Spelunking for old vinyl at the thrift shops


I've just gotten back into vinyl in the last 2 mos., and I've been sifting through the bins and cardboard boxes at my local thrift shops--St. Vincent DePaul and Value Village. This past Saturday was 1/2 price day at St. Vinny's, so I picked up an armload of vinyl at 50 cents each. These included a 12-LP Reader's Digest/RCA Festival of Light Classical Music, barely played, a 1980 Emmylou Harris album with backing from Tony Rice, Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas, Albert Lee, the Whites, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and Johnny Cash, a 6-LP Reader's Digest/RCA boxed set of Artur Rubinstein (reissues of 1/2" 30ips masters made for the Living Stereo series), Jascha Heifetz, and on and on.

I came away with 4 Living Stereo albums, including one shaded dog of Mario Lanza and two black labels, one of which is Xavier Cugat with stunning sound quality. OK, so I wouldn't run out and spend $15 on a CD of cha-chas, but at 50 cents, what the hell?

One thing I've noticed: I don't think anyone played their Reader's Digest boxed sets. They got'em in the mail and put'em on the shelf. Some of them are quite nice with top notch artists and great fidelity. I have 4 Reader's Digest boxed sets now (totalling 29 LPs), and I think only one side of one record got played.
johnnyb53
Good catch you made. Here in North Westeren Europe one can't be early enough on occasions like that. Lots of collectors are looking for records and if you're late the best items are already gone.
Check out garage sales as well...I've found some gems at these, usually for less than a dollar per record. Most people at garage sales can't be bothered with anything other than furniture and tools. No need to get up at the crack of dawn on Saturday to fight the "ebayers".