$2.99 at a St. Paul pawnshop!

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So I've got ten bucks and I'm thinking of going to the local new-n-used rekkid store but on the way there I stop at Pawn America, which specializes mostly in the former possessions of the financially desperate and is not exactly the best place to find hipster stuff.

I will cut to the chase: amongst the scuffed-up no-name label samplers and hastily-thrown-together "Best of the [some decade or another]" compilations is Guru Guru's self-titled 1973 release on a German import CD. For $3. I'd never heard any of their stuff before, but they set off the "hey aren't they influential Krautrock types?" lightbulb over my head and so moments later the CD was in my possession and long story short it is the single most astonishing bargain I've ever come across. For those of you who are unsure of what $3 American is worth: you can get three bottles of Dr. Pepper.

Here's the punchline: There was more than one copy. And the other copy had a sticker on it from the previous store it was originally sold at. It said: "$24.99"

(There's another thread on this sort of thing but damned if I can find it)

(Oh yeah, the CD blew my head off with the power of German Acid Rock Lunacy.)

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Saturday, 7 December 2002 17:58 (twenty-two years ago)

$3 is about as much as I'd pay for "Guru Guru", actually.

"Kanguru", "Hinten", and "UFO" on the other hand...

― donut bitch (donut), Saturday, 7 December 2002 21:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Blah blah that great album you've just discovered and have fallen in lurve with is crap blah blah these other ones are better blah blah etc.

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Saturday, 7 December 2002 21:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Sorry I overreacted but I was hoping this would become "stuff you can't believe you found in some crazy-ass store, part 2" and not "Nate thinks he's cool for latching onto this band but ha ha he likes their SHITTY album!, part 2" (part 1 having to do with Clinic, probably)

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Saturday, 7 December 2002 21:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I found a copy of The White Room for virtually nothing in a British Heart Foundation shop yesterday: YAY!

(is that right?)

― thom west (thom w), Saturday, 7 December 2002 22:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I got the "Enjoy the Silence" single for 25 cents.

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Saturday, 7 December 2002 22:16 (twenty-two years ago)

At a garage sale, a few years ago, I asked the guy who was selling stuff how much the LPs were. "A dollar apiece." I flipped through them, and between the usual copies of _The First Family_ and _4 Way Street_, I found a copy of Sun Ra's (unbelievably rare and, as it turned out, fantastic) _Nidhamu_, on Saturn. WHOA. "I'll take this one," I said. "Oh, that one's pretty rare," he said. "Two dollars."

― Douglas, Saturday, 7 December 2002 23:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Didn't mean to bring you down.. I just wanted to give you hope for those other records, that's all. (even though, my other point was: I could see why THAT Guru Guru record would have been priced accordingly.. but I did sound like an snob etc. etc.)

― donut bitch (donut), Sunday, 8 December 2002 00:21 (twenty-two years ago)

I've found way too many good finds cheap (well, I shouldn't say that, it's actually a good thing!). But friend Jake I'll credit with one of the best -- he came across Roy Montgomery's Scenes From the South Island and insisted I buy it. Price: 99 cents. It's worth $99 to me, really.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 8 December 2002 03:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Probably the two best records I have found at resale shops are a Vanguard Stereolab copy of Tchaikovsky Pathetique Symphony for 25 cents.

The other was a mint copy of a musical about the Rothschilds. Basically it is a musical about how they took over the world by being virtuous Jewish banking family. It absolutely rules. I cost me a Dr. Pepper.

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Sunday, 8 December 2002 05:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I found the s/t David Ackles in the 25 cent bin.

― Colin Beckett (Colin Beckett), Sunday, 8 December 2002 05:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I bought a new copy of Keith Fullerton Whitman's Playthroughs for 50 cents the other day.

― JS Williams (js williams), Sunday, 8 December 2002 08:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I like to scour the cheap boxes and have found some good stuff, usually outside the hipster king record stores, like used book stores and cd shops that don't stock much off beat/indie music.

A few I picked up recently as such was Tad's Inhaler for .99 cents, and both of the P.W. Long Cds for $1.99 each. I also picked up an unopened copy of Cap. Beefheart's Doc at the Radar Station on Cd for a friend for $3 bucks at a Hastings book store.

One of the most obscure items that I found in a cut out cheapy bin was This Kind of Punishment's "In the Same Room/ 5 by Four" at a college convience store that sells some CDs, I think it was two bucks. I would bet it was the only copy of that CD that ever got into Muncie, Indiana.

― earlnash, Sunday, 8 December 2002 16:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I got a copy of The Groop's 68 Bell single 'The Jet Song(When the Weekend's Over)'today in a car boot sale for £1,I've been after it for years & the B-side is bloody brilliant too.I'm a lucky boy!

― Paul R (paul R), Sunday, 8 December 2002 16:43 (twenty-two years ago)

i got a (not even scratched) copy of Bryan Ferry's 'these foolish things' from oxfam for 99p yesterday. and i was pleased to discover it's great.
they had quite a few other ferry/roxy music albums there too, but they were all later period stuff so i didn't bother - possibly a mistake.

it was wood green oxfam incidentally, in case anyone wants to shoot down there and buy up the rest

― adam b (adam b), Sunday, 8 December 2002 23:21 (twenty-two years ago)

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