....all the records are, whatever, $1 ... and if you find a record that would be $100 at a "boutique," it will still be $1.
This fact usually rears it's ugly head a week after I say "F**K IT" and pay the "diggers market" value of something. I always find said record right after, for a dollar. Oh well, dig & learn!
For me, records are a hobby not a way of life. And spending half my weekend at flea markets, junk stores, thrifts and garage sales is a waste of time and money. I don't feel bad about dropping perhaps a little extra dough on a record that's in good condition and of good quality musically. I know for a fact the record-store proprietor doesn't mind either.
I agree with this and have no problems paying "market value" for records I want at stores or online, but the obvious appeal of shopping for records at thrifts, flea markets, garage sales, etc, is that all the records are, whatever, $1 ... and if you find a record that would be $100 at a "boutique," it will still be $1.
Just to add on a little, the draw of a (good) boutique in my opinion is their ability to get in records from all corners of the world through their countless contacts that they've built up over the years as well as international customers who bring trades with them. For instance, no disrespect to the fine people of the Czech Republic, but there's no way in hell I'm going to that country to look for records (there are too many countries above it on my list of places to go in this world). Yet, I dig a lot of music that comes from there, and it's great to be able to go into the Groove Merchant and cop quality Eastern Euro titles in amazing shape at reasonable prices.
b/w
Motherfucker, i don't have the time to go to West Africa and dig! I'm busy enough as it is IN THIS HEMISPHERE.
One thing I should mention - whereas I am more than happy to still do the dirty work for records, the rise in bedbugs in urban centres has me scared shitless when it comes to buying second-hand/vintage clothing.
Just to add on a little, the draw of a (good) boutique in my opinion is their ability to get in records from all corners of the world through their countless contactspoor, exploited agents of reggid imperialists
Just to add on a little, the draw of a (good) boutique in my opinion is their ability to get in records from all corners of the world through their countless contactspoor, exploited agents of reggid imperialists
FIXED.
I just LOL'd at the image of CC running an international vinyl smuggling operation using child labor agents.
seriously, i dont know one person whos into records that doesnt/ hasnt spent $ at a specialty store. the names on that list of those who do are huuuuuge, a1 used to have all those polaroids. thats a big diss to alot of people. if you make a living from the SELLING of vinyl, thats a whole notha world.
seriously, i dont know one person whos into records that doesnt/ hasnt spent $ at a specialty store. the names on that list of those who do are huuuuuge, a1 used to have all those polaroids. thats a big diss to alot of people. if you make a living from the SELLING of vinyl, thats a whole notha world.
I think if you been digging for a while you will eventually spend some $$$ at some sort of boutique type store. Because I love dollar bins but there is only so much time and luck in the world and there are certain records ppl are after that they wont see often or ever before, so if you spot it in a crate (whether its a dollar bin or boutique store) a digger will buy that shit if they have the money on them.
Everyone has dropped some heavy dosh on some heat they have been hunting for ages. And everyone has probably socred expensive records for cheap in thrifts and dolla bins. im sure a few of us have been burnt by expensive purchases that have turned out to be duds, and took a dollar bin gamble on something that turned out to be some unknown killer piece of wax...
My rule of thumb is check any crate in any store whenever I have the time and money.... and then you make a choice on the spot. Sydney has been losing its vinyl spots so I cant afford to be too picky anymore, ANY store that has vinyl is good enough for me...
My rule of thumb is check any crate in any store whenever I have the time and money....
You just never know where & what you'll find. I found a sealed copy of RAMP, for $1, in an antique store, just sitting on the counter under a news paper that the cashier was reading. No bullshit!
My rule of thumb is check any crate in any store whenever I have the time and money....
You just never know where & what you'll find. I found a sealed copy of RAMP, for $1, in an antique store, just sitting on the counter under a news paper that the cashier was reading. No bullshit!
My old dear mate, Al Fresko (RIP), was the master of this...for real. That dude would walk into some random spot I walked past a million times and find NM James Brown 45s for a dollar, or hit up a shitty garage (yard) sale and find a collection of over 1000 records that the guy wasnt going to sell becuase he didnt think anyone wanted to buy them....until Al came along and took the whole lot (and ends up cutting a deal w him paying 20 cents a record)....
My old dear mate, Al Fresko (RIP), was the master of this...for real. That dude would walk into some random spot I walked past a million times and find NM James Brown 45s for a dollar, or hit up a shitty garage (yard) sale and find a collection of over 1000 records that the guy wasnt going to sell becuase he didnt think anyone wanted to buy them....until Al came along and took the whole lot (and ends up cutting a deal w him paying 20 cents a record)....
Damn, some dudes just have that way about them. I bet this dude had some stories!
Big_Stacks"I don't worry about hittin' power, cause I don't give 'em nuttin' to hit." 4,670 Posts
My rule of thumb is check any crate in any store whenever I have the time and money....
