Incredible Vinyl Scores

[progholio]

i thought i'd start a thread for any turntable/vinyl enthusiast.

last week wifee and me were at an estate sale in kind of a remote, redneck area and scored some vinyl at a rediculous near give away price. right now we are spinning Booker T and the MGs 'Melting Pot' on the Stax label that's pretty much in pristine shape and this is absolutely killer. Also included with the deal were a bunch of Dean Martin, Jackie Gleason, a Jerry Lee Lewis, an extremely clean Herb Albert 'Whipped Cream and Other Delights" and some other very obscure things like Hungarian singer Borica and a Shriner's convention featuring Ray Stevens.
i am kicking myself for not grabbing the Dave Brubeck 'Time Out' i had in my hands, i only put it down because i already have it and this copy had some very deep scratches, it would have been worth it just to frame the cover. oh well.
all told we probably spent less than 5 bucks for the whole score.

anyone else have any vinyl confessions they would like to contribute?

[Jymbot]

"Spanish Train" & "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" BOTH in same Woolworth's! Musta been summer of '85. I remember it vividly because it was after school and I was going home.

[Progbear]

Fruupp’s Modern Masquerades for $1 at a Salvation Army thrift store in Albany, CA. I was expecting it to be trashed but no, it was in pretty good, playable shape!

Also: the Affinity album (US release on Paramount) for $2 at a Goodwill.

There’s more, but those are the ones that are coming to mind right away.

-------------
MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")

"Siento que debemos saber para el sueño de quién brillará esta luz
o consagrar una propia estrella" --Alberto Felici

N.P.:“Collage”-DFA/Lavori in corso

[Big Ears]

I picked up a copy of Miles Davis's Kind of Blue on CD in a Save the Children shop for 50p. It has a label that says, "Property of Sony Music - promotional copy not for sale." I am not really a jazz fan, but I bought this just in case it is worth anything.

[Adrian]

I discovered Mahavishnu Orchestra thanks to a consignment shop several years ago. They had Birds of Fire on vinyl -- I don't think I paid more than $2 for it. I bought it because Jan Hammer was in the band -- didn't know anything else about MO at the time. Took it home, threw it on, and ended up loving it. That was probably my best vinyl find ever.

I love rifling through LP stacks at Goodwill stores, flea markets, yard sales, and the like. Most of it's junk, but every once in a while there's a hidden gem that makes the time spent rewarding.

[strawberrybrick]

A.R. & Machines Echo for $8.00 comes to my mind.

But those amazing finds have really diminished over the past decade. Here in Chicago, thrift stores haven't yielded much in a long, long time. Not sure if it's because there's less to collect, but a few of my friends that have stores do say that it's just that there isn't the glut of vinyl that there was in the 90s. "Good" vinyl's been getting scooped up over the past decade, and prices are definitely on the uptick.

Most of my vinyl scores these days are on eBay and Discogs (I LOVE DISCOGS!), but I still make it out to the shops every couple of weeks.

It's a disease (collecting records)!

[Reginod]

Just lately I found one thing that I had forgotten all about . . . . . .


Back in the pre-internet daze, one of the main sources for musical "pointers" was of course magazines. So in about 1985, Guitar Player magazine put out a 20th Anniversary issue with several lists of "20 Essential" guitar albums: the 20 essential rock albums, 20 essential jazz albums, 20 essential blues albums, 20 essential country albums, 20 essential bass albums and so on and so forth.

So, being an aspiring guitarist at the time myself, and a rekkid collector, I wanted to hear all this stuff, so I set about acquiring the vast majority of most of the albums on these lists. One that I missed, from the Jazz category, was a self-titled album, from about 1975 or so, from an artist named Ed Bickert. He was supposedly a "master of chordal embellishment" and was influenced by Jim Hall, etc. Never found that rekkid.

That is, until just recently, a quarter of a century later; I'm rummaging through several stacks of 99-cent LPs in a local rekkid boutique, and there's that Ed Bickert rekkid, just as plain as day, an original copy, with the vinyl in excellent condition. I had forgotten all about it, and those Guitar Player "essential" lists, but the old memory was brought back instantly, so I snapped up this product hastily. Took it home and sure enough, it's a fine trio album that I would recommend to any fan of jazz guitar.

