...BTW, I picked up DSOTM at a new store near me called 'Long Island Vinyl Exchange.' He has a large stock, seems to be knowledgeable, and has been at this for a while. I don't know enough to judge.
My wife and daughter wanted to go to an author's book signing at "The Book Review" bookstore
in Huntington this evening. Since this would get me 3/4 of the way to where L.I.V.E. (the 'Long Island Vinyl Exchange') is from my house, I offered to drive them to The Book Review as long as I could drop them off and continue onto East Northport where the record place was. They agreed and I got to spend 2 1/2 hours browsing through vinyl before the record store closed and I went to pick them up.
Yeah, I know... it's a tough job
having to look at all those records, but somebody has got to do it!
Anyway, L.I.V.E. (the 'Long Island Vinyl Exchange') is a decent sized place. Like Jim said, it's not the fanciest record emporium on the planet, but I've seen worse. Besides, they've only been open for 2 1/2 months - so you gotta cut 'em
some slack. I would say the inventory is about 95% used vs. new
and 95% vinyl vs. CD.
The condition of the used LP's run from "Wow, practically new" to "OMG, look a signed copy" except the "autograph" was done with a phonograph needle across the playing surface of the record! I can't say there were a lot of bad ones overall, but the ones that
were bad, were really bad! Everything is priced from a record guide and computer database; but he uses the "low side" price. (So, an LP that is listed at $10-35.00 will actually cost you $10.00) I thought that some of the pricing was kinda high $$$, but I also don't shop a lot for vinyl - so maybe I'm outta touch price-wise these days? I'm a listener, not a collector per se - so I very rarely spend a lot of money per LP. (My budget doesn't allow for it anyway.) FWIW - I rather have six $8.00 LP's of music I like, instead of one $50.00 collector LP. In my eyes (ears) it's 6X the music for the same amount out-of-pocket. Regardless of
your vinyl buying preferences, John who owns/runs the place is really, really nice. He'll help you find stuff within his expansive inventory and will also "work with you" price-wise on whatever you're interested in.
I say it's worth the trip at least once (I guess depending on how far a ride it is for you) to judge it for one's self. I would definitely go back when I have some more expendable capital.
SN
