Princeton area: significant Beatles collection hits PREX

If it was in good condition, I'd say that was a good price.

I'm sure you will enjoy it

 

I have no rating expertise ,but condition looked quite good to me and it played with only minor clicks and pops - sounds beautiful.

 

Worse: the packs of young hipsters/kids who aren't on the ground, but clogging the main vinyl aisle as a united group, "hanging out" with the vinyl, 'cuz it's like... you know, cool! And they leave the shop without buying anything. I usually go look at jazz or classical until they clear out.

Honorable mention goes to the twenty-something couples who know little or nothing about music, but clog the vinyl aisle - 'cuz again, vinyl is, like, cool! - because they just had dinner and the record store stop is part of their "date". The girl is actually trying to look through a few bins, but is having a hard time because she's the trophy 'hot' girlfriend and the guy is busy pawing her, nonstop. He's too busy with the pawing and petting to actually shop, so he's dead weight in the aisle, outright. Get a f-king room so I can finish making my way through the single letter bins, bud.

 

Did they have many black/yellow parlophones. and if so what was the price range?

 

Their Facebook page says "hundreds from the UK". That might include a lot of Solo UK vinyl and Beatles re-issues. Even if there were 10 different pressings of each group LP, that would be about 200 different copies, including both mono and stereo issues. All I've seen from the videos is the UK LIB box, Blue BC-13 Box, the mono White Album and a few random LP's that appear to be UK pressings. Anyone who has personally seen this collection please report back on the UK selection, especially original pressings. Even though I can't purchase any, being out of state. I'd still be interested to know what they got in.

 

I believe it belonged to one of the appraisers at PREX.

William R. Paquin, 57, of Lambertville, NJ, passed away on Saturday, July 9, 2016, in the home he loved with his loving wife, Mindy, by his side.

Born in Washington, DC, Bill spent his early years in Massachusetts and Lawrence, NJ. He came to Lambertville in 1978. He graduated from Lawrence High School and earned his BA at Trenton State College (now the College of New Jersey). Bill was the head record appraiser of the Princeton Record Exchange in Princeton where he drew on his encyclopedic knowledge of music and recording. Bill was a man of many interests. He was a voracious collector of antiques and Americana. He and Mindy shared a love of travel and had a special interest in the arts and culture of the American South West. Bill’s love of music centered on the pop bands of the 1960s and 70s and he had a keen knowledge of the homegrown “garage bands” of the period. He was an animal lover and an always optimistic Chicago Cubs fan. Bill had a keen and unique eye for art. He intuitively recognized the special qualities of a painting or drawing and added it to his own collection or pointed it out to the collector who would most appreciate it. In recent years Bill took up studio painting, working in watercolors and pastels

 

That's very very sad to hear.

As I have mentioned several times already, I was a regular visitor to that store between about 1990 and 2000, when I had to leave the Philadelphia/NYC area for job reasons. I also mentoned in an earlier post that in the times I have been back there, I would always see familiar faces. I now highly suspect he was one of the familiar faces I saw, if he was there and was in his 30s during the 1990s.

 

Japan used UK tapes for their Y&T, so that would mean all true stereo but 5 mixes would be the UK variants.

 

I remember during my trips there in the 1990s, there was a period of time I was buying a lot of Gentle Giant. One of the staff people took a notice to it and pointed out to me the Under Construction CD package when it was brand new. I guess I was going there often enough that I became known to them in the way similar to what is shown in the movie High Fidelity.

Of course, at this point, I wonder if the person who died is the person who helped me then. I doubt it based on what I read in the obituary, but obviously can't tell for sure. I guess I'll find out eventually.

 

This is probably the best record collection that will be available to all of you for your whole lives and y'all are dicking around over little tiny labels? Extremely unimpressive.

 

The white labels that were on cheaper items in the 1990s were a bear to get off. If it had been on there more than a couple days, I could not figure out a way to get them off without some damage occurring.

The expensive items I bought then did have stickers that came off easily. I am sure that everything that is in this collection falls into the latter category.

I'm not going to be able to get there anytime soon. If you are in Frenchtown NJ you can be there in 1/2 hour.

 

MAybe....


Bill's collection was way more than Beatles. HE was a psych, garage, and 60s progressive/underground collector, one of the big three in the US for a period. RIP Bill.

 

The obituary does say he was into all the things you just mentioned.

 

It was crowded so I flipped through things fast. There was a mixture of US and UK album versions, and the UK's I think were generally newer (price ranges were lower so $25 and under generally). I noticed more US albums with Canadian variants, and the occasional OBI. Some titles were sealed.

The Mof's and I believe a few mono / stereo first pressing UK's were behind the counter.

 

For anyone not familiar with the area btw - parking is a pain in the neck as you're right across from the University. Street parking, if you can find it, is metered (except on Sundays) but there's a free p-lot off Washington Rd (just south of Nassau St) - there's construction there right now but the lot was open. One side of the lot is free to all, the other side is off-limits so just watch the signs.

If you're coming from the northeast direction it's Nassau St, left on Washington, first left and the lot is on your left side....park on the right side of the lot, not the left side. Store is about a 3 minute walk from there.

Bring cash and leave the credit cards in the car (or better still, leave them home). Two reasons...1) spend over $100 and you'll get a 6% discount if you pay cash and 2) you can't trust yourself with your credit card in that place.

 

The stores around here suck - quit whining, you two!!!

 

My favorite "kids today!" tale from PREX:

When I browsed the bargain CD aisle a while back, a 20-something guy found a Wallflowers CD and told his 20-something girlfriend that Bob Marley's son was the leader of the band!

 

Parking is free in the evening and weekends in the University lots.

There are numerous 5 And 10 hr street parking around the University Library and Woodrow Wilson School.

 

I always park in the garage right near PREX. It's not that expensive, and it's easy!

 

I believe there's a garage near the store, just north of it if memory serves.

I try to opt for free parking if I can though.

 

I'm heading there for the first time in a few hours. Where's this garage?

 

I just mentioned the garage while you typed!

The garage is maybe 100 feet from the store - it's about half a block.

I'm normally the king of free street parking but that garage is just too convenient and inexpensive for me to ignore...

 

Princeton!

According to their site, it's 20 South Tulane St.

For driving purposes, though, it's really on Spring Street. Go north on Witherspoon, take a right onto Spring and the garage is on the left - very easy to find!

 

There's a garage on Spring Street, which is about one block away from the store.

Also...since you'll be there for hours (and you will), there's bathrooms in the bookstore round the corner on Nassau Street FYI.

 

Ha ha - I beat you again!