overpriced tepid terd, decades ago private press & internationals for cheap, now most everything is $20 & up also home of my fave phenomena, record store owners who spend all day at the counter looking up stuff on ebay, freaking at the prices, getting a deap depression on, yet never sells on the bay straight up masochism
several thousand records, most would be thrown out at g-will or salva, priced at $5 each. spent 1/2 hour looking at all of them, found 3 that were worth the gamble good luck selling those water damaged billy joels & fleetwood macs @ $5
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.[/b] This is no exaggeration. Someone asked for Sublime and he asked if they were heavy metal.
Actually he's right on this point. It was only last year that all the JAD and other early stuff was finally cleared for re-release with the setting up of the Bob Marley Foundation.
overpriced tepid terd, decades ago private press & internationals for cheap, now most everything is $20 & up also home of my fave phenomena, record store owners who spend all day at the counter looking up stuff on ebay, freaking at the prices, getting a deap depression on, yet never sells on the bay straight up masochism
Lord, this is sooo true. He could make A LOT of money(and generate much needed local record geek good will) if he did any of the following:
a)Ditch the color-coded 'flex' pricing that makes it impossible to shop well and even more impossible for anyone but him to work the store. Granted, he has started writing actual prices in the sticker occasionally, but the whole system is wack.
b)Unless it's on the wall, his prices need to come down $5-10 overall on pretty much everything outside of new vinyl, and even his new vinyl is too high to be competitive. Although it's good that he still stocks it I guess.
c)ROTATE THAT STOCK! He has so much untouched stock above and below that is off limits(always ask for a title, if he has it he knows it and will pull it for you provided he can get at it)...he might as well have uncashed checks laying around the store, piled to the ceiling. Makes no sense.
d)Have a sale once a year (or more, but I am trying to be realistic). Take all that stuff in boxes you KNOW is useless and slap a $1 tag on it and make room for fresh stock from the basement or the shelves. Make all CDs $5 and under and rotate them too, quit worrying if you are selling a rare CD by mistake, let a few of those go cheap--IT KEEPS PEOPLE INTERESTED and they will spend more money next week. Same for the good. medium raer LPs, let a bunch go at a SLIGHTLY reduced price and people will flock back there.
My two cents from a customer who really wishes he could spend more money there, because I know he has the goods....and I have gotten finds there before and some good deals too and I like Rick. I just wish he would see how the game has changed and how he could make that actually work for him and his customers.
Pe*e, on the Cheapo's thing - you're forgetting the dude that works there that does pull that shit. OT had a story about finding good records in the new arrivals, and this dude trying to pull some you-can't-have-these-I-promised-em-to-my-boy bullshit. That's why I say I can't speak on that scene, cause shit can get weird in Cheapo's, although they are always straight with me.
yeah, i wasnt buying up a lot of stuff or asking if they had spare copies of skullsnaps. picked up random rock records and started talking to the young dude about records. he actually started talking to me. we were just chatting, but he was really gauging what i knew so he could deny me sales or not. real corny. he was also breathing a lot of hotwind about the quantity of say borther 45s he had, but he wouldnt come off of one for dough or worthwile trades that he didnt have. weak windbag. (at least with me). still, i bought 3 LPs
thanks for the character reference dan! jumpjump=lovely record storefront
i forgot about jerry's in pittsburgh. likeded it
zerns jumped the shark, but i always catch some kinda heat in the 89 centcers. but i rarely go out there (scared)
zerns jumped the shark, but i always catch some kinda heat in the 89 centcers. but i rarely go out there (scared)
<Rant>
DO NOT EVEN BOTHER, homie. My last three Zern trips, I left empty handed and smelling like 3 day old corned beef and cigarettes. I use to come up so well there, but fat guy jumped shipped, old dude is beyond tapped, and there was one shop who had Eastbounds and Fanias in their attic... out of business. Last year the electronics guy had all these jazz records from a radio station... nothing since. It's a 45 minute drive out there and a complete waste of time (not to mention all the inbred idiots I have to put up with.)
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.[/b] This is no exaggeration. Someone asked for Sublime and he asked if they were heavy metal.
