What was your biggest vinyl surprise for $.99

Glad to see such a thread! I was thinking of starting one myself.

I have some really cool ones from the 99-cent bins of used record stores. In all cases these play like new and are as quiet as a CD:
I, Robot by Alan Parsons
Katy Lied, Steely Dan,
Famous Last Words, Supertramp
Sports, Huey Lewis and the News
... many others

Also same condition from thrift shops on half-price Saturday (50 cents each) last weekend:
Gordon Lightfoot: Sit Down Young Stranger (AKA If You Could Read My Mind)
James Galway and a violinist: Bach Trio Sonatas
Heifetz violin concertos on RCA Red Seal (reissues of Living Stereo, but very clean and well done)
6-LP Reader's Digest/RCA boxeded set of Artur Rubinstein reissues (and those Reader's Digest special transfers are particularly well done) of RCA Living Stereo recordings. I swear, no one ever played a Reader's Digest boxed set (well, maybe one)
A 1999 Emmylou Harris (forget the title) with backup from Tony Rice, Ricky Skaggs, The Whites, Dolly Parton, and Johnny Cash.
I also picked up a stack of Windham Hill Lps including many George Winstons, most of which were recorded in analog at 30 ips and half-speed mastered, many by Bernie Grundman, and pressed or mastered by either MFSL or JVC.

In a little noisier/dirtier condition (but they clean up nice) I've managed to pick up an Everest 35mm Mozart woodwind ensemble, two RCA shaded dogs (Mario Lanza and Vivaldi 4 Seasons), and a couple of stereo Mercury Living Presences (including 1812 Overture).

For a little more ($2.99) I also have a 2-LP Gordon Lightfoot of "Gord's Gold" in absolutely perfect condition. So clean, so nice sounding.

As for my freebies, an acquaintance on a guitar players' discussion page sent me 27 barely-played LPs for $8 shipping when he was ditching his analog rig. Titles include the Treasury version of Sheffield Labs' Dave Grusin album, a German pressing of Joni Mitchell's Blue album, Lyle Lovett's Large Band, Tom Waits' Swordfishtrombones, 2 Eric Claptons (Unplugged and From the Cradle), 2 Stevie Ray Vaughns, 4 Rolling Stones albums, The Long Run by the Eagles, Japanese Pressing of Pirates by Ricky Lee Jones, Luck of the Draw by Bonnie Raitt, and a still-sealed copy of ... "Seal."

I bought my turntable 2 months ago and already have an LP library north of 200 LPs for a pittance. That would cost me about $3000 in CDs.

Ken,

Wow, you do not look 65 at all. Amazing.

I was at a store today that sells new and used vinyl and CDs - primarily hip-hop and alternative rock. However, they usually have a few boxes of classical LPs priced at $1 per LP. As I was flipping thru the box sets, I came across EMI SLS 841, Beethoven's Symphonies No. 8 and 9, Giulini and LSO. The box, booklet, inner sleeves and both LPs are in mint condition. The LPs may never have been played. It cost me $2 or $1.00 per LP. Not a bad find. You don't often find mint black and white postage stamp EMIs sitting in the dollar bins.

About 3 yrs ago I met a fellow at the Habitat store while looking through the albums. I was looking at classical and he asked me if I liked classical. I told him that I was pretty new to the genre, but liked it fairly well. He said he had a lot of classical for sale. Turns out that he was a collector who had purchased these albums and was unable to unload them. I ended up buying the whole lot of them (about 800) for about $80 or $100. The reason I'm not sure of what I paid for them is that I went the first time and only bought about 150 of them for $25-$30. I went back again after doing some research and bought about 150 more. I left a lot of box sets sitting. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I should just buy them all. He was trying to get me to take them all anyway. I knew they were good pressings, but I knew little or nothing about the artists or music. So I went back and bought the rest of them. There ware lots of London FFRR red label as well as STS, Phillips (Dutch), EMI's, Telefunkens, DG's, MHS, Melodya, and of course the RCA and columbia, Angel and turnabout. There are library markings on them and most of them are imports in NM conditions.
He was glad to get rid of them. I was glad to get them. Being new to classical, I didn't really know what a treasure I was getting. He didn't either. There may not be any high $$$ records in the lot, but they are quite nice pressings for the classical listener.

Picked up dozens of mercs,londons,deccas,rca,and numorous jazz on verve and pablo from a great thrift called the sheriff thrift in Clearwater FL. for a price iof ready boys .25 yes thats it.