I did find the Frank Zappa/Zubin Mehta bootleg Contempo '70 once, but never the actual albums. They all appear to originate from the same person, and apart from the slightly faded spines on the Zappa releases, appear to be in perfect nick. I hope there are more CDs from this donor as they have been drip feeding these releases over the last week or so.
I'm wading through these now. Really enjoyed the Super Furry Animals CD. Anyone have any thoughts on these albums? • The Beatles – 1 • Blur – The Best Of (2-CD version with live disc) • Bruce Springsteen – The Ghost of Tom Joad • Dexter Gordon – Go! • Dexys Midnight Runners – Searching for the Young Soul Rebels • Echo & The Bunnymen – Songs to Learn & Sing • Elvis Costello – My Aim is True (Demon version with 22 tracks) • Elvis Costello – When I Was Cruel • Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint – The River in Reverse • Elvis Presley – Elvis: NBC TV Special • Joe Jackson – Look Sharp • John Coltrane – Coltrane / Lush Life (two albums on one CD) • Johnny Cash – American III: Solitary Man • Johnny Cash – American IV: The Man Comes Around • Kate Bush – 50 Words for Snow (still shrinkwrapped) • King Creosote – From Scotland with Love • Lloyd Cole – Lloyd Cole • Love – Forever Changes • Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus (two CDs) • Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Nocturama • Ravi Shankar – Portrait of Genius / Sound of the Sitar (two CDs in a slipcase) • Super Furry Animals – Phantom Power • The Who – Who's Next • The Who – Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy
The Who's Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy appears to be the Canadian issue. I guess the Costello on Denon is good (no expert, but I heard good things about those earlier CDs on here). Most people prefer the Rhino reissue to the earlier Love Forever Changes CD. And the earlier McMaster issue is preferred over the RVG Go (although the music is a winner).
Today I looked in a charity shop in the town centre, two AC/DC LPs, both bog standard UK issues, both completely trashed (cover and discs). Judas Priest, British Steel LP, also totally scratched up. Asking price? £5 each. What a joke.
^^^^ Yeah happens a lot unfortunately..and is same with CDs our BHF is terrible..probably worst outta all of em.. St Giles and Scope seem to offer Mint or Nr Mint CDs 90% of tha time.. Oxfam here tend to have little selection and well ..great expectations.. Price wise that is
A few months ago, I came across a copy of The Beatles No.1. EP. Cover had circular marking from label edging and the spine was split open. Record was quite dirty too with light scratches. Price Label showed £124 on eBay, with a line through it and £55 was the asking price. Needless to say 8 weeks later it was still there.
Is this the thread for boasting I picked up grey label US pressings of "Songs for Swingin Lovers", "Swingin Affair" and "Come Fly With Me" plus 9oclock "Come Dance With Me" all in EX condition for £2.50 each in my local charity shop last weekend?
Miles Smiles and Milestones LPs on Friday in a local charity shop, plus a few more jazz titles. 50p each.
I go in my local Barnardos most days and it's been mostly awful for months, but today I got Saint Julian by Julian Cope on vinyl for £1.99. Good copy too.
Very true. These finds are becoming increasingly rare. I've been lucky on a few occasions and still can't quite believe some of the finds I've come across...
I hardly ever bother looking now. When I first started looking, there were zero record shops in Cambridge. Now there are three shops selling second hand vinyl, plus three market stalls. Are they looking in chairty shops too? Well, I heard a guy working in one shop say to a colleague: 'Yeah we go round the charity shops five times a week' Other dealers place ads asking for collections, which diverts stock from ever getting to the charity shops. At the same time, the charity shops are pricing the records higher, to stop anyone making a profit at their expense. Fair enough, but their grading is often not exactly accurate. Also, when I first started looking, the shop workers thought I was buying worthless old rubbish, and so were nice to me. Now they see me as part of a larger group, who they think are trying to rip them off. The attitude has completely changed, and I don't like to be thought of as a 'flipper'. I plan to wait til the vinyl bubble bursts, and then resume...
The only place to buy new vinyl in my town is Sainsbury's and I have to travel to nearby towns for actual vinyl shops.
Totally true, I'm not getting much in charity shops recently, but persistence has led to me getting the occasional good record. In the last three months I've bought: Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure (original UK Island - EX) King Crimson - Red (UK Polydor, not great sleeve, perfect record) Brenda Lee - Emotions & As Usual (UK original Brunswick pressings - both EX) The Bobby Darin Story (Original UK London Atlantic - EX) Diana Ross - Diana (perfect condition) Dusty Springfield - Ev'rythings Coming Up Dusty (UK Philips with booklet sleeve - sleeve EX, record VG. I already had a better record.) Wings - C'moon / Hi Hi Hi 45 in Wings company sleeve - EX Free - Free Live - VG+ envelope sleeve, terrible vinyl! I just bought this as I bet I find a good record in a tatty sleeve sometime. Madonna - Immaculate Collection - Double vinyl - VG sleeve - EX vinyl. Not bad at all, but there was so much more vinyl around a few years back. Some of these have cost £3-£5 rather than the £1 of a few years back too, but that's OK. Looking at it, only the knackered Free Live album was £1. The Wings 45 was 50p.
Theg King Crimson would definitely be priced at £25 in a charity shop here, and the Roxy would be £15.
My local Barnardos has everything out at £1.99 and for that price I've picked up Hendrix AYE/Axis double pack, an original Dylan TTAAC, T Rex The SLider among others. They just don't seem to get that some stuff is more sought after than others. I have seen some ridiculously priced vinyl in other charity shops though.
This really annoys me too. I'm quite honest when buying vinyl and can't stand this. The people who knew me years ago know this and still let me know when new records are in. But, the suspicion that I'm going to make £100s as well as them thinking their tatty Abba and Queen albums are a goldmine make a lot of shops just depressing to go in.
Agree that the quality of charity shop vinyl has generally deteriorated in the last couple of years and the CD racks are where the bargains are, especially for early CDs. It's pretty amazing CDs which were £14.99 in the 1980s can be picked up for £1.99 today. In the 1980s that £14.99 would be around £36.00 today. In fact, I have found that in some cases dealers end up with better value vinyl. They tend not to raise their prices so albums which have increased elsewhere are still sitting in racks at the price from say 5 years ago. Record dealers also seem pretty unaware of target CDs or other early pressings.
True - one market stall here does a 'three for a tenner' vinyl deal. I have donated some of the albums I bought in that deal to Oxfam, when I decided I didn't really want them (I can always find two albums I want, but not three) Oxfam have then priced them up at £8 or £10 each, and most are still there, a few years later.
Another trick I heard from a market stall owner is that he contacts the charity shop area managers and tries to get them to allow him into their distribution warehouses, so that he gets first pick before the LPs/CDs ever get near the charity shops for the rest of us. His argument to them is that they will save hassle by selling to him in bulk, rather than sending the stock out to the shops and having it take up shelf space for months. This seems to work because the charities have too much stock anyway.
As a music lover who has been buying music in UK charity shops since the late '70's, I have to say how interesting it is to read of other people's experiences. In the intervening years I have also been a record dealer, market stall holder & charity shop volunteer. When I moved house recently I donated approximately 1,000 records to a specialist Oxfam Music shop. IMHO I think the "rot" set in far longer ago than just a few years. I have an Oxfam internal document called "Making The Most From Music" from 2003. It details all the basics of record collecting, and again IMHO, marks the beginning of when charity shops started to maximise the prices they charged for music (vinyl)
