things i didn't say at the record store

"you should put that record down and look at the records in the racks with two hands. its way easier that way. one-handed with a full row of records is kind of a dumb way to see things. in my opinion."

there. needed to get that off my chest.

my partner INSISTS on holding my records for me when we’re record shopping and I feel like such a poop

Why do you have so few used records and so many reissues of widely available records?

― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR)

because used records (especially desirable ones) are increasingly hard to find, afaict

this is something i'm not supposed to say to people. here goes. i LOVE being in my store when nobody is here. hahaha! i am worst capitalist!

https://scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/358683431_10161322472032137_8743356136386483654_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=idzdyQsIMksAX_GJ6Ti&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-2.xx&oh=00_AfDOOeTwExVDgIxyBqZSKz_FrQoSuMMnDx_Ye9olkQoeEw&oe=64AE3F4A

i bet so many dudes have farted in that little place

cute girl bought a youth of today record today. #connecticutstraightedgehardcorewillneverdie

wow I was under the impression that rule #1 of a store was "never play anything that's not there for sale"

― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Friday, 7 July 2023 20:36 bookmarkflaglink

hate this! I was in a record shop last year and they were playing a Yummy Fur LP. I was like oh how much is this I want this record and they were like oh this our copy sorry. don't play it in the shop then you bastards lol

“I will now sell five copies of The Three EPs by the Beta Band.”

i still listen to beta band but i take it off in the store if someone comes in. i used to get self-conscious if someone came in and i was playing cliche record store stuff. velvet underground. beach boys. or the two most revered rock bands in the world according to the lame-ass people who come into my store: zed lep and fink ployd.

sometimes i will get caught playing something that is actually mine and very rarely someone will ask me if its for sale and i just make up a really high price. sold a few good records that way! they called my bluff!

hi scott please don't stop posting, I very much enjoy this thread and your revived presence on the board, don't let one person's misplaced anger put you off

I learned about I Was the President's Mistress!! from this fantastic thread

xpost - agreed!

yes

guy comes in and stands in front of me and says: "Jazz".

and i say: "uhhhhhhhh, okay. you want some?"

"Jazz".

"Dude, what the..."

"Bill Evans. Steve Allen. Got any? Chet Baker. I have lots of records. I'll probably just give them to you. I'm getting old. I don't listen to jazz anymore. Got any Steve Allen?"

"Wait, you have records with you?"

"No, I live in New York State..."

"Our jazz is by the window there."

He looks for one minute then turns and says really loudly: "WELP, NOTHIN'!" And then he shrugs his shoulders in a really exaggerated and broad way like he's in a silent movie.

He leaves without another word and then I say: "What the fuck?" "Fuck you, you fucking weirdo."

Then I go about my business.

ShopGPT

I feel I need to make a pilgrimage to this store and ask you where the 90's IDM section is and watch you twitch

some of these stories remind me of Daffer, this beloved Minneapolis record store dude. Daffer was, you know, a little different and also suffered from severe narcolepsy.

he was forever going through the bargain records (which were in bins on the floor underneath the main racks) and delivering his signature catch phrase "Why so expensive?", then his narcolepsy would kick in and he would take a snooze on the floor of the store. Everyone know the deal so you'd just gingerly step around him and let him take a little nap. then, he'd wake up like nothing happened and keep browsing.

(this was at Treehouse Records mostly, which was the newer name of the legendary Replacement/Husker daze institution Oar Folkjokeapus)

i think you both made a little jazz there

You know how they say music is largely the notes you don't play?

Maybe the moral of the story is that a record store is largely the records you don't have

Lol

i have a guy now who has just been reeling off names of things i don't have for the last hour and a half. "You know what I don't see? Parliament. Parliament/Funkadelic? Huh. Is it somewhere that I'm not seeing?"

Yes, some other store!

does anyone do this in any other kind of store?

i have about 4 to 5 thousand records in the store at any given time. there will be a few missing...

(also when anyone tells me about terrible experiences they had with a multitude of record stores and dealers over decades of time i say to myself: "uh oh i'm probably next. what terrible new story will i give this guy to tell to other record store people in the future?")

damn, sounds like someone from michelin was at your store

I worked in a record store in Boulder, Colorado in the 80s. We had an endless parade of insufferable dudes like this.

