What is the oddest way you have acquired a record?

Does it have to be an LP? I ask because I have a really cool story about how I got a CD once.

 

Hmmm. You're asking for a ruling....

The thread title says "...acquired a record". From dictionary.com, the relevant definition of the noun "record" is as follows....

something on which sound or images have been recorded for subsequent reproduction, as a grooved disk that is played on a phonograph or an optical disk for recording sound (audio disc) or images (videodisc)
​

The Original Poster thus finds in favor of the petitioner. Let's hear your story. (smile)

 

EXCELLENT!!!

 

The council tip/landfill/dump .

Just yesterday I was at my towns tip dropping off some colour bond off cuts and had a look
around at some salvaged stuff for sale . Amazingly I found an Aussie Johnny Cash original of
"Sings the Ballads of the True West" double album . Cover was terrible so I ditched it and added
the discs to my copy of the album but volume 2 . So now I have both volumes and a spare volume 2 .
Price was $3 , which was paid for from change in my ashtray .


A few years ago at the same tip I scored an original Aussie stereo
Marty Robbins - Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs in amazing condition for $2 .

 

Right. So, I really wanted the original CD pressing of Pink Floyd's The Final Cut. I can't find the catalog number right in front of me, but it's an early Japan for USA CD pressing, without pre-emphasis, and generally regarded as the best CD pressing of the album.

Anyway, I posted a want ad on the forum, because this CD is hard to find. An excellent member responded back to me, and it was something like $30 he wanted for the CD. Fair enough. It was late at night, so I didn't respond back to him yet. I went to sleep.

I awoke the next morning and it immediately popped into my head to drive to the Half Price books down the street and get the CD. Of course, I had no real notion that the CD was going to be there, yet I thought I would give it a try anyway. It was just this weird vague feeling to try a local place first.

So, I drove there, went into the shop, went to the Ps in the CD section, and the first disc in the row was Pink Floyd's The Final Cut. Out of all the masterings and pressing in the world (and there are tons of them), they had just the one I was looking for right there. To this day, I still can't believe that it worked out that way. I mean, the chances have to upwards to winning the lottery, or maybe even beyond that. I don't really know, but it kind of freaked me out in a way.

I purchased it for $5.98+tax. End of story.

 

Wow. You should have posted this story yesterday because it's spooky.

 

Back in '75 I was in college helping out someone with homework. He knew I loved the Beatles and one day brought in his older sister's 60's 45 collection in one of those Beatles licensed 45 totes to thank me for my help. I kind of forgot about a lot of groups like the Monkees, Paul Revere, Electric Prunes etc but they were all in her collection along with new discoveries like the Remains, Lyme And Cybelle and many others. I played those old 45's and was totally blown away how great they were. That freebie literally ignited my life long passion and collection of all things 60's.

 

I once had a friend who traded a counting one-eyed mule for some studio time with the end result being a 45. I wish I remember the name of the band.

 

Maybe 25 years ago, I went out to a local bar after work with coworkers. While there, I ran into someone I had worked with at a different job. He was so drunk he could hardly stand up. Anyway, after buying me a couple of beers, he asked me to come out to the parking lot with him. I had no idea what he was doing, but I knew him to be fairly harmless and so I agreed to go with him. He opened the trunk of his car and told me he'd been driving around with all these records in his trunk for months, trying to figure out how to get rid of them. He asked me if I wanted them, so I looked through. They were all classical titles, mostly from the '70s, and every one of them was in really rough shape. I agreed to take them, so I put them all in the trunk of my car. There were probably about 100 records total.

I ended up tossing about 75% of them in the trash after I took them home and sorted through them. They were just scratched all to hell and unlistenable. I kept the titles that were in the best shape, although I'm not sure I've ever played any of those since, as none of them were in good shape.

Oh, and I ran into the guy again maybe a decade later. I mentioned all the records he had given to me, and he looked at me with a completely blank stare. He had absolutely no memory of that. He thought he had just thrown the records in a dumpster somewhere.

 

A dumpster that had some decent condition Neil Young, Tom Rush and Buffy St Marie LPs.

