National Record Store Day

The prices are WAY too high. It's not exactly encouraging people to start buying records really.

I guess if you know no different and only show up at a shop once a year in order to gouge on all these limited and colorful records, as it seems many who participate do, then you don't really have a realistic frame of reference. It's the people who buy stuff regularly that are most alienated by the whole event. All the folks I know who buy way too many records avoid RSD like the plague.

xpost just after RSD i got emails from two different people asking me for recommendations for their first turntable purchases, so, yay?

Just out of curiosity, what did you tell them?

look into Rega and Pro-Ject; Audio Technica if you need USB. and don't skimp on the cartridge/stylus.

The prices are WAY too high. It's not exactly encouraging people to start buying records really.

― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Tuesday, April 22, 2014 10:30 AM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is less a RSD thing, and more an observation of a vinyl in general now, but while working on the Sleater-Kinney poll, I've been looking at the Kill Rock Stars catalogs that came with their cds. Would you believe that in 1997, you could get copies of most of KRS catalog on vinyl direct from the label for the low price of $7 apiece? By 2002, the price had risen to $9, and even now, their stuff (when in print, natch) is about $15-18, the latter price point reserved for special stuff (180 gram Elliott Smith reissues), but still not ridiculously bad.

was kinda shocked to go into the new used record store in my town and not be able to find anything under $8! selection was pretty solid and it seemed like everything was in good condition, but $8 for a pretty standard used LP seems steep. maybe I'm deluded.

& yeah, prices are why I got into vinyl in the first place way back in the mid 90s. I could get the new matador or merge LP for $8 as opposed to $13 for the CD.

"All the folks I know who buy way too many records avoid RSD like the plague."

Curious- do they also avoid record fairs?

Yeah prices are getting sucky

I went to 1 record fair. It was small, cost 10 bucks and was an enormous waste of time. I should have used the money towards paying shipping on discogs. I'd love some tips/insights into good Record Fairs (Pacific NW) and the strategy for getting the best stuff.

we have a huge one in Eugene OR in February, but the only other NW one I went to was one of those Seattle Center ones, it was OK at best.

I can't speak with any authority there as I'm the only one out of my record buying friends that regularly seeks out second hand stuff as well. I check out the local record fair but mostly to scavenge through the cheapo bins. I'm not into paying Record Collector listed prices for special pressings. The record fair's here (in Edinburgh) used to be unbelievable and I'd regularly come out with 15-20 LP's without having paid much over £40. The fairs really were great back then (and I'm only talking 3 or 4 years ago) when they used to attract average people flogging their collections but now it's only used dealers who travel round the country and it's become a bit of a waste of time. I remember buying some guy's pretty much complete collection of Neil Young and Tom Waits albums and paying no more than £5 per title. Without going too much off track re:RSD I do think we're living through a pretty depressing time when it comes to buying used records now with lots of shops and individuals online having serious delusions in terms of what constitutes accurate and fair pricing. Discogs has a lot to blame for this in terms of setting absurd market values. I can see a little sense using it if sellers are employ the median values on there but more often than not pricing seems to be dictated by whatever is actively on sale there at the time. I find the whole thought that I might personally hold the ability to set a market value guideline for a record on the basis of my own random guess a bit bewildering.

I don't know. Discogs at least lets you see what other people have & all the different pressings.... I find the most ridiculous pricing goes on on eBay

Discogs sucks becausea clueless store employee can look up that Archie Shepp record instead of throwing it in the $2 pile

& yeah, prices are why I got into vinyl in the first place way back in the mid 90s. I could get the new matador or merge LP for $8 as opposed to $13 for the CD.

― tylerw, Tuesday, April 22, 2014 11:06 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, my tastes were built in part on what was available for cheap in the 1990s. that includes not just all manner of vinyl, but lots of used classical, world, etc. CDs. but above all i started buying vinyl because you could get, i dunno, the complete albums of neil young for cheaper than buying three of his CDs new.

Agreed but but guys this road only leads to us getting depressed that we didn't spend the 90s scooping up private press weird folk records for $1 :(

some of that stuff was worth money even then, it was just harder to know about it and harder to find someone to buy it.

but yeah. :(

yeah just think about the rare stuff i ignored while checking out the new butterglory album in 1994 :'/

but seriously that's why it's rare and coveted now, because nobody gave a shit about it before. so if we had all bought a copy of "cowboy jim's tone poems" in 1994, it might not have ever scaled the heights of collector nerd-dom and eventually won the grand prize of being reissued by numero group with lengthy liner notes about cowboy jim's sad end in las vegas printed in 4-point type.

RIP Jim.

ramble on, you psych-country-kraut-rock pioneer
http://www.cowboyrudy.com/Jim%20Davis.jpg

i heard that jaki liebezeit was vacationing in oklahoma city and ended up playing drums on about half that album. you can tell, too, at least when you can hear the drum parts over the amplified melodica.

