Is It Nostalgia Or Something Else?

I just read an article that explained the sole reason for the new found love and resurgence of vinyl is nostalgia. You know what?

The article kind of pissed me off.

Nostalgia is defined as:

"A sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations."

Why is it that we have to make generalized statements about a group of people and then classify them in mostly disparaging ways? Saying someone is nostalgic, in the context of the article I read, is a passive aggressive way saying these people are living in the past, afraid of the future. It's like high school all over again. The Jocks, the Nerds, Band Geeks, etc.

If somebody loves vinyl, that should be enough. If it's not, then the fact that that love music should be enough.

I, like so many others have many different reasons for my love of vinyl. I get it a lot from acquaintances, "Ah you grew up in the 70s", meaning I am old, "so you long for old stuff again."

That simply isn't true.

Being as I grew up in the 70s I should, by that logic, enjoy John Carpenter's Halloween more than Rob Zombie's Halloween. That would be a false assumption. I actually enjoy the gritty new style and storytelling in today's horror overall. It doesn't mean I dislike the original either. I have a a deep appreciation of both, for different reasons.

While I love vinyl, I also enjoy the portability of digital music. I can't take my entire record collection with me to play on a road trip, but I can slip a 32GB SD card into my car's console and have enough music to run my gas tank dry 30 times over before hearing a repeated song.

But if I could listen to vinyl in the car, I would.

Being that I was born during the Summer of Love, that would be the Summer of '69, yes just like the Bryan Adams' song of the same name, I came of age in the 70s and 80s. But, my childhood wasn't remotely like That 70's Show, Dazed and Confused, The Wonder Years or even Almost Famous portrayed. I was raised by a strict single mother until I was six, when she then married an abusive, womanizing, alcoholic, blue-collar, mill worker, things went downhill from there.

I was a particularly precocious child with a natural curiosity for how things work and a wild imagination. That combination kept me in a lot of trouble throughout my childhood. As a result I spent a lot of time being punished by various means; of which, one punishment was being grounded, alone, to my room, for weeks at a time.

So to prevent this from being a recap of my crappy childhood, because that is not my intent, it's just easier for me to say, the "good ole days" aren't all that worthy of remembering them in fondness; no nostalgia is in my heart for that time in my life.

I have many friends who definitely collect things in the name of nostalgia; an attempt to hold on to their fond memories of the past. They do this openly, admitting that it's nostalgia. While I can understand why these friends do this, I don't really relate to it, but at the same time I also don't judge them as I can find a connection with them: We love some of the same things. Reason's aren't important.

If I am going to be honest here, I have to disclose that I didn't knowingly hear a Led Zeppelin song until I was nineteen years old. My first known memory of a Queen song, wasn't even Queen, but rather Weird Al's parody of Queen with "Another One Rides the Bus."

My own exposure to music was fairly narrow and it didn't broaden until I was into my late teens, early twenties. And this helps answer the question: So why vinyl?

When I started broadening my musical world, CDs were the "new" thing on the market. CD Players were expensive as was the CDs themselves. As a result, between 1987 and 1993, I could buy two, sometimes three, vinyl albums for the price of one CD. I could check out vinyl albums from the public library. I was able to explore so much more music for my limited (military) income.

But for me there are a few things about vinyl I learned to love from an early age and developed into my late teens and early twenties.

I love the tangibility of vinyl. I love the fact that I can touch it, hold it, smell it, see it, in its entirety, in detail; the liner notes, the cover art, the gate fold art, the inner sleeve art, the lyrics; it is a complete experience. There isn't a screen sitting between me and the experience of music; filtering it. Even CDs and Cassettes cannot replicate that experience like vinyl can.

I love the ritual of vinyl. Walking my fingers through a bin of vinyl to find that one gem I can add to my collection. Sliding the album out of its sleeve, gently laying it on the platter and dropping the needle (yes, I still call it a needle and always will).

I love the raw and stable nature of vinyl. With the proper care and handling, vinyl sounds the same today as it did when it was pressed. And the care and handling aren't all that complicated.

I love the discovery of new-to-me music that vinyl makes affordable. Because vinyl is still pretty inexpensive, I can discover new music at a rate that is unprecedented even in CDs.

