The Crate Digging & Bargain Bin Finds Thread

If I pull out discogs, its because I'm making sure I don't already have it. Being old and having 2000+ records and even more cds makes the memory awful.

If I pull out allmusic, its because I'm unsure of the record and there is not enough compelling on the cover for me to strike, but something is gnawing at me about it.
 
Loving this new thread. Pulled this out of the crates from my local Thrift Store for $1 yesterday. It's not OG, but a UK reissue that after cleaning is NM. (As an aside, I love the person who handles the music donations at my local. He knows his music, including the value of certain records, but puts everything out anyway for $1 because he appreciates pickers and the thrill of finding something like this in the bins.)

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JohnnyCashFan said:
How about a few a week ?
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Ask and you shall receive...

My record collecting obsession started with an epic bargain bin find: Black Sabbath's self titled for $1 at Wolfson Equipment and Records in Jacksonville. Even though the cover had seam splits (which I taped up) and there was a barely noticeable jump in the title song, it was thrilling to find such a hard to find album on the cheap and it had me wanting to scout out more. Later visits to that same store led me to score at least one great bargain bin find, on my second visit I got Rust Never Sleeps by Neil Young and on my third I got Hard Promises by Tom Petty.

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The next epic find came months later on a visit to Arrows Aim in Gainesville (R.I.P.), when I browsed their new arrivals section and found an early pressing of Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, complete with original hype sticker. There was no price on the cover. The clerk mistook it for a bargain bin find and I paid $1 for it. I've played the record multiple times and it's a clean copy with no skips. (Before Arrows Aim closed I had a few other big finds there, including a limited SRCvinyl press of Stay What You Are by Saves The Day for $25 and a Taiwanese Rolling Stones box set for $40. I have since resold both, but I still have the Pink Floyd.)

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As my quest to expand my collection grew I went from searching bargain bins to buying personal collections in bulk. In 2018 I bought four collections (most of which I ended up reselling on eBay or selling to record stores for store credit) and got these for unit costs ranging from as high as $2 each and as low as a few cents: Led Zeppelin I, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, an OG press of Licensed To Ill by the Beastie Boys, S/T, Rumours and Then Play On by Fleetwood Mac, Band of Gypsys by Hendrix, Abraxas by Santana, multiple Steely Dan records (I kept Aja and Greatest Hits), Songs In The Key Of Life and Innervisions by Stevie Wonder, Straight Up by Badfinger, Van Halen I, Women and Children First and 1984 by Van Halen, two copies of Slippery When Wet by Bon Jovi, At San Quentin by Johnny Cash, On The Beach by Neil Young, Morrison Hotel by the Doors, and my personal favorite find from the collections I purchased, Holy Diver by Dio (which skipped quite a bit on first play, until I rescued it with a cleaning). One record found in a 700+ collection bought for $200 in Orlando, by an obscure 80s Italo disco act called Savage, sold on eBay for $50, and I recouped 25% of the cost of the lot on a single record.

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Melt Face Molly Drop said:
Only one way to find out: head back tomorrow
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I'd like to say I'm not going to do that, but who am I kidding! Haha. This is funny (or kinda sick, really), but this morning I had this dream that felt a bit like a nightmare. I was in a situation where there was going to be lots of used records. Someone else was gathering them but I was on the 'inside' and was going to have first dibs. When the records arrived, somehow, everything that could conspire against me conspired against me, and as I went from box to box, location to location in a warehouse-type space, in every instance someone else had gotten to the records before me. At one point, I actually found some cool stuff, but a few moments later my hands were empty and I couldn't figure out how that could have happened. It was about then that I woke up, and man, I was glad it had been a dream, but still agitated. Today when I went to this thrift store, this guy was putting out books, CD's and other media, and I asked him if there were any records to come. He said yeah, he had a few to put out, but he had no idea how long it might take for him to get to it. So I waited and waited, sure it would be a waste of my time (if you saw the crap records they typically have, you'd figure I was right). When I saw him go on break, I left for a bit, then went back. It was one of those situations where I felt like a fool for hanging around, but couldn't bear the thought of missing out if there was something to miss out on. When he finally wheeled his cart through the swinging doors from the sorting area, I fell in step behind him and told him I was going to follow him for the records. He let me just take them off the cart.
 
Hit the thrifty book store today. Usually on Sundays this had been picked over as new stock goes out Saturday ($4) and people know it. Today, not so much. The heartbreaker was finding a roughed up copy of Tupelo Honey in a Dylan vs. Weberman sleeve, but each half was neat enough to still grab.

These were probably the three best snags. The Donovan is in impeccable condition. Mose Allison is way rougher on he sleeve but hoping it cleans up well. Lightnin had its sleeve and vinyl in different locations in the bin, I can’t imagine anyone leaving it otherwise. Rough condition sleeve wise but OG Lightnin for $3…hard to imagine leaving that.

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My best scores:

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The Orb's ORBVS TERRARVM. in a plastic sleeve, with a map. $2. Sold this one on 'cogs for a pretty penny. (I prefer it on CD -- less interruptions)

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Dred Scott's "Breakin' Combs" -- PIF'd this one even though it's pretty hard to find and also worth a nice bit. I'm not old school hip hop head enough to hang on to it.

and this amazing Axiom comp of ambient:

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