Most surprising CD/LP you found for a buck in a used bin

A collection. Introduced to their majesty, been a megafan ever since, own all of their albums, and interviewed Ian Anderson two weeks ago, the highpoint of my life so far...

sarcastic feedback welcome.

all were beat to fuck, but still.

my proudest moment was probably the time at a flea market in philly that was SWARMING with collectors when i found a first pressing in amazing condition of the first t rex album (my people were fair...) on regal zonophone. i even went late to the flea market that day. i don't know how everyone missed it. paid 3 bucks. i treasure that thing. it's so beautiful.

Both from a Savers about 4 1/2 years ago. May have been two bucks each.

x-post: have still never seen a copy of Adventure that wasn't on red vinyl!

They're around. Mine in Houston, however, closed awile back. Which reminds me, the last time I went there, I got the first Stone Roses album on CD for a buck.

Here's Savers website: http://www.savers.com/main/

wtf?

$2 Horace Andy: In The Light/In The Dub on Blood & Fire (looked like it'd never been played)
$1 long-playing acid house-era CDs by Love Corporation and The Times (2 albums by each each) on Creation
$20 This Mortal Coil boxset

I've had a lot of delightful $1 finds - best from a weird collector standpoint probably being this 12" of "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force. Probably not even that rare but it was very much a "WTF is this doing here?" moment. One of the local record stores had bought a couple of HUGE collections of DJ vinyl and, the onwer being a rock/jazz guy, had just stuck it all out in the cheapie bin. Other great finds from that horde: the double-disc LL Cool J greatest hits, "Mo Money Mo Problems," "Protect Ya Neck" etc.

If yard sale finds count, then TONS of stuff - s'how I got my $1 copies of Dance Craze, Pet Sounds, and then there was this one sale selling a mountain of truly mint, perfect-sounding vinyl hidden inside beat-up, gross sleeves. The pinnacle of this was finding two copies of Revolver - a UK pressing and a US one! (WTF? Who has these and sells them at yard sales for $1? I don't get it.) The UK sleeve was unsalvageable, ditto the US LP, so when I got home I just stuck the British copy (which is utterly, utterly free of noise or defect) inside the US sleeve. From the same sale in equally pristine condition for $1 apiece: Are You Experienced?, Surrealistic Pillow, Imagine, Presence, Houses of the Holy, Zoso, and at least one more that I can't remember right now. I mean, I know classic rock is everywhere, but in great condition for a $1 all of those would be marked at least $6 or 7 at the big used place downtown and I never would have bought any of them.

Plus, in the vein of scott seward's story above, I got to this yard sale at like 2:30 in the afternoon on my way to work. As anyone who's ever trawled them seriously knows, yard sales are PICKED over by severe nuts at the exact instant they commence in the morning. I'm torn between delight at what I found and regret at the fact that what I found was the dregs these people passed over.

More recently, at the thrift store, CD copies of the first three Liz Phair albums and a few other things (the "Dig For Fire" CD single) that are a combination of "Wow! Great find!" and "What are these doing at Goodwill?"

still shrinkwrapped (which means it wasn't used, technically

I know of at least two shoppes that shrink wrap their used vinyl - i prefer they didn't, but if its wrapped, it's gonna be at least VG.

Eddie 'Flashin' Fowlkes - "Goodbye Kiss"
Mover - "Nightflight (Non-Stop To Kaos)" (the U.S. pressing on Industrial Strength)

Three sealed Stax LPs from the early '70s (Rufus Thomas, etc.)...a buck for the lot.

Both finds were from the same store, which -- surprise -- is now closed.

Bumped into the shop owner in the street later on (I think he'd popped out for his pie and pint) and boasted about my bargain.

"Bugger, somebody must have mispriced it" was his reaction.

I don't think it's worth much more than a fiver, but it's a nice find anyway.

this freaked me out once when my friend joseph told me to get a copy of trance/mellow by sugar plant. i made a note of it, and figured i would have a hard time finding it (pre-internet land of plenty). the NEXT DAY i found a copy at the salvation army on cd. ???? that was weird.

coolest record i found last week was a 7-inch picture disc from Walt Disney World and their *Electrical Water Pageant*. Demented moog action from 1973. and the picture-disc is a beautiful pychedelic tableaux of fish and dragons and the american flag. that was free. the thrift store was just giving records away for some reason. got a nice copy of the songs of the south soundtrack too, which is excellent and which will probably be out of print forever.

Khan's "Space Shanty" (sadly not the Deram gatefold, but still, oh, such a tasty album). $6

Another proud find the battered copy of the original gatefold "Return of Django" LP by the Upsetters. 20p, but the vinyl had all this strange green substance on it. Bought it for interest factor, later found that the goo was easily washed off. The disc plays very nicely, thanks.

I remember the days when it was possible to pick up amazing 60s and 70s reggae for next to nothing in this country. These days dealers who don't know what they are on about just assume all reggae is valuable and mark up anything and everything at top whack. Shame.

On Rap-A-Lot Records, this album's highlight is the upbeat paen to rape, "Take The Pussy". It's tight!

Alright, Wal Mart!

details: http://www.discogs.com/release/344668

The Savers in Las Vegas are outstanding!

http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/Content?oid=32576&category=34029

I could tell lots of stories about amazing records I got for 2 or 3 bucks but I have a lot less that only involve a dollar.

Zero hipster points, I know, but it's a good album, and these were the days before "Kiss From A Rose" murdered his ZTT-enhanced cred...

Sonny Sharrock, _Into Another Light_ comp (in '00 when all the Enemy stuff was long o/p)
United States of America s/t
Faust s/t

my gf found copies of two or three west coast pop art experimental band LPs for $2-3 each. beat covers but the vinyl was in great shape.

Incidentally, that thrift store purchase was also where I heard Mort Sahl for the first time.

I bought that Simon Finn CD at full price... it's fascinating, but I was underwhelmed for the price. At a dollar--I would enjoy it much, much more.

The retards.

When I was first getting into music, I was a fan of metal who would buy anything that was cheap and looked like it had a sufficient amount of volume to it. One of the first things I purchased - and I had minimal idea about the band because I was a stupid teenager who was listening to Van Halen on the radio - was a vinyl copy of Too Much Too Soon by the New York Dolls that I found in an odd cutout bin in a local drugstore in Manassas, Virginia alongside the likes of Peabo Bryson. I immediately fell in love with "Stranded In The Jungle."

Later on, old cassettes used to appear at the local 7-11s. This was how I stocked up on a slew of Judas Priest as well as some odd items such as a pre-AC/DC Brian Johnson tape on MCA that I recall had a cover of "House Of The Rising Sun." (I still have it; I'm just too lazy to get up and get it.) I got a Zappa one as well.

Spookily enough I bought that this morning in a charity shop for £2.