I love the game I play as I flip through a bin of records; The game of "have it | need it | leave it".

I love that when I buy vinyl, I truly own it and I'm not just licensing it. I can play it, record it, play it back when and where I want. I can loan it out to friend. I can trade it, sell it, gift it. It is personal.

I love the mystery of vinyl hunting. Going to a garage sale or even my local record store and see what they got in their "Recently Arrived Used Section". Each dig through a new bin is new experience with new treasures to be found; new music to fall in love with.

I love that vinyl allows me to determine my favorite songs from an album. Vinyl allows me to discover what I like instead of being told via industry driven algorithms designed to push specific artists and songs to top of a searches or streaming playlists telling me what I should like.

My love of vinyl is not based in some "everything old is new again" movement.

My love of vinyl is not a nostalgia based desire to hold on to some part of the past.

My love of vinyl is not based on a monetary based profit motive.

My love of vinyl is my own, based on who I am.

Even though others may share some of my reasons for a love of vinyl, my love of vinyl is likely different than his love of vinyl and different than her love of vinyl. But the fact remains, we all love music.

Isn't that enough?

Do the formats, the motivations, the classifications of said motivations really matter? Is it really that important to break down, classify and divide something we find commonality in? Why can't we just find that one area of commonality and connect on the fact that we connect there. Embrace each other on the common love.

My love is music. My choice of medium is vinyl. The reason's don't really need to be classified. Can't we drop the labels and drop a needle instead.

Listen.

Connect.

Embrace.

Thrive.

Music.

Vinyl: The Reports of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Vinyl was never really dead, neither in the hearts of music lovers nor commercially. It may have been in critical condition and near comatose commercially for a few years, as new music was rarely pressed into vinyl; but vinyl was never truly dead.

There is a difference between the "vinyl revival" and it's commercial resurgence. Revival is defined as an instance of something becoming popular, active, or important again. Vinyl remained popular, active and important the for a large portion of the U.S. And more importantly, vinyl remained available in the marketplace the whole time between 1973 and 2017 via small, locally owned record stores.

While the RIAA tracks new record sales, what had never been tracked by the RIAA is the sale of used vinyl, or vinyl checkouts at local libraries, or sales at flea markets, swap meets, garage sales... which remained relatively strong throughout the "dead" period. Funnier still, new vinyl sales never went away entirely. Vinyl still had a pulse, but was being declared dead. What we would call that in the real world (the world outside the music industry)?

Malpractice.

Some may call it marketing, but I would definitely call it malpractice.

New Vinyl Sales as Reported by Nielsen.

Look at the chart on the left. Sometime between 1990 and 1993 vinyl as a music delivery format was officially declared dead in the media via an RIAA release. But the fact remains, new vinyl sales continued, and even saw growth above 1.5 million units between 1993 and 2003. That is not dead, but rather a sign that new vinyl sales were holding strong and continued to hold strong even as a second generation digital format, MP3, was taking hold.

If you look closely at the dip in vinyl sales between 2001 and 2007 (the height of digital sales), and compare it with CD sales during the same period; the sales for new vinyl sales are nearly flat, at around one million units while CD sales dropped from nearly four million units to one million units in the same period. MP3 didn't do a lot to hurt vinyl, but it wrecked havoc to the CD industry.

Last year marked the 33 1/3 anniversary of my local record store. Vinyl was a source of income that helped keep this shop open, especially as other retailers jumped the vinyl ship. Yes, CD sales were tops between 1988 and 2005, but vinyl, mostly used, and a relatively small amount of new vinyl was still being carried and sold.

While sales thinned out, even for CDs, during the dark years following the iPod release, my local record store is still in business and thriving today partially because of fact that they stuck it out.

While big stores like Camelot (now f.y.e.), Sam Goody (Bankruptcy 2006, now f.y.e.) and even the mega-store Tower Records (liquidated in 2006) all folded under or were bought out by Trans World Entertainment and  this was reported collapse brought on by the digital revolution.Now at f.y.e you find that less a quarter of the store is music or music related, while the rest of the store is dedicated to toys, clothes and knickknacks.

Even the big box and department stores, like Walmart, Costco, Kroger/Fred Meyer have dismal selections on music and a majority of it is CDs.

