Great bargain bins you've known

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What stores in your neighbourhood and around the world have the best bargain bins (cheap [<$2], great selection, mounds of promos)?

― peepee (peepee), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 15:57 (twenty-one years ago)

the Academy vinyl store dollar bins

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 16:16 (twenty-one years ago)

The Norman's Sound and Vision basement

― C0L1N B3CK3TT (Colin Beckett), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 16:38 (twenty-one years ago)

overpriced!

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 16:40 (twenty-one years ago)

So worth it though! I've been happy paying $3 for everything I ever purchased there.

― C0L1N B3CK3TT (Colin Beckett), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 16:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I heard it's not a bargain basement anymore, though.

― C0L1N B3CK3TT (Colin Beckett), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 16:53 (twenty-one years ago)

A few years ago, the downtown J&R Music in NYC briefly had a large cache of vinyl disco albums that clearly hadn't been touched in a quarter-century. Mmm...that was satisfying.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 16:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Cities please??

― peepee (peepee), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 16:57 (twenty-one years ago)

definitely academy in nyc. last trip i got belladonna and the flirts' passion 12" for $1 each.

― lauren (laurenp), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 17:04 (twenty-one years ago)

When I was in Amsterdam I went to this chain store (which I forget the name of), would've been the equivalent of like a Sam Goody or something in the US. Anyway, they had this bargain rack with all kinds of popular but overstocked stuff (they had several albums by Joni Mitchell, Prince, Jay-Z - a wide range of stuff like that). The sale was 3 CDs for, I think, 10 gilden or whatever their currency is called. Anyway, that's like $5 US or something outrageous like that. Also, weed is legal. I love that country.

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 17:04 (twenty-one years ago)

when i went to canada i got the Neptune Studio Recordings album and Helen Butte vs. Masonna Pussy Badsmell by To Live And Shave in LA for $1 Canadian apiece.

― Ian Johnson (orion), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 22:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Use charity shops. They are dirt cheap and they fuck around with your taste.

― Jim Robinson (Original Miscreant), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 23:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, the pain of remembering the years when the Tower Outlet on Lafayette had tons of Folkways and Noise Records vinyl varying in price from 99 cents to 25/$5. so many copies of Voivod Dimension Hatross and Songs of the Lumberjack.

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 02:59 (twenty-one years ago)

the
Princeton Record Exchange is worth a trip.
from anywhere really.

― dz, Wednesday, 7 April 2004 16:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Before this record store called Cut Corner closed here in Lex Vegas, they had this awesome tape box in the front of the store where you bought tapes for a quarter and put in some of whatever you wanted; your own stuff, your friends', obscure noise shit, whatever. It was always an adventure.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 16:29 (twenty-one years ago)

hey pat-

at Car City Records in St. Clair Shores, MI... used to be an amazing bargain bin of CDs.. not sure if it's still good but at one time.. DAMN! it was incredible!

― ken taylrr, Wednesday, 7 April 2004 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)

A mom & pop thrift store in Clifton, NJ where they had a wall of 60's and 70's vinyl - all kinds - in pretty great condition. Much of it was still shrinkwrapped. The guy behind the register was clueless and would charge me about $1 per record, including double albums. I found some great stuff there, particularly most of Eno's Obscure label and lots of glam/art rock.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

ten months pass...

St. Marks Sounds in NYC
Amoeba in SF -- well, not cheap but half-price and HUGE inventory
Princeton Record Exchange
Any Sam Goody that stickers a limited edition with the stock album's list price (i.e. R.E.M.'s "Monster" book)

― Dan Aloi (67Dano), Saturday, 26 February 2005 14:01 (twenty years ago)

Princeton (NJ) Record Exchange -- 1.99 wonders
St. Marks Sounds in NYC -- the 88-cent bin!!
Amoeba in SF -- not cheap but half-price, but HUUGE inventory.

― Dan Aloi (67Dano), Saturday, 26 February 2005 14:02 (twenty years ago)

I think the bargain bin in my school store when I was going to Temple University was pretty good, but my standards may have been lower then. I remember one of my hip (smug?) young professors being surprised I'd found Joy Division's Still there for cheap.

― RS, Saturday, 26 February 2005 14:07 (twenty years ago)

Sam The Record Man on Yonge Street here in Toronto is currently blowing out a shitload of CDs at a dollar a pop. I found a bunch of house mix compilations that I'd been eyeing forever. Walked out feeling like I'd robbed the place.

