Shady scams and other silly business ideas to take advantage of earnest new vinyl collectors

xp iirc same w/ love deluxe and stronger than pride. that's wild to me but i guess sade fans are really really really into sade. which ok i get, they're certifiably great

every single one of these IG stories now, they'll flip too fast through the records that interest me and "stop, pull out, show off" some janky looking Journey lp

moments like this one remembers that while we may be on the internet and physically separated by great distance, we do live in the same world 🥲

my current go-to is Brooklyn Record Exchange, - super nice crew, great selection, pretty regular turnover in the New Arrivals. i don't find many Crazy Bargains, and allowing for the general upward drift of everything these days, I'd describe all their prices as at least "fair" and sometimes "really good." they also pay out reasonably when i've sold them stuff. honestly the only store in NYC that i can wholeheartedly recommend.

― Doctor Casino, Friday, 18 November 2022 17:52 (twenty-eight minutes ago) link

I've gotten some good deals here! I like this place.

lets be real if I owned a shop I'd probably use Discogs a lot too. like how the fuck am I supposed to know that 90's represses of Aerosmith records are worth like, 50 bucks apiece? (my local shop got several in and sold them all immediately) what kills me though is when these shopkeepers don't seem to understand what something **actually** sells for, particularly when it comes to newer, out of print records. I'm thinking of one in particular that was released 2010, was on sale on the band's website for $20 until like...2020 or so, after which copies on Discogs started selling at $30, then $50, and then one person bought one at $90 which encouraged sellers to go $150+. just in case there's one person out there willing to spend that much money. I guess it's one thing doing it online in a global marketplace, where you just need 1 of the 8 billion people on the planet to buy it, but physical stores do this too which is so incredibly stupid. I went to one in Boston which had a bunch of cool vaporwave stuff but it was all priced at like $100+. which the copies on Discogs are going for too, but NOBODY IS ACTUALLY BUYING THEM. even worse considering this was a small shop with very limited space!!

one of the shops i was referring to above, a place in Tarzana, has these tightly packed used LP sections and basically anything that might be somewhat desirable is this aspirational price, they're hoping that one in eight billion person will come in and say "yes i need this".
last time i was there i saw an early blue note lee morgan which was noted as having scratches and a skip priced at $60. at that point you're just acting like the record is a rare coin, an object that you're not going to physically use but just show people.

"a store is a river not a lake" reminds me of a shop i went to in, i think, elizabeth NJ (can't seem to find it on google maps, maybe it's closed?) first band i check for is always new order, i immediately see the store's got a thick stack... pull out blue monday, start opening the plastic sleeve, the owner comes over and points at the sign which says to not remove any records from their sleeve without owner present. uh, ok - turn it over and it's something like $75? flipping through, he has like 3 other copies, all priced progressively higher.

however, definitely not a new shop, seems to have been around for a couple decades at least... think the owner was just a bit of a hoarder!

I was in a friend’s shop about a year ago and a customer found a super rare 45. It wasn’t priced, so my friend looked it up on Discogs, where it had gone for $2500. My friend said to the customers — who knew exactly how rare and valuable the record was — “Is $200 ok?” When I asked him about it he said, “$200 now is better than $2500 never, and they’ll tell their friends and be repeat customers.”

He's got a good point there. I know a collector who has boxes of allegedly valuable comics sitting around, but he's sold maybe a handful of them across a year or so of making them available. Unless you find actual buyers who will pay those high market values, it's not actual value.

that's also the hard truth every sneakerhead / streetwear collector needs to learn at some point. sure, celebrity x might have paid $yyyy for that item of clothing, but how much could you get for it right now if you needed the cash today? because that's how much it's actually worth.

yeah I've got that issue with my collection of Magic the Gathering cards. I've got a lot of old stuff that I keep hearing is very valuable but actually getting that kind of money for it is apparently very difficult. the local shops are straight up saying "we're not buying anything right now" because so many people are selling out at the moment. and all the big shops that buy in bulk pay you like 50% of the sell price so you're not getting anything close to what they're worth. but I sure as hell don't wanna be eBaying everything individually.

my current go-to is Brooklyn Record Exchange, - super nice crew, great selection, pretty regular turnover in the New Arrivals. i don't find many Crazy Bargains, and allowing for the general upward drift of everything these days, I'd describe all their prices as at least "fair" and sometimes "really good." they also pay out reasonably when i've sold them stuff. honestly the only store in NYC that i can wholeheartedly recommend.