But the independently owned  record stores, they adapted as the "trend" shifted. They remained true to music, stores like Ranch Records, didn't abandon vinyl because they were told to. They didn't cave to the pressures of the times, although nobody would have blamed them if they did. It wasn't always easy, just ask one of the owners of your local record shop. During the dark days of digital, it was pretty dark, but they worked through the struggles and as a result deserve our utmost love and admiration for these are the people helped keep vinyl in it's rightful place. It is these people, the independent owners of local music stores that refused to allow vinyl to die in the market place.

2016 brought about a change. I am not here to argue whether vinyl is superior to digital, or vice versa, but I am here to point at a fact and to ask a question. Fact: For the first time, 2016 saw new vinyl out sell digital downloads. Question: If digital was truly a superior format like so many claim, would simple nostalgia or hipster-hype for vinyl allowed an inferior format to outsell a superior format in it's prime?

The music industry, through technology, tried it's damnedest to eradicate vinyl from the face of the earth, but the technology was never a match for the multi-layered experience vinyl brought to the music listening experience. The artwork, the liner notes, the feel of holding an album, opening a gate fold, the smell of new and old vinyl; the overall ritual of the vinyl experience is something that technology failed to replicate with its push button access to millions of songs.

We are creatures of multiple sensory capabilities. We experience the world with our eyes, our nose, our mouth, our skin and our ears and our brains. The more of these capabilities we use during an experience the more we "experience" it. The digital experience is one that we experience with only our ears.

Vinyl on the other hand is something we experience with most of our sensory capabilities; we smell the album and cover; we see the artwork and grooves in the record; we read the liner notes; we feel the album as a tangible object; we hear the music we think about the experience. We experience a vinyl album in a way that digital cannot deliver. We live the ritual that is vinyl.

Sure technology brought us real portability and ease of access across platforms, but at it's best, technology brought us a cold and callous listening experience that forced music into the background of lives; played while we were busy with other things. Digital was no different than radio, something we listed to while we were busy driving.

In the end, technology couldn't match the truly human experience of music, the ritual that vinyl brings to the listening experience.

Now, with all that said, there is definitely a resurgence in interest for vinyl. This resurgence has been arguably attributed to the hipsters' "Everything Old Is Cool Again" movement. And in reality, the hipsters can't even be given that much credit. Most hipsters likely got their love of vinyl from their parents and grandparents or friends who got their love it from their parents and grandparents; those parents and grandparents who held on to their own collections long enough for their kids/grand-kids to discover vinyl through their collections and fall in love with them.

But, this resurgence is nothing more than a commercial resurgence, meaning the industries involved feel that they can make money off of it so they declare it a resurgence. The commercial resurgence isn't a bad thing. It provides an opportunity for us to experience new music on vinyl that might not have been available in that format before. Lady Gaga, Jason Isabel, Amy Winehouse... all artists who launched their careers when vinyl was reportedly "dead" all have music available on vinyl and it is because of this resurgence.

Not everyone who pursues vinyl today is a hipster; hell, at nearly 50 years old, I am way to old to be considered a hipster. I don't drink iced tea from mason jars. I still find it funny that BCGs are a fad (big, black framed eyeglasses known as Birth Control Glasses, BCG, because you weren't going to be laid wearing a pair of them back in my day). I especially don't think a sushi-burrito should be a thing. Hell... I'm still suspect of Fish Tacos. Vinyl isn't a hipster thing. Vinyl isn't an old fart's thing. Vinyl isn't collector's thing. Vinyl is all these things, plus a whole lot more.

Vinyl lives on today because the love of the medium remains intact. Vinyl lives on because vinyl is a complete music experience. Vinyl is felt, it is smelled, it is held, it is heard. Vinyl is experienced. Vinyl delivers a unique listening experience that can't the replicated by an LCD screen and headphones; it the exposure to all your senses that makes the music experience special. And this experience has been passed down from one generation to another because, really, what's not to love about the vinyl experience? A few pops and clicks... oh no. 

  

For so many of us, this is not a revival of a format or the resurrection of a musical savior; this is just business as usual. And for those of us who know this about vinyl, vinyl will always be a part of our own personal listening ritual. 

