Greetings fellow crate diggers and vinyl lovers. It has been awhile and I have found a substantial pile of vinyl in the past few weeks. First, I wanted to report back from the Kansas City Record Show and National Record Store Day.
The KC Record Show on April 11th was great. I went with fellow collector Brenton Cook and we both had to make several trips to the car in the three hours we were there digging. I averaged less than a dollar a disk and came home with some amazing stuff. I saw several friends and fellow crate diggers who were at their first record show. Everyone seemed to be very happy with the symbiotic relationship created at the event- dealers getting rid of vinyl and collectors making room for it in their collections. One of the highlights of my digging was a very rare Lightnin’ Hopkins album, and yes I did pay much more than a dollar for it. The beauty of this type of sale is that you can find all types of music and an amazing selection all in one place; you can find very valuable collectibles, and music to be played at reasonable rates. Don’t miss the next one. It will be in the fall and I will report on it here.
National Record Store Day was April 17th and was an all day event. My group started out at Streetside Records only to find out that they were not an independant record store as I had previously been told. They did not have any of the exclusive Record Store Day (RSD) only releases. We quickly moved on to Zebedee’s. We found several of the exclusive releases there and also took advantage of the store wide sale going on. It was so nice to see the store full of people. I personally picked up Leonard Cohen, Courtyard Hounds, Pretenders, and John Lennon exclusive 7 inches. Digging tip of the day- a little birdy told me that Zebedee’s may have just purchased an amazing punk rock collection that will be hitting the shelves in the next few days. Tell them the crate digger sent you.
The next stop was Vinyl Renaissance where our advance scouts- thanks Chris Haghirian and Randy Paske- told us held the mother lode of RSD exclusives. They were correct. We were all able to mostly complete our list of most wanted exclusives there. I found the RSD only Drive-By Truckers 45 and Brenton was able to get the last copy of The Flaming Lips Dark Side of the Moon. New collector Ted Nelson added a bunch of music to his collection including the RSD early release of The Black Keys new single. Also, it was great to see that Erik Voeks -an extraordinary musician – has joined the staff at Vinyl Renaissance. He will bring a level of congeniality and vast musical knowledge that will only add to the stores stellar line-up. Vinyl Renaissance also has started staying open on Sundays 12-5pm so stop by and say hello to Erik.
We then converged on the jewel of the northland, Earwaxx Records. Gary went all out for RSD, with lots of exclusives, a big sale, and live in store music. The new, larger and newly remodeled, location was packed with music lovers taking home new treasure and looks just the way an independent record store should! My whole group ended up there together for a few minutes and it was music to my ears to hear everyone’s excitement over their finds. Ted and I outlasted the others, digging through a room full of $1 albums that were buy one get one free for RSD. The hardcore digging paid off with many great finds and a large stack of very cheap vinyl.
I also hit It’s a Beautiful Day and found they have the areas best prices on plastic record sleeves- 100 high quality sleeves for $19.99- cash only. While there I bought a new vintage Pioneer receiver and a couple of records to go with my supplies. The store is very eclectic and has a great selection of used vinyl and stereo equipment including needles for the turntable you found at a yard sale. Check them out.
Also, in local record store news, Halcyon Diversified Trading has expanded their vinyl selection adding a whole new section of the store devoted exclusively to vinyl. They have been getting new stock daily and are playing to win in the record store wars. If you haven’t been lately check them out again.
That concluded RSD 2010 and I am just now starting to recover financially- just in time for the newest record sale in town- The Hooligan Record Swap Meet- tomorrow, Sunday, May 16th, at the Beaumont Club- 10am to 7pm. New events always bring out new sellers so don’t miss it. The price of admission is right too- its free.
Until next time keep the vinyl spinning and keep digging. Oh, and here is a picture of some recent finds:
