NYC area thrift shop vinyl


I just moved to West Point, which is about 35 miles up the Hudson from NYC. Does anyone know where there's any thrift shop vinyl to be had? I've checked a few of the local Goodwills and Salvation Army stores, but none of them had anything. Certainly not like Oregon, where some thrift stores had 1000s of LPs. I've found some good used vinyl stores, but their prices are all in the $5-10 range. Nothing beats the satisfaction of discovering those mint LPs at $.99! :-)

I'm willing to drive a ways if I know I'll find something when I get there, so probably anything within a 50 mile radius of NYC is in bounds, or maybe 100 miles up the Hudson. Thanks in advance to all you east coast Audiogoners!

David
armstrod
The fall edition of the twice - yearly WFMU Record Fair is this weekend in Manhattan. Depending on who's making the claim it's either the biggest such event in the US or number two after the Austin fair. There's usually not much classical music for sale but just about every other musical genre you can think of (and some genres you can't!) is well represented. Take a look at www.wfmu.org for details.
i have been to both on st marks and actually there are 4 on that block as well as the princeton record exchange, but none of these offer the 99 cent albums he spok of. or the hunt for some obscure lp. all of these are record shope 20 bucks a pop, kinda like drugs.
So there have been lots of great suggestions here on where to find vinyl, but most of them are used record stores with prices higher than I'd prefer to pay if I can avoid it. Garage and estate sales can be goldmines, but finding the ones with vinyl is difficult, and the season is over now.

Listener57, library sales is something I hadn't considered, but will any of them have any vinyl left? I don't think I've seen an LP in a library in 10 years or so. I only buy CDs when I can't get what I want on vinyl. :-)

Robdoorack, the WFMU Record Fair looks *very* interesting. Have you been to one? What are the prices like? Are things cheaper on Sunday? It might be worth taking the train into the city.

But back to my original question, where's all the thrift shop vinyl? I lived in Eugene, OR, and there were probably 7-8,000 pieces of vinyl among all the thrift stores, and more than that before St. Vincent De Paul dumpstered their entire cache of classical about 2 years ago - broke my heart! If a town like Eugene has that much, there has to be some in NYC - or is it a very well kept secret? :-)

Thriftily,

David
There is nothing "thrift" about NYC. QUite the opposite. You will need to travel to NJ, or CT or Long Island to find any vinyl stores with reasonable prices. For any "thrift" in NYC you need to find the Salvation Army stores and such and trust to your luck.

Enjoy,
Bob
I haven't been to a WFMU record fair in 2 or 3 years since I moved to the Boston area (I recently moved to the New Haven area so I might go to this weekend's show). Before that I went to the shows religiously. My memory is that the prices were usually reasonable, although there is always that dealer who wants $20 for a "rare" Mantovani LP. For me the attraction was the dealers who specialize in certain kinds of music. If you're obsessed with, say, obscure '60s bachelor pad music, there's likely to be a dealer with a table full of those records. I had spent a decade looking for a copy of Canadian punk band The Subhumans' "Incorrect Thoughts" LP and found a VG one for $10 at the WFMU fair. Prices are usually lower on Sundays, especially later in the day, but the downside to the waiting strategy is that the copy of "Mr. Magoo in Hi - Fi" that you're desperate to find was sold on Saturday. In any case it's a fun event, there's live music, WFMU DJs broadcasting from the show, and more used records and CDs in one place than you'll find anywhere else around NYC.