Is it Worth It?

Is it worth it?

Regardless of what "IT" is, this is the question retailers and consumers should be asking every day. The question "Is it worth it?" is something we have to ask every time, it's just that sometimes we end up asking the question after the fact; "Was it worth it?" If we are asking "Was it worth it?", chances are the answer is already "No" because we are likely suffering from buyers remorse which is why we are asking the question.

Is it worth it?

Retailers need to ask the question, "Is it worth it to stock vinyl in my shop?"

Consumers need to ask the question, "Is this album worth x-dollars of my money?"

Now I have my haunts that I go digging in. A few second hand and antique shops, a local record shop and a specialty vintage shop. I go to these places because I can get great music that I love at a great price and I can discover great new music without breaking the bank. Add to this the fact that many people are just giving this stuff away, literally, and, from my view of the world, a consumer doesn't have to spend a fortune to build a large collection. This is how I have amassed a collection of over 800 LPs and only spent an average of $2.35 per record.

When I go into shops like F.Y.E., Guitar Center, Best Buy, or even a regional department/grocery store and see them selling reissues of albums for $20, $30 or even as high as $60 an album, I just shake my head as I know I either already have that album in my collection or can get it into my collection, and in both cases far cheaper than what they are asking.

Recently at Guitar Center I saw a re-issue of Black Sabbath's first album on their shelf for $26.99. I purchased an 80s reissue of the same album from that specialty vintage shop I mentioned earlier for $10.

I was at my regional department/grocery browsing the electronics section and saw a Bob Marley reissue for sale for $29.99, the same album, but an 80s release, I was able to pick up from my local record shop for $8.00.

Another issue with dealing with retailers; I go to my barber to get my hair cut. And no matter how fantastic a haircut might be, I would never go to my barber for a vasectomy. Most of the employees at retailers can't answer basic questions about the products, like the difference between 180g pressings and 200g pressings. "Uh, like the weight?"

The selections at these retailers are typically limited to only the most popular albums from the most popular artists to ensure sales, but it is still very limited audience, because those of us who aren't in the New Collector category of consumer, won't pay that much for a reissue; typically. Sure, the retailers likely move the reissued albums, but likely to the New Collector segment of consumers, those that, for the most part, don't know any better. And it should be noted that in the case of the Bob Marley example from above, the department store started carrying these albums in November in preparation for turntable sales during the Christmas holiday season. But come February, the retailer still had a handful of albums available that were steeply discounted, as in $13 each, or half off, so yeah, they weren't flying off the shelves.

One issue many retailers have in the used vinyl segment of their store, which is typically a secondary or tertiary segment (meaning it is not the primary or secondary focus of their store's sales), is that they don't know the true meaning of value when it comes to used vinyl. They see what stuff is listed for on Discogs or Ebay, then try and evaluate the condition of the vinyl based on their own "judgement" and they price accordingly. Many retailers don't get that the highest price listed is not the true value of the record, especially in the eye of the consumer.

As a result, many of the retailers, including some local record shops (like one in my hometown), have their prices on used vinyl typically set way too high. In the case of the one local record shop, I don't do business with, won't have a price on the album. Instead the owner will look each album up on Discog at the time of checkout. This particular behavior makes for a long checkout process and makes it difficult for the consumer to know what they can get when they're working within a budget.

This type of retailer pricing behavior is likely because, they don't truly understand the real market and the players in the market.

It's not like most of these retailers are carrying hard to find, exclusive releases. I have found some hard to find vinyl, in surprisingly great condition at my local second hand and thrift shops for uber-cheap, $3 or less. Stuff like a still sealed Foreigner 4 album or a copy of The Beatles white album for free from a service like Listia.

I have scored some great finds on a regular basis.