You just never know where & what you'll find. I found a sealed copy of RAMP, for $1, in an antique store, just sitting on the counter under a news paper that the cashier was reading. No bullshit!
My old dear mate, Al Fresko (RIP), was the master of this...for real. That dude would walk into some random spot I walked past a million times and find NM James Brown 45s for a dollar, or hit up a shitty garage (yard) sale and find a collection of over 1000 records that the guy wasnt going to sell becuase he didnt think anyone wanted to buy them....until Al came along and took the whole lot (and ends up cutting a deal w him paying 20 cents a record)....
Hey,
Back in the late 80's, I routinely pulled heat from a guy that sold records from a mobile stand in the lobby of Dorton Arena in Raleigh, NC. Around this same time, I found heat each week at "Muzik Hut" in the Flea Market Mall (Fayetteville, NC). Then again, I used to come up at the Goodwill and thrift stores downtown (in Fayetteville) too. Records used to be so plentiful and cheap, then it got popular. I loved it when it was just young me and the old hippies in record stores.
My old dear mate, Al Fresko (RIP), was the master of this...for real. That dude would walk into some random spot I walked past a million times and find NM James Brown 45s for a dollar, or hit up a shitty garage (yard) sale and find a collection of over 1000 records that the guy wasnt going to sell becuase he didnt think anyone wanted to buy them....until Al came along and took the whole lot (and ends up cutting a deal w him paying 20 cents a record)....
Damn, some dudes just have that way about them. I bet this dude had some stories!
Threat hijack fo sorts but sharing the story on my mate Al had me thinking of him all day and missing him, and it also made me reemeber the joy of diggin and sharing yoru scores 9and new old music) with friends.
You got to understand, Al was a mate from way back, one fo only 3 dudes that i came up with, same neighbourhood, same circle of friends, same high school, same cultural background etc.
So i got lots of diggers in Australia that Im friends with but I only ever had a handful of my close mates that shared the love of diggin with me. And Al was the last one left still diggin w me as the other two stopped going hard at it.
Al passed away while in Chile this year in jan. and one fo the last messages he sent me had him braggin about all the dope shit he picked up in Chile (heaps of fania heat!) we used to gee each toehr up and 'battle' over our scores, but it was nuthing for us to lend records to each other for months, or for one of us to call the other over to come for a smoke and a mix.
The problme with my 'battels' with Alonso was the dude had tons of luck. If i showed him a recordhe aint seen before and played him some killer shit, 9/10 he would find that shit in his next mission usually cheaper than what I paid! And he wasnt a full time digger either, just a dude that checked out crates where he saw them. he had no 'spots' or connections or heavy ebay accounts etc But eh would buy vinyl for scheap when he saw it and dude always found heat for chump change.
A classic Al story is this one.
he calls me one day and says he found a box of 'spanish' records at the local St Vinnies (which usualy has crud). He comes over to play them (cus his decks wont working) and he has some fucking killer shit, in good condition. I bought one of him for $50!
Now I tell another friend of mine, a old skool heavy digger, who hits thrift stores hard daily, include the local Fairfield St Vinnies, about it and he asks what day Al was in there. I say friday-and he tells me Al must be bullshitting cus he was at that spot Friday and there was nothing, turns out 30min after the heavy digger left the spot, the truck showed up with new shit including this box of spanish records, and my boy Al walked in 5 min later after work and snacthed them all.
best thing is, the next week he goes to another St Vinnies near by, and scores what must have been the rest of the collection (and the heavy digger hits this spot on the reg too and missed that batch)!
My heavy digger mate didnt believe it at first but I told him, bro ive been diggin with Al for years...his luck doesnt amaze me anymore, he really is that lucky.
Comments
This fact usually rears it's ugly head a week after I say "F**K IT" and pay the "diggers market" value of something. I always find said record right after, for a dollar. Oh well, dig & learn!
Just to add on a little, the draw of a (good) boutique in my opinion is their ability to get in records from all corners of the world through their countless contacts that they've built up over the years as well as international customers who bring trades with them. For instance, no disrespect to the fine people of the Czech Republic, but there's no way in hell I'm going to that country to look for records (there are too many countries above it on my list of places to go in this world). Yet, I dig a lot of music that comes from there, and it's great to be able to go into the Groove Merchant and cop quality Eastern Euro titles in amazing shape at reasonable prices.
b/w
Motherfucker, i don't have the time to go to West Africa and dig! I'm busy enough as it is IN THIS HEMISPHERE.
Oh now u get it!
FIXED.
I just LOL'd at the image of CC running an international vinyl smuggling operation using child labor agents.
seriously, i dont know one person whos into records that doesnt/ hasnt spent $ at a specialty store.
the names on that list of those who do are huuuuuge, a1 used to have all those polaroids.
thats a big diss to alot of people.
if you make a living from the SELLING of vinyl, thats a whole notha world.