Actually he's right on this point. It was only last year that all the JAD and other early stuff was finally cleared for re-release with the setting up of the Bob Marley Foundation.
i see what you're saying but you have to understand where this guy is coming from. i'm not talking old JAD like those three box sets of early years or anything like that. This was the guy's excuse for not having Marley in his shop....like, "Bob Marley is hard to find on CD". The lady is in there looking for something to buy her son for his birthday, not pre-dread trio stuff.
zerns jumped the shark, but i always catch some kinda heat in the 89 centcers. but i rarely go out there (scared)
Rant>
DO NOT EVEN BOTHER, homie. My last three Zern trips, I left empty handed and smelling like 3 day old corned beef and cigarettes. I use to come up so well there, but fat guy jumped shipped, old dude is beyond tapped, and there was one shop who had Eastbounds and Fanias in their attic... out of business. Last year the electronics guy had all these jazz records from a radio station... nothing since. It's a 45 minute drive out there and a complete waste of time (not to mention all the inbred idiots I have to put up with.)
/Rant>
i think that smell is actually chicken gizzards, a zern's mainstay. i am long missing the fat guy too. Are you familiar with Jake's flea market a little further down Rt. 100? Saturday was their first of the season and it was completely beat. i walked with a Paul Mauriat for $.50 and thats it.
Leesport (outside Reading) had their first last sunday but there was no hope for me as i work saturday nights. Know anybody who went?
zerns jumped the shark, but i always catch some kinda heat in the 89 centcers. but i rarely go out there (scared)
<Rant>
DO NOT EVEN BOTHER, homie. My last three Zern trips, I left empty handed and smelling like 3 day old corned beef and cigarettes. I use to come up so well there, but fat guy jumped shipped, old dude is beyond tapped, and there was one shop who had Eastbounds and Fanias in their attic... out of business. Last year the electronics guy had all these jazz records from a radio station... nothing since. It's a 45 minute drive out there and a complete waste of time (not to mention all the inbred idiots I have to put up with.)
</Rant>
i think that smell is actually chicken gizzards, a zern's mainstay. i am long missing the fat guy too. Are you familiar with Jake's flea market a little further down Rt. 100? Saturday was their first of the season and it was completely beat. i walked with a Paul Mauriat for $.50 and thats it.
Leesport (outside Reading) had their first last sunday but there was no hope for me as i work saturday nights. Know anybody who went?
Jake's in Barto, yes. SUCKS (for records). There is a guy though that sells vintage music equipment in the summertime.
DO NOT EVEN BOTHER, homie. My last three Zern trips, I left empty handed and smelling like 3 day old corned beef and cigarettes. I use to come up so well there, but fat guy jumped shipped, old dude is beyond tapped, and there was one shop who had Eastbounds and Fanias in their attic... out of business. Last year the electronics guy had all these jazz records from a radio station... nothing since. It's a 45 minute drive out there and a complete waste of time (not to mention all the inbred idiots I have to put up with.)
ahh the infamous and controversial bill mason dig.
aka records in philly is pretty laughable as far as getting good records in, but maybe i dont hit it enough. it could be so much better than it is. (i did get a dollar don blackman, axelrod, mucho hiphop etc ...but i think those were mistakenly priced by the young starlet at the counter)
mad hatter in tucson, but the drunk ass owner is kinda entertaining and cool in a psychoticneurotic way. when i walked in there he was straight up berating some dude for having an american flag tie. haha. then an old guy came in to drop off records and the hatter was like, "just bring them to booktraders" "well, i wanted to avoid a big chain" "bullshit, everyone brings everything there anyway. get out of here" old guy was on the verge of tears as he walked back out the door. shit was bizzare and mean, but funny.
its great if you want to look at a bunch of banged dion records while you listen to some drunk vet rant about raer as he smashes a beer can on his forhead and bosses you around the shop digging through crates of diareah plastic sleeve clad doo doo bars with growler stains on them.
aka records in philly is pretty laughable as far as getting good records in, but maybe i dont hit it enough. it could be so much better than it is. (i did get a dollar don blackman, axelrod, mucho hiphop etc ...but i think those were mistakenly priced by the young starlet at the counter)
It has its days. I got an $8 clean K & TG S/T a little over a year ago and Adelfi on this board who works there now is doing a lot to bring in good stock. I made a run this weekend and got my best records there than any one of the other usual shop suspects.
hey! i came up there. i did get in a borderline heated discussion about us military interventions with aforementioned vet. tripledouble=philahobo...ugggggly head of van dreads and probably a jungle stink to me, didnt help my argument any
but i caught a beginning of the end cheap among other things
Orpheues hatteration is overblown. As you buy more stuff, the price drops a bunch. And dude is real cool.