In the same 99-cent stack I also found a copy of The Pentangle's Sweet Child. The cover is pretty ragged but the vinyl is in pretty danged good shape. I consider both albums to be treasures that I got out of someone else's pile o'trash.


It's a disease (collecting records)!

Yup . . . . . .

[Jymbot]

"Birds of Fire" on vinyl! and only 99 cents!
Holy Jesus!

[ronmac]

Black Sabbath "We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll test pressing for ten bucks.

[Jubal]

2.00 for a not bad copy of Wilson Pickett's "Wicked Pickett" in MONO. Gotta love Goodwill.

[ronmac]

Way back in 1980, a co-worker needed cash, so he sold me all of his original Zappa/Mothers albums for 3-5 bucks apiece.

We're only in it for the money
Ruben and the Jets
Mothermania
Burnt weenie sandwich
200 Motels

and a couple others

[PeterG]

Incredible vinyl scores? What?


Do you mean soundtracks that sound good on vinyl?

[progholio]

yeah, i hit those thrift stores whenever i can. every once in a while i'll find a gem but lately it seems like they have an abundance of Jim Nabors, Firestone Christmas albums or music from Exodus (not Bob Marley) and a whole bunch of gospel records with guys in matching leisure suits on the cover.

[rapidfirerob]

I got Cozy Powell's Over The Top at Woolworth's for $2.
I also bought Jeff Beck's Blow By Blow half speed master for $5 in pristine condition from
a guy who sells records at the flea market. It is the best sounding album I own. These albums
are usually expensive.

[Jymbot]

http://www.verygoodplus.co.uk/picture_library/2012-11-indiapic-20.jpg

[zombywoof]

Just won "Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night" and before that, "In Praise of Learning" and "Acquiring the Taste".

[Garden Dreamer]

Chicago-Live at Carnegie Hall for $9.99 at EJ Korvettes in the late 70's. Had to have been mislabeled because as a 4-album box, it was usually selling for 16.99-17.99. I paid for it and bolted out of there, looking over my shoulder the whole way!

[Jymbot]

These scores are too much for me to take.
I am green with envy.

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s145/baggra/Bitco/psych/envy_bedazzled.jpg

You guys are SO LUCKY.

[Mythos]

Back in the late 70's, I found a sealed promo copy of the Yardbirds: Over-Under-Sideways Down at a Kmart store for $5, I kept it for a long, long time, never opened it and sold it for $100 on eBay a few years back...!

[Levgan]

Laurence Vanay's "Magic Slows" on a Japanese auction site for $50 or so. It turned out not as good as her proper records that everybody knows, so I opted to sell it and easily got around $600 at the very first offer. Now that I see the prices for old records on eBay, I think I could just wait a couple of years, and that one LP would've turned me into a millionaire.

[Jymbot]

Now we are talking!

Lev, Ive never even seen this title or the "Fenetre..."(???) one even on the web! ( Its not titled "Magic Show"???)
Please give more info. "Galaxies" is one of my all-time fav lps - in what ways does this not compare? Less dreamy? Less keys?

Awesome find, for sure.
Look - you got my ears pricked-up. (By the way, I had to sedate that cat so as to put the bonnet on. Just kidding. Just kidding.)

[ItalProgRules]

Todd Rundgren's Utopia and Another Live, vinyl in very good condition for fifty cents each at a garage sale.

[Jymbot]

Jesus ItalProg!
Those are dead common lps!

[markinottawa]

Some very nice finds there.

At a local used record store under French section found Jean Cohen-Solal‎– Flutes Libres for $ 0.25. Not great cover, but damn a quarter

I found PFM Cook in a 1$ bin recently and the store owner was pissed I found it there and gave me a lecture and how it should be way more

In Victoriaville there was a used record-CD / Coffee bar / Tattoo Parlour (above a role-playing game centre) called Le Virus ( sadly gone) and for about $2 a piece over the years I got in very reasonable shape :

Morse Code - La Marche Des Homme
Concert - Concert
Lougarou - Lougarou
Maneige - Maneige
Maneige - Les porches

[ItalProgRules]

Jesus ItalProg!
Those are dead common lps!