I trade lollipops
FIXED
how much you paid is a very important factor if you intend to sell it & actually make money
where you got it, less so
But I usually get only keepers from shops/boutiques. Anything I wind up reselling is found in the trenches.
I was speaking about how much it matters to "other people"
Do you know any of those
go holler at some hipster priceczeching on his iphone
I think if you been digging for a while you will eventually spend some $$$ at some sort of boutique type store. Because I love dollar bins but there is only so much time and luck in the world and there are certain records ppl are after that they wont see often or ever before, so if you spot it in a crate (whether its a dollar bin or boutique store) a digger will buy that shit if they have the money on them.
Everyone has dropped some heavy dosh on some heat they have been hunting for ages. And everyone has probably socred expensive records for cheap in thrifts and dolla bins. im sure a few of us have been burnt by expensive purchases that have turned out to be duds, and took a dollar bin gamble on something that turned out to be some unknown killer piece of wax...
My rule of thumb is check any crate in any store whenever I have the time and money.... and then you make a choice on the spot. Sydney has been losing its vinyl spots so I cant afford to be too picky anymore, ANY store that has vinyl is good enough for me...
You just never know where & what you'll find. I found a sealed copy of RAMP, for $1, in an antique store, just sitting on the counter under a news paper that the cashier was reading. No bullshit!
My old dear mate, Al Fresko (RIP), was the master of this...for real. That dude would walk into some random spot I walked past a million times and find NM James Brown 45s for a dollar, or hit up a shitty garage (yard) sale and find a collection of over 1000 records that the guy wasnt going to sell becuase he didnt think anyone wanted to buy them....until Al came along and took the whole lot (and ends up cutting a deal w him paying 20 cents a record)....
Damn, some dudes just have that way about them. I bet this dude had some stories!
Your dog will find this at your local boutique.
Hey,
Back in the late 80's, I routinely pulled heat from a guy that sold records from a mobile stand in the lobby of Dorton Arena in Raleigh, NC. Around this same time, I found heat each week at "Muzik Hut" in the Flea Market Mall (Fayetteville, NC). Then again, I used to come up at the Goodwill and thrift stores downtown (in Fayetteville) too. Records used to be so plentiful and cheap, then it got popular. I loved it when it was just young me and the old hippies in record stores.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
Threat hijack fo sorts but sharing the story on my mate Al had me thinking of him all day and missing him, and it also made me reemeber the joy of diggin and sharing yoru scores 9and new old music) with friends.
You got to understand, Al was a mate from way back, one fo only 3 dudes that i came up with, same neighbourhood, same circle of friends, same high school, same cultural background etc.
So i got lots of diggers in Australia that Im friends with but I only ever had a handful of my close mates that shared the love of diggin with me. And Al was the last one left still diggin w me as the other two stopped going hard at it.
Al passed away while in Chile this year in jan. and one fo the last messages he sent me had him braggin about all the dope shit he picked up in Chile (heaps of fania heat!) we used to gee each toehr up and 'battle' over our scores, but it was nuthing for us to lend records to each other for months, or for one of us to call the other over to come for a smoke and a mix.
The problme with my 'battels' with Alonso was the dude had tons of luck. If i showed him a recordhe aint seen before and played him some killer shit, 9/10 he would find that shit in his next mission usually cheaper than what I paid! And he wasnt a full time digger either, just a dude that checked out crates where he saw them. he had no 'spots' or connections or heavy ebay accounts etc But eh would buy vinyl for scheap when he saw it and dude always found heat for chump change.
A classic Al story is this one.
he calls me one day and says he found a box of 'spanish' records at the local St Vinnies (which usualy has crud). He comes over to play them (cus his decks wont working) and he has some fucking killer shit, in good condition. I bought one of him for $50!
Now I tell another friend of mine, a old skool heavy digger, who hits thrift stores hard daily, include the local Fairfield St Vinnies, about it and he asks what day Al was in there. I say friday-and he tells me Al must be bullshitting cus he was at that spot Friday and there was nothing, turns out 30min after the heavy digger left the spot, the truck showed up with new shit including this box of spanish records, and my boy Al walked in 5 min later after work and snacthed them all.
best thing is, the next week he goes to another St Vinnies near by, and scores what must have been the rest of the collection (and the heavy digger hits this spot on the reg too and missed that batch)!
My heavy digger mate didnt believe it at first but I told him, bro ive been diggin with Al for years...his luck doesnt amaze me anymore, he really is that lucky.
Fuck I miss the cunt....
This may blow your mind, but in America, James Brown 45s are worth only a bit more than that, relatively speaking.
True, but they are rarely mint.