 

Earlier this year I found about 100 laser disk Chinese karaoke disks on the side of the road. I picked them up thinking they were LPs. I kept the plastic sleeves and the crates. Put an advert for them on our local audio forum, within 5mins I had a Chinese guy excited to pick them up from me for free.

 

Like the Jackson 5 dude, mine was a cardboard cutout Archies record from the back of a cereal box.

 

Unbelievable! Man I love this place.

 

I once found the Fugees' "Greatest Hits" in a very suspicious-looking bag at the train station. Someone must have thrown that bag into the trash and when I put out my cigarette in the ashtray, I spotted the CD and couldn't resist picking it up. Absolutely mint condition. Still wonder how it got there

 

I buy a lot of CDs from UK bulk shifter Music Magpie, who sell on eBay. Their descriptions are wildly inconsistent and often wrong, but they always get the barcode right, so by cross-referencing them with Discogs you can find some real bargains.

However, for early CDs without barcodes, they can struggle. I was collecting original Rough Trade Smiths CD singles a while back, and they had a listing for What Difference Does It Make? at a decent price, so I ordered it. They sent the album On Fire by Galaxie 500 instead. Neither have barcodes, and both are on Rough Trade with similar spine codes - Rough CD 146 and RTT 146CD.

I had no idea who Galaxie 500 were and the album art didn’t look promising, so I talked to support and sent it back for a refund.

A few weeks later, they had another copy of What Difference Does It Make?, so I bought it. A few days later, what lands on my mat? On Fire by Galaxie 500, probably the same copy. Contacted support again, they said to keep it this time and they’d refund me anyway.

This time I give the album a listen, and it turns out I loved it. In fact, I might like Galaxie 500 more than The Smiths!

 

Oh, I forgot the story of another CD, actually two CDs:

In 11th grade, our music teacher took us to the local auctioneer - don't ask why it was always him who did such interesting things with our class, we even attended the court with him and had a look into a grain mill, truly a fantastic teacher - and we got the chance to partake in a set up auction with books, LPs, old postcards and such, nothing over 10 Euros, just for the fun to get to know the process of bidding at auctions.

Anyway, while the LPs weren't my taste exactly, the CDs certainly were. For 1.50 I walked out with a promo disc of a local blues rock band called Dos Bastardos (btw, if you want to give ZZ Top a true competition, look no further! ) and a 90s compilation with house and rock music, also from my hometown.

 

Shortly after Hendrix's Are You Experienced came out I found $5 on some railroad tracks, took it into our local record store, and because of a sale going on, was able to buy AYE and Cream's Fresh Cream with that found money! A great day!

 

Probably not that weird but a NM copy of ABC's "The Lexicon Of Love" that showed up in my hallway one long gone morning, leaning casually on the wall. When I came home hours later and it still sat there, I took it up with me.

 

I don't got any whacky stories like some of y'all here, but I gotten some free records in the mail a couple of times from eBay sellers who either used them as padding or just had spares and didn't think they'll sell. Probably the best one I got thus far was a "Let It Be / You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)" on Capitol with the picture sleeve. I remember unboxing my order of a Beatles 45 on Vee-Jay and coming across the "Let It Be" 45 confused as to why I got it. I already had the record and sleeve, but I was able to swap out the record I had with the free record because it sounded better to me.

 

I knew a kid in elementary school whose dad was a program director at a local Top 40 AM station, and he'd often give away singles that were duplicates or weren't getting added to the playlist. I got at least a dozen singles off him, one of my faves being "Yellow Pills" by short-lived power pop band 20/20.

 

A priests newspaper advert about 15 years ago.
He had just moved from Sth Australia to Queensland and i scored a crate of US LP pressings for $2 AUD each.
I remember getting a Chiffons LP on Laurie was a highlight!

 

Sounds potentially life changing, have you kept them?

 

Nope.

EDIT: judging by subsequent replies, this could make for a great thread of its own: "Where's the craziest place you've found porn?"

 

Woman I bought a house from had died and left behind a large collection of vinyl. Lots of excellent blues, r&b and some Gospel records. Her family told me she sang in the choir at her church right up until her death at age 99.

 

I found two albums (Black Sabbath, Deep Purple) at a self service car wash around 1988.......they were just sitting there next to the vacuums.