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Second hand vinyl finds

I found a white label copy of Cecil Taylor - Innovations on Polydor/Freedom.

I like the handwritten sleeve : )

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A bit boring, but my best find is a beatles double blue album 67-76 or whatever it is you know/ looking over the balcony one. Original, both mint. Stowe-on-the-wold oxfam, £1. Even the old lady on the till looked miffed.

A box set of baranboim beethoven sonatas, deutche? I think so, £1.

I've trawled all the thrifstores for Lp's but find now, there are no rich pickings anymore. Not since after ebay's been going for 15 years. Its just leo sayer, totp 70's albums, & slade left.. & that's if you're lucky. I now rarely bother.
 
The Captain said:
I've trawled all the thrifstores for Lp's but find now, there are no rich pickings anymore. Not since after ebay's been going for 15 years. Its just leo sayer, totp 70's albums, & slade left.. & that's if you're lucky. I now rarely bother.
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I’ve started bothering after a similar 15 year drought. I’m in charity shops truffling for CDs anyway, so I’ve starred looking at the vinyl again as well. This year’s highlights:

Bach “Mass In B Minor” (John Eliot Gardiner) £1
Britten “War Requiem” 99p (mono, but even so, and there were some contemporary related press cuttings and concert programmes in the box as a bonus)
Scott Walker “Climate Of Hunter” 50p
Bryan Ferry’s first two solo albums 50p each
and I went a bit over-budget spending £4 on “Dylan” a.k.a “A Fool Such As I”, but it was the first time I’d ever seen it on vinyl, not that I’d been looking too hard.
 
@MotelBlues I found a UK original Scott 4 in the local chazza for £2.50 a few months back. VG grade but still pretty chuffed : )

Amazingly with a bit of rummaging bargains can still occasionally be had at record fairs. As a jazz fan I always look out for the rock dealers who are in the habit of sticking anything they don't recognise as obviously valuable in the £2 box on the floor...
 
Vinyl bargains are much much harder to find these days. Vinyl is cool and so every seller thinks his junk is worth "a lot". Even more knowledgeable sellers will use Discogs and so prices will generally be more at the 'market' level.

Even so, I think the best opportunities lie in places where certain items or type of music is less valued in the locality. Like Paul says, looking for jazz in a store that sells mostly rock music. Of looking for Indian music in a area/community that has no interest in South Asian music.
 
Record Fairs.. shudder. Used to be good, but the one that comes to town now, are hoary old muso-snob grumps with awful buckets of dross for £20 each, whilst Rainbow is playing in the background on some dusty old "dad's speakers" (& I don't mean the good rainbow/ the tv show tune either), just tumbleweed, some poor student who can't afford anything, & me (who can't afford anything either) trawling the tubs. I feel old, spent, & embarrased to be in the room. The sea view is nice though.
 
The Captain said:
Record Fairs.. shudder.
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Same here. They just feel utterly outdated as a concept and I don't even go if there's one nearby anymore. I feel sorry for the same old sods who drag their crates round them still.

I also get the impression that a lot of stalls don't actually want to sell their prized items. How many have an entire set of first pressing Beatles LPs in plastic sleeves hanging up behind them at twice the online value and then 10 crates of rubbish destroyed by years of thumbing through at Record Fairs?
 
Colonel_Mad said:
Same here. They just feel utterly outdated as a concept and I don't even go if there's one nearby anymore. I feel sorry for the same old sods who drag their crates round them still.

I also get the impression that a lot of stalls don't actually want to sell their prized items. How many have an entire set of first pressing Beatles LPs in plastic sleeves hanging up behind them at twice the online value and then 10 crates of rubbish destroyed by years of thumbing through at Record Fairs?
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Thing is, so few people that for some reason I feel kinda obliged to buy something. Like all the old sods are looking at me. So I buy teardrop explodes, or something 'affordable' but which is pretty sh*te & I don't actually want. And I emerge into the sun outside feeling 5 years older than I did 45mins ago. And slightly depressed. It's like the reverse of therapy, but costs the same per hr.
 
Record fairs are certainly pretty variable. Luckily round here we have a decent size regular fair in Orpington and a smaller one in Bexley plus the Victoria fair coming up soon. I think being a jazz fan helps too - I'll happily pick up any interesting looking jazz LP I've not heard if it's reasonably priced and in decent condition.

One day I'll get back to the incredible Record Planet fair in the Netherlands. Here's a photo from last weekend.

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Not been to a record fair in ages, the Manchester one moved somewhere that’s a PITA to get to on public transport ages ago so I’ve totally lost touch. My strategy was always to get there early, pay the early access fee, look in the £1 floor bins and on tables run by ‘civilians’ selling their own collections, and only after that pass round have a look at the ‘priced’ stuff on tables. It is my policy in record shops too. The floor bins hold anything that seller doesn’t personally know, or has way too many copies of, neither of which are my problem. Obviously one has to wade through masses of shite and damaged stuff to get there, but that’s always where I’ve found my best bargains.
 
Not strictly vinyl finds but was happy to pick up these 78s for 50p each today - all jazz except the Rotarua Maori Choir which I couldn't resist.

First time I've seen the Jazz Man label. Discogs tells me it was started by Nesuhi Ertegun, brother of Ahmet Ertegun. This disc is from 1941.

Now to give them a clean!

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I’ve never been to a decent record fair, even worse than hifi shows;)

Some artists just aren’t collectable, picked up mint Gerry Rafferty LPS for £4 each.

CD is where the value is these days.
 
Nice 78's @paulfromcamden they look great condition. Do you have like an old garrard or something with a 78 switch to play them on?

Agree with Woodface- I've not been to a hifi show, but my reasoning being because it'd be sade, knobfler, & jazz club nonsense playing all day!
 
They are most fun on a wind-up acoustic gramophone IMO. Not the best thing when it comes to preservation, but they sound as they were intended to be heard. I have a HMV 102 which sounds surprisingly good and surprisingly loud!
 
Decided against picking up this 'Now...' LP in the charity shop yesterday.

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In a rival branch up the road I found a small pile of reggae 7"s including this Clancy Eccles single. It's far from mint but a nice find for a pound.

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Had fun wandering round the record fair this afternoon. As has been commented on, the prices of common or garden jazz reissues have got a bit silly and there were plenty of OJCs and Pathe DMMs priced up at £30-40 today. Who on earth is buying them?! Not me!

Thankfully there's still fun to be had in the cheapie boxes!

Found this nice 78 from 1943 for £2 - Billie Holiday on one side, Ella on the other.

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Couldn't resist this Blue Note 10" from 1951 for £3.

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Find of the day! I've been interested in Kwela music since reading about it's influence on South African jazz so was thrilled to find this in a £2 box. From 1959 on Gallotone. Great record!

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