agreed my bad for adding him to the "worst ever" thread nowza daze they aren't too many shops here rick is hella nice (so is his x partner) but his game needs some tweaking (like i should talk, sitting in a big glass house chucking stones)
aka records in philly is pretty laughable as far as getting good records in, but maybe i dont hit it enough. it could be so much better than it is. (i did get a dollar don blackman, axelrod, mucho hiphop etc ...but i think those were mistakenly priced by the young starlet at the counter)
mad hatter in tucson, but the drunk ass owner is kinda entertaining and cool in a psychoticneurotic way. when i walked in there he was straight up berating some dude for having an american flag tie. haha. then an old guy came in to drop off records and the hatter was like, "just bring them to booktraders" "well, i wanted to avoid a big chain" "bullshit, everyone brings everything there anyway. get out of here" old guy was on the verge of tears as he walked back out the door. shit was bizzare and mean, but funny.
If starlett is the same one that has been there for a few years, she's a dime. Little star tattoo on her hand?
i love AKA but not for vinyl. i know they get stuff in and out of there a lot, but they are great for CDs. I dont know if Booktrader has vinyl..they used to when they were on South St, but they moved to the old AKA building and i dont know what they have. i can imagine how picked 2nd St is on whole just due to sheer traffic. i am looking for some good spots in the city for weeknight runs. Cue and Philly Record Exchange of course...if anyboduy wants to share a spot or two out of the way i'm ears.
aka records in philly is pretty laughable as far as getting good records in, but maybe i dont hit it enough. it could be so much better than it is. (i did get a dollar don blackman, axelrod, mucho hiphop etc ...but i think those were mistakenly priced by the young starlet at the counter)
mad hatter in tucson, but the drunk ass owner is kinda entertaining and cool in a psychoticneurotic way. when i walked in there he was straight up berating some dude for having an american flag tie. haha. then an old guy came in to drop off records and the hatter was like, "just bring them to booktraders" "well, i wanted to avoid a big chain" "bullshit, everyone brings everything there anyway. get out of here" old guy was on the verge of tears as he walked back out the door. shit was bizzare and mean, but funny.
If starlett is the same one that has been there for a few years, she's a dime. Little star tattoo on her hand?
i love AKA but not for vinyl. i know they get stuff in and out of there a lot, but they are great for CDs. I dont know if Booktrader has vinyl..they used to when they were on South St, but they moved to the old AKA building and i dont know what they have. i can imagine how picked 2nd St is on whole just due to sheer traffic. i am looking for some good spots in the city for weeknight runs. Cue and Philly Record Exchange of course...if anyboduy wants to share a spot or two out of the way i'm ears.
i think my first post on soulstrut was an 'og czech' on a $8 skull snaps lp that i bought at AKA. 99.9999 certain it was a reish and returned it haha. that said i don't think i've ever had a big score there. just some staples. as for cuties they got two, one isn't there too much anymore shes married and in grad school. hooked up with her. the other is usually there and apparently her boyfriend is getting the first look at all the new stock.
Orpheues hatteration is overblown. As you buy more stuff, the price drops a bunch. And dude is real cool.
agreed my bad for adding him to the "worst ever" thread nowza daze they aren't too many shops here rick is hella nice (so is his x partner) but his game needs some tweaking (like i should talk, sitting in a big glass house chucking stones)
Was there anything I said in my tips that isn't true? And didn't I say that I also like Rick(ask around, I am usually the only strutter in the room sticking up for him)? No hater here! I just wish he would open up the inventory more...if you go in there once a month, it's like nothing has changed over the last year!
Title of thread is WORST RECORD STORE EVAR! So in keeping with that, I thought MC Ricky Fingernails McD doesn't belong there. That's it. CoffinJ was more hattin than you were Birddog. Peace T.N.
This is a tough one - reflex makes me want to say Nuggets, a Boston "institution" that has been around forever, and still has many of the same records in the bins that were there when I was an employee, 18 years ago[/b]! Still, I took a chance in there the other day and copped a few decent albums, like a sealed Tyrone Davis OG on Dakar for $8, so I'll give them a pass...
...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...
