Discovering Vintage Vinyl
also by tom Methans
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Your vinyl adventure continues with tips on how to hunt down the best collectable LPs
by Tom Methans
August 3, 2022
In “Where to Begin Your Vinyl Adventure,” we discussed the pleasures and pitfalls of buying brand-new vinyl. New is good. It’s easily found, replaceable if flawed, and generally well recorded. But there’s a big caveat: You can only buy what is listed in the current inventory, and that selection can be woefully inadequate. Meanwhile, thousands of uncatalogued vintage gems are hiding in plain sight. There is no telling what can be pulled out of a bin full of pre-owned records.
Some people have great luck at places like flea markets and thrift shops but these options are time-consuming and offer poor returns for all the effort. Unless you’re a DJ looking for obscure cuts and samples, why dig through crates of discarded vinyl in random locations when the better stuff has already been amassed in a single place? Here a few reasons why a great record shop is your best bet for used vinyl:
• Collections are curated for quality, both of physical media and artistic material. While certain shop owners specialize in specific genres, they can refer you to other dealers for a particular niche.
• True music lovers want their prized records to go to like-minded people and are unlikely to dump them at a thrift store, so estates and lifelong collectors will contract with shops to haul away massive libraries from ideal storage conditions. This also gives you some guarantee of provenance.
• It’s an opportunity to discover new music while flipping through beat-up beer-stained album covers just to find pristine discs inside. Some collectors spend hours in dollar bins just to score extraordinary records overlooked by others.
• The most important feature of a good record store is on-site auditioning. Not only can you visually inspect the covers and vinyl but you can also listen to the record. If there are no customer turntable stations with headphones, ask the staff to play it on the store system.
The next step is to find your local record stores and make friends with the owners and buyers. Let them know about your interests, wish lists, and budget for mint records. Follow through with the sale if they get your desired items, because a good relationship might lead to tips about future acquisitions. It’s also worth enquiring about rare and vintage pieces kept under lock and key for savvy customers like you.
Naturally, shops and collectors around the world sell through eBay and Discogs. Online sources might be the only way to locate very specific titles, but the thrill of the hunt remains at brick & mortar shops operated by people who devote their lives to records. Be forewarned, crate digging and collecting are very addictive hobbies. Don’t be surprised if you start planning vacations and business trips just to visit stores in different cities.
Tom Methans is a writer based in New York. As a Fulbright Scholar, he traveled all over Germany to see heavy metal bands before receiving his Master’s in Library and Information Science. He followed that with a 20-year career in the wine industry and now writes about music and audio equipment for Copper Magazine. When not watching 1970s movies, Tom listens to records on his vintage Japanese turntable.
Discogs is probably the best online resource for finding vintage vinyl but there are still advantages to seeking out brick & mortar record stores with knowledgeable staff
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