How not to run a record sale

[bob_32_116]

A local community radio station, which is located just down the road, has an event every year they call "Hotcakes", in which the lounge of a nearby pub becomes a temporary clearing house for CD's - and a few vinyl LPs - that the station doesn't want anymore. This year's was on this morning, and entry is free so i thought what the heck, might pick up something, nothing to lose.

Well what a waste of time that was. There might have been tons of stuff that I wanted, but I had almost no hope of finding it. There was no attempt to organise the stuff, by genre or alphabetically by artist, CDs were stuffed into cardboard boxes in such a way that you often had to remove a handful to see the others. the orientation was random - no matter which way you stood, half of the titles were upside down. Some were stackied vertically (i.e. CDs on top of one another), so you couldn't examine the front of one without gingerly removing a stack from the top of the pile.

I think they could have done better. Obviously this was a clearance sale; I wouldn't expect them to be set up like a proper record store with standing racks ordered by genre and precisely ordered alphabetically by artist within the genre, and a computer database to instantly find whether they have something you ask for. What they could have done though was put everything the same way up, and at least have anough boxes so that they did not overfill the boxes. Also I suspect that the albums were mostly acquired on behalf of a particular presenter. they have a number of presenters who present quite different shows; there is one who does 90's rock, one that does the Woodstock era, one who plays "Nostalgia" from the 1950s or earlier, one that does folk, and so on. I think it would have been easy for each DJ to dump their CDs in their own area of the room, and that would have given the punters some idea of where to start looking for what interrested them.

I walked away with nothing. I doubt I'll bother next year.

[Digital_Man]

A long time ago I was in a record store in NYC where there was no categorization other than A-Z. I remember talking to the owner about it(the guy looked like Jeff Goldblume's twin brother if he had one)and he told me that if you want to know what it sounds like just listen to it. A somewhat unusual and maybe radical way of doing things but I think even then I understood where he was coming from. Labels often don't serve much useful purpose.

Anyway, that's too bad you couldn't find anything. I have lots of old crappy vinyl I want to get rid of. OK, maybe not really crap but most is admittedly not in very good condition.

[rcarlberg]

Reminds me of this:

There's this record store that specializes in "hard-to-find items". Nothing is alphabetized.

[Facelift]

If I've got time to kill, I prefer this kind of setup - if there's any chance of finding something I want. It rewards the diligent and weeds out those who don't want to take the time and/or effort.

[bob_32_116]

A long time ago I was in a record store in NYC where there was no categorization other than A-Z. I remember talking to the owner about it(the guy looked like Jeff Goldblume's twin brother if he had one)and he told me that if you want to know what it sounds like just listen to it.

A large independent record store in Perth that has been around since the 1970s actually used to stack LPs in just this way. Bach might be next to Bachman Turner Overdrive, Motorhead next to Mozart. This probably didn't matter quite so much with vinyl, because the size and shape of a vinyl album means you more or less have to have them standing in racks that are convenient to flip through. It's almost impossible to read the details from the spine, especially if you are reading lots of them.

These days, they have things arraged by category, but they still have a large catch-all category called "rock/pop", which I think is actually quite sensible.Recently I picked up two CDs that had been stacked next to one another: one by Opeth, and one by Roy Orbison.

[bigbassdrum]

There was no attempt to organise the stuff, by genre or alphabetically by artist, CDs were stuffed into cardboard boxes in such a way that you often had to remove a handful to see the others. the orientation was random - no matter which way you stood, half of the titles were upside down.

"Uhh, is there an app for that??"

[Rune Blackwings]

I have a sure fire system for finding out if it's worth my time:

"Dude-got any Hawkwind?"
"Who?"
"Nevermind...go back to listening to your Maroon 5..."

[bob_32_116]

I have a sure fire system for finding out if it's worth my time:

"Dude-got any Hawkwind?"
"Who?"
"Nevermind...go back to listening to your Maroon 5..."

Heh.

At this particular sale, they quite possibly would have had no Hawkwind, for the reason that they are too mainstream.

That's the kind of radio station they are.

[Rune Blackwings]

Heh.

At this particular sale, they quite possibly would have had no Hawkwind, for the reason that they are too mainstream.

That's the kind of radio station they are.

Never know-they could have been a station beforehand who may have played Hawkwind and are liquidating the old stuff. Not all stations stay the same format.

[hippypants]

That reminds me of Bill's Records in Dallas, Tx. It's all thrown in there together, and it's not priced. The owner will just tell you, grab some stuff, and bring it up here and we'll price it for you. I don't care for either concept, but it's okay to browse if you have the free time.

[Esoteric]

There was a shop in Nottingham called Robs records don't know if it's still there that mainly did old vinyl and was quite the messiest, smelliest record shop I've ever been in, in theory should be a browsers paradise but in actual fact even my other half who loves a good browse didn't like it as he said it was impossible to find anything whatsoever and what was there was in crap condition as people just threw stuff about and didn't treat it with any care.

[Lopez]

That reminds me of Bill's Records in Dallas, Tx. It's all thrown in there together, and it's not priced. The owner will just tell you, grab some stuff, and bring it up here and we'll price it for you. I don't care for either concept, but it's okay to browse if you have the free time.

There is or was a place like that in San Antonio across the street from the Alamo. Lots of great records with no prices on them. There was a sign in the store that said all vinyl was a minimum of $8.00 each. You bring your selections to the counter, and the clerk pull out a record-collector seller's guide and he looks up the price in the book. Naturally, he quotes the highest price for mint copies not matter what the condition of your selection. I put all but one of my choices back when he did that. One record had a price sticker of $6.00 on it, and he told me it didn't matter, it was still $8.00. I questioned him about certain records and he had no idea; he just went by the book, and he was surly about it. No wonder I was the only customer in there.

[Calabasas_Trafalgar]

That reminds me of Bill's Records in Dallas, Tx. It's all thrown in there together, and it's not priced. The owner will just tell you, grab some stuff, and bring it up here and we'll price it for you. I don't care for either concept, but it's okay to browse if you have the free time.

I went to that place once. Spent 4 hours looking, found 3 records I was interested in, bought 1 for $10. It was a $200 record.

[mogrooves]

Labels often don't serve much useful purpose.

What if the owner hadn't permitted listening to the LPs?

[hippypants]

Good score Calabasas--he handles CDs now too. I like to go in there and look and he has some freebie type music newspaper I like to read, like Buddies. Also Bills is next door to a good music place, called Poor Davids Pub. They books some good acts in there from time to time.

[Adrian]

There's a local record shop that runs a $1 vinyl sale every weekend. Nothing is ever categorized or alaphabetized. But I guess for a buck per platter, they figure you can work for it if there's something in there you want. I have managed to score a couple of nice discs that way, provided my daughter isn't tugging on my pant leg to hurry up and leave!