.february vinyl haul

A great haul! Stoked for these!

Lately I haven't purchased anything from Vinyl Me Please. All of the bands I've seen in concert I've been picking up their albums. When A comes to visit we usually hit up some of my favorite record stores. This time we had a mission to search for some 7" albums. A has never been to Haddonfield Record Exchange. They usually have a decent array of 7" albums. I scored New Kids on the Block and Debbie Gibson last time. What I found this time was amazing. One of the earliest albums my parents bought me was at age 3: Duran Duran - Wild Boys. For that album to be displayed in the front of the bin was just practically calling out to me. I snatched it up. I also found Madonna - True Blue (the vinyl is actually blue!), Wang Chung - Everybody Have Fun Tonight (I owned this at age 5), Blondie - The Tide is High, Run DMC - Walk This Way, and the iconic "Two of Hearts" by Stacey Q. At the register they usually have some neat vintage pins. I picked up Thompson Twins, Janis Joplin, Eurythmics, and Duran Duran. $1.50 each.

Our second stop was Innergroove. Last time my major scores were Hole, Nirvana, and Smashing Pumpkins 7" albums. Ironically I found another Blondie 7" "Rapture" which compliments the one I previously bought. Searching through my favorite section of "Just In!" records I snatched B-52's "Cosmic Thing," Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party" for $20 (cheapest I've seen was $30), and Prince's "1999" for $10. Yaaasss!!!

My new goal is to buy a cork board from Target and arrange my pins in a better fashion. No joke I have at least 150+ pins at this point. I rotate them all as much as I can.   

.new places, new records

This weekend I hit up two record stores I've never been to. Here were the results....

Record store #1 isn't necessarily a record store, it's more of a collection of sorts. Located in the upstairs of a flooring department store it was a tad overwhelming. All you see is this...

Against the walls were some newer releases but super expensive. Siamese Dream for $44?! Looking through the boxes everything was very organized, alphabetized, categorized. That wasn't an issue. The main issue I had was almost all of these albums looked like they came from dirty basements and were in poor condition. The prices asked were extremely unfair considering the condition of the albums. The large majority of the collections were 60s, 70s, and very little 80s. They also had cds but I no longer collect those.

Scored!: Nothing!

On second thought: (albums I put back) Amy Winehouse's "Back in Black" because I could really find that anywhere and probably for a better price. There was a Live at Carnegie Hall Nina Simone album but priced at $20 when it had tons of scratches wasn't worth it.

Customers: I was the only one! The guy asked me three times if I was looking for something in particular and I said I was browsing. I later inquired if he had any Bowie but he rechecked the same places I already looked in. I returned to my car defeated.

Record store #2 I will give the name of because it was a great experience. It's called the Haddonfield Record Exchange. I always pass it on my way to Collingswood and decided to finally check it out. The inside is a bit trippy with the orange and psychadelic posters but it's very well organized and those albums are taken care of. They mostly sell classic rock and have a modest selection of 7" singles. I'm a pretty fast flipper so it didn't take me too long to peruse the entire store.

Scored!: Bowie, Queen, Yaz, Eurhythmics, Gloria Estefan (you KNOW you blared that when you were 9), Elvis Costello and The Cure 7" singles. 

On second thought: (albums I put back) some of the Bowie albums only because I could afford the one.

Customers: At first I was the only one in the store then a few others came in as I was leaving. I loved that Stevie Nicks was blaring and the woman working was kind enough to hold my records at the counter when I shopped. She was super friendly too and complimented all of my picks. We had a great conversation. She asked when I started collecting albums, how I knew of the bands I picked out, etc. She also complimented my David Bowie album and told me I picked out a good one with some great songs. Then she let me help myself to the candy bowl at the register before I left. :) Definitely returning there next month. They've been open for 6 months now. I wish them the best of luck.

Here's my Saturday haul...