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Charity shops ...

TheDecameron said:
Can I just enquire, does the front sitting room not smell permanently of damp cardboard?
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No. The new curtains had a slightly odd smell, but that's worn off now. I guess it's hard to know what one's own house smells like, but no-one's mentioned damp cardboard yet. The Sally Ann shop has the usual musty charity shop smell.
 
Joe Hutch said:
No. The new curtains had a slightly odd smell, but that's worn off now. I guess it's hard to know what one's own house smells like, but no-one's mentioned damp cardboard yet. The Sally Ann shop has the usual musty charity shop smell.
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I was just about to mention that unmistakeable, characteristic charity shop smell. Doesn’t matter which one it is, or how posh the area, they all smell musty, a mixture of old books and stale clothing, with top notes of wet dog.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
I was just about to mention that unmistakeable, characteristic charity shop smell. Doesn’t matter which one it is, or how posh the area, they all smell musty, a mixture of old books and stale clothing, with top notes of wet dog.
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The worst thing is used shoes. The smell of old record sleeves while not great does fill me with anticipation that Im going to discover something good- conditioning from hanging around s/h record shops for 40 years. The daddy of them all-

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http://sweetwordsofpismotality.blogspot.com/2018/01/cheapo-cheapo-records-complete-story.html
 
Kinder Handl on Battlefield Road, Glasgow is fairly new as it only opened last year but then with all the lockdowns, it still seems quite new. I was in the other day and bought a mint copy of Inception on blu ray for a quid. They had nice aroma oils burning and the place felt quite homely. Friendly staff and a very nice charity shop all in all. I'm still doing my best to only buy stuff I really need as I've got too much stuff, but I'll be going back for sure as they seem to have good clean interesting stuff at good prices!

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Just stocked Headway up again.

I stuck in a once played copy of Public Enemy ‘Fear of a Black Planet,’ (180g. Back To Black reissue) I had 2 copies so donated the 2nd copy. £9 sounded about right (?) We will see.

Took back 2 boxes of albums that I thought were rubbish. The manager agreed and took them from my car straight to the dustbin.

The Headway charity shop had stopped selling c.d’s a couple of years ago, now they are selling them again. Good. They stick them in a box on the floor and have them on the pavement outside the shop. Bad - I can’t reach, and things like that are hard to see from a standing position.
I don’t sort the charity’s c.d. donations, I have enough on with the records, put I do like to buy a few if they are interesting (50p. or 3 for a Quid.)
 
Big Tabs said:
Just stocked Headway up again.

I stuck in a once played copy of Public Enemy ‘Fear of a Black Planet,’ (180g. Back To Black reissue) I had 2 copies so donated the 2nd copy. £9 sounded about right (?) We will see.

Took back 2 boxes of albums that I thought were rubbish. The manager agreed and took them from my car straight to the dustbin.

The Headway charity shop had stopped selling c.d’s a couple of years ago, now they are selling them again. Good. They stick them in a box on the floor and have them on the pavement outside the shop. Bad - I can’t reach, and things like that are hard to see from a standing position.
I don’t sort the charity’s c.d. donations, I have enough on with the records, put I do like to buy a few if they are interesting (50p. or 3 for a Quid.)
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Nobody sorts the CD s in my local shops either, to the point where you have to check you are getting the right disc. I've been to the counter to ask about and got a shrug followed by the disc and case going in the bin.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
I was just about to mention that unmistakeable, characteristic charity shop smell. Doesn’t matter which one it is, or how posh the area, they all smell musty, a mixture of old books and stale clothing, with top notes of wet dog.
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Slightly better then bottom notes of wet dog maybe..but not much in it :)
 
I bought loads of good quality vinyl from Oxfam Music in Ealing, before the vinyl revival kicked in. My best find was a mint copy of Coles Corner by Richard Hawley, just £4.00. My job doesn't take me that way much anymore but when I popped in last year, prices were much higher and they had much less stuff. Plenty of bargain CDs though. Their CDs were always in great condition.

Although it's not a charity shop I also bought quite a bit of vinyl from Ben's Collector Records in Guildford, he had loads of stock of 70s and 80s stuff cheap and in pretty good condition. Probably 5 years since I was last there though and about 10 years since I went regularly.

Cheers BB
 
I find the fragrance of old record sleeves rather heady and, at best, somewhere intoxicating, but you can get the odd one that’s downright dank and musty it must be said. Try to weed those out in the shop if you can though you may get a few funny looks.
 
I guess our local (Oregon, USA) charity shops are weird, because they often have great records. I buy most of my vinyl there. Today’s haul:
Richard and Linda Thompson - Shoot Out the Lights
Ry Cooder - Slide Area, Bop Till You Drop, Borderline, Get Rhythm
The Chieftans - Bonaparte’s Retreat
Modern Jazz Quartet - Star Collection
Eddie Clean Head Vinson- Kidney Stew is Fine
Norman Blake - The Fields of November
Chick Corea - Three Quartets
Charlie Haden et al. - The Ballad of the Fallen
Tom Verlaine -Dreamtime
Red Clay Ramblers - Stolen Love

$1.79 each in essentially unplayed condition (no, I didn’t pay more; that’s what the price tag said).
 
I went into Fopp and was astonished at the price of the vinyls™ today. What a rip off but still ended up buying a double of Achtung Baby which I’ve only ever heard on CD. I checked on Discogs and the prices looked nutty there too, so thought WTF and coughed up.
 
:)

Someone nabbed the Public Enemy album I stuck in Headway last week, and paid £9 for it, excellent.
Also someone bought the Bernard Cribbins album (£1.50) that has been in the shop for a while. Sold 6 singles at a £1 a pop as well.
 
Oxfam refused a few bags of books last week :( But our a tiny local charity to support children in Kashmir took them with open arms :)
 
I picked up a Technics SL7 and an SL10 in my local charity shop, both working fine. I think they were about £30 each. I had no idea what they were worth but when I found out..... guess what...
 
In Edinburgh Oxfam send any decent vinyl and CD's to their music shop in Stockbridge - that has a lot of nice stuff although isn't cheap. Their other charity shops tend to then only have the sort of tat vinyl that you can't give away.

My wife and I help out at our local community charity and after a jumble sale recently we ended up binning a load of records that were never ever going to sell.
 
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