Right you are. How silly of me. I have never heard of such rare albums as "We Sold Our Souls for Rock and Roll," "Birds of Fire" or these strange creatures "Zappa" and "The Yardbirds."

Are these bands all from Serbia or something? Never heard of 'em. Dean Martin? Booker T and the MGs? Nope, don't ring a bell.

I guess I'd better start getting into all those strange, rare, uncommon bands and stop looking for deals like 50 cents on Utopia records.

What an utter fool I've been. Thanks for publicly berating me so that I may see the error of my ways.

[Jymbot]

Lino would be none-too glad to hear I found selfsame Jean Cohen-Solal‎– Flutes Libres (albeit Canadian press) at St Paul ,St Catharines used record store.

[progholio]

Jesus ItalProg!
Those are dead common lps!

what, you mean i can walk into the local Best Buy and grab me some old Todd on vinyl anytime?

kick ass X)

[Levgan]

Lev, Ive never even seen this title or the "Fenetre..."(???) one even on the web! ( Its not titled "Magic Show"???)
Please give more info. "Galaxies" is one of my all-time fav lps - in what ways does this not compare? Less dreamy? Less keys?
Hey man, I'm afraid it does not compare to "Galaxies" (which is my fave as well) in any way, because it's basically a library LP, a set of short instrumental covers of The Beatles tunes and other hits from the past. Nicely done, but no relation to her proper records, and next to no prog moves at all. No wonder it was released under a pseudonym (Marie Mennesson if I remember correct). As for the "Fenetre...", I know from a reliable source that that album was recorded but never released. So it's meaningless to even search for it, but a few of the tracks, I think, ended up on her "best of" CD compilation released somewhere in the 1990s.

Awesome find, for sure.
Agreed - even if it's a bit subpar musically. You don't see that LP everyday, in fact I never ever encountered another copy besides the one I had and sold.

[Jymbot]

Lev,
you know anything about "Les Soliels de Lavie"?

[zombywoof]

Just picked up Still Life - VdGG on an auction.

[Mister Triscuits]

Maybe 15 or so years ago at a bookstore in San Francisco I found the following in a bin of non-alphabetized LPs priced at $3 each, two for $5, so I got these for a total of ten bucks:

Yezda Urfa: Boris (w/promo insert)
Thinking Plague: first album (w/hand painted cover & insert)
Jacques Berrocal: Parallèles
Alain Markusfeld: Contemporus

[Dave the Brave]

One that I missed, from the Jazz category, was a self-titled album, from about 1975 or so, from an artist named Ed Bickert. He was supposedly a "master of chordal embellishment" and was influenced by Jim Hall, etc. Never found that rekkid.

Ed Bickert was a mainstay of the Toronto jazz scene during the 60's n 70's. I've seen him perform many times. Great guitarist, who unusually for a jazz man, played a Fender Telecaster he also had an original Broadcaster.

Ed's still alive but not performing any more.

DtB

[strawberrybrick]

This month's LPs so far

Kevin Ayers Diamond Jack
Kevin Ayers Falling Up
Hawkwind Bring Me the Head of Yuri (Original Demimonde)
Libra (Motown)
Libra Winter's Day Nightmare (Motown)
Wavemaker New Atlantis
Adrian Wagner Incas
Nova Sun City (original sealed)
Michael Hoenig Departure from the Northern Wastelands (original sealed)

[zombywoof]

Thinking Plague: first album (w/hand painted cover & insert)


Very nice score!

[raconteur troubadour]

Cheech and Chong's Big Bambu with the paper for $5.
Hermann Szobel for $1.
All the Argent, Flash, Badger, Barclay James Harvest, Brand X, Greenslade, Dave Mason, Steeleye Span, all for between $1 - $5.
Baltimore is a gold mine for vinyl.