― Doctor Casino, Friday, 18 November 2022 17:52 (twenty-eight minutes ago) link

I've gotten some good deals here! I like this place.

― Evan, Friday, November 18, 2022 1:28 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I started going to the Bushwick location pre-pandemic and have picked up some well-priced stuff. Have you gone to their new location in Greenpoint?

I really liked Superior Elevation in East Williamsburg/Bushwick - I got so many jazz albums with beat up sleeves and pretty nice records there for reasonable money. They got flooded out last year and I haven't been to the new location in Williamsburg.

I've mostly been at the Bushwick B.Rex, but have stopped in a couple times at the Greenpoint one! It's nice, though much much smaller. But same friendly staff and same reasonable pricing I'd say.

There's definitely a solid afternoon's worth of record shopping in Greenpoint between that, Captured Tracks, the Academy annex, and Record Grouch. Academy tends to have the most fun and unusual stuff in the new arrivals, and non-crazy prices, but you really gotta hit the listening station because they're maybe not as picky about noisy records as I would be.

record grouch is awesome

or The Little Record Shop in Crouch End which price "to sell" and specialise in reggae and soul in the former case and jazz in the latter.

oh this is good to know, I live down the road in Tottenham and keep meaning to check the Little Record Shop out but it keeps weird hours. Love Flashback, not least because they will let me swap unwanted vinyl and the occasional unwanted promo, and because they have a Pac-Man machine that means my 8yo also wants to go into Flashback if I've taken her to Crouchy to get her hair cut.

I am FINE with VG+ media/G-F cover. I actually sort of love ringwear, and more than that, I love cheap records. Just picked up a copy of Robert Wyatt's Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard, and the sleeve is falling apart but the sound is beautiful.

I'm in Tottenham too, the Turpike Lane/West Green end!

Little Record Shop is fun, the owner is definitely an eccentric but he's nice and is happy to haggle. I went in there with a Flashback bag once and he said "I'm surprised you've got any money left to spend in here!". Good finds have included a couple of well-priced Metallica LPs before they went berzerk, a very seldom seen Alan Vega solo LP and Daft Punk's Homework for £30.

I would also recommend Rise Above over in Archway if you've not been there, it's owned and run by Lee Dorian from Cathedral so has lots of metal, psych and classic rock (original Celtic Frost LPs!) but lots of other stock too. It's definitely priced more punchily, like Flashback, but there are some great finds to be had there.

a very seldom seen Alan Vega solo LP

which one, out of curiosity?

not much seen over here in the UK as I don't think it got a UK release https://www.discogs.com/release/1350726-Alan-Vega-Alan-Vega

ah that makes sense, yes that's more common in the US

I'm in Tottenham too, the Turpike Lane/West Green end!

Ah fab! I'm near Philip Lane! And didn't know Dorian was behind that store - must give it a look!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKWtZnJvPL4

he took the thing from this and put bluetooth capability in it lol

also yes i watch shark tank sorry

I've got a RZA-branded one of those from when he put the Bobby Digital album out

https://images.eil.com/large_image/RZA_BOBBY%2BDIGITAL%2BIN%2BSTEREO-313855.jpg]

lol nice never knew about those. definitely knew about the vinyl killer brand in the late 90s, as i worked in a dj shop and we always kept a couple stocked as a novelty.

Ha. Apparently that was shot in 2017. I remember this 2018 Techmoan review.

It's still being sold. Wonder how successful it's been. There are a surprising number of content mill "shark tank update" junk sites.

collecting anything is probably a bad idea

also we're only a few years out from the CD revival where specialist pop up retailers will offer newly ground down/scratch free pristine discs in flawless jewel boxes in new shrink wrap. "High Fidelity Digital" to play on the wall mounted bluetooth enabled gadget that tops every gen z xmas list

well in that case, yes i do have all of the miles davis columbia box sets* and they can be yours for a lot of money. idk six, seven figures at least. make an offer.