― Tantrum (Tantrum The Cat), Saturday, 26 February 2005 16:59 (twenty years ago)

academy in brookyln has a huge dollar bin and also a massive selection of the classical overrun from their 18th street store, featuring records from $0.05+.

― Ian John50n (orion), Saturday, 26 February 2005 18:00 (twenty years ago)

Tantrum, thanks for the tip. I just went out and robbed Sam's too.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Saturday, 26 February 2005 21:44 (twenty years ago)

- Smash's @2.99 open-air CD bins, NYC. RIP.
- The Princeton Record Exchange.
- Cheap Thrills, New Brunswick, NJ - they had some kind of relationship with Jem in the '80s, and as a result had the most amazing cutouts in stock. RIP.
- Music & Video Exchange, various London branches. Crossed off a LOT of my post-punk want list between the various stores.
- Jack's Records, Red Bank, NJ, in the '80s. Flying Nun albums for 2 bucks apiece.

― mike a, Sunday, 27 February 2005 01:14 (twenty years ago)

My fave is still Rasputin in San Jose. The last time I went, I got 70 high quality cds...price=$15 for ten (I can't believe they knew what some of this stuff was). The time before that, I got about 50.
I remember Amoeba in Berkerly being quite good too.

Ken, Car City used to have great bargain bins, but the changeover is so slow now, that if you go through them once, your ok for the next 10 years.

― peepee (peepee), Sunday, 27 February 2005 01:31 (twenty years ago)

My all time fave was Jimmy's Music World, 5th Ave at 37th St NYC ca.1982-85. The entire store was a bargain bin, cutout city, every record priced at 99 cents. No filing/categories, you had to pick through all the garbage to find gems like Danger! High Voltage by Betty Wright. My love of disco was solidified here, while my buddy David would unearth chunks of forgotten 60s/70s rock. Fun, fun, fun.

― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Sunday, 27 February 2005 13:51 (twenty years ago)

I remember buying cut-out Black Saint albums from the Fred Meyer Hardware store back in Alaska when I was a teen, and just learning about jazz.

― Austin (Austin), Sunday, 27 February 2005 19:27 (twenty years ago)

i've seen "great bargain bins" pretty much everywhere *except* new york city.

i talk more about that here:

Most Impressive Record Store?

― chuck, Sunday, 27 February 2005 19:32 (twenty years ago)

of course, i wasn't in NYC in the '80s; it may well have been different then.

Norman's (which somebody nominated above) is pathetic, though.

― chuck, Sunday, 27 February 2005 19:35 (twenty years ago)

Chuck you would have LOVED Jimmy's...there was also a smelly closet of a record store on east 23rd Street where I bought classic Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty and Bobby Bland cutouts but it closed in the 90s. Budget priorities have changed, unfortunately, but I've got my memories (and a broken turntable).

― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Sunday, 27 February 2005 20:02 (twenty years ago)

crap. i guess that Sam's sale must be cleaned out by now. and i almost went in there last wednesday too.

― Kim (Kim), Saturday, 5 March 2005 21:04 (twenty years ago)

from this thread: Holiday in Cambodia

when i was in Johanesburg, i researched where all the record stores were. the one i really wanted to go to was in the middle of the downtown where people just didn't go. supposedly everybody got mugged when they went there. the guy i was staying with said he'd take me, but he wouldn't come in with me, he'd just drop me off, and an hour come back and pick me up. i went in, the only white guy in the store (it was actually owned by Indian people). i went upstairs and it was like a dream come true. all the records were (because of the currency rate) a dollar a pop. old jazz albums, almost all of em sealed, multiple copies of each. i felt really weird walking around the store with an armful of records. the owner kept coming up to me telling me which ones were & weren't good. the whole time he was flipping a paperclip round and round in his mouth. a bunch of the other patrons were following me around because they could tell i had money. i walked out of there with 20-30 great soul and jazz records. impulse, max roach, cannonball adderley, stax, etc. stuff i still cherish with all my heart. if had more time i probably would have picked up two to three times more records. one guy even asked me to buy him a record which i did. when the hour was up, i walked downstairs, jumped directly in the car and went home.

― JaXoN Hole (JasonD), Saturday, 5 March 2005 21:23 (twenty years ago)

nine years pass...

I wonder how this has changed, 9 years after the fact.

― peepee, Friday, 16 May 2014 13:17 (eleven years ago)

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