That woman once scored quite a collection of 12"s for $40 flat ! Nobody knows what happened to it...none of it has popped up for sale..i thought of falling into her record mountains, then i would be able to look at shit when i helped pick it up. I also thought of taking her cat for hostage.
the only lp i got from there for $5 is a mint lawrence of newark on perception...back in 97
aka records in philly is pretty laughable as far as getting good records in, but maybe i dont hit it enough. it could be so much better than it is. (i did get a dollar don blackman, axelrod, mucho hiphop etc ...but i think those were mistakenly priced by the young starlet at the counter)
mad hatter in tucson, but the drunk ass owner is kinda entertaining and cool in a psychoticneurotic way. when i walked in there he was straight up berating some dude for having an american flag tie. haha. then an old guy came in to drop off records and the hatter was like, "just bring them to booktraders" "well, i wanted to avoid a big chain" "bullshit, everyone brings everything there anyway. get out of here" old guy was on the verge of tears as he walked back out the door. shit was bizzare and mean, but funny.
If starlett is the same one that has been there for a few years, she's a dime. Little star tattoo on her hand?
i love AKA but not for vinyl. i know they get stuff in and out of there a lot, but they are great for CDs. I dont know if Booktrader has vinyl..they used to when they were on South St, but they moved to the old AKA building and i dont know what they have. i can imagine how picked 2nd St is on whole just due to sheer traffic. i am looking for some good spots in the city for weeknight runs. Cue and Philly Record Exchange of course...if anyboduy wants to share a spot or two out of the way i'm ears.
There are plenty of shops worked and owned by totally insane and unreasonable people that should be removed from society - but, it seems to me that some of you are calling a record shop "bad" because you cannot just walk in and find one of 300 odd holy grail type records for under 10 bucks. That is just lame. Not directing this at anyone in particular, just saying.
Comments
overpriced tepid terd, decades ago private press & internationals for cheap,
now most everything is $20 & up
also home of my fave phenomena, record store owners who spend all day at the counter
looking up stuff on ebay, freaking at the prices,
getting a deap depression on, yet never sells on the bay
straight up masochism
atlanta-austin road trip style - disc daddy's , southside of shreveport
several thousand records, most would be thrown out at g-will or salva, priced at
$5 each.
spent 1/2 hour looking at all of them, found 3 that were worth the gamble
good luck selling those water damaged billy joels & fleetwood macs @ $5
is 2nd hand rose nyc still open ?
sucks & blows
Actually he's right on this point. It was only last year that all the JAD and other early stuff was finally cleared for re-release with the setting up of the Bob Marley Foundation.
yeah, that dude is a nut. Have you ever seen him eat cantelope with his 2" fingernails?
Lord, this is sooo true. He could make A LOT of money(and generate much needed local record geek good will) if he did any of the following:
a)Ditch the color-coded 'flex' pricing that makes it impossible to shop well and even more impossible for anyone but him to work the store. Granted, he has started writing actual prices in the sticker occasionally, but the whole system is wack.
b)Unless it's on the wall, his prices need to come down $5-10 overall on pretty much everything outside of new vinyl, and even his new vinyl is too high to be competitive. Although it's good that he still stocks it I guess.
c)ROTATE THAT STOCK! He has so much untouched stock above and below that is off limits(always ask for a title, if he has it he knows it and will pull it for you provided he can get at it)...he might as well have uncashed checks laying around the store, piled to the ceiling. Makes no sense.
d)Have a sale once a year (or more, but I am trying to be realistic). Take all that stuff in boxes you KNOW is useless and slap a $1 tag on it and make room for fresh stock from the basement or the shelves. Make all CDs $5 and under and rotate them too, quit worrying if you are selling a rare CD by mistake, let a few of those go cheap--IT KEEPS PEOPLE INTERESTED and they will spend more money next week. Same for the good. medium raer LPs, let a bunch go at a SLIGHTLY reduced price and people will flock back there.
My two cents from a customer who really wishes he could spend more money there, because I know he has the goods....and I have gotten finds there before and some good deals too and I like Rick. I just wish he would see how the game has changed and how he could make that actually work for him and his customers.
yeah, i wasnt buying up a lot of stuff or asking if they had spare copies of skullsnaps. picked up random rock records and started talking to the young dude about records. he actually started talking to me. we were just chatting, but he was really gauging what i knew so he could deny me sales or not. real corny.
he was also breathing a lot of hotwind about the quantity of say borther 45s he had, but he wouldnt come off of one for dough or worthwile trades that he didnt have. weak windbag. (at least with me). still, i bought 3 LPs
thanks for the character reference dan! jumpjump=lovely record storefront
i forgot about jerry's in pittsburgh. likeded it
zerns jumped the shark, but i always catch some kinda heat in the 89 centcers. but i rarely go out there (scared)
You've never met Craig Moerer!!
