News

Just goes to show that even with discogs and popsike some people will unknowingly give away valuable "junk" like this.

You should have seen my LP contribution to the garage sale back in '96.

Original Cream LP's,Led Zeppelin,etc. etc, etc.I wish I could go back in time and kick my own a**!!!!!!!!

There's four other classical vinyl hunters I keep running into at garage sales and thrift stores.  And, none of them even bother with opera, so I'm often in luck.  So you'd think I'd be content and gracious and all that mature stuff.  But hey, I do have a mischevous streak. When I see one of the rock hunters, I sometimes say, "Did you see that weird Beatles album with the meat and baby dolls over there?"  

...to check under the beds for '50s Les Pauls, Stratocasters & Telecasters.  '60s will also do.  Also scruffy old "tweed" and "blackface" Fender amps in the garage, attic and basement.

Garage sale, hell...

I gave away about 350 records back in 1990.

Seduced by those stinking silver discs.

I had dozens of Japanese/UK imports and some of the better audiophile pressings (just those alone would be worth thousands now).

Where's Doc Brown and the time machine so I can go back and club myself over the head !!

I had one of the 1960 issued Weathers, wood tone arm, fully suspended table.  I could not get use to the suspension and the ceramic cartrige.  Sold it and boght a Empire TT and Empire cartirge, later went Sure cartrige.  Ran the TT through Dynaco tube pre amp, Harman kardon HK250 driving Wharfedale 70's.  The Beach Boys, Kinks, Tijuanaj Brass, Ramsey Lewis, Beatles, The Byrds, Righteous Brothers, The Lovin' Spoonful etc.sounded great to this 16 year old at the time.

Most of the records you are showing are still in my storage, waiting to get dusted off.

Setting up a ReFurbished Fisher 800c driving stacked KLH 5's with a Marantz TT.  Then going to digitize the stash of LP's.  Thanks for bringing back great memories.

While I rarely pass up a tag sale or flea market, my best vinyl finds have been at a huge Goodwill distribution center near my house. Most trips I leave empty handed but when the stars have lined up correctly I have found some nice artists like Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Dave Brubeck, etc.. About 150 or so great jazz albums. Oh yeah, they cost 50 cents each!

Our super told me that there was a crate of records being thrown into a dumpster a block away... I ran. As I approached the giant dumpster, I saw a Velodyle 12" sub perched on the top side of the dumpster... it looked like a mirage! As I gingerly lowered the 75 lb sub to the ground, a worker said 'I guess you want the other one too.' I replied 'Yep!'

I took the first sub home and came back for the other. After taking that one home on foot, I rested for a second and, forgetting that I even had a car (...the heat of the moment!), I went back for the crate. I looked around the dumpester and found a dirty pair of AR M1 monitors, took them home, and again came back on foot for the crate of disks... There was something Sony at the very top of the dumpster mess tha i couldn't reach. It was too out of reach so I passed on it. I could just imagine falling in that dumpster in a misguided attempt to retrieve the Sony find.

As I was about to scan the contents of the crate, the buildng's super came through the basement doorway and remarked 'Help me get this up the steps and you can have it too.' I knew what I was seeing and I was agast - an idler drive deck, sans tonearm, in remarkably great condition. I quickly grabbed it from him and, fleet-footed, made for home.

With a little energy left, I again returned for the crate. I gave the super a $20 bill, grabbed the crate, and headed for home (the other worker passed on my offer of a $20). Once home I learned the crate was full of laser disks. The Sony unit must have been a laser player. Since I don't have a player, I gave them to my neighbor.

The AR speakers cost me $21.60 to repair. One Velodyne works well, the other is supposed to be an easy fix for a knowledgable hi-fi shop, according to Velodyne. It's with a trusted high end repairing friend now, as is the idler drive. The Idler drive turned out to be another audiophile's unfinished project. A Neat Shield MO-19, with a custom made multi-ply layered plinth. The wires to the motor were cut, so my friend is testing the motor to see if it's viable. I hope so, as I've received some wonderful replies to my forum requests for info on the table and how to approach it's repair. 

Needless to say, it was a great day.

Nice score!! The rock classics are getting harder to find. Here in L.A. its virtually impossible. Even though this town had/has the most supply being the company town there is just sooo many people on top of their game. 

Coolest thrift scores: alice coltrane live and ornette coleman live in stockholm. 

Greatest donation score: thorens td-124 with Wharfedale W70 both free from a really awesome lady!

Love hearing stories like this. What a an amazing find at a garage sale. So cool! I have to make it a point to visit some of them. Guess I'll have to wake up ear;ly tomorrow morning. Happy hunting everyone!

"...we can only dream about"?  Not moi. Yeah it's a welcome find, more so than the typical Herb Alperts and Eddy Duchin Story's of the world.  (Disclaimer: I'm an Alpert fan.)  But frankly, with a couple exceptions I wouldn't expect the vast majority of these titles to cost more than $5 at a garage sale. Most are common titles that sold in the millions and can be gotten without difficulty for $10 or under (provided you don't buy from sources catering to well-heeled audiophiles).  Moreover, to me at least there's nothing intrinsically exciting about finding AOR warhorses like these.  The original owner had pretty ordinary tastes (as classic-rock-centric audiophiles today tend to).  Is there some good stuff here?  Of course -- but most of you who are interested in 'em will already own a lot of these.  And I'll bet you didn't pay more than $5 either!  Lemme know when you score a stash of rare jazz LPs or local independent label 45s for cheap (as I've been lucky enough to on occasion) and *then* I'll pee my pants.

I just love dumb luck.  We do garage sales most Fridays in Fort Myers FL.  In-fact, we found a 1970's Kenwood, multi ply, poly resin, granite deck, with infinity Black widow tone arm, 2 hand made moving coil cartridges (one attached to the tone arm, the other in the original acrylic case, with measured frequency response graphs) and Denon step up transformer, with original box and receipts, at a garage sale.  They were giving it away, not quite, we paid $5.  Although it had been in a flood, with some deep cleaning...it sounds glorious.  Three years later, I am still in disbelief.  We love success stories.  Congratulations!  Enjoy your luck as well as the great find.

I rarely have a classy-crock find like the one pictured above but there was the time I scored 40 west coast jazz titles for 77 cents apiece about 2 years ago . . . and an estate sale of slightly clicky pre-bop jazz titles three months ago - those were a buck apiece and I took home $125 of them. Note that many of these would be cheap in a store also as they were scuffy and had the expected seam splits on the covers and few or no paper liners. Despite all this they were worth the trouble as you never see these titles in a store for any price in any condition.

I spend winters in Arizona in a community that caters to the retired crowd, myself included. We have a thrift store (to remain nameless) where they sell LPs for ten cents each. In the past three years I have picked up 1600 records. 90% are nothing special but the odd group of blues, jazz, world or classical will show up and I just hoover those suckers! Also picked up a mint pair of Mission 753s for $100 and a surprisingly tuneful Onkyo direct drive for $20. Was recently unboxing and was amazed at the number of Sinatra Capitol monos I had picked up.

Unfortunately you have to be there when the doors open every morning but hey, what makes a better breakfast than coffee over some newly acquired albums!

Finding a "mother lode" can indeed make one drop a "mother load" in sheer happiness...