Strange, if this is the same Rhino Records in upstate NY that my friend used to swear by, I heard good things...of course, stores seem to have changed alot in the past few years, owners realize they have been "giving away" records and it makes them crazy & irrational, now they are afraid to sell anything because they realize the Jimmy Clanton LPs that were so hot in 1973 are now worthless, and the "crappy black music" that they were blowing out for decades can fetch big money on that there intranet thingy...
I can cosign that Rhino in NP has definitely taken a turn for the worse. In its prime, Rhino was the shit. I'd have to say that %30-40 of my collection came out of 3 different Rhino stores in the Hudson Valley. I've had many a cheap come-up in those places (as kidinquisitive mentioned): Marley Marl Scratch OG, Kool and the Gang S/T, sealed Cymandes, all for a $1, Rotary Connection LPs and OG "Spoonin Rap" for 10 cents. Dudes behind the counter letting me go through the new arrivals before they put them out on the floor. Deep deep dollar bins that would keep you busy for a few hours, varied selection and generally low prices all around.
But the Poughkeepsie store closed, and the New Paltz store moved down farther in the village. Smaller store, no more dollar bins, same records in the New Arrival bins for weeks on end. Much thanks to Mr. Paycheck for dropping knowledge on his experience, which confirmed my suspicions that they're hoarding their stock to sell online. I got no problem with someone trying to get their Ebay hustle on, but why keep the record store open in you're not gonna put product out? One of their former employees told me a while back that he rents space up near Bard Colege where he stores his inventory and does his Ebay business, Rhino should do the same. Since they've not been regularly replenising the in-store stock, I don't stop in as much as I used to, maybe once a month where I used to stop in on a weekly basis.
The award goes to GOLD MILLION RECORDS in Bryn Mawr, PA
It's right there on the main drag on Lancaster Ave. It must have just opened. It looks like they bought out all of the remaining terds from the now defunct Plastic Fantastic added some track lighting and some swanky rugs and plopped $15 price tags on dollar bin throw-aways. I seriously have no idea how this place makes any money. It's targeted at rich main line clientelle, but still.
Anyways, it gets my Worst Record Store Evar award for their snooty staff. There were boxes of records and some out in the open in front of the counter. Must have been new arrivals not ready to be priced, but some had price tags on them... I started filing through when this holier than thou trustafarian dude looked down upon me and said "There's nothing that concerns you down there." I called him an asshole and bounced... It was a lot worse than words can describe. You need to see this store for yourself (or while it's still open).
What record store do you give the WORST RECORD STORE, EVAR! award to?
theres an apartment complex right by my house called Bryn Mawr. they have no records
Amazing how that many bad records managed to end up under one roof. And they all ended up in plastic sleeves. If you try to take one out of the plastic to view condition, tracklist, or to see if there is even a record in the jacket the owner calls a fowl. Then he'll tell you about how he's not used to walk-ins off the street because most of his "clients" are extremely wealthy folks with the million $ homes up in the mountains.
Runner Up: Any other place in Santa Fe you go to look for records.
Honor Mention: Anywhere in Albuquerque... I have heard some success stories around this city but when I was there it was utterly dreadfull.
I have never had any problem with the dude at Record Man in Redwood City. You have to know how to deal with people like that. He is, however, one of the more hirsute human beings I have ever met.
I can say that I have been to pretty much every retail record outlet in the continental US and the one that bothers the most is the one I grew up with:
Colleen's Collectables in Columbus, OH
MAAM, DO NOT HAVE A RETAIL RECORD STORE IF NOTHING IN THE BUILDING IS FOR SALE. Shutter the joint and put the "Closed For eBay" sign on the door. This act will prevent you from, as SonicReducer said earlier, wasting my time.
In essence, this thread is about the negative affect eBay has taken on the local music shop. No longer is the record store a place to congregate, discuss music, meet new friends, get stoned, etc. The Internet has turned every shop owner into a paranoid codge constantly asking, "What does this customer know that I do not and how can I prevent EVER getting shortchanged?" The almighty dollar has transformed a once sacred place where music lovers mutually found their solace into a location which now acts as a squared circle of marginalized econo-tussling. People are getting farther and farther away from what brings a person into a used record shop in the first place (THE FUCKING MUSIC), and venturing deeper and deeper into a swamp of Popsike aberrations, disregard for the actual art at hand, and eventual price-gun fear.
