The Crate Digging & Bargain Bin Finds Thread

When I'm in thrift stores looking for records, I also always keep an eye out for album storage items. Found this today: solid wood, 50" long x 16" deep x 20" tall. After a bit of cleaning and some touching-up of the finish, I'll have to work at slipping it into the decor. ;) I've got just the spot in mind....

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EDIT: Getting there....

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I spent yesterday digging around record and charity shops.

Managed to find a first UK pressing of Thelonious Monk - At Town Hall (without the sleeve) tucked away amongst a load of fodder in a charity shop for just 50p! It was pretty dusty but I have just cleaned it up and it looks great.

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One charity shop had the best selection of records I have ever seen, they actually appear to have dismissed the usual rubbish and it was full of top rate stuff, but.....priced high. Almost everything that I looked at was on or higher than its discogs average, regardless of its condition. One thing I did find was a particularly rare British jazz record, but again, it was priced at £100. In this case, that's below the average but they can still be found cheaper with luck (I found my copy last year for half that).

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And then there was another shop that had lots of different Abba records for £20 each..... I looked online, it averages for £3 with copies starting at 50p.

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Selaws said:
I spent yesterday digging around record and charity shops.

Managed to find a first UK pressing of Thelonious Monk - At Town Hall (without the sleeve) tucked away amongst a load of fodder in a charity shop for just 50p! It was pretty dusty but I have just cleaned it up and it looks great.

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One charity shop had the best selection of records I have ever seen, they actually appear to have dismissed the usual rubbish and it was full of top rate stuff, but.....priced high. Almost everything that I looked at was on or higher than its discogs average, regardless of its condition. One thing I did find was a particularly rare British jazz record, but again, it was priced at £100. In this case, that's below the average but they can still be found cheaper with luck (I found my copy last year for half that).

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And then there was another shop that had lots of different Abba records for £20 each..... I looked online, it averages for £3 with copies starting at 50p.

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Sounds like you almost literally dug for that Monk. Nice find!

I have a local thrift that used to sell vinyl for 50 cents, then $1, then $2. And now, whenever anything comes along that isn't the usual classical fodder, they place it in a locked showcase with $10 price stickers. Just like that Abba, it's always stuff that wouldn't even be worth the 50 cents they used to charge!
 
Russ I said:
Sounds like you almost literally dug for that Monk. Nice find!

I have a local thrift that used to sell vinyl for 50 cents, then $1, then $2. And now, whenever anything comes along that isn't the usual classical fodder, they place it in a locked showcase with $10 price stickers. Just like that Abba, it's always stuff that wouldn't even be worth the 50 cents they used to charge!
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Here in the UK Charity shops have become ridiculous in recent years. There are still some good ones that price to sell (mainly the independent charity shops) but for the most part, they seem to pull the prices out of thin air.

A few years ago now I was looking through some records that were priced offensively high for what they were. So much so that I pulled a random few out and discreetly looked at Discogs to see if they had EVER sold for those prices and they weren't even close, it was at least double the maximum in many cases. I was chatting to one of the workers in the shop about something else and mentioned that the pricing seemed very high and would be happy to help guide them to a more realistic price (even going as far as saying that I wouldn't be interested regardless) and I was told that they had an "expert" that knew what they were doing and that they were priced less than they usually sell for.

I totally understand that they want to make as much as they can, but considering that they get the records for free, it feels like a piss take a lot of the time. I have a stack of records that I pop into parcels as a freebie if I sell something else, but if I felt the charity shops near me weren't trying to rip people off I would probably have donated them a long time ago.
 
Found a new place today that has long tables of Amazon returns in a completely random and disorganized dump. They're closed and restock on Thursdays. Friday each item is $8, Saturday $6, Sunday $4, Monday $2, Tuesday $1, Wednesday $.50.

Lots of crazy shit. Found these four in the madness.

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Hemotep said:
Found a new place today that has long tables of Amazon returns in a completely random and disorganized dump. They're closed and restock on Thursdays. Friday each item is $8, Saturday $6, Sunday $4, Monday $2, Tuesday $1, Wednesday $.50.

Lots of crazy shit. Found these four in the madness.

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Haha! What a potential goldmine! Wonder where you'll be on Friday.....
 
Posted this in the Vintage Equipment thread. Out looking for records today and chanced upon a nice pair of AR-4x's.

Russ I said:
Surprising find at a local thrift shop today. Acoustic Research AR4x speakers. They're in pretty good shape cosmetically. I was able to connect them to a boom box-type rig at the shop and they both seemed to work without any obvious issues. Brought 'em home and so far, they sound good. I was able to get the grill off one of then, and to my great surprise, the woofer is fully intact, and from what I've heard through the other speaker, there's no reason to assume anything different. I'll have to check them out further and clean them up a bit, but at the moment, this is looking like a great find for $10.

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Yesterday a.m. I was lamenting the fact I was passing on yet another local estate sale, when in years past those consistently had been opportunities for some great LP finds at super-reasonable prices. Not anymore, since fewer people are ditching their records and more 'collectors' are competing for what's out there. Ah, the good ol' days.

Later in the day I headed to a local thrift and did my usual of asking whether there was anything in the back room that hadn't been put out. Guy who works back there who I've been hounding for a few weeks now took me back and slid a small box across a shelf to me. Some interesting stuff, and I was intrigued by a bunch of Japanese laser discs (thought they were records at first) housed in boxes with clasps. They turn out to be not very exciting--think they are karaoke. Four such boxes with 3-4 discs in each. (Will try to trade the laser discs; probably will keep the boxes and find use for them.)

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Next he slid me a slightly larger box with some records that looked interesting, and while I was looking at those, he pushed across a huge box that had was packed full with at least 80 records. I started looking through it and after seeing maybe 10-12 of the albums in there, I told him I'd take the whole thing--didn't need to look at all of them. This shop's usual price on LPs is $1, but we estimated I was taking about 100 or so records given the huge box and what I'd selected from the others, and he offered me a bulk price of $50. Done.

Was pretty stoked to get home and find some great stuff in the big box, and their condition is much like my own collection of records I've gathered over a lifetime--mostly solid VG+, a few that look like they might be M-, and a handful that were worthless, but fortunately none of those were titles I cared much about. Here are what I'd consider the cream of the crop (keeping in mind that I paid at most 50-cents per record).

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It's a bit of an understatement to say that this was both a big surprise and a very effective mood changer! Spent a lot of hours yesterday going through all of them, listening to some, and doing the discogs thing. Today I plan to clean a bunch, and then try to figure out what the fuck I'm going to do with them. Ain't that always the kicker?
 
No luck digging for vinyl today, but I did chance upon an unusually strong bunch of CDs in super-clean condition for $1 each. I've got some rippin' to do!


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