sounds awful!", while the next guy goes "I dunno, I thinks it's kinda bright?". Another reason why sweeping comments are fraught with danger.

Making it worse is that some albums sound better with the EMI cut while others sound better with the ARC cut, depending on the style of music

 

It'll be brand new, a repress of a previous mastering (looks to be this one), and a 2023 entry no-one has put in yet.
This happens all the time.

 

Cartridge that plays vinyl.

 

Cheers Jae. I was only away for 7 years haha...I still post on the vinyl thread from time to time.

 

I very rarely turn up now, only when people tag me

 

To quote the 'forum favourite' saying...it's a total crap shoot!

 

Well said Jae. I've got nothing to add to that. Thanks for chipping in!

 

It might have. Since COVID I've hardly been to the city.

 

Me too. In the 90's people came straight from night clubs to the market. You'd see teenies dressed up for Saturday night. In the early days you couldn't prebook a stall so there were different people there every week. Also when they redesigned the carpark they lost about a third of the stall space.

There's two old guys that get there about 6AM and they go through every record as the seller is putting them out. They buy really random stuff so I don't know if they're dealers or hoarders. There's also crazy guys who don't price anything but makeup silly prices based on the look of the buyer. I'm pretty sure at least 3 stalls have never sold a single record yet turn up most weeks.