Owners: Do not eliminate the options of your flesh and blood customers for the sake of making a few extra bucks from a faceless e-mail address.
worst stores... cheapos- they pulled some bullshit on me with 45s. the dude there who found those stark reality 45s like four years ago wouldnt let me look back at hte stacks.i had to tell him everyone i wanted. fair enough. we found 3-4 hits and instead of pricing them for me, he listens to them (cause he didnt know them) and then wouldnt sell me any. plus, i was begging all of them to sell me the coffey stk empty sleeve they had in the stairwell and they werent having it. a shop in seattle had one in the window and just gave it to me.
this is a textbook example of knowing how to roll... i used to regularly clean up at Cheapo's all thru high school (my fav deal there ever was Augustus Pablo's "Rcokers Meet King Tubbys in a Firehouse" for 2.99, b/c to this day it's my fav dub record...)
since i moved away i hadn't been back for a while, but was home for christmas a year and a half ago and decided to stop by, b/c SoulOnIce told me they had a buncha Howard Tate 45's on the wall for 3-4 bucks each... i went thru the book and gave the owner a little list (they don't let ANYONE look thru the stacks there.) he sold me a few 45's and we shot the shit for a little and the owner mentioned he had like "100,000 or 200,000 45's in his storage space he had to get rid of" and if i "liked old soul music, there was good stuff there... nothing really rare, but solid pieces..."
about 2 months later, he did indeed give me and SoulOnIce 200,000 45's, totally for free... (albeit a lotta water damaged stuff, and a lotta junk, but alotta good stuff as well...)
my point is, if you go into these stores like a fucking mercenary, just trying to pull out rare shit to flip, these guys will see right thru you... (b/c british and japanese cats cleared them out 20 years ago... they're wise to the game at this point..) if you go in with a love of music, they may just cut you some slack...
My vote for worst record store EVAR is AMAZING RECORDS in GREEN BAY. Dude has an invisible line going thru half of the store of records that are off limits.
cosign. i don't know what it is about the fox valley (fond du lac to green bay) but the record shop owners are fucking lunatics. i know most records shop owner are eccentrics but some of these guys take it to another level. my favorite was this vietnam vet that used to audibly call us assholes (while trying to say it under his breathe) and he was extra notorious for pulling the no-price/that's-not-for-sale game. needless to say he went belly up and all of those records disappeared.
I'm just saying that the world of recorded music that exists on LP is a vast and very deep one. Many of the original sounds found on the LP record will never be available again in any format, so what is the adventurous young person to do when all of the interesting (read: marginal) art has been removed from the browsers to make way for a new boat (or whatever these dudes are doing with their "eBay margin")?
I am savvy to certain music because I had the relative option to investigate things that I had never seen or heard before. If a young listener wants to get into some shit like Terry Melcher, or Ron Elliott or Townes Van Zandt, they must wait for a REISSUE that has been filtered through someone else's idea of what's "good" or "worth listening to." They don't have the choices that were once available in the the world of music because plain commodity has eclipsed the entire reason for the existence of recorded sound--TO SPREAD A FEELING OR A MESSAGE TO THE EVERYMAN.
"that" [/b] is knowledge and you have a PHD dude.....
I have to say that while the stores have faded away....along with the social benefit of meeting like minded people and "hanging out"....I think more young kids are out there looking for obscure and unknown music, MANY more than say 15 years ago......and that is a beautiful thing......I even met one guy who was very deep into private press and obscure psych, yet he had never heard the 13th Floor Elevators!!!
I'm betting that the majority of the folks here on SS began "digging" within the last 10 years.......and these younger guys support 15 used record/book stores here in DFW very well.....unfortunately, most of the Record Store owners I've met are great music lovers and terrible businessmen.
One of the best used stores we ever had here in Dallas went out of business about a year after the owner put a "Not Buying" sign in the front door.....the biggest advantage of having a store, is that the records come to you, and this guy didn't realize that one of the keys to running a used vinyl store is consistantly new inventory.
I'm afraid that's where alot of the stores have gone.....into bad business decision heaven.
I can say that I have been to pretty much every retail record outlet in the continental US and the one that bothers the most is the one I grew up with:
Colleen's Collectables in Columbus, OH
MAAM, DO NOT HAVE A RETAIL RECORD STORE IF NOTHING IN THE BUILDING IS FOR SALE. Shutter the joint and put the "Closed For eBay" sign on the door. This act will prevent you from, as SonicReducer said earlier, wasting my time.
Used to be among the closest spots for me, too. I went in once, never returned.
Let's just say the word "free" is very open to interpretation. I'm sure there a number of people on here who have had the combination pleasure/agony of sorting through thousands of water damaged 45's, patiently peeling apart clumps of 130 of the same Perry Como title, looking for the pearl hidden within. My sinuses never recovered from the 2 months spent going through those boxes. "Free," yes, but what would it cost to hire somebody to do that kind of work for the hundred+ hours it took?
After removing the junk and ruined pieces, 100,000 becomes 10,000 pretty quickly.