[Jubal]

Got a great used copy of Larry Norman's So Long Ago The Garden for 50 cents in a front counter bin at a dump of a used record and comic store.
Got the 1981 (very first) Windham Hill Records Sampler SEALED for 1.99 at Book Nook. It was down in the bottom boxes. I bought this because I had heard Alex deGrassi before on the radio. Little did I know how many more albums I would buy as a result of this one sampler.
Recently got a good condition copy of Wicked Pickett by Wilson Pickett for 99 cents at Goodwill.
Also got a first pressing of a Lionel Richie album (the one with All Night Long on it) for the same amount.

[Pr33t]

In Victoriaville there was a used record-CD / Coffee bar / Tattoo Parlour (above a role-playing game centre) called Le Virus ( sadly gone) and for about $2 a piece over the years I got in very reasonable shape :

Morse Code - La Marche Des Homme
Concert - Concert
Lougarou - Lougarou
Maneige - Maneige
Maneige - Les porches

There's a Montreal store on Ave Mont-Royal in the Plateau that has a huge basement with most records under $5. I scored a bunch of similar things for $2-3. One to look out for in similar situations: Brèche - Carapace Et Chair Tendre.

[Septober Energy]

While I've found lots of good music on LP in 20 years or so of collecting, I haven't had too many really amazing scores while crate digging. Most of the really good stuff in my collection came from eBay and other online sources. Yes, I've gotten some great deals on eBay, but it's not as exciting as fidning a gem "in the wild" for a bargain price.

What I have found locally in the last few years worth mentioning:


Imán Califato Independiente - Camino del Águila - $5.00 (Great Spanish prog from 1980. Didn't know what this was till I got it home.)
Hans-Joachim Roedelius - Durch die Wust - $1.00
Caravan - In the Land of the Grey & Pink - $5.00 (US pressing. Opened, but with shrinkwrap still on gatefold cover. Sold this to a buddy for $40 a little later.)
SBB - s/t - I think this was about $5.00.
Klaus Schulze - Mirage - $5.00 (German pressing on orange Brain label)
Rush - Hemispheres (Canadian pressing on red vinyl) - Can't remember price, but it was probably $3 or $5.
Steve Tibbetts - Exploded View - $2.00 - Still sealed. This launched my ECM and Steve Tibbetts obsession.

Most of these records were in excellent shape and came from a Bosnian dude who had a booth at a local flea market. He had lived in Canada and Germany before coming to the US and had some good stuff from both coutries. He wanted $20+ for all his beat-up Led Zep & Beatles stuff while I was quietly getting obscure prog gems from him for $3-5 every few few weeks. :cool Sadly, he quit selling records a year or two ago.

[enpdllp]

One of the my biggest scores were two mint copies of Happy The Man's first album for $9.00 at a small record store in Maryland back in the late 1980s. The inner sleeve for both LPs were autographed by all band members. I was a little bit skeptical if it was real or not, but the cover and vinyl were in such a pristine condition that it was hard to pass even if the signatures were fake. Some years after at their reunion, I got my HTM CDs autographed by all band members and when I compared the signatures to the ones on the LP they were very close.

[Shadow]

Not recently but...

The Lamb Jap pressing - $15 Listened to it once, flawless
Jap pressing Wizard of Oz - $10 Never listened, just bought it cause...
Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene Jap pressing $5
Trapeze - Running $10 - Liked the cover

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQasXqC9GxuuLoQ77WyacWtpmW1lz_0R q8DA8fQk5s_2jE41an5

[Lopez]

Best vinyl find for me was a first pressing of Traffic's first LP, Heaven Is in Your Mind, in pretty good condition. All later pressings were titled Dear Mr. Fantasy. Paid a quarter for it at a flea market. Kept it for years until a friend of mine saw it and traded a pile of Byrds and later Traffic stuff (including Dear Mr. Fantasy) for it. I like Traffic; he loves Traffic.

