Shill Buying Vs. Digging In Disguise
Rockadelic
Out Digging 13,993 Posts
It's happened to me and I know it's happened to alot of you.....You're at Record Show or Store and the guy selling you records is afraid you may know more than he does and therefore will not sell you a record(s) or they just make up ridiculously high prices which they pull straight out of their asses..Their logic is that if YOU are buying it, it must be worth alot of money.I've confronted this in many ways.1) The Shill Buyer - usually a friend or family member that the seller has never seen before. I dig through everything and put them in a specific "hiding place" and then send my shill buyer in to pay for them.2) The Fake Out - When dealing with these guys I always throw in 3-4 common, but obscure records just to see if the guy knows what he's doing or is just overinflating the price because I've picked them out. If he prices the $5 commons at $50.00 I'll get a price guide or ebay and try to show them how far off they are...then they tend to go easier on the true raers.3) The Hiding - If you know that on certain days you might be able to deal with a more reasonable owner/employee then hide the LP's until that guy is on duty.The only thing I haven't done is dig in disguise....hard to hide my post modern pseudo hippie 3 feet of hair.How have y'all dealt with this.
Comments
5) The lady snatcher - Bring your lady friend with her, and ask her to shove records up her skirt like when Divine steals a turkey in "Pink Flamingos".
6) The double duty - stuff two LPs in one sleeve.
etc....
(DISCLAIMER: this poster does not advocate stealing or acting out john waters films)
Cueing up "Surfin Bird" right now.
7) The Female Persuasion - In which I give the record to my lady to buy in my stead, and after I am rung up, when both of us are in the store at the same time. This is to be distinguished from the Shill Buyer, because it directly uses the "aw, shucks - I'm just a girl" device on her part and my dual presence in the store with her suggests that I've already done all the damage I can do.
8) The Other Man - Sometimes, the best method is to wait for the early-morning Saturday or late-evening Sunday clerk to take the counter (when the owner is sleeping, gone home early, or on a weekly buying junket). If you are a nice, intelligent individual and make friends with the secondary clerk, it can pay off. I've gone through newly arrived, unchecked boxes of 45s and bought in bulk because the clerk just didn't want to pull out the guide.
"GIVE ME A BETTER PRICE, PUNK!!!"
I can testify to the shake-down. Made me wish I worked out more
do you fall into the 5 ft pile ?
Ha! The worst is dudes who will let other guys look at the unpriced stuff, just not you.
Also, gotta love records magically disappearing from your "hold until priced" pile...
...and make "record angels" while laughing uncontrollably.
"i didn't mean for that one to be in the sale boxes" as he pulls the only holy grail you've found
after digging in moldy crates for hours
any dc headz have the joe stuart experience, his yard sales were/are legendary
(old redneck looking dude in westover/arlington va)
(dude was a beatnick poet, mentioned by dylan on an early lp liners)
(sharpest elbows in dc)
Man,this is some classic bullshit right here.
"all records are 2 bucks a peice,grab a handful and save some money...oh that one?...um that one is $60."
Basically you're his slave labor....whatta concept.
joe would make me swear that my record purchases were for my own use,
that i wasn't going to resell them
from 85-95 that was ok, but when i started slinging from my collectro, dude freaked
so many dc dudes have stories, fist fights at estate sales, ripped shirts & shoving at booksales,
the put back item move that caused many a yardsale customer to freakout screaming
dude was a terror
after a while, most avoided him, so i could still pull heat
& never hate on the guy
he'd put back some $10 jazz vocal "keeper" while selling abner jays or sensous witch private press
for $2
that's cool
+
he was a beatnick who recorded big joe turner's last stuff,
was busted for his underground newspaper mindf*ck
and gets mentioned by the bob on one of his early lps
any other strutters ever deal with this nut ?