I'm just saying that the world of recorded music that exists on LP is a vast and very deep one. Many of the original sounds found on the LP record will never be available again in any format, so what is the adventurous young person to do when all of the interesting (read: marginal) art has been removed from the browsers to make way for a new boat (or whatever these dudes are doing with their "eBay margin")?
I am savvy to certain music because I had the relative option to investigate things that I had never seen or heard before. If a young listener wants to get into some shit like Terry Melcher, or Ron Elliott or Townes Van Zandt, they must wait for a REISSUE that has been filtered through someone else's idea of what's "good" or "worth listening to." They don't have the choices that were once available in the the world of music because plain commodity has eclipsed the entire reason for the existence of recorded sound--TO SPREAD A FEELING OR A MESSAGE TO THE EVERYMAN.
The irony is that the Internet and other channels now (at least purportedly) support acquisition of hyper individualized culture, but there's fewer real world (TM) places to find and enjoy it. Disollution of public social roles and consequently public venues is a tale told across the board in the last half of the 20th century. (putman's "Bowling Alone")
Collectables go through stages like this. Records are now not just vehicles for delivery of music, but desirable objects. Selling records is no longer a mass market, where you buy for 20% of the $ cost of what you sell, and sell in bulk.
It does suck to have taste filtered down through the channels, but at least this music is getting out there. This is why I'm so cynical of people who started listening to music seriously in the last few years, don't have connections, but say they don't pick up reissues or listen to MP3s. What do you do, go to the record store and pretend that dollar bin don ellis "turkish bath" is "vibes from the tribe"? Fuck that, get the music, listen to it, get on with your life.
Another downside to all this is the number of truly new and truly great discoveries is just about nil.
Amazing how that many bad records managed to end up under one roof. And they all ended up in plastic sleeves. If you try to take one out of the plastic to view condition, tracklist, or to see if there is even a record in the jacket the owner calls a fowl. Then he'll tell you about how he's not used to walk-ins off the street because most of his "clients" are extremely wealthy folks with the million $ homes up in the mountains.
Runner Up: Any other place in Santa Fe you go to look for records.
Honor Mention: Anywhere in Albuquerque... I have heard some success stories around this city but when I was there it was utterly dreadfull.
Huge co-sign, as I live in the area. John's out of touch with the record game--$150 for some rare Bowie single I saw go unsold for a ten spot? I've pulled a few (Good Bad Ugly SDTK for $15, some funky Caribean stuff), but he's a price guide junkie.
I'm just saying that the world of recorded music that exists on LP is a vast and very deep one. Many of the original sounds found on the LP record will never be available again in any format, so what is the adventurous young person to do when all of the interesting (read: marginal) art has been removed from the browsers to make way for a new boat (or whatever these dudes are doing with their "eBay margin")?
I am savvy to certain music because I had the relative option to investigate things that I had never seen or heard before. If a young listener wants to get into some shit like Terry Melcher, or Ron Elliott or Townes Van Zandt, they must wait for a REISSUE that has been filtered through someone else's idea of what's "good" or "worth listening to." They don't have the choices that were once available in the the world of music because plain commodity has eclipsed the entire reason for the existence of recorded sound--TO SPREAD A FEELING OR A MESSAGE TO THE EVERYMAN.
The irony is that the Internet and other channels now (at least purportedly) support acquisition of hyper individualized culture, but there's fewer real world (TM) places to find and enjoy it. Disollution of public social roles and consequently public venues is a tale told across the board in the last half of the 20th century. (putman's "Bowling Alone")
Collectables go through stages like this. Records are now not just vehicles for delivery of music, but desirable objects. Selling records is no longer a mass market, where you buy for 20% of the $ cost of what you sell, and sell in bulk.
It does suck to have taste filtered down through the channels, but at least this music is getting out there. This is why I'm so cynical of people who started listening to music seriously in the last few years, don't have connections, but say they don't pick up reissues or listen to MP3s. What do you do, go to the record store and pretend that dollar bin don ellis "turkish bath" is "vibes from the tribe"? Fuck that, get the music, listen to it, get on with your life.
Another downside to all this is the number of truly new and truly great discoveries is just about nil.
Oh, I wouldn't say that. There are enough new discoveries to go around, and the broader your taste, the more discoveries there are that will excite you. I mean, sure, it's not like when all this shit hit 10-15 years ago and people were discovering records that now are considered old hat; but I can think of several records over just the past year that I have either found or been hipped to that are or were pretty much unknown.
As for the ebay hustler mentality, I absolutely agree that it ruins businesses. One of the successes of my business is that I tried to create an atmosphere where folks would like to come and chill - a warm, inviting room filled with great tunes and occasionally reeking of pot. That has worked. People come to hang out even when I don't have anything they need, and I ain't mad at 'em. I am supported by teenage punkers, old burnouts, small time hustlers, great collectros, and everyone in between... and I'd like to think that's because they all would rather come in, say hello, and buy a record in person than sit alone in their room, clicking away on ebay, even if the latter saves them a few bucks.
