Comments on Profile Post by wbass

Had, too, a weird encounter at a small place attached to a coffee shop. Owner read me a bunch of rules--don't touch the corners, no mobile phone, no photos, no looking things up on discogs--which kind of put me off immediately. But, okay, let me have a look at your (very small) jazz section.

10 seconds in, he was on me about touching corners (which I didn't do). I said, No, thanks, walked straight out. Felt bad about it, but, also, come on, dude, I've been to many, many record stores--Dusty Groove, Jazz Record Center, places that carry $$$ LPs--never had anyone breathing down my neck so bad. Crate digging is supposed to be fun.

Also, I get that Discogs is a mixed blessing for record stores, but the no phone thing was a total red flag that he was pricing high. An *excellent* record store--like, say, Princeton Record Exchange--often prices lower than/ignores Discogs.

Unpopular opinion: RSD has given many indie record shops an inflated sense of worth. I had one RSD release on my radar, called ahead asked how many copies, was told they had 4 or 5, but to just come get in line on Saturday. Sure...

Most of my good vinyl finds have been in the country. Cities have always been picked over or expensive with some exceptions.

Books by the Falls in Derby, CT gets random donations of vinyl and sells it all for $4 each. So many of my best finds are from there.

So I show up about an hour after opening, and wade through a bunch of wine-drinking boomers only to find zero copies (but! all 15 copies of whatever-the-f**k Chet Baker release were just sitting there...)

So, I ask one clerk, what gives? Did they sell out already? "Nah bro! we never got those copies! But you're here, so buy some stuff! it's RSD!!!" Got it. I'll stick with Discogs...

On a side note…just found this guy Vinyl Junkies on Twitch. Interesting dude.

I might have done better in Berlin digging for electronic/techno, but that ain't my thing. Have had some luck in smaller cities (in the US), but also have seen a lot of small shops pricing in the stratosphere. A lot of people, dealers and customers both, treating LPs like black gold, even when the stock is crap.

Ah, Record Store Day... there was just nothing I was interested in this year. *Another* Bill Evans re-discovered "holy grail"? On so-so pressed vinyl cut from digital files? Yawn. I'll stream it.

Been doing the same in London last couple of days. Interesting to see a different flavour in the used selection vs North America, but but holy f**k the prices... And the staff don't seem to need RSD to be arrogant, I suspect it's a permanent state.