Trying to support "Brick and Morter" But......

Was that Bill's Records and Tapes in Dallas? That's exactly how he worked.

 

Bill has no full-time help and has bought far more records than he can sell. He practically lives in that store, but still probably doesn’t entirely know what he has. Between the store and some storage nearby, I’ve gathered he has well over 100,000. He hasn’t likely even seen the condition of most of it. His ebay feedback stands at 22,677 but no current listings for quite some time.

 

I try to, but it's tough to tell sometimes. One place I used to frequent turned out to be sheetrock over metal studs. So you never know.

 

At least they are legit and you have a repair shop close by. That's a good thing and very rare.

 

Yes, just had them replace the bulbs in my MR85 tuner with an LED lighting kit earlier this week. Went in there for the first time the week before to look at their vintage gear, thinking vintage gear for sale was what they were all about. Turns out that repair and restoration work is what they’re in business for.
Agree 100%, extremely fortunate to have their shoppe near me for repair work. Wonder how much vintage work will continue to come their way, our great hobby is such a niche market any more!

 

Reminds me of a friend's father. He was a bookie back in the forties. Ran a spot in a tailor shop. Him: "We even sold a few suits!!"

 

Spread the word, if you like their work. Most good shops don't need to advertise. Their customers do it all for them.

 

I think that you are spot on with your descriptive post.

I see this all of he time. What we have here are mostly Sanford and Son junk shops.

People who own these kind of shops pay practically nothing for their inventory and price it like it is some pristine, hard to come by product.

I find that most of these kinds of shops, no matter what their product focus happens to be, are just selling crap that is mostly outdated and virtually worthless.

Better off in a real thrift store.

 

Supporting the small guys is all well and good, but at the end of the day they still need to run a sensible business. If they can't manage to do that...well, there are better causes to donate money to.

 

We have one other tech in town that has been doing repair work for an audio and home theatre retailer since the early 70’s. He must be well into his seventies now. He has done good repair work for me years ago. Had to stop going there because he really scratched up two different pieces of gear my brother had him repair. His work was usually good, but he has to stack and move gear around that’s in for repair due to shrinking space over the years for his repair department. He is always behind schedule being their only service tech and a lot older now, and it can take weeks for him to even start working on your equipment.

 

This!!

The Record Setter, Rt. 18, New Jersery owned by a guy named "Ira". He was one of those "price it at the counter guys" at least back in the 90's. No clue if he's still there. I went a couple of times and then kicked him to the curb. That kind of thing just reaks of opportunism and con-artistry; sizing up your clients to see how much you can bilk them for. No thanks. I simply will not buy from anyone who does this, period. Their bricks and mortar store can burn to the ground for all I care. I don't even do auctions on fleecebay anymore. If it's not priced fairly as a BIN, I'm not interested. Don't need anything that bad.

 

I was in a Record store last June that had loads of beautiful old gear. I was caught completely off guard and dumbfounded. Luckily I was there for a reason and a few hours later inquired about some pieces.

I was asked what I was interested in,. I was told they didn't own the gear yet and didn't have prices.

Great store. Great owner. Just struck me as odd. I had cash, He had gear...in a store.

 

What I thought was doubly stupid was that he (or somebody else there) had taken the time to put price stickers on the LPs, but then he wanted me to hang around while he determined whether or not I would be permitted to pay the price marked based on whether he could potentially get a better price on eBay. We wouldn't buy a car or clothes based on that system ("Yes, I know our Levi's 501s are marked at $29.99 on the rack, but before I ring this sale up, I need to check if another retailer is running this identical pair at a higher price so I can charge you accordingly"). The last I saw, this joker was still in business, too. Maybe he was fronting for an unlicensed betting operation himself!

 

My grandfather ran a combination hardware and repair store for years, and when he got up in years, he got to be such a cranky cuss with even his regular customers that my dad and his brothers and sisters pressured him to retire. He would screw up orders and repairs, and then argue with the customers when they complained. We should have seen the beginnings of the senile dementia that developed full-blown later.

It's hard for quality people to make a living repairing stuff in this absurdly disposable culture we live in. The good ones are worth their weight in gold.

 

That’s the conclusion that I always come to. There is an audio place downtown, where rent is VERY high, that is never open (except maybe by appt.), and is cluttered with so much stuff you can barely walk around. And when he does talk to customers he drives them away. It’s been this way for at least 25 years now! I don’t get it. It has to be a front for cock fights or something.

Or maybe he is like Citizen Kane where he can afford to lose a million dollars every year and might be forced to close his business... in 40 years.

 

Sounds like an invitation to haggle.

 

Duck Adhesiver Remover. Citrus based, safe for plastic.

 

I never saw this! I'm gonna get me some! thanks...

 

There is an audio repair guy locally who sadly is moving to South Carolina in about a year. He's older, recently took in my Mac power amp for a tune up and about broke my back getting it into his basement where he works. Most of his work comes from Hi-Fi Buys in downtown Atlanta. He knows his stuff for sure! Gear is all he does, doesn't sell vinyl or seedees, does sell self designed toob pre and toob power amps tho.

 

Works great for taking off sticker residue, etc.

DISCLAIMER: I haven't used it on shrink wrap, but I've used it directly on digipaks and shiny book jackets, etc.

 

yes, thanks I'm pretty excited about this i usually use 91% Alcohol

 

I use that on the discs and jewel cases without adhesive residue. The Duck stuff works a lot faster and better on the gunk.

 

yes, 91% leaves a nasty residue behind on the jewel case which takes extra effort to get off...what 91% works best on is the goo that Scanvo DVD clear cases leave on DVDs! it works like a charm removing the goo and the cloudiness...

 

I don't know about that - a 90 year old dude who really doesn't want to sell anything? That sounds more like a time suck to me. If he hasn't shown any willingness to budge before, what's going to prompt a 90 year old to suddenly begin to haggle? Maybe his potential customers should stake out the place and wait for a cardiac event so they can get in good with the man's heirs, who likely will want to do whatever they can to offload a bunch of dusty old equipment their pops fussed over for years. "Hey, I'll load up everything in this entire store on my own, and give you $300 for taking it off your hands!"

 

Regular liquid lighter fluid works excellently and is very inexpensive.