Completely missed Record Store Day yesterday, as is usual for me. There typically aren’t any real essential releases during those for me. However, I found out Pale Saints - Slow Buildings was there this time around, so I felt a bit bad about missing it. Luckily I happened to be close-by a record store today and they had ONE last copy left in stock. How lucky!
I typically never bother with new pressings because of their dubious quality and frankly outrageous pricing. Not very wowed by those fancy colorings either, as I’m generally listening to vinyl rather than looking at it. However, I’m quite happy about this one all things considered. I guess I like myself some Pale Saints, so I’ll see it as a rare treat.
I used to collect records when they were 25 cents at the thrift store and 5 dollars at the used record store but the price of almost anything I want is so ludicrous that I barely buy them anymore.
Oh, didn’t know we had a thread for these! I started collecting on a whim maybe 12 years ago before I even had a working record player. I don’t collect with as much dedication as I used to, but I still try to pick up most albums I like on vinyl (and CD, which I prefer for digital copies in case of things like hard drive failures)
This is my collection as it stands, after rearranging it to make room for new additions earlier this year
9 times out of 10 I’m just queueing up something on spotify, and we have speakers set up around the house. So when I’m playing records it’s more of an “event” so it’s not really music that is “easy listening” per say except for a couple things. When traveling I sometimes pick up EPs since they are easy to pack and keep safe, so spinning EPs has become that event. I still need more though.
I love EPs because they have a perfect balance of fiddle-ness for listening. You put on a single and it feels like you’ve barely had time to sit down before the song is over, you put on an album and you have enough time to start doing something else that you basically forget to get up to flip the disc. EPs are 10 perfect minutes of vibing before you flip. Within 20 minutes you’ve gotten the tactile vinyl experience with no risk of getting bored or distracted!
Also, EPs have a special characteristic of being a bit more deepcut and esoteric, so you always feel cool when you go crate digging and end up buying an EP(!). Very fancy~
my only purchase for record store day 2025 was the reissue of SEXWITCH which i purchased from a real shop but their web store days later lmao. it’s good that RSD probably helps to keep some physical shops afloat but i don’t need a date on the calendar and artificial scarcity to appreciate music.
i rip vinyl to minidiscs and often just pop one of those in instead of playing the record. it kind of reminds me of my days renting cds and pirating them to MD.
I only pay attention to record store day so I know when not to go to a record store lol. I go enough during normal times and it just gets too busy.
I mentioned this else where but my favorite record store (Streetlight in San Jose CA) gives like 40% of what they’ll sell your thing for as trade. Maybe it’s more for trade and 40% for cash? I forget. Either way, for an astute media-picker like me, I often wind up getting about what I paid for a thing in trade. Even if I don’t it’s still a fair price. And for all of 2024, I was basically just bartering. I traded in enough stuff in January 2024 that I didn’t spend a dime the whole year. I bought stuff with credit, I traded in more stuff, I bought more stuff with credit. It was cool! I got new things and the store made money selling my goods to the rest of the people who came in. For example my Japanese records I was selling on the forum - all the ones I didn’t sell here I sold there. The store turned around and sold them all in about 2 weeks.
It was fun to feel like we were essentially just exchanging goods with each other! And also the other day my buddy there was looking at shirts, and I was surprised they bought those. And they said yeah, they buy all kinds of vintage band shirts and whatnot. So I said I’d bring some in, and they were like “I can’t wait to see all your Cinderella shirts.” and I thought to myself - this is how it should be. Getting lightly razzed for your potential musical taste by someone who works at a record store.
I can’t do the full barter thing in 2025 because at the start of the year they had the Virtual Boy that I think I mentioned on the podcast, and I paid $200 american dollars for that.
a nice record store is such a great vibe. really digging in the crates. Long in the Tooth is my favorite in philly mostly because of their focus on punk and post punk. Lots of original misfits posters and flyers on the walls that kind of thing.
There are a lot of record store / bougie cafe crossovers which I also like, but they mostly sell new records and are overpriced, so it feels just kind of hollow and becomes just an inefficient cafe for me. I did buy a Boris EP at one recently which I couldn’t say no to.
I can’t decide whether I like the “every store is a cafe bar” trend or not. I know they need to do it to maintain profitability. Every store becomes the same. I also like drinks so I’m conflicted