As for the ebay hustler mentality, I absolutely agree that it ruins businesses. One of the successes of my business is that I tried to create an atmosphere where folks would like to come and chill - a warm, inviting room filled with great tunes and occasionally reeking of pot. That has worked. People come to hang out even when I don't have anything they need, and I ain't mad at 'em. I am supported by teenage punkers, old burnouts, small time hustlers, great collectros, and everyone in between... and I'd like to think that's because they all would rather come in, say hello, and buy a record in person than sit alone in their room, clicking away on ebay, even if the latter saves them a few bucks.
Well put Mr. Paycheck. I know ill prolly catch some hate on this, but i consider Ebaying cheating. now before all you collectros get asshurt, this is my opinion as it relates to me and me alone, if you spend a lot of time ebaying and it works for you then more power to ya, but for me the thrill is in the chase, i get a bigger kick pulling a common record in a bin than i do in winning an auction and getting it in the post.
and there is no place id rather dig than in a warm, inviting room filled with great tunes and occasionally reeking of pot.
...I'll have to go with "DISCoveries," which is a combo book & record store out in Alston, MA - owned & run by an endearing but insane old Filipino woman, she has piles and piles of trashed albums, puts Bob Seger "Against the Wind" LP's on the wall for $12, slaps $20 price tags on beat up split open Martha Reeves & the Vandellas "Greatest Hits" 70's pressings, and I have yet to find ONE ALBUM worth buying in that morass ... in fact, I would love to hear just one "I scored ***** at DISCoveries" story, if only to give me hope enough to make it worth going back in there sometime...
Late pass on my upcoming defense of DISCoveries...But, though I've never found a decent record there, I have scored some serious books. VG- first edition of Slaughterhouse Five, and a MINT First Edition of "For the Relief of Unbearable Urges," Nathan Englander's first book. Both priced at 5, and discounted to 4.
The lady is crazy, the records are terds , and when she kicks it, cleaning that place is gonna be a bear. But, you can find some great books in there if you know what you're looking for.
(my best score of any kind is a Mint First Edition of pulitzer prize winner steven millhauser's first book, "Edwin Mullhouse," for $.25. Fuck it...if i'm gonna learn one collectible, might as well learn another.)
the owner charges you $5 dollars just to look through the records. If you buy something, then you get your money back. However, before agreeing to this obsurd policy, you cant see what his stock is priced at... Godspell sndtrk: $18 Needless to say, upon learning of this bullshit, I never returned to his store.
the owner charges you $5 dollars just to look through the records. If you buy something, then you get your money back. However, before agreeing to this obsurd policy, you cant see what his stock is priced at... Godspell sndtrk: $18 Needless to say, upon learning of this bullshit, I never returned to his store.
is he still in business???
I actually found a couple good things there, but I think it was a fluke.
the owner charges you $5 dollars just to look through the records. If you buy something, then you get your money back. However, before agreeing to this obsurd policy, you cant see what his stock is priced at... Godspell sndtrk: $18 Needless to say, upon learning of this bullshit, I never returned to his store.
the owner charges you $5 dollars just to look through the records. If you buy something, then you get your money back. However, before agreeing to this obsurd policy, you cant see what his stock is priced at... Godspell sndtrk: $18 Needless to say, upon learning of this bullshit, I never returned to his store.
is he still in business???
I actually found a couple good things there, but I think it was a fluke.
---
I dont know if he is still around or not. Havent been back to western MI in years. Every now and then he had some good things though. If I remember correctly, his story was that he was a retired chicago police officer who would get the first call if a storage unit was left unpaid which had records. Dude was a textbook prick.
There's a flea market guy who has a year round store on some legit stuff (i.e. his 'dollar bin' {the majority of the shop} is $.89 plus tax)at Zern's in Boyertown, PA. Talk about a guy who knows absolutely nothing. I overheard him telling a woman that Bob Marley CDs are hard to find because they didnt re-release a lot of his original stuff. This is no exaggeration. Someone asked for Sublime and he asked if they were heavy metal.
So i took a stack to him...Kurtis Blow 12", a Bill Withers, some jazz...nothing major. He wanted $15 for a half-beat Bob Dylan Desire. i told him i wouldn't go more than $4 for anything except a Duke Ellington / Johnny Hodges Verve release. (Stepping Out? i'm at work, sorry). He looks at me and looks at my stack and says, "Why don't you pick out the stuff that you really want and i'll price that." Becuase he was pricing everything out of his record guide. He practically convulsed when i asked him how much he wanted for Plastic Ono Band (the only Beatles that i really have any vinyl interest in, purely pleasure). I didnt even wait for him to figure out what he wanted to do about it and literally got it the next day for $2.
