Has FOPP(in the UK) and eBay (worldwide),Amazon Sellers, Gemm killed the 2nd hand record shop?
Or is it just the cd market that’s dying and vinyl is still going strong?
yes.
Ans 1 to thread title: Yes.
Ans 2 to why? The article shows some of the ‘hard to get’ stuff will go for top prices, the old style ‘valuable’ stuff can be seen as ‘bottoming’
dude is a klingon:

He was buying Split by The Groundhogs!
I buy trade fodder for lala.com in dollar bins. My used record store purchases have otherwise ground to a halt.
Perhaps surprisingly, Mr Lashmar does not blame the internet for Beanos’ downfall, praising the role of downloads in spreading different kinds of music to people who might otherwise never hear them.
“Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity ”
David Bowie, 2002
Which is true enough.
I go to the local used LP shop all the time looking for out-of-print/non-slsked stuff, and I usually find a bunch of disco/electro 12-inches and old-school R&B; my most recent haul included three sealed early ’70s Bo Diddley albums (which I’ve heard are mediocre, but whatevs), the Three Degrees’ live album (mistakenly stuck in their s/t ’73 album’s sleeve by the seller) and a 12“ of ”Watch the Closing Doors“ by IRT (which is on eBay right now for a buy it now price of $22!).
(I paid $3.50)
“Watch The Closing Doors” is dope as hell
i shop more in secondhand places than in new places.
vinyls hands down the best deal on music still.
There are a number of stores in my town (Seattle again, as of a few weeks ago) that seem to do a very good business in used vinyl. Primarily Jive Time, Sonic Boom and Easy Street, among others.
These are botique stores that to sell to a broad indie niche (youngish, urban, white, well-heeled, music savvy, boring as shit) and also to various geek clubs. They compete by offering well-curated selections at varying price-points. Jive Time’s prices are comparable with what stuff might go for on e-Bay, and they deal almost exclusively in rarities/collectibles. Sonic Boom and Easy Street, on the other hand, aggressively undercut collector pricing and just offer whatever’s hip.
Employees at all these stores are knowledgeable/insider-y and (usually) quite friendly. Interiors are slick, clean, modern and inviting, with heavy branding. Good design, memorable logos, plentiful store merch, etc.
I shop at Easy Street and Sonic Boom myself, and I buy a lot of used vinyl there. I don’t shop at Jive Time, ‘cuz I’m not interested in rarities. I just wanna pay three to five bucks for the odd cool thing. Ten bucks even, but only if it’s REALLY cool.
I think these models should continue to thrive—or at least do okay for a while—in the new music economy. In affluent, sophisticated urban areas, anyway...
Botique. Hee-hee.
most second-hand stores have ebay accounts.
Pal’s Botique?
Only downside to second-hand record store shopping: after flipping through the stacks for an hour your fingertips can get kind of disturbingly grimy and sometimes you wind up with mysterious decaying-cardboard debris on your shirt.
“Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity ”
David Bowie, 2002
“Thankfully, I already got rich off it!”—David Bowie
since when was running water or electricty free? i don’t think that’s the point is making.
I like the Fremont Jive Time—the used CD section is fairly small, but I tend to find a lot of good stuff there at reasonable prices. It’s not all rarities, unlike the Capitol Hill one.
you might have a monthly fee for your water and electricity, but that would be all you pay.
I still shop first/second hand shops for disco/80s r&b/house/etc on vinyl. Still some thrills left there, especially if you’ve got a portable turntable for pre-listening.
That’s the one downside, the place I go to (Cheapo on Snelling for my Twin City peoples) has the most broken-down shitbox of a turntable. It’s like some cheap novelty retro ’50s plastic monstrosity you buy at a store that sells Elvis clocks and Johnny Rockets tchotchkes and it plays everything about 4 RPM too slow.
so guess music is now a utility not an art form?
“three sealed early ’70s Bo Diddley albums (which I’ve heard are mediocre, but whatevs)”
Black Gladiator and Another Dimension are fuckin awesome, really fun records.
Those are two of ’em. The other’s Big Bad Bo and even if it’s crap it’ll still look awesome on my LP wall rack:

I always figure that all these records that were pressed over all those years STILL EXIST. And therefore, we might wanna listen to ’em.
I have found some of my favortie records at second hand stores, flea markets, garage sales. The south has amazing records due to no one caring about records in general. I live for trips to these places.
I was in the new Missing Records in Glasgow. It’s been 2nd hand only for ages now and the new shop is even smaller and there wasn’t much stuff really. A lot of it was dvds. Considering its just around the corner from FOPP, I’m amazed it’s still going.
i pretty much only buy used records, and i spend way too much $$ on them — online a tad but portland has so much awesome and affordable rad vinyl right now, it’s crazy.
Vinyl Villains in Edinburgh is hard for me to walk past, and seems to be doing just fine.
I’m amazed that vintage punk/new wave vinyl is still so cheap in the UK. The records are just such great artifacts. I’m surprised it’s not all gone to Japan by now.
My girlfriend will be bummed about Missing :(
I buy quite a lot of second hand stuff, not necessarily from shops round here though as they’re pretty shit in general
I shop used constantly, flea markets, goodwills, you name it. Last time I was in Amoeba I bought one new item out of around 15.
so guess music is now a utility not an art form?
-- M@tt He1ges0n (matt@[remove]gameinformer.com), December 21st, 2006.
future versions of monopoly are going to be hella weird
i easily buy 9 out of 10 records secondhand—and yes, it does help to frequent a certain store at least twice a week, and have buddies on staff who can give you anything at nearly store cost
I’ve covered this ground on ILM before, but I work in an exclusively vinyl record shop, and around 90% of our stock is used. The new stuff we sell is mostly reissues in various genres. We’re doing fine. Better than local CD shops, and we’ve got loads and loads of regulars who come in and drop hundreds each month. I’m not worried about losing my job.
Ian’s OTM, 2nd hand vinyl is the only part of music retail that isn’t going away any time soon.
I personally prefer second-hand music stores to the stores that sell first editions. There’s a local chain of second-hand stores that also stocks new music and I would rather go to them to purchase that new music than go to a big box conglomerate that happens to stock CDs. Why? Because I have more of a good time there at that second-hand store. Because the staff actually know their musical stuff. Because the big box folks really don’t have all that swell a selection of music. Not unless you only listen to the Top 40 chart stuff or have an extremely myopic view of music history. Also: Vinyl is still fun to play and they’re still selling record players. I know the perfect place to get me some vinyl, virtually all of it used yet treated with lots of TLC by their original owner(s). Long live vinyl.