<Rant>
DO NOT EVEN BOTHER, homie. My last three Zern trips, I left empty handed and smelling like 3 day old corned beef and cigarettes. I use to come up so well there, but fat guy jumped shipped, old dude is beyond tapped, and there was one shop who had Eastbounds and Fanias in their attic... out of business. Last year the electronics guy had all these jazz records from a radio station... nothing since. It's a 45 minute drive out there and a complete waste of time (not to mention all the inbred idiots I have to put up with.)
</Rant>
i see what you're saying but you have to understand where this guy is coming from. i'm not talking old JAD like those three box sets of early years or anything like that. This was the guy's excuse for not having Marley in his shop....like, "Bob Marley is hard to find on CD". The lady is in there looking for something to buy her son for his birthday, not pre-dread trio stuff.
peace
i think that smell is actually chicken gizzards, a zern's mainstay. i am long missing the fat guy too. Are you familiar with Jake's flea market a little further down Rt. 100? Saturday was their first of the season and it was completely beat. i walked with a Paul Mauriat for $.50 and thats it.
Leesport (outside Reading) had their first last sunday but there was no hope for me as i work saturday nights. Know anybody who went?
Jake's in Barto, yes. SUCKS (for records). There is a guy though that sells vintage music equipment in the summertime.
ahh the infamous and controversial bill mason dig.
whashappenin raj? hittin the catholic school?
house of records, pico and 30th, santa monica.
wax traxs las vegas.
honorable mention: fresh culture, 5th ward, houston.
(i did get a dollar don blackman, axelrod, mucho hiphop etc ...but i think those were mistakenly priced by the young starlet at the counter)
mad hatter in tucson, but the drunk ass owner is kinda entertaining and cool in a psychoticneurotic way. when i walked in there he was straight up berating some dude for having an american flag tie. haha. then an old guy came in to drop off records and the hatter was like, "just bring them to booktraders"
"well, i wanted to avoid a big chain"
"bullshit, everyone brings everything there anyway. get out of here"
old guy was on the verge of tears as he walked back out the door.
shit was bizzare and mean, but funny.
and american pie in santa barbara too.
a customer told me this shop was good. no?
It has its days. I got an $8 clean K & TG S/T a little over a year ago and Adelfi on this board who works there now is doing a lot to bring in good stock. I made a run this weekend and got my best records there than any one of the other usual shop suspects.
i came up there. i did get in a borderline heated discussion about us military interventions with aforementioned vet. tripledouble=philahobo...ugggggly head of van dreads and probably a jungle stink to me, didnt help my argument any
but i caught a beginning of the end cheap among other things
agreed
my bad for adding him to the "worst ever" thread
nowza daze they aren't too many shops here
rick is hella nice (so is his x partner)
but his game needs some tweaking
(like i should talk, sitting in a big glass house chucking stones)
If starlett is the same one that has been there for a few years, she's a dime. Little star tattoo on her hand?
i love AKA but not for vinyl. i know they get stuff in and out of there a lot, but they are great for CDs. I dont know if Booktrader has vinyl..they used to when they were on South St, but they moved to the old AKA building and i dont know what they have. i can imagine how picked 2nd St is on whole just due to sheer traffic. i am looking for some good spots in the city for weeknight runs. Cue and Philly Record Exchange of course...if anyboduy wants to share a spot or two out of the way i'm ears.
i think my first post on soulstrut was an 'og czech' on a $8 skull snaps lp that i bought at AKA. 99.9999 certain it was a reish and returned it haha. that said i don't think i've ever had a big score there. just some staples. as for cuties they got two, one isn't there too much anymore shes married and in grad school. hooked up with her. the other is usually there and apparently her boyfriend is getting the first look at all the new stock.
Was there anything I said in my tips that isn't true? And didn't I say that I also like Rick(ask around, I am usually the only strutter in the room sticking up for him)? No hater here! I just wish he would open up the inventory more...if you go in there once a month, it's like nothing has changed over the last year!
Peace
T.N.
LOL! Now who's hattin! I prefer 'Barefoot Rikker McGee'
That woman once scored quite a collection of 12"s for $40 flat ! Nobody knows what happened to it...none of it has popped up for sale..i thought of falling into her record mountains, then i would be able to look at shit when i helped pick it up. I also thought of taking her cat for hostage.
the only lp i got from there for $5 is a mint lawrence of newark on perception...back in 97