I have to keep going back because he has no clue what he's doing and will surely put raers and fire into the $.89 section without a clue, but conversation with his guy is like an ice pick to the gut. Cheap 45s and a few boxes of unsorted records too, but the level of frustration i reach everytime i go in there makes him an every-other stop at Zerns (a place that i am slowly picking clean anyhow).
the owner charges you $5 dollars just to look through the records. If you buy something, then you get your money back. However, before agreeing to this obsurd policy, you cant see what his stock is priced at... Godspell sndtrk: $18 Needless to say, upon learning of this bullshit, I never returned to his store.
Is this for real?
I'm sorry, you now owe me $5 for the time it took me to type this reply.
There's a flea market guy who has a year round store on some legit stuff (i.e. his 'dollar bin' {the majority of the shop} is $.89 plus tax)at Zern's in Boyertown, PA. Talk about a guy who knows absolutely nothing. I overheard him telling a woman that Bob Marley CDs are hard to find because they didnt re-release a lot of his original stuff. This is no exaggeration. Someone asked for Sublime and he asked if they were heavy metal.
So i took a stack to him...Kurtis Blow 12", a Bill Withers, some jazz...nothing major. He wanted $15 for a half-beat Bob Dylan Desire. i told him i wouldn't go more than $4 for anything except a Duke Ellington / Johnny Hodges Verve release. (Stepping Out? i'm at work, sorry). He looks at me and looks at my stack and says, "Why don't you pick out the stuff that you really want and i'll price that." Becuase he was pricing everything out of his record guide. He practically convulsed when i asked him how much he wanted for Plastic Ono Band (the only Beatles that i really have any vinyl interest in, purely pleasure). I didnt even wait for him to figure out what he wanted to do about it and literally got it the next day for $2.
I have to keep going back because he has no clue what he's doing and will surely put raers and fire into the $.89 section without a clue, but conversation with his guy is like an ice pick to the gut. Cheap 45s and a few boxes of unsorted records too, but the level of frustration i reach everytime i go in there makes him an every-other stop at Zerns (a place that i am slowly picking clean anyhow).
Dr joel
Zerns as a whole has seen its day. Music Mania is terrible!! Never found any 89 cent heat, evar.
Oh, I wouldn't say that. There are enough new discoveries to go around, and the broader your taste, the more discoveries there are that will excite you. I mean, sure, it's not like when all this shit hit 10-15 years ago and people were discovering records that now are considered old hat; but I can think of several records over just the past year that I have either found or been hipped to that are or were pretty much unknown.
I'm not talking about personally finding things that you don't know about, because that's always going to happen. Hey it's what makes music great, nobody can know everything. I'm talking about objectively genuinely new and good things being put out. Being the first few people to rediscover "soul heart transplant" n shit. The well isn't dry yet, but it's getting there.
As for the ebay hustler mentality, I absolutely agree that it ruins businesses. One of the successes of my business is that I tried to create an atmosphere where folks would like to come and chill - a warm, inviting room filled with great tunes and occasionally reeking of pot. That has worked. People come to hang out even when I don't have anything they need, and I ain't mad at 'em. I am supported by teenage punkers, old burnouts, small time hustlers, great collectros, and everyone in between... and I'd like to think that's because they all would rather come in, say hello, and buy a record in person than sit alone in their room, clicking away on ebay, even if the latter saves them a few bucks.
I'll definitely shell out a little more in person. Saves me the time, cost, pain and suffering of mail ordering.
There's a flea market guy who has a year round store on some legit stuff (i.e. his 'dollar bin' {the majority of the shop} is $.89 plus tax)at Zern's in Boyertown, PA. Talk about a guy who knows absolutely nothing. I overheard him telling a woman that Bob Marley CDs are hard to find because they didnt re-release a lot of his original stuff. This is no exaggeration. Someone asked for Sublime and he asked if they were heavy metal.
So i took a stack to him...Kurtis Blow 12", a Bill Withers, some jazz...nothing major. He wanted $15 for a half-beat Bob Dylan Desire. i told him i wouldn't go more than $4 for anything except a Duke Ellington / Johnny Hodges Verve release. (Stepping Out? i'm at work, sorry). He looks at me and looks at my stack and says, "Why don't you pick out the stuff that you really want and i'll price that." Becuase he was pricing everything out of his record guide. He practically convulsed when i asked him how much he wanted for Plastic Ono Band (the only Beatles that i really have any vinyl interest in, purely pleasure). I didnt even wait for him to figure out what he wanted to do about it and literally got it the next day for $2.
