Record Stores NYC

+1 for Academy Records. I lived in NYC for over a decade and in vicinity most of my life except for the last five years. Academy Records on West 18th has the best classical collection in the city by far. If you are looking for new (not used) records, also be sure to check out Rough Trade. That was still in Brooklyn when I lived there but it seems they got popular enough to move it into Manhattan. 

No, not willing to pay extortionate prices for new records.  I mainly hunt for lps from the 50s to the early seventies that are not available digitally.  For example I have a lot of recordings by Karl Ristenpart and his Chamber Orchestra of the Saar, primarily in music of JS Bach.  They were groundbreaking in the day, and while the style seems outdated compared to the typical HIPP recording, there still was excellent musicianship and a sense of the joy of discovery.

  Many Classical lps had small volume of sales, and combined with the increasing indifference to Classical Music in general, creates a situation where several interesting lps of my youth are not available except as old lps.   So the joy is in the hunt, not necessarily in the actual bagging of the stag

I think this is the one you want for classical.  I lived on the upper West Side for 40 years. This was the best. Westsider Records, 233 West 72nd Street. Check out their website. 

I second Academy, particularly for classical music. Great inventory of well cared for records and a nice size shop.