Buying vinyl in Vegas
I enjoy going into antiques stores, but rarely do I ever buy anything there. As cool as a lot of it seems, it’s generally a bunch of old junk I don’t need (and occasionally old junk I can’t afford). One thing that most antiques stores have to offer are desirable phonograph records — not like the INXS and Wham! throwaways you’d find at any old secondhand store.
Over vacation, I visited a pretty large antiques store in Las Vegas. I wish I’d had more time to scope out the store’s entire record collection, because what I did find was mostly right up my alley. I had to be choosy, because I only had so much to spend, and each record was about $3-$5.
I don’t have an eBay account, and I generally don’t trust an Internet description enough to buy anything used on-line (I like to inspect things for myself before I hand over any money, and especially a credit card number), so I have to rely on what I find inside a store. This is why I don’t have every Led Zeppelin album on vinyl, or any other coveted records for that matter. So imagine my utter delight upon finding “II” at the front of a vertical stack of records in that old antiques store during my vacation. What better Christmas present to myself than my very favorite Zep album in my very favorite format?
I ended up walking out of the store $17 poorer and four records richer. They didn’t have any more Zep albums, but they had some Neil Diamond, some B.B. King and a great old comedy album by Steve Martin.
My mother made an unusual comment to someone recently (a friend or shopkeeper as I recall) about how she bought me a record player last year for Christmas because “all the kids today think that old stuff is so cool,” as though it’s before my time. Well, I don’t know about kids these days, but I was raised with a record player in my house. My dad would listen to his classical records every morning while he did his bridge puzzle in the Seattle P-I and drank his coffee, all the way up until the day he died. Record players for me are about as cool as they’ve always been — I’d just never had one of my own before. It’s nice to be able to play your records in your own home rather than hauling them to someone else’s house just so you can satiate your desire for those delicious scratches and pops. And now I don’t have to be reluctant about buying a record I really want, wondering when I’ll have a chance to listen to it.
What are some of your best record finds, and where did you find them?
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Try The Music Store in downtown Chelan. It’s difficult to find it open (call first 682-5424), but the last time I stopped and it was, I came out with two gems, one by Dave Van Ronk and the other by Chad & Jeremy. You have to ask to see the LP’s, they’re in the basement, there’s a gob of ‘em, they’re in no particular order, and are an absolute blast to go through. Like any used store, there’s plenty of chaff, but a lot of wheat in there, too.
There’s also Old Skool’s, 308 N. Main in Ellensburg. Not as good as the dear departed Rodeo Records (what could be?) but an absolutely fabulous place with an excellent collection of vinyl and cassettes, all well organized by genre and artist. CD’s too, for the “younger” crowd. Besides, the lady who runs it knows her music. Vintage clothing in back, too……
I’ve had people rave to me about some of the restaurants in Ellensburg, some shops, live music, etc, like it’s the land of Oz or something. I lived there for about four months and never experienced any of this. I’m really inclined to go back and check it out. Good food, good entertainment, and now also a really good record store. Thanks Doug!
In the same block as Old Skool are two great used bookstores. Baily’s Biblomania and Brick Road Books. Besides, any town that has stores like Jerrol’s and Boogie Man Music can’t be all bad……
I came across the ultimate find in the early 90’s. The Beatles Yesterday And Today album, I’m sure you’re aware of was originally released with a photo of The Beatles wearing white jackets with parts of meat and broken baby dolls all over them referred to as “The Butcher Cover”. The albums once released were called back (someone didn’t like the original cover)to change the cover to the picture of The Beatles sitting on a luggage trunk. A bunch of the albums just had the “new” picture glued over the old cover and sent back out. I found one of these covers with the new picture glued over the original (with mono record inside)at the local Goodwill store for 55 cents…..sweet.
Wow, 55 cents? Thank goodness Goodwill doesn’t price things according to historic value