I have to keep going back because he has no clue what he's doing and will surely put raers and fire into the $.89 section without a clue, but conversation with his guy is like an ice pick to the gut. Cheap 45s and a few boxes of unsorted records too, but the level of frustration i reach everytime i go in there makes him an every-other stop at Zerns (a place that i am slowly picking clean anyhow).
Dr joel
Zerns as a whole has seen its day. Music Mania is terrible!! Never found any 89 cent heat, evar.
There was a guy outside the past few summers that had some nice stuff, a lot more rock oriented, but i got some nice stuff from him. There is so much garbage at Music Mania, but every once in a while i'll find something. i have been going there on saturdays because i work like 15-20 mins from there.
There is an old guy outside these days that has some decent stuff. i got a Coltrane from him for $2, Fathead Newman, JB Showtime. Nothing major, but for $1 & $2 he's worth some time on my way to work. He actually just brought a lot of stuff in two weekends ago that i went through...a lot of junk. I liked it better when he only brought in like 7 or 8 records at a time.
Comments
I can cosign that Rhino in NP has definitely taken a turn for the worse. In its prime, Rhino was the shit. I'd have to say that %30-40 of my collection came out of 3 different Rhino stores in the Hudson Valley. I've had many a cheap come-up in those places (as kidinquisitive mentioned): Marley Marl Scratch OG, Kool and the Gang S/T, sealed Cymandes, all for a $1, Rotary Connection LPs and OG "Spoonin Rap" for 10 cents. Dudes behind the counter letting me go through the new arrivals before they put them out on the floor. Deep deep dollar bins that would keep you busy for a few hours, varied selection and generally low prices all around.
But the Poughkeepsie store closed, and the New Paltz store moved down farther in the village. Smaller store, no more dollar bins, same records in the New Arrival bins for weeks on end. Much thanks to Mr. Paycheck for dropping knowledge on his experience, which confirmed my suspicions that they're hoarding their stock to sell online. I got no problem with someone trying to get their Ebay hustle on, but why keep the record store open in you're not gonna put product out? One of their former employees told me a while back that he rents space up near Bard Colege where he stores his inventory and does his Ebay business, Rhino should do the same. Since they've not been regularly replenising the in-store stock, I don't stop in as much as I used to, maybe once a month where I used to stop in on a weekly basis.
Amazing how that many bad records managed to end up under one roof. And they all ended up in plastic sleeves. If you try to take one out of the plastic to view condition, tracklist, or to see if there is even a record in the jacket the owner calls a fowl. Then he'll tell you about how he's not used to walk-ins off the street because most of his "clients" are extremely wealthy folks with the million $ homes up in the mountains.
Runner Up: Any other place in Santa Fe you go to look for records.
Honor Mention: Anywhere in Albuquerque... I have heard some success stories around this city but when I was there it was utterly dreadfull.
You have to know how to deal with people like that.
He is, however, one of the more hirsute human beings I have ever met.
I can say that I have been to pretty much every retail record outlet in the continental US and the one that bothers the most is the one I grew up with:
Colleen's Collectables in Columbus, OH
MAAM, DO NOT HAVE A RETAIL RECORD STORE IF NOTHING IN THE BUILDING IS FOR SALE.
Shutter the joint and put the "Closed For eBay" sign on the door.
This act will prevent you from, as SonicReducer said earlier, wasting my time.
In essence, this thread is about the negative affect eBay has taken on the local music shop. No longer is the record store a place to congregate, discuss music, meet new friends, get stoned, etc. The Internet has turned every shop owner into a paranoid codge constantly asking, "What does this customer know that I do not and how can I prevent EVER getting shortchanged?" The almighty dollar has transformed a once sacred place where music lovers mutually found their solace into a location which now acts as a squared circle of marginalized econo-tussling. People are getting farther and farther away from what brings a person into a used record shop in the first place (THE FUCKING MUSIC), and venturing deeper and deeper into a swamp of Popsike aberrations, disregard for the actual art at hand, and eventual price-gun fear.
Owners: Do not eliminate the options of your flesh and blood customers for the sake of making a few extra bucks from a faceless e-mail address.
BRING BACK THE RECORD STORE[/b].
I say this with the utmost respect and envy....