[Birdy]

In 1979 I bought a SEALED copy of Buddy Holly's original, purple-label Coral Records release for ...wait for it.........25 cents!!!!!! It is now worth over
$400.00 U.S. I was buying a set of golf clubs from a woman that I worked with and she was having a garage sale so I flipped through a box of vinyl
on the ground while she was getting them from the basement. WHAT A FIND, although I had NO idea that it was that rare and would become that much of
a collector's item.

[Birdy]

Oh, the name of the album was Reminiscing.

[ronmac]

Wow, what a score!

[ronmac]

I recall a story several years ago in Goldmine about a guy from Ohio who was on a business trip somewhere in Appalachia (Kentucky, perhaps). He had some time to kill before his return flight and stopped at flea market to poke around. He was looking at some old 78s and saw one that looked interesting. He was not a collector and just bought that one. It turned out the he found the Holy Grail of missing blues records. I cannot recall the artist, but it was not one of the popular names. He ended up selling it to John Tefteller for an undisclosed amount. Tefteller has the world's greatest collection of rare records. He likely paid six figures for that 78.

Check out Tefteller's collection of the world's rarest records. It's unreal.

http://www.tefteller.com/

[progholio]

so yesterday wifee goes to a newly opened Goodwill store hoping to find the holy-grail on vinyl, ended up with a stack of pristine old Conway Twitty .
the young fellow behind the register remarks - "who is this Kanye Twitty? man, he's really styling".

[Blah_Blah_Woof_Woof]

I found an Elvis Presley 78 at a garage sale.

There's a well-known record dealer in San Fran who once stopped a barge loaded with 78's before they were dumped in the Bay. They ended up to be a treasure trove of collector's items that was almost made part of Treasure Island.

[FrippWire]

I went on a vinyl house call today to look at a collection of about 300 LP's for sale. The seller allowed me to cherry pick them so I bought about 200 of them and left the rest (Neil Diamond, John Denver, Barry Manilow, etc.) for the seller to donate to a charity shop. I made the seller a fair offer and they turned it down saying it was too much; that they weren't looking to get that much money for the collection. They really did me a huge favor. Very nice married couple selling his records. For $1.85 (US Dollars) each I snagged 200 LP's that included Beatles - some mono, some stereo, Hendrix, Stones mono recordings, Beau Brummels, Blues Magoos, Them, Yardbirds mono recordings, Zappa and many more.

It was my lucky day.

[philsunset]

Being a Kevin Gilbert fan, a good score for me was finding a slab of white vinyl of very early production and programming by Kevin. A store in SF for $2.00.

[happytheman]

I went on a vinyl house call today to look at a collection of about 300 LP's for sale. The seller allowed me to cherry pick them so I bought about 200 of them and left the rest (Neil Diamond, John Denver, Barry Manilow, etc.) for the seller to donate to a charity shop. I made the seller a fair offer and they turned it down saying it was too much; that they weren't looking to get that much money for the collection. They really did me a huge favor. Very nice married couple selling his records. For $1.85 (US Dollars) each I snagged 200 LP's that included Beatles - some mono, some stereo, Hendrix, Stones mono recordings, Beau Brummels, Blues Magoos, Them, Yardbirds mono recordings, Zappa and many more.

It was my lucky day.
Wow what a story! My fantasy has always been to find somebody looking to get rid of their son or daughters record collection and scoring a mint condition collection all in one swipe! My vinyl collection numbers well over a thousand at this point.. but I'm always looking whenever I see a pile.. "back in the day" Finding albums that were only available via Import is always exciting.. Doubles or Triples are nice to find as well.. as they were the real expensive albums back in the day..

[Supersonic Scientist]

Nektar - Recyled vinyl DEAD MINT for.....get this...........................25 cents !!! at a garage sale.

[ronmac]

Nektar - Recyled vinyl DEAD MINT for.....get this...........................25 cents !!! at a garage sale.

That would mean never played, no ring wear ... nothing. Or is it near-mint?

[Big Ears]

^ I bought that on vinyl when it was released and I've still got it somewhere. It was their best sounding album up to that point (Down to Earth was a bit grunge-y). Magic is a Child sounded good too.