Alan Parson's Project, The Best of the Alan Parsons Project - Free - A Gift
Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II - $1.00 - Garage Sale
Pink Floyd, Darkside of the Moon Original Pressing - $0.00 - A Gift
Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers (Zipper Cover) - Free - Traded for a gifted Zeppelin 4 album that was a duplicate
Alice Cooper, Flush With Passion - $0.30 - Craigs List Lot
Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisted Original Pressing - Free - Storage Unit Giveaway
Stevie Wonder, Talking Book Original Pressing - $5.00 - Comic Con
Boston, Third Stage - $2.00 - Second Hand Store
Toto, Toto IV - $2.99 - Antique Shop
Tracy Chapman, Crossroads - $8.00 - Vintage Specialty Shop
Daft Punk, Discovery - $13.75 - Local Record Shop

The music is everywhere and it isn't typically expensive. I can buy a Led Zeppelin II re-issue album on amazon for about $20, but I was actually able to find it for $1 at a garage sale. As a consumer, why would I pay $20, unless I was a part of the New Collector segment of the collector's market. The answer to the question "Is it worth it?", in this case, is a resounding now.

This is what the my local market looks like on a regular basis and if a retailer doesn't know this market, it is hard to answer the question, "Is it worth it?" And if you don't understand your target consumer, the answer to "Is it worth it" become exponentially harder to answer.

If a retailer is going to carry vinyl, they really need to know how to answer, "Is it worth it?"

Is it worth the coveted sales floor space for a few sales a week?

Is it worth the effort of lugging, organizing, straightening, reorganizing all that heavy cumbersome vinyl in the hopes of selling a record or two a day. Let's face it, vinyl consumers will put an album back where ever they see fit if they change their minds.

Can I make my prices competitive enough to compete in the market for the targeted consumers?

In the end, vinyl, even just a few milk crates of it, takes a lot of coveted space and in the retail world; a world where space equals money. If a product can't sell enough to pay for the overhead of the space it is consuming, the retailer will lose in the end.

If the vinyl is too affordable for the consumer, it may sell a lot, but there isn't enough profit margin to cover the cost. If it's too expensive, nobody buys it and again there isn't enough profit margin to cover the cost. There is a fine line for a retailer to walk to ensure they are capable of generating enough money to pay the overhead. A retailer can't expect to sell an album, let's say Carole King's Tapestry as an example, for $40 (the price listed on Discog's website) when I have found three of them at one of my three local Goodwill stores for $2.99, in the last two months, two of which I purchased (one for myself and another for gift for a friend).

For the most part, people don't go to a fabric store to buy a gaming system the same way they don't typically go to grocery stores to by vinyl. Most consumers go to comic con to buy comics, art and action figures... not vinyl. If it's there, you may sell some, but that isn't your target audience.

As a retailer your decision to carry vinyl may seem to make logical business sense when you simply look at just how hot vinyl sales are right now; and they are hot. But, the retailer will find out soon enough that the profit margins on vinyl's aren't as lucrative as they may seem on the surface.

I will, on rare occasion, drive sixty miles to dig for vinyl at a record store because there is a "huge" volume vinyl for me to dig through. Conversely, I won't drive ten or even twenty miles just to dig through a couple of bins at a random shop. I am sure I am not alone in that. If I happen to be at the shop, sure I will take a look, but I likely won't make it a point to add it to my usual digging routine, especially if Boz Scaggs is the best album in the bin.

Sorry... Boz is a fine musical artist, but I had to use someone as an example. And Boz is a great example. He is everywhere. In every garage sale, every flea market, swap meet, second hand bin across the planet you will find Boz. So as a retailer you need to make sure you are stocking not only the music people want, but the music that people don't have such ready access to purchase.

There was the time that I came across six bins of vinyl in a little boutique shop in the downtown mall. My wife dragged me in there and I found Houses of the Holy for $5. We purchased like six albums that day and nothing else. Would this shop become a regular stop me on my digging adventures? Likely not, as I score the six best albums they had and they aren't likely refreshing their stock anytime soon, because they are a boutique shop, not a record store.

This just goes to show that from a consumer perspective, "Is it worth it" is a lot more complex to answer.

Depending on the type, or combination of types, of collector(s) you may be, the question, "Is it worth it?" may have a different answer for numerous reasons. For a Music Collector, a limited edition pressing of an album that is $60 may not be worth it, but for the Economist Collector, it may be.

And the answer to "Is it worth it?" may change depending on when it is asked. For example; the day after payday when disposable cash flow may be in abundance, the consumer might be more willing to answer yes to an album that is $30, where the answer may be no the very next day when you find out your roof needs replaced.