YOU ALREADY CLEANED THEM ALL OUT!!! [/b]
this is a textbook example of knowing how to roll... i used to regularly clean up at Cheapo's all thru high school (my fav deal there ever was Augustus Pablo's "Rcokers Meet King Tubbys in a Firehouse" for 2.99, b/c to this day it's my fav dub record...)
since i moved away i hadn't been back for a while, but was home for christmas a year and a half ago and decided to stop by, b/c SoulOnIce told me they had a buncha Howard Tate 45's on the wall for 3-4 bucks each...
i went thru the book and gave the owner a little list (they don't let ANYONE look thru the stacks there.) he sold me a few 45's and we shot the shit for a little and the owner mentioned he had like "100,000 or 200,000 45's in his storage space he had to get rid of" and if i "liked old soul music, there was good stuff there... nothing really rare, but solid pieces..."
about 2 months later, he did indeed give me and SoulOnIce 200,000 45's, totally for free... (albeit a lotta water damaged stuff, and a lotta junk, but alotta good stuff as well...)
my point is, if you go into these stores like a fucking mercenary, just trying to pull out rare shit to flip, these guys will see right thru you... (b/c british and japanese cats cleared them out 20 years ago... they're wise to the game at this point..) if you go in with a love of music, they may just cut you some slack...
cosign. i don't know what it is about the fox valley (fond du lac to green bay) but the record shop owners are fucking lunatics. i know most records shop owner are eccentrics but some of these guys take it to another level. my favorite was this vietnam vet that used to audibly call us assholes (while trying to say it under his breathe) and he was extra notorious for pulling the no-price/that's-not-for-sale game. needless to say he went belly up and all of those records disappeared.
I'm just saying that the world of recorded music that exists on LP is a vast and very deep one. Many of the original sounds found on the LP record will never be available again in any format, so what is the adventurous young person to do when all of the interesting (read: marginal) art has been removed from the browsers to make way for a new boat (or whatever these dudes are doing with their "eBay margin")?
I am savvy to certain music because I had the relative option to investigate things that I had never seen or heard before. If a young listener wants to get into some shit like Terry Melcher, or Ron Elliott or Townes Van Zandt, they must wait for a REISSUE that has been filtered through someone else's idea of what's "good" or "worth listening to." They don't have the choices that were once available in the the world of music because plain commodity has eclipsed the entire reason for the existence of recorded sound--TO SPREAD A FEELING OR A MESSAGE TO THE EVERYMAN.
"that" [/b] is knowledge and you have a PHD dude.....
I have to say that while the stores have faded away....along with the social benefit of meeting like minded people and "hanging out"....I think more young kids are out there looking for obscure and unknown music, MANY more than say 15 years ago......and that is a beautiful thing......I even met one guy who was very deep into private press and obscure psych, yet he had never heard the 13th Floor Elevators!!!
I'm betting that the majority of the folks here on SS began "digging" within the last 10 years.......and these younger guys support 15 used record/book stores here in DFW very well.....unfortunately, most of the Record Store owners I've met are great music lovers and terrible businessmen.
One of the best used stores we ever had here in Dallas went out of business about a year after the owner put a "Not Buying" sign in the front door.....the biggest advantage of having a store, is that the records come to you, and this guy didn't realize that one of the keys to running a used vinyl store is consistantly new inventory.
I'm afraid that's where alot of the stores have gone.....into bad business decision heaven.
Used to be among the closest spots for me, too. I went in once, never returned.
I do believe my spot hath been blown.
I'm sure there a number of people on here who have had the combination
pleasure/agony of sorting through thousands of water damaged 45's,
patiently peeling apart clumps of 130 of the same Perry Como title,
looking for the pearl hidden within. My sinuses never recovered from
the 2 months spent going through those boxes. "Free," yes, but what would it cost to hire somebody to do that kind of work for the hundred+ hours it took?
After removing the junk and ruined pieces, 100,000 becomes 10,000 pretty
quickly.
Got some nice 45's though.
The irony is that the Internet and other channels now (at least purportedly) support acquisition of hyper individualized culture, but there's fewer real world (TM) places to find and enjoy it. Disollution of public social roles and consequently public venues is a tale told across the board in the last half of the 20th century. (putman's "Bowling Alone")
Collectables go through stages like this. Records are now not just vehicles for delivery of music, but desirable objects. Selling records is no longer a mass market, where you buy for 20% of the $ cost of what you sell, and sell in bulk.
It does suck to have taste filtered down through the channels, but at least this music is getting out there. This is why I'm so cynical of people who started listening to music seriously in the last few years, don't have connections, but say they don't pick up reissues or listen to MP3s. What do you do, go to the record store and pretend that dollar bin don ellis "turkish bath" is "vibes from the tribe"? Fuck that, get the music, listen to it, get on with your life.
Another downside to all this is the number of truly new and truly great discoveries is just about nil.
Huge co-sign, as I live in the area. John's out of touch with the record game--$150 for some rare Bowie single I saw go unsold for a ten spot? I've pulled a few (Good Bad Ugly SDTK for $15, some funky Caribean stuff), but he's a price guide junkie.
I think ABQ is actually worse than Audio Synergy.