[strawberrybrick]

Nektar albums don't really command that high a price, at least in these parts.

[ronmac]

Nektar albums don't really command that high a price, at least in these parts.

Maybe not the vinyl, but those Eclectic CDs are commanding some serious bucks.

[Big Ears]

Nektar albums don't really command that high a price, at least in these parts.

Recycled was in the sale bins almost immediately, but you had to get most of the other albums in the imports section of the Virgin store in Oxford St or Tottenham Court Rd (I cannot remember exactly where it was located) and they were quite pricey, especially when added to the cost of the train and tube. I loved going to London in the seventies and made a day of it. These days, I live too far away and the journey would take for ever and cost a fortune. I could probably get Nektar to play at my house for less.

[Supersonic Scientist]

That would mean never played, no ring wear ... nothing. Or is it near-mint?


I stand corrected. Near-mint...probably played once by the original owner.....lol

[ronmac]

I stand corrected. Near-mint...probably played once by the original owner.....lol

Yeah, there's no wiggle room in "mint" with the vinyl.

[Rocinante30]

I have had a few, usually garage sales but most LP's where worn, but a couple comes to mind,

1. Found a German pressing of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway for 3 dollars at a record store that is my best example of a near mint LP, incrediable quiet and simply the best format I have for that album (and I have a few diffrent formats of that album)

2. Walked out of Rosfest this past year, across the street there was a hippy type store had some records, they had the original Janus Records label of Camel Moonmadness with a little EX- on the cover, which the guy ends up selling it to me for 8 bucks, he said he didnt like it. Got home and it simply plays wonderfully, very quiet, almost a close match to the Genesis record.

Another one that comes to mind is Yesshows for 50 cents at a garage sale though its quite noisy, the cover is very worn but still play ok.

[Shadow]

1. Found a German pressing of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway for 3 dollars at a record store that is my best example of a near mint LP, incredible quiet and simply the best format I have for that album (and I have a few different formats of that album)

I found a Japanese pressing once for $15. I played it once and it was flawless and never played it since.

[spacefreak]

Lev,
you know anything about "Les Soliels de Lavie"?

Never released, like "La Petite Fenetre".

[nosebone]

I've started listing my vinyl on my Amazon store:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/shops/storefront/index.html?ie=UTF8&marketplaceID=ATVPDKIKX0DER&sellerID=AN50M95D5WMY5

All in good to excellent shape!

[Modry Effekt]

I got Scapa Flow LP - Uuteen aikaan for 1 euro.

[Shadow]

Seattle Vinyls 87 - Denver Vinyls 85

[Bogdan]

I did score a few gems in my collecting career:

OZZ KNOZZ- $6,
ORANG-UTAN- (nice WLP original, $10)
KHAN- SPACE sHANTY (UK, original, $8)

but the cream of the crop:

NICHOLAS GREENWOOD- Cold Cuts (UK original copy, $100, mind you this is a $3000 record)
TOSHIAKI YOKOTA- Primitive Community (ORIGINAL JAPANESE copy, $50, this is another $1000+ record)

[PeterG]

six nil.

[rcarlberg]

mind you this is a $3000 record)
this is another $1000+ record)Only if someone pays that. Certainly not guaranteed!

[Bogdan]

Only if someone pays that. Certainly not guaranteed!

An original copy of GREENWOOD sold for 3,000+ GBP a couple of months ago..

[Jubal]

Just got the MoFi of Carole King's "Tapestry". This is the cleanest souding vinyl I have ever heard. It is truly incredible. Well worth the 30 bucks.

[happytheman]

Pride myself on scoring vinyl over the years... but one that comes to mind was both Genesis Foxtrot and Nursery Cryme fold out covers at Woolworths for $2.99 each back in the mid '70s..
seems these small department stores always had what I considered "gems" in their record bins... and it's not like they stocked 100's of albums either.. dozens of equally amazing stories have happened to me via thrift stores, yardsales etc.. most of these cases were simply owners of merchandise didn't realize what they had their hands on.. thus the .50 cent - $1 prices I paid a lot of times..