Hell, there are times when my own answer to "Is it worth it?" is no for a $2 album.

There are many reason for a purchase to be worth it or not for a consumer and this adds to the complexity of the answer for the retailer to answer their own question; "Is it worth it to carry vinyl".

Did you scroll to the bottom of this posting to see how long it is? Did you do so to determine if you had time to read the whole thing? Or maybe to see if it was worth it? Or did you just starting reading to end up asking yourself, "Was it worth it?"

Well, was it?

The Art of the Hunt: Vinyl Edition

Regardless of what type of collector you are, everyone is after the same thing; quality at a bargain. Be it low prices or awesome treasures, we all want the same thing from our records. I thought I would share some tips with you; valuable strategies I use when I am on the hunt for vinyl.

TIP #1 - Discover New Music At A Bargain

If you are simply looking for good music at great prices, used records at local record shops, thrift stores, garage sales and antique malls are a great place to shop. Picking up a copy of an album for three dollars or cheaper is a steal.

While pickings can be thin from time to time, this method of hunting for vinyl is a really a great way pick music from bands you aren't familiar with for real cheap.

Consider this true story.

A while I back I was digging through my local second hand shop and came across two albums from the James Cotton Blues Band. I had never heard of the band before, but I like blues in general, so at six bucks for both, I was able to score some new blues that I ended up loving.

To find the same two albums on iTunes at $0.99 per song would have cost me nearly twenty dollars. And to buy the vinyl LPs from  Amazon would have cost me fifteen dollars each, plus shipping. So not only did I get some great music for less than one sixth the cost of iTunes and Amazon, I discovered new music that I love.

Or even more recently, I picked up three albums from the band Black Oak Arkansas, a band I never heard of before this time, but instantly fell in love with them, and one of the albums might be one of the best live albums ever captured on record and it cost me nine bucks to open that door to a new love.

Now, I will admit that I have scored some unknown music before that I haven't loved, but the beauty of it is, I only spent six dollars. I can give it to friend. Or, I can take it to a monthly vinyl trade event I attend and someone there will absolutely love this particular album and I can trade it for something else that I did love or something previously unknown to me.

So I still win.

TIP #2 - Relationships Matter

Develop a relationship or relationships with your local shop owners. I'm not talking about some chain store like FYE. I'm talking specifically about your local, independently owned record shop. Try to stop in at least every other week. You don't need to spend money each time you go in, but, of course, it doesn't hurt if you do. Instead make it a point to talk to the staff, ask about music, ask them how business is going.. hell even just ask them about who is playing on the store's sound system. If they have a pet in the shop... greet the pet, get to know it's name. Develop a relationship.

And it can't be fake. You have to care about them as much as you want them to care about you. This doesn't mean you will be best friends forever; invited to birthday parties and exchange Christmas cards each holiday season. Make no mistake, these are, more times than not, consumer/retailer relationships. But they are important relationships.

This is a great way to get the shop to learn what you like, dislike and garner a few favors and recommendations from the retailer. When I talk about favors I'm not talking about freebies. No, don't expect freebies or anything like that. That's just dumb. When I talk about favors, I am talking about favors like spotting something you have been looking for and getting it in the shop specifically for you, or a simple recommendation of a new band based on what you already like.

I was hunting for a particular album for my wife from Dinah Washington. I let the staff at my local shop know (they are also the owners). A few weeks later they called me and said they came across the album as a part of a collection they just bought and that I could come down and pick it up for five dollars.

If you have been hunting for particular band or album from a band and they see one come through; even if they wouldn't normally buy it, they will likely pick it for you knowing you are hunting for it. So not only are you getting a positive consumer/retailer relationship that is built around music, you get an awesome perk like the one I mentioned above to boot.

A bonus tip is to come into the shop educated. Don't ask about "that one album from that one band that does that one song about being a "Creep". Know what you are looking for. Google is your friend. This is especially important for events like record store day. You can find a list of records coming out on record store day... shhhhh... little secret... the list is online. Find the titles you are interested in, and write them down... [more about lists in the bonus tips].Go into your local record store and ask them if they ordered those titles then ask them when they open on record store day (many stores shift their hours on that day).