Lmao

Man I bought this rare "loner folk" private press "classic" at a record sale... Turned out to be some sub-Dan Fogelberg sadsack covering Rainbow Connection by the Muppets

All the folks I know who buy way too many records avoid RSD like the plague.

― Internet Alan,

Aye but that Breadwinner album got me. Even if it had been available in the UK RSD I wouldnt have gone anyway. Too busy for me. Luckily it wasnt one of the most sought after releases and I got the album cheap (shipping = killer though) Glad the indie shops do well n that with RSD but its not for me. I do think if the most popular items werent so limited the shops could do really well after RSD with ppl like us. Instead they get left with aerosmith reissues or whatever.

Vinyl has gotten a lot more expensive the past few years + shipping from the USA has really shot up. That wont change but I look forward to vinyl being out of fashion so I can pick up stuff cheap 2nd hand again.

some sub-Dan Fogelberg sadsack covering Rainbow Connection by the Muppets
ysi?

Hahaha I'll try to find it

Man I bought this rare "loner folk" private press "classic" at a record sale... Turned out to be some sub-Dan Fogelberg sadsack covering Rainbow Connection by the Muppets

new board description

also basically that is like 75% of private-press folk records

i went to school with dan fogelberg's nephew. yes, you are in the (virtual) presence of royalty.

goddamn you guys actually had me googling for a Cowboy Jim Numero Group release. assholes. :)

u just been RSD-rolled

haha, i mean, "psych-country-kraut-rock pioneer" just sets off like a Pavlovian response in me, "MUST FIND RECORD"

thanx for the DN tyler!

Discogs sucks because a clueless store employee can look up that Archie Shepp record instead of throwing it in the $2 pile

― dollar rave club (upper mississippi sh@kedown)

too true!

Hah yeah psych country kraut sounds too good to be true.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgdJ8GRTc1Y

ha well, none other than whiney says william tyler "finds common ground between the churn of contemporary country blues and the driving rhythms of krautrock."

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/10-new-artists-you-need-to-know-april-2014-20140410/william-tyler-0109280#ixzz2zdswx7wG

i'm not sure what "contemporary country blues" means though.

trust me, you don't wanna know.

i don't think it means what i think whiney thinks it means, in any regard.

it means keb' mo.

william tyler's music scans as super-American to me, which probably distracted me from any euro-influences.

Glad the indie shops do well n that with RSD but its not for me. I do think if the most popular items werent so limited the shops could do really well after RSD with ppl like us.

― Scooby Doom (۩), Tuesday, April 22, 2014 11:06 AM (49 minutes ago)

living in seattle, i'd begun to avoid RSD due to the crowding, gouging, weirdly distasteful nature of the thing. but out here in the sticks (styx), there isn't much interest, so i actually had a pretty good time. got there early, only about 10 people in the store, mostly dudes my age desperately clutching pearl jam / r.e.m. boxes. had plenty of time/space to dig around.

course, i spent WAY too much money on stuff i didn't need (what i spent for that not-otherwise-unobtainable jb's reissue being a real crime), but i suppose i'd have done the same if i were buying used albums for $5.

xp tyler covers michael rother on his new EP so that's the direct link -- his stuff is definitely very americana overall imo.

amazon's list of best-selling "blues" albums is... interesting

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/music/31/ref=sr_bs_1

ohim in no doubt if there was a record shop in my town id go down, if there was something i really wanted i may even head down an hour early but sadly its about 15+ years since we had an indie shop and not long after that our price/sanity entertainment buggered off. But im not spending a fiver on the train into glasgow to queue/squeeze into shops only to find what I want they didnt get/sold/ overpriced (£29 for the built to spill album? no thanks). I can still get that on discogs for that price but not paying it. And the thing i really wanted was £48.99. Im not spending that on 3 spacemen 3 12"s.
The breadwinner lp coming from the usa with high shipping is still way cheaper than both.
But hey, ppl enjoy it and shops do well, they arent gonna miss me. I just wish i could get into glasgow more often for record shopping to make up for it. I know there will never be a record shop in my town again nevermind a good one.

RSD, making a difference:

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2014/04/kims_video_music_closing.php

Eh RSD can't change the fact that there will be nothing cool or quirky in NYC left in 10 years because of rents etc

Oh, Mondo Kim's? Thought that'd gone a while ago..

mondo kim's disappeared years ago. read the article.

Fwiw the folks I know in MPLS that work at or own places say it's the best day of business all year, and some years biggest day of business in the history of the stores

Oh, if I have to..

:-)

Yeah, that's the one I remember buying various life-changing things, the one time I was there. The Monks' CD for one..