Dollar bin tip I picked up at the Princeton Record Exchange

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.

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jason1122mo ago

Buddy of mine does the same thing at thrift stores. Grabbed a Blue Note pressing of some Art Blakey that was shoved between a bunch of classical records. Paid fifty cents for it.

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river1902mo ago

Your buddy got lucky but that's the exception not the rule. I've been hitting thrift stores every Saturday for about three years now and 99 percent of the vinyl I see is Herb Alpert and Christmas albums from 1978. People think there's still treasure everywhere but the reality is that most good stuff got picked clean by resellers with phone scanners back in 2015. The real pattern I've noticed is that thrift stores have gotten way more aware of what they're pricing. I walked into a Salvation Army last month and they had a scratched up Whipped Cream and Other Delights for fifteen bucks like it was some rare artifact. The whole system has shifted from "we're just trying to get rid of this junk" to "maybe grandpa's old records are actually worth money." So yeah those fifty cent Blue Note scores still happen but they're becoming as rare as the records themselves.

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