Stories From Your Record Buying Road Trips -Advice
ZachD
318 Posts
I'm 80% sure I'm going to be going on tour of the East Coast, Midwest & Canada soon. I'll be roadie and designated fan-boy for my wife who is playing some shows. My plan is to take the car though and buy records all along the way. I've never gone on an extended record buying trip so I thought I'd ask for the wisdom of the elders here on how to do it right.I figure I should plan ahead as much as possible and set my expectations low and also expect the worst (car breakdowns, inclimate weather, crusty record guys, etc).Any thoughts??Should I get a GPS or take my notebook for maps or is that more trouble than it's worth?Pack a lunch or enjoy road side fair of fine east coast eateries?What if I find more records than I can haul?Will I find enough records to offset the price of gas?!Do you find it better to hit major stores or dealers or go for small places off the beaten path?I'd also be interested in hearing some lore... what's the longest trip you have done? Have you ever hit a drifter and then sped off? The best or worst thing that ever happened to you on a record buying trip?
Comments
I think the ideal situation would be to spend a couple days in a particular area.
Oh. And if you find yourself in a record store in a smallish type town, always ask if they have a "local" section.
Only once, but it still haunts me.
I took a week long trip last summer just specifically to find records and mostly hit out of the way small towns and found more than enough stuff to fund the whole ordeal. Thrifts tend to be better in the smaller towns and not so good in the larger cities. Actual record shops can be real hit or miss... they often tend to be better in slightly larger cities. That's my experience anyhow. You really don't need to even plan it out much, just find the downtown area of whatever town you come across and when you find a place with records ask where else you should look. I've found that most small town shop people smell that you're an outsider and are extra nice cause they know that, unlike Zeke who hangs out everyday, you'll actually spend money.
Have fun!
Just take it light, have fun, don't look at it from a money perspective. You'll probably get to see stuff that doesn't show up as much in your neck of the woods so experiment and enjoy.
If you have no expectations for record scores or money, then you will have a lot of fun.
I'm going on a little road trip next week, and hope to unearth a few small treasures. There's an unbelievable amount of ground to cover in the U.S., which is why it makes it so great.
I recently drove from New Orleans to Miami. My accomplice and I were in the zone on some carpe diem steez, even forgoing sitting down for a real meal until after 5pm. We did pretty well (though the closer we got to Miami the les fruitful it became). Record shops were either really good or excruciatingly hellish.
Then there was the time I went diggin all over Mexico for 2 months. A little more challenging but I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
And did I mention I got Rabbits & Carrots for 0.915587 USD?
fantasy: blue note raers in the dollar bin, private local funk & psych for $5, "tell you what, since you made a special trip & are buying a bunch of stuff, gas being so expensive these days & all, I'll give you a discount"
reality: scratched abba records for $15, "we already have too many records & have stopped buying them", "a guy named jason comes by every couple months, we hold everything for him", "let me look this up on gemm", "I haven't spoken with another person in a week, or brushed my teeth in a year", "we don't like city slickers around here & will price accordingly"
too true
FANTASY:
"hey we've had this box of singles sitting here since the late 70s... boy who usedta work the counter made it... sold it out of the shop... you're welcome to em if you think you can use 'em"
REALITY:
"If you wanted to make an appointment, we could let ya go through this stuff, but you gotta wait for the guy who prices the records, he's the only one that can price these, cause for all I know, this could be a $10 record or a $100 record (looking at Stanley Cowell "Illusion Suite"). Also you know we really only let Japanese look back here, heh heh they sure do love their records! Oh and that stuff over there that you went through that's for ee-bay so here take a card that there's our ebay ID and you can bid on them when you get home, get it shipped right to ya, how's that for service!"
This basically sums it up.
But yeah, I'll agree with everyone about not getting super high expectations. Also, not acting like a "record dude" can get you far in strange situations.
Just off of instinct, if somebody in an unassuming thrift store asks me if I'm a collector or a DJ, I tell 'em no, I just came for the music. I'm always paranoid they might up the prices on me or something else shady.
Oh I once drove from Dallas to El Paso to LA to Yosemite. Found records all day the first leg of the trip. Then I crossed the California state line. Nothing. Not one record materialized from there on out.
Yosemite is pretty tho.
...assuming you see something you actually wanna buy?
that's another thing..
rural Americana = the worst musical taste anywhere, shlock string records for days, scratched polka, cross-eyed beehive-hairdo inbred Christian doodoo private presses, counties where if you found a Bob James on CTI you would jump for joy, the mind boggles...
By then I'll decide if I should tell the Gretna, La. story....the North Carolina barn story or the Decorah, Iowa Radio Station story.
just tell em all please
Plaese do tell...one of the places I lived in the NOLA area.
I've bought 85% of all the records in California and hide them in an out of state storage locker.
That shit happens to me & I have to leave & come back. Shit take plenty snacks. I hate digging on an empty stomach. After awhile you start to develop a headache & fill lite headed.
Alot of good advice in here. Applying some of these tips for next week. I need to know how strutters keep records from being kept in a hot car. THe South is ON FIRE right now!!! HOTTTT
like the old kenny rogers & the first edition song, "TELL IT ALL BROTHER"
besides, no sense in teasing us!
Keep them in stacks and bundle them in blankets or bring boxes that they will fit snug in. Most important thing is to keep them out of direct sunlight.
Yas. Hott. Tis retarded.
Just put em in the trunk in a record bag. And it helps if you have a bunch together as opposed to one lone 12" chillin. There's safety in numbers. I think the wieght + gravity keeps em flat.
Josh?
crink, did you know you left the back door of that unit unlocked?
Yes, Thank you!!
Damn it!