Seattle's Best Record Shop for Collectors?

So did Rockaway and a few others. Everybody wanted to pull the good and leave the Mathis. Kinda a smart move to "you have take it all". Maybe that guy in Brazil that is famous for buying bulk was not around back then, or maybe he bought it all. I wonder if Brazilly is still out there buying bulk. Some Koreans 15 years ago were bulk buying from U.S. stores, mostly every classical record album. The guys in the mid 90's selling hundreds of commons like Petty, Heart, etc. really tell tales of the 77 copies of VG+ Rumours and 100 Journey albums etc. they gave away for 50 cents each. Bread and butter now for stores.

 

If you're a collector most stores have something in them - buried somewhere. Its called crate digging! I went to Bop Street regularly and usually found some oddity or goodie priced fairly sometimes at a steal. Sometmes you paid a premium but thw record was premium quality at that. Yes the owner overpriced a lot of meat and potatoes common stuff, but casual buyers still bought them.

 

Usually hip hop samples or they never checked for autographs on the back. Seattle probably doesn't have much choice on price. Good record show. Music city like Austin.

 

I was in my favorite local shop here browsing through the crate of new arrivals by the cash register and a guy was paying for a BIG stack of records. I overheard him say that he owned a record shop in the Seattle area (Bainbridge Island I believe) and that he couldn't believe the prices of the records he was buying. He was so excited to see more than fair prices. It made me feel good knowing a shop owner from Seattle knew the prices here were more than reasonable.

 

When another store owner buys a big stack of records from another store, they never did a eBay completed or Discogs look up.

 

Or the store doesn't have Seattle prices on their records. If they can buy for $10-$15 each and sell for $25, sometimes its about having nice records and new store stock.

 

Nah Seattle prices are just dumb, I could easily see this making sense financially.

 

huh. I just don't see this in seattle. I think the prices for used vinyl are pretty fair. i'm talking about stores like jive time, sonic boom, silver platters, everyday music, spin cycle, wall of sound, and even easy street.

 

Go outside Seattle. I ran Seattle's stores and was amazed how high compared to other cities. PDQ in Tucson was okay if you did the entire store.

 

i stopped by jive time earlier this year and was amazed at the high prices of used vinyl. hardly any of what i looked at was any better than VG+. in fairness, most of the shops in portland are the same way now. it's just that the word on vinyl's reborn popularity has reached just about everyone.

 

Its a big city thing. The shops think people make more $ so the shops jack the prices up knowing that their customers are unlikely to travel 2 or 3 hours and buy records much cheaper. The prices here are half that of Seattle or Portland.

 

yeah, i'm sure that's a big part of it. but shops in olympia & salem have become the same way. perhaps that's just due to more of a monopoly they have on the small market.

anyway, i guess i need to visit eastern WA soon!

 

Some of the shops in Spokane have decent prices still and in the Tri Cities, Hunt & Gather has good prices too. That's the shop I was in when the shop owner from Bainbridge Island came in bought a big stack wince he couldn't believe the prices. Its my favorite place and owner is very knowledgeable.

 

Go into Wax Trax or Twist And Shout Denver after a Seattle look. You'll bring back tons. Portland was a bit lower than Seattle but high. I think Moerer's employees run whatever is cheaper daily out the door from most stores.

 

This wouldn't surprise me. I see the employee ads on CL all the time. Top dollar paid and they'll drive anywhere for 1 record or an entire collection blah blah blah.

 

Craig's List is the number one spot where eBay/Discogs/Amazon dealers of records get their stock. They find the people who have no idea what records are worth. Gold buyers are worse. If a garage sale on CL says records count on the usual suspects lined up fighting over the 2 boxes of records. Most stores are hit hourly by dealers hitting the new arrivals. It never ends.

 

Idk I frequent the same stores you mentioned and any anytime I travel on business I find the same stock in Dallas, Chicago, Jersey, wherever at 1/2-2/3rds the price

 

We visited Seattle two years ago. While my wife was at a wedding I walked down to Spin Cycle from our B&B on Capitol Hill. I browsed for about an hour and found nice clean copies of a couple '70s albums and their prices seemed in line with prices here in San Diego.

 

I agree. 2/3 cheaper in Denver.

 

Speaking about ridiculously overpriced records...

 

This is kind of off topic- but anyone remember that Record Store in Lake City by Dick’s Drive in? The owner was Leone I think. He was also at a lot of the Seattle Center Record shows....

 

went to both last time I was in Denver. prices were the same as seattle as far as I could tell, and I didn't find anything that great SAVE for Cargoe S/T sans cover and a Lee Hazlewood album from the 70s (cut out).

 

Denver, same as Seattle prices. Please. Moerer's 80's print catalogs had Trini Lopez albums at $12. He was ridiculous. His eBay and Discogs are book prices. Record Surplus L.A. has ridiculous prices cept the Johnny Rivers and real common stuff.

 

I live in Seattle and I've shopped for records in Denver, San Francisco and Detroit among other places and I've not found Seattle to be any more expensive than those places. It's much more store dependent than anything.

 

I have no idea who you are talking about. I’ve been around and I’m just giving my personal observations.