Scott, you’d probably have some Parliament-Funkadelic if you priced them NOT to sell! You ever consider that? How are you gonna have any good records in your store if you keep selling them?

lol

Running the record store might be described as “an endless parade of insufferable dudes”

its actually not that bad! my corner of the world is sleepy. at least they only come in one at a time. i like to complain but i can't complain. it used to bug me when people would say "It must be nice to sit and listen to records all day" because i know how hard i hustle to keep a full store of decent stuff all the time - let alone for 14 years - but now i'm like: uh, you know what, it IS nice to listen to records all day.

meanwhile , i just bought 30,000 records so i'll see you in...january.

<3

new name. new bags. only took 14 years. i always raise an eyebrow when people start selling shirts for their record store before they actually open. i wanted to make sure i was ready.

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/365465155_10161373913462137_3791527539330556956_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=s63mnYQ2cu0AX_pjT4L&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.xx&oh=00_AfAvWCTkVXs436yDYammUtLnOQqTLRduxUCMiHxoUODAIw&oe=64CFE55A

nice merch! really dig the logo

"are the prices hard?"

"uhhhhh, huh? the prices are the prices..."

"what's with all these different prices...5...10...15...??"

"uhhhhh, yeah, things have different prices...?? Do you wish they were the same...? i don't understand.."

do you know what store is...

sometimes i don't get it. i guess they wondered how i came up with prices? they also mentioned that there was no condition on the record...

like i'm gonna put the condition on every record?

people baffle me.

then some guy said "i don't see any bargain cd area..."

and i said "like dollar CDs? no, there is a salvation army around the corner though. i think those are $1.99 plus tax..."

then my pal willie lane came in and everything was alright again. willie is an excellent musician who puts out his own records in small batches and then he never reissues them. though feeding tube did actually reissue an old one recently. he doesn't reissue them himself though.

i'm in the back working and maria is up front listening to sadness and responding in kind: "oh wow yeah your family loves the beatles..."

last parting quote from sadness: "i don't have any money..."

thanks for stopping by.

Willie Lane is great! tell him good job

i will!

tooooooooooooooooo many copies around here of:

david bromberg (jesus, so many. holy shit. you couldn't pay me to listen to one. same with leo kottke and leo sayer.)

joan armatrading (love you joan but you rival national geographics in sheer land mass in the great commonwealth of massachusetts)

the roches (weeeeee are maggie, terre, and we are friggin' everywhere...)

mccggarrigglle sisters (you wish roches our records actually mate and give birth to more of our records forever......)

sweet honey in the...(okay you get the picture.)

i refuse all records by: tom rush, fogeldork, kenny dorkins, dorkins & logorrhea, wet willie, les dudek, chi-raqo, muddy blahs...so many more.

really no Moody Blues? I would think those would sell?

with u on the rest tho

ehhh every blue moon i sell one. but the problem is when someone has one moody blues record they have 20 moody blues records all in the same dusty VG shape. tooooo many of them. even for a dollar they sit.

no offense to the MBs. they are fine by me.

I treasure my original Willie Lane Known Quantity LP

i want scratch ticket to play at my store. willie and sunburned rob and sunburned john. best local power trio! but i don't think they have played a show since before covid.

Hey Scott, would you be interested in having Glenn Jones play at your store too? Serious inquiry...

Glenn plays at my friend Josh's store, Mystery Train, pretty regularly. They are friends. right around the corner.

That's great! A few months ago he was itching to play more gigs but said he didn't have too many lined up - I told him I'd ask around.

I've been digging into the early Leo Kottke records recently, and they're really lovely! Rich cascades of acoustic guitar flowing out of clean black vinyl - nobody told me. I would believe that the market has little need for any more beat-up, sawdust-filled copies though.

my brother-in-law turned me on to that Circle 'Round The Sun record by Leo years ago and I will always be fond of it. listening to it super stoned on top of a mountain outside Woodstock. Pat Metheny at the bottom of the hill! that's the first time I ever heard Red Hash by Gary Higgins and I had a similar lovely experience with that.

indeed! was a bit of chat about that on this thread...

