"Good" Records Drying Up Everywhere?
fishmongerfunk
4,154 Posts
i guess this is a riff/rant off that other post but the trend seems to be that it is becoming super tough to come up on decent records just about anywhere.
folks sometimes post amazing finds, so i know there are records still out there in the field. although luck surely plays a role, the amount of effort and sheer grinding that i do to get this black crack is getting out of whack. diminishing returns.
has most everything just migrated to ebay? is it just the inevitable drying up of a finite resource? is there more competition out there than ever? shouldn't more records than ever be on the market in a double-dip global recession? are private dealers displacing the shops?
i realize there may be no right or wrong answer but i'm curious about the soulstrut take on the state of record collecting in late 2010 and going forward...
folks sometimes post amazing finds, so i know there are records still out there in the field. although luck surely plays a role, the amount of effort and sheer grinding that i do to get this black crack is getting out of whack. diminishing returns.
has most everything just migrated to ebay? is it just the inevitable drying up of a finite resource? is there more competition out there than ever? shouldn't more records than ever be on the market in a double-dip global recession? are private dealers displacing the shops?
i realize there may be no right or wrong answer but i'm curious about the soulstrut take on the state of record collecting in late 2010 and going forward...
Comments
that place is an oasis in a desert; the exception to the rule.
Also - on a possibly unrelated tip - I was talking to an older fellow who owned a record store in the mall. They didn't specialize in records, and he was surprised that I was "interested in records" so, of course, he wanted to shoot the shit. But he brought up an interesting point: The records that you see at the thrifts day in and day out, the Mantovanis, Floyd Cramers, and Living Guitars, all that stuff belonged to people who were buying those records when they were young in the late 50's early 60's. They're dead now (his point, not mine) and that's why we see all their records. Now that the next generation of record buyers is getting older, people who were young and bought records in the late 60's, early 70's, it stands to reason that as they pass on their collections will matriculate out into the public - thrifts and record stores. I know it's kind of a grim way to look at it, but it makes sense. Records or always in circulation. They get hoarded and then that hoard gets let go, back into the world.
Another record store guy I was talking to was telling me he couldn't understand why people fight over records. He said, "They're like words in the dictionary. There's tons of 'em". I think that's true - it all boils down to being in the right place at the right time - so it makes sense that the more time you spend in those places, the better chance you have of coming up!
I resemble that remark.
as mentioned upthread, the recession is a major factor. but so is the dissemination of info online both price histories and easy research on discographies and artists. hell, you can get an artist's address in two clicks. the old timers got smarter, started buying out of their genre comfort range.. the young kids landed too much knowledge too fast -- i wasn't really into records in college, but if i was a student these days i can't imagine what damage i'd do with that extra free time.
to cromang's point, i often wonder if a record peak oil moment will be hit soon, or if tons of good records are about to be unleashed. could go either way, it's the work you put in building connections and doing it smarter that really matters in the end.
Karlophone alone is proof that there are still good records out there.
When I first started seriously junking in the eighties, the thrifts were already filled up with baby boomer-era records from 1964-72. And most likely the original consumers were still alive; they just let go of their old wax for some reason or another. I don't think the influx of records can be attributed to a death cycle.
Yo, I just saw a Minority Band in a shop in NYC for a G if ur interested.
Although, that is the reason I used to give folks who came into sell/trade that kind of stuff... "sorry, not to sound morbid, but anyone who would want to buy this has probably passed away"
Although, that is the reason I used to give folks who came into sell/trade that kind of stuff... "sorry, not to sound morbid, but anyone who would want to buy this has probably passed away"
Now, I have heard that the retirement cycle can be attributed to records showing up in spots where folks retire...the end up moving their records, decide they don't want them and then unload...I used to turn stuff up in Arkansas in little towns around lakes, resorts and stuff, where my folks' retired...but since they have passed, I don't find myself in that area anymore.
I agree, but I'd move it up to the 90's.
The eighties are when CD's first started appearing on the market, but the nineties are when they became common household items. As late as 1989, and well into the early nineties, I remember people - relatively YOUNG people, mind - still being mystified at how the CD had taken over entirely from the other formats.
Even the 1990's lounge music craze didn't remove all the Mantovanis from the thrifts.
Those said old men though are generally holding jazz LPs, rock LPs, or rock and r&b 45s. If you're seeking out library records or latin or some really specialized genre I don't know what you can realistically expect to find IRL in 2010.
the price on that record seems to be all over the place..
:coolhmm:
actually, all im proof of is: to "find" quality material [outside of ebay or shops], you need to be longtime friends with people who clean out estates/storage/houses. thats 80-90% of my game, and it took 10-20 years to build up the in-cahoots aspect with the people im down with. and im not even in a great area for records - its kinda like: if you can get the access, no matter where you are, you can catch better stuff before it hits "the market".
and i think that better stuff will continue to flow. as mentioned above, so many good original collections are still untouched, and on the random side, theres literally millions of old houses that are as yet untapped.
i just heard of a tear down in a bad neighborhood in my area, the developer offered one of my friends a day to fill his van before the place was getting knocked down no matter what, contents sight unseen. no one was in town to help him, so he just went for it. house was jammed FULL of records, phonographs, old equipment, etc. dude filled his van 3x and ran out of time, wrecking ball took the rest. he got a drop in the bucket. think of how much cool stuff is lost daily around the country like that.
waiting for the good stuff to trickle down to the level of the new arrivals bin is definitely a diminishing prospect these days, i can feel it when i walk into a shop almost anywhere. its just not making it that far. too much info online.
Watch the birth announcements and then start making calls about 2 years later.
but there will be a rotation of collections when people sell them off, or pass away, shittty way of looking at it, but what goes around cames back around again...look at that dude who lucked into JMJ's collection.
So true. If your normal spots are looking bleak, FIND NEW SPOTS. Or just take the money you usually dig with and start obtaining your wish list.
A side note to those who were talking about thrift shops - it's worth noting that those places very frequently have a mole; i.e. an employee who scoops the choice material for dirt cheap before it hits the floor - which is typically the reason they took that job in the first place.