Went to a garage sale last Saturday and this guy was trying to sell a 1977 repress of a classic rock album as a first pressing for $50. I pulled out my phone and showed him the matrix numbers in the dead wax, you can always tell by the stamps. He got kinda defensive but I walked away with a clean original from 1971 for $8 instead. Anyone else run into sellers who don't know the difference?
I was just stacking them for a shelf reorganization and decided to count. 500 exactly. Never thought I'd get there, especially since I mostly dig through thrift store bins for $1 stuff. Has anyone else hit a random milestone like that and stopped to realize how many you actually have?
Picked up a used Discwasher D4 from some guy on Craigslist in Denver for $80 thinking I scored a deal. Turns out the felt pad was dried out and scratched the grooves on my original 1973 Houses of the Holy. Now I stick to a simple spin clean and microfiber cloths, has anyone else had bad luck with vintage cleaning gear?
He showed me how to spot first pressings by the matrix numbers scratched in the vinyl near the label. Ever since then I always flip through the deadwax before buying anything.
I dropped ten bucks on that record because he had this wild story about a collector paying $500 for a mint copy, but when I looked it up later it's literally one of the most common vinyls out there and now it's just sitting on my shelf as a reminder not to trust random dudes with beards and gold teeth.
I was flipping through the dollar bins at Princeton Record Exchange last Saturday and noticed a guy pulling out beat-up classical records one after another. Asked him why, and he said to check the labels for small independent pressings that got mixed in with the junk. Pulled out a clean 1950s Riverside jazz LP that way for a buck, easy.
I was digging through a bin at a garage sale in Portland last Saturday and found a really beat-up copy of Sgt. Pepper's for $2, but right next to it was a near-mint Whipped Cream and Other Delights for $1. I went with the Herb Alpert because the condition was just so good (you know, no skips or pops) and it actually sounds amazing on my turntable. Has anyone else passed up a rare find just because the vinyl was too rough?
I used to find decent Deutsche Grammophon pressings for a dollar all the time at Goodwill in Portland. But in the last 6 months, every single classical bin I dig through is just Reader's Digest box sets and scratched up choir albums from churches. Has anyone else noticed the good classical stuff completely drying up at thrift stores lately?
I picked up this pristine copy of 'The Nashville Stars Sing Elvis' for $3 at a sale in Austin, thought I struck gold. Got it home and it's clearly some guys in a basement doing off-key karaoke, not even close to Elvis. Has anyone else gotten excited over a vintage looking cover only to find total garbage inside?
I was at this sale in a neighborhood off Hawthorne and both were sitting in a crate. I only had $15 on me and could only grab one. Grabbed Rumours because everyone says it's essential, but now I keep thinking about that self-titled album. Has anyone else passed on something then kicked themselves later?
There was a beat-up box of Deutsche Grammophon classical records for $8 and a near-mint copy of a Dire Straits album for $12 at the same garage sale in Portland. I grabbed the classical set because it had 15 records inside and I figured even if half were trashed it was still a deal. Turns out about 9 of them play clean after a good wash with distilled water and a microfiber cloth. The Dire Straits album was gone by the time I circled back 10 minutes later. Has anyone else taken a gamble on a bulk lot of records that looked rough but cleaned up better than expected?
Found a 1970 pressing of Neil Young's After the Gold Rush at a garage sale for $2 and spent way too long scrubbing it with wood glue before realizing it's so warped it bounces the needle every two rotations. Has anyone tried that heat-press flattening trick between two sheets of glass or is that just asking for trouble?
I hit a church rummage sale in a small town near Cleveland last Saturday and found a whole box of 1960s jazz records marked 50 cents each. The lady running it said they were from her uncle's collection and she just wanted them gone. I grabbed 12 albums and most were in great shape, not even any bad scratches. Has anyone else stumbled on good stuff at places that aren't even listed online?
Stopped by the one on 82nd last Tuesday. Found a copy of Rumours with a scratch that skips through track 3. They want $5 for that. Five bucks for a beat up record. Used to be 50 cents a pop. Now I hit estate sales instead. Scored 40 records for $20 at one last month. Anyone else seeing thrift stores get greedy?
I usually skip the bins at garage sales because most of it is scratched up Herb Alpert records. But last Saturday in Arlington, this older lady had a whole box of 70s rock albums. I flipped through and found a Fleetwood Mac Rumours that looked like it had never been played. Side one has a tiny pop during Dreams but otherwise it sounds clean as a whistle. Has anyone else stumbled onto a record that was way better than you expected for pocket change?
I was at a garage sale in Elmhurst last Saturday and saw a pile of Deutsche Grammophon vinyls for $2 each. Grabbed about 25 of them thinking I scored big on some classical rarities. Got home and pulled the first one out, a Beethoven symphony, and noticed the sleeve was crinkled on the bottom edge. Pulled the record out and there were visible water stains and some warping along the last track. Checked the rest and about half were in similar shape, must have been stored in a damp basement for years. I tried cleaning one with distilled water and a microfiber cloth but the warp was too bad, it skips on my turntable. Now I'm stuck deciding if I should try to return them to the seller (who was an old lady, feel bad) or just eat the loss and trash the bad ones. Has anyone else dealt with buying a bulk lot and finding hidden water damage? How do you check for that at a garage sale without opening every sleeve?
I found a 1978 pressing of Rumours at a garage sale in Akron for three bucks, pristine sleeve and all. Got it home and realized my old turntable's needle was shot, so I dropped $40 on a new cartridge. The record itself has this one skip during Dreams that drives me crazy, like a little crackle that pops up every single time. So now I've got this "bargain" that I'm afraid to play too much because I might wear out the groove more. Meanwhile my buddy found the same album for a dollar at a church sale and his plays perfectly on some junk player from the 80s. It's like the universe is messing with me specifically. Has anyone else sunk money into records that turned out to be more trouble than they were worth?
He pulled out a stack of old jazz records he'd cleaned that way for 40 years and they sounded Perfect, so I dumped my bottle of branded cleaner and never looked back.
I kept seeing this beat-up Bing Crosby Christmas album at my local Goodwill in Portland for like 4 months straight, figured it was just the usual cheap junk. Finally grabbed it out of boredom and noticed the label was different from the normal reissues. Looked it up and it's a first pressing on Decca that goes for around $80 on Discogs. Anyone else ever passed on something a million times only to find out it was actually valuable?
Found a copy of Sweet Baby James at a thrift store in Portland for two bucks, looked clean but played like a scratched CD. I watched a YouTube tutorial and tried the wood glue trick on it last Thursday, peeled it off after 4 hours and it played almost perfect. Anyone else had mixed results with that method on older records?
Last month at the monthly swap in Portland this guy in his 70s named Bob overheard me complaining about surface noise on a copy of Rumours I found for $3 at a garage sale. He grabbed my arm and said "son you're grinding those grooves flat" and handed me a cheap stylus pressure gauge. I went home and checked my turntable was set to 4.5 grams instead of the recommended 2. So now I got a $15 digital scale off Amazon and every record sounds way cleaner. Has anyone else had a random stranger at a show give advice that actually saved them money?
I saw a guy at an estate sale in Austin asking $40 for a 1986 copy of Rumours. Like dude, that's one of the most pressed albums ever, there are millions of them. I know because I've picked up three clean copies myself for under $5 each at Goodwill this year alone. Anyone else notice newer collectors going crazy on common represses?