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

i had a nice chat with mark from the old record peddler shop in manchester uk. he came in with some friends. and yes i did grill him pretty good for Factory artist stories. i always want more vini reilly tidbits. it must have been so cool to get FAC releases hot off the press for your shop in the 80s!

https://www.mdmarchive.co.uk/gfx/7061/400-1.jpg

penn jillette came in the other day. he's really nice. he was bugging out over the weird stuff i have. and he was very complimentary. said really nice stuff about the store. he bought a huge box of comedy records from us 10 years ago or so and we shipped them to him in las vegas and he said he was still getting through them all. but he's a busy guy. no time to listen to records! he's from Greenfield. i forgot to give him a t-shirt. he's so damn tall. i also forgot to ask him if he had checked out the new Cheech & Chong pot dispensary down the street a block. speaking of comedy.

You ever listen to this? I was always curious myself...

https://i.discogs.com/fNMqpkbYh3oC7hBqZS5wOVIozKbPK9lDxrveVknFhXA/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:597/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE5MDI5/OTUtMTI1MTMwNDg0/NC5qcGVn.jpeg

way too obvious things you find in records...

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/411637381_10161633782097137_7926552940571295852_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=3635dc&_nc_ohc=RtiLLQr6tvUAX9BETb3&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.xx&oh=00_AfBVqOYKn1Y0G_Ecu3uHGGTw_jWkvS4gZnyxx_bgfCRAyA&oe=65896FF0

That’s oregano brah

Scott to clarify I was legitimately asking if you knew about that "Captain Howdy" project, cause that's really Penn

oh yeah sure i remember the captain howdy but i don't recall offhand what it sounds like. i know i heard it in my days of listening to shimmy disc stuff. i almost brought it up to him at the store!

I've always hoped to find a pot leaf or a 10-strip of acid or something, but the only drugs I've found in a record was a single stem in a copy of Goody Goody.

https://i.discogs.com/goKcSTC5bF9q_gRaITx9lGkoQnaDtCWXGUu4ezmdsc8/rs:fit/g:sm/q:40/h:300/w:300/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTI1Mzgy/MjAwLTE2NzAzMDYw/MjQtNzcwNy5wbmc.jpeg

If this is a dumb question I know Scott will say so (and possibly save me some embarrassment), so here it goes: I’ve thankfully made it to the stage of my life where I can afford the records I love but buying from Discogs has been a nightmare (e.g., the two common issues are unreported hairline scratches and sending me the wrong pressing). Is there a service (or maybe record shops do this) where I give someone a list of the several hundred records I want and they track them down and ship them to me? Maybe they’d get 10% of the cost or something?

you could post a list link here, ILX might not have all but I bet we have some. see also:

selling my fucking records

https://medium.com/@scottseward68/open-for-business-confessions-of-a-used-record-dealer-in-new-england-42985dbca372

Feeling this. The folks who come in and tell you about the records they own, wanting you to be impressed. No details, just … that they have a record collection. Ooooooh! No fucking shit? You have over a hundred records? Please tell me about it.

Or that they USED to have one, and sold it or dumped it like everyone else did. So do you wanna buy them all back, then? No? You don’t have a record player anymore? What the fuck are you doing in my store preventing me from doing something useful like helping the other customers or picking my hangnails?

Thanks for this piece, Scott. It’s therapeutic.

haha, no problem!

Is there a service (or maybe record shops do this) where I give someone a list of the several hundred records I want and they track them down and ship them to me? Maybe they’d get 10% of the cost or something?

Basically no. That's a tremendous amount of work you're asking already-busy shop owners/employees to do for like $3 per record. Especially for a picky buyer ("unreported hairline scratches").

I’ve all but given up trying to sell the wonderful Martha & the Muffins and Doug & the Slugs records.

fwiw I would buy all your Martha & The Muffins records (except This Is The Ice Age because I've already got that one) but I suspect you are too far away for that to be worthwhile

Postage is pretty cheap!

I think at this point I’ve given up on even trying to flog M&M so I dunno if I even have good copies anymore but I can put ‘em aside for you when they come in & bundle them off for practically nothing.

Pretty cheap when sending multiple records, that is.

is it any better now? the UK<->US rates have sucked for a while

I can usually send stuff to Europe for $30 or so, up to a certain point where it all of a sudden turns into $100

it's ok, it's not worth paying $20-30 postage when I can buy those records here. thanks anyway. found a VG+ copy of Trance & Dance for £4.50. Metro Music goes for a bit more