It shows you know how to research on your own, which shows a serious level of interest and this will garner some respect from the local record store staff.

Tip #3 - Inspect Before You Buy

Always check the condition of the vinyl and make sure the album matches the cover. This of course only applies to used, unopened (not factory sealed) albums.

Due to people buying a record, taking it home and recording it to MP3 (cassettes back in the day), before returning it for a refund, most stores these day don't allow open records to be returned. This makes it every important to look at the condition of a used record before you purchase it, because it is already opened; even if it is from your "friends" at your local record shop. If a store reseals its used albums and refuses to allow you to inspect the vinyl condition before buying...

...take your business elsewhere.

You are checking for two things when you inspect an album;

1. Is the vinyl in good condition (is it playable).
2. Does the vinyl match the cover.

So how do you inspect the condition of a vinyl record? Here is what I look for. 

• Are the grooves well pronounced; is there a luster to the album? If the record looks dull, this could one of two things, it is well worn or it is very dirty. The first of the two, well worn, will impact the sound quality, the second can be taken care of with a good cleaning; or two.
• Is there warping or a bubble? A minor warp in the record may not affect playback much other than subtle pitch change, if at all. But if it is pronounced warp, or bubble shape, I have found some records that actually catch the tone arm as they spin around, like a high-centered car, picking the needle up and dropping back onto the record. This is not a record you want to buy... even if it's your favorite album from your favorite band.
• Is there heat damage? Heat damage will present itself around the edges of a record first as they are most susceptible to heat. You will want to look for bubbly pockmarks or "foamy surface" look to the record. 
• Are there scratches or scuffs? Scratches don't always impact the ability of the vinyl to sound good and not skip. Surface scratches may or may no add a pop or click to the playback, where as a deeper scratch, one that will catch the corner of a piece of paper as it is pushed over the scratch to see if it catches on the scratch, will definitely affect playback and likely add a skip. A lot of people swear by using their finger for feeling scratches, but I found that using the paper technique is fairly fool proof and is my preferred method, as the finger can lose sensitivity in cold or warm weather. More so, longer running LPs, those over 20 minutes per side, tend to be cut with shallower grooves, so a slight scratch will likely be more audible than those with a run time of under 20 minutes per side. Also, the type of music matters when dealing with scratches. Acoustic albums will likely do little mask the clicks and pops of a scratch than a rock or metal album will. 

More about the matching of vinyl to the cover.

I'm not saying that your local record store would intentionally put a record from Madonna into a Red Hot Chili Peppers' sleeve but another customer of the store might. And who knows... I am sure there are some stores of disrepute that might do that as well, but their reputation usually puts them out of business in short order. I have found a copy Conway Twitty vinyl LP in the cover of a Led Zeppelin album before.

And if you are diving for vinyl at thrift stores or flea markets and garage sales; this is very important as many of these sellers do not look at the condition of the vinyl, let alone make sure the album in the sleeve is actually the right album before putting them out on the shelf. I can't tell you how many times I have found an album I have been looking for at a thrift store only to pull the vinyl out to see it is unplayable; scratches, warps and even once, actually broken in half, plus the number of albums in the wrong sleeves. 

Tip #4 - Manage Your Expectations

When you go digging into record bins, don't expect to find anything. The only expectation you should have going into a dig is that regardless of what you may find, you won't over spend. Sticking to a budget can be hard, but you won't need your collecting to bankrupt you. 

This is very important as hunting can hit some serious dry spells. I have gone as long as three months without a single find. Sure there were bands I found that I liked during the digs, but the albums were in poor shape (not playable) or I already owned that album from them. As your collection gets bigger and your ears desire higher quality sound from your albums these dry spells can become longer and drier, because you already have so many albums and may end up desiring less pops and clicks.

So don't expect to find anything. Just enjoy the experience of the hunt and if you come home with a treasure, cherish it for what it is; a SCORE! 

Tip #5 - Keep a list or two with you at all times.

This list, best kept as a spreadsheet, but even alphabetically sorted notepad list can work, contains two lists; wants and haves. 

Buying duplicates can be rewarding if you find a better copy of an a album you already own, but when it's unintentional it becomes a face-palm moment when you get home.