Oh, I wouldn't say that. There are enough new discoveries to go around, and the broader your taste, the more discoveries there are that will excite you. I mean, sure, it's not like when all this shit hit 10-15 years ago and people were discovering records that now are considered old hat; but I can think of several records over just the past year that I have either found or been hipped to that are or were pretty much unknown.
As for the ebay hustler mentality, I absolutely agree that it ruins businesses. One of the successes of my business is that I tried to create an atmosphere where folks would like to come and chill - a warm, inviting room filled with great tunes and occasionally reeking of pot. That has worked. People come to hang out even when I don't have anything they need, and I ain't mad at 'em. I am supported by teenage punkers, old burnouts, small time hustlers, great collectros, and everyone in between... and I'd like to think that's because they all would rather come in, say hello, and buy a record in person than sit alone in their room, clicking away on ebay, even if the latter saves them a few bucks.
Well put Mr. Paycheck. I know ill prolly catch some hate on this, but i consider Ebaying cheating. now before all you collectros get asshurt, this is my opinion as it relates to me and me alone, if you spend a lot of time ebaying and it works for you then more power to ya, but for me the thrill is in the chase, i get a bigger kick pulling a common record in a bin than i do in winning an auction and getting it in the post.
and there is no place id rather dig than in a warm, inviting room filled with great tunes and occasionally reeking of pot.
Late pass on my upcoming defense of DISCoveries...But, though I've never found a decent record there, I have scored some serious books. VG- first edition of Slaughterhouse Five, and a MINT First Edition of "For the Relief of Unbearable Urges," Nathan Englander's first book. Both priced at 5, and discounted to 4.
The lady is crazy, the records are terds , and when she kicks it, cleaning that place is gonna be a bear. But, you can find some great books in there if you know what you're looking for.
(my best score of any kind is a Mint First Edition of pulitzer prize winner steven millhauser's first book, "Edwin Mullhouse," for $.25. Fuck it...if i'm gonna learn one collectible, might as well learn another.)
the owner charges you $5 dollars just to look through the records. If you buy something, then you get your money back. However, before agreeing to this obsurd policy, you cant see what his stock is priced at... Godspell sndtrk: $18
Needless to say, upon learning of this bullshit, I never returned to his store.
is he still in business???
I actually found a couple good things there, but I think it was a fluke.
---
Is this for real?
I dont know if he is still around or not. Havent been back to western MI in years. Every now and then he had some good things though. If I remember correctly, his story was that he was a retired chicago police officer who would get the first call if a storage unit was left unpaid which had records.
Dude was a textbook prick.
So i took a stack to him...Kurtis Blow 12", a Bill Withers, some jazz...nothing major. He wanted $15 for a half-beat Bob Dylan Desire. i told him i wouldn't go more than $4 for anything except a Duke Ellington / Johnny Hodges Verve release. (Stepping Out? i'm at work, sorry). He looks at me and looks at my stack and says, "Why don't you pick out the stuff that you really want and i'll price that." Becuase he was pricing everything out of his record guide. He practically convulsed when i asked him how much he wanted for Plastic Ono Band (the only Beatles that i really have any vinyl interest in, purely pleasure). I didnt even wait for him to figure out what he wanted to do about it and literally got it the next day for $2.
I have to keep going back because he has no clue what he's doing and will surely put raers and fire into the $.89 section without a clue, but conversation with his guy is like an ice pick to the gut. Cheap 45s and a few boxes of unsorted records too, but the level of frustration i reach everytime i go in there makes him an every-other stop at Zerns (a place that i am slowly picking clean anyhow).
Dr joel
I'm sorry, you now owe me $5 for the time it took me to type this reply.
Zerns as a whole has seen its day. Music Mania is terrible!! Never found any 89 cent heat, evar.
I'm not talking about personally finding things that you don't know about, because that's always going to happen. Hey it's what makes music great, nobody can know everything. I'm talking about objectively genuinely new and good things being put out. Being the first few people to rediscover "soul heart transplant" n shit. The well isn't dry yet, but it's getting there.
I'll definitely shell out a little more in person. Saves me the time, cost, pain and suffering of mail ordering.
......but plaese to keep selling to me via mail!!
There was a guy outside the past few summers that had some nice stuff, a lot more rock oriented, but i got some nice stuff from him. There is so much garbage at Music Mania, but every once in a while i'll find something. i have been going there on saturdays because i work like 15-20 mins from there.
There is an old guy outside these days that has some decent stuff. i got a Coltrane from him for $2, Fathead Newman, JB Showtime. Nothing major, but for $1 & $2 he's worth some time on my way to work. He actually just brought a lot of stuff in two weekends ago that i went through...a lot of junk. I liked it better when he only brought in like 7 or 8 records at a time.