*yes the metal box editions, where available. wtf kinda scam do you think this is? i'm not trying to rip anyone off here.

i saw this the other night and was wondering why people were waiting in line to check out all the godawful thrift store records, assumed it had to be some sort of speakeasy popup http://throughtherecordshop.com/

i would go hang out there. bring my own cigarettes and booze and then get all indignant as i tell them i have no money; condescendingly requesting "waltz for debby" the whole time.

"NO, NOT THE QUINTET VERSION. YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE IT, DO YOU??!!?"

didn’t we do jazz cafes recently? On the audiophile thread?

Coming back full circle on this thread, VNYL is all over my X feed these past few days. Jason Gore from Best Show is on a tear after discovering how big of a rip off these guys are (sending absolute shit albums and auto-charging each month without sending any records at all) and has been calling them out on X - resulting in both the company account and the CEO straight up blocking him.

will never forget how i criticized VNYL on instagram and the owner very creepily followed me

VIVNL really do have a terrible attitude/business model. They’re the only store I know that goes out of their way to click like on tweets that badmouth other record stores. Straight up goofy, nothing better to do, behavior.

How do they still exist?

*VNYL obviously

I was harsh on vinyl me please upthread when they started, probably just unfairly associating their early model with how VNYL was run. But they seem to generally do a pretty good job right? I'm still not into the subscription model for this kind of thing, but a couple good friends of mine are pretty pleased with what they offer.

As far as VNYL, I think they pivoted pretty quickly from their early thrift store scraps model and into record label castoffs, and they take advantage of people's ignorance as far as music on vinyl goes. I still think that's their market.

yeah VMP is solid, I even own a few

(bought second hand, not gonna subscribe)

the name “vinyl me, please” is horrible + some of the marketing patter has weird men’s magazine “art of manliness” vibes. But yeah, their reissues are good, afaik, seems like they pay attention to making a good quality product.

yea I hate the name of the company but the two pressings I have from them are really great, packaging and all

They do a nice job. The vinyl is nice. The heavy tip on jackets are super duper nice.

I did a mini subscription when the releases aligned with a few I wanted that were otherwise really hard to get or expensive, but I wouldn't do it all the time. Theres been a couple I've missed, and wish I hadn't as on the secondhand market they got really expensive.

I guess I'm not really a fan of the hype beast vinyl market.

I was harsh on vinyl me please upthread when they started, probably just unfairly associating their early model with how VNYL was run. But they seem to generally do a pretty good job right? I'm still not into the subscription model for this kind of thing, but a couple good friends of mine are pretty pleased with what they offer.

I'd subscribe if I was in the US and had more $$$s - I roll my eyes at a lot of what they press up, and their box sets have been very overpriced and kind of baffling ("Here's 8 or so random Herbie Hancock records, $500 pls"), and I find the sleevenotes often unedifying and the patter in the copywriting aggravating. But their pressings are good, they care about the final product, and they often are repressing things that I'd like to own. They put Buhloone Mindstate back in print a good few years before the DLS reissues earlier this year (sadly both reissues were only 1LP and missing a bunch of tracks, but whaddya gonna do), and I just picked up a second hand copy of their reissue of Kamaal The Abstract, which looks and sounds lovely.

I have a Lee Scratch Perry one and a Jorge Ben one, both excellent and stupidly expensive as OGs

I didn't know they'd pressed up Africa Brasil. I may have to hunt that down...

okay how much are they paying you guys...

lol

Still not enough to afford their postage to the UK!

also re: VNYL, i'll never forget chaki's invaluable investigative reporter visit to the store. god, what a dire company. i'm surprised there's anyone active at that company to block Jason Gore on twitter, their instagram and Facebook have been dormant for a long, long time.

Dank Deals and other super bodacious offers to take advantage of before time runs out

haha yes the whole discovery of the VYNL model was a great ILM moment and Chaki's video the cherry on top