While it may be easy to manage your collection in your head when you only have a dozen bands in your collection, but when your collection consists of seven hundred or more albums and includes hundreds of artists, you may struggle to remember if you have Johnny Cash's Songs of Our Soil album, when you already own over twenty of his other albums.

I have only had one instance where I purchased a duplicate accidentally. Simply because I couldn't remember if I had Dan Fogelberg's Phoenix or not. Well I purchased a duplicate. At that time I wasn't expecting to go hunting, but my wife convinced me to stop in and do a little digging; it didn't take much convincing really. But, I had left my phone at home so didn't have my list with me. I didn't fret too much. The album was only two dollars... and I just gave it to a friend who had been looking for it.

The lists are simple to keep and simple to access. I use Discog to keep track of my collection and keep track of my wishlist. They have an awesome export function which allows you to quickly download your collection and wish lists to an excel or notepad format, which is important if you don't have enough cellphone signal to look directly at the Discog's site where your digging at the time... and I have been known to drive out into the wilderness to dig for vinyl, or even a basement, so a lot of times, I don't have signal.

Also... keeping a want list is important, especially if you have a limited budget and are struggling to cull the stack of records you are holding in the middle of your local record store or garage sale because you can't afford them all. Your want list will make sure you don't put down that one or two records you definitely wanted.

So there are five great tips for hunting that I have learned through my experiences. But we aren't done yet. Below are three bonus tips I thought I would throw in for good measure.

Bonus Tip #1 - Don't Be A Snob

You have been hunting for that copy of Atomic Heart Mother since you began collecting and you finally found one, but the cover is destroyed so you pass on it. Here is my advise; always check the condition of the vinyl. Even if the cover is destroyed, if the vinyl is playable consider picking up the album.

Here's why; you can easily find orphaned covers for an album pretty cheap and typically if the record's cover is in bad shape, you will get the record cheap. It's a great, albeit more timely way to score an otherwise expensive album on the cheap; cheap vinyl + cheap cover = cheap album.

Bonus Tip #2 - Negotiate
I can't say "Always attempt to negotiate on the price", because you won't want to be "THAT" customer for a retailer, but what I can say is when it comes to thrift stores and garage sales, it never hurts to ask. All they can ever say is "No."

This is something you can't do with online shopping at iTunes or Amazon as the price is the price online. And it's not something you want to do "all the time", and actually never with new pressing, when dealing with your local record shop, but when it comes to non-retailers, feel free to ask every single time.

Bonus Tip #3 - Be Smart And Prepared To Walk Away

This has to do with with flea markets and garage sale environments. Three strategies regarding these types of sales:

1. Arrive early
2. Ask for a lower price
3. Come back later

Rule number one is simple to grasp. Early bird gets the worm, or in this case, the vinyl. Get there early to score the best albums they have for sale. 

Rule number two is also a simple. See Bonus Tip #2.

Rule number three is a bit more of a calculated risk. The strategy here is to pick the items you definitely want, don't want to risk losing to another. But if the box(es) contain so much good stuff, you can always make an offer that is reasonable. But since you arrived early, they likely won't accept your offer, because someone or many someones might come in and buy many others at full price. So I will pick up the few must have albums, pay for them and walk away happy, thanking them.

Then at the end of the flea market or the garage sale, come back and make a ridiculously low offer on the whole box; like $0.20 a record. Chances are good that they will accept this offer or at least come way down on their asking price. 

Thanks to news articles, many sellers think that there are millions of people clambering to buy all the vinyl in world and thanks to misuse of Discog's site they think they are sitting on a gold mine, because everyone's record is in mint condition. So they put ridiculously high prices on their vinyl. By the end of sale, the seller realizes that there aren't as many vinyl geeks out there as they thought or that their collection doesn't contain all that gold. Let's face it, the brat pack isn't as popular as they were back in the 60s and 70s. 

Most sellers don't want to have to handle the heavy boxes of vinyl at the end of a sale. So chances are good that they will cut a great deal near the of their sale. And if you paid full price for a few albums and walked away happy earlier in the day the seller is likely to cut an even better deal than if you stomped off in a huff earlier in the day when they wouldn't lower their prices.

So that's all I have for now. I hope you find this useful.