...are there any left with fair / reasonable pricing? Flashback, here in North London, used to be okay but I went in there at the weekend for the first time in about 6 months and I couldn't believe the prices they had on their 7's (a right load of old rubbish, too, I might add!)

Obviously the cheap as chips days of yore are sadly long gone but is there anywhere left with decent stock to look through and reasonable 'take a punt" type prices?

I have a record shop in the basement of pop boutique bold street Liverpool open Friday Saturday and Sunday .Lots of great soul ,funk , northern 7s at reasonable prices .Many soul funk original albums .mostly us imports but British stuff as well 

Last record shop I was in was Blackpool gotta be 10 years plus ago. Either up past the winter gardens (or tower?) past a church on the left and up there on the right!!..two doors..the first room albums the next 45,s...loads of soul singles and not in any order (roughly 200 per row)...owner fairly un interested but certainly new his stuff once immersed in conversation and didn't think you were a time waster....bought an album and a few singles and got a discount...one thing I remember I saw was that he had just bought part of the twisted wheel stage, the back of it from memory, and saw the original photos....great moment and won't forget it. Wife went mad, went for an hour, and two and a half hours later I arrived back...the all consuming world we live in...it's great.....kind regards...Rob

p.s is the shop still there??

Edited September 5, 20177 yr by Lionelonthevinyl

Mind you, I posted this feeling all doom and gloom and then I remembered, the previous week I spotted a funny little shop in the back end of nowhere. Mainly classical LPs and nothing on 7" but I did pull out some oddball comp LPs, a few nice disco 12"s and a copy of Detroit Spinners 'I Just Want to Fall in Love' on a 12" for 50p each..

And now I come to think of it, I found a stone mint copy (with 'original birth sleeve' lol!) of Madeline Bell 'Picture Me Gone' on UK Philips for 50p in a charity round here the other week...

I should have given this more thought this before posting.....I promise I didn't start to go on about recent finds. I still think there's a dearth of decent record shops.

But I do know of a charity shop that's just got in about 150 of Ian Levine's 1980s Hi-NRG productions, if anyone is interested!

 

Edited September 5, 20177 yr by son of stan

"Cheap as Chips " has kind of gone  for sure...and Chips are now bloody expensive in London   

But bargins are out there if you hunt and have the time ... smaller charity shops can turn up some real finds as can your local independent record store ..

ive found a few at mine in Watford 

https://thelpcafe.com/

Edited September 6, 20177 yr by stevegods

Diskery in Birmingham - depending on which of the two old guys serves you you either pay book price or £5 for any 45.  They have thousands of 45s plus a secret room full of them on the first floor

I think there is a difference tho, between the occasional 'WTF?' surprise in a charity shop and the secondhand vinyl shops of yesteryear where you'd spend hours wading through utter crap but still come out with a small but satisfying bundle of (previously unknown to you) records for next to fuck all. That experience, along with a lot of the fun in collecting, seems gone forever.

My good friend rob smith robs records Notts never fails to amaze me go every couple of week and always get something last week Darrell banks angel baby - Laura lee to win your heart 👍

My daughter was complaining after I dragged her into the umpteenth charity shop the other day, I had to explain how it's like panning for gold... weeks of sifting through crap to find that nugget. I find you're better off in general second hand / antique shops, car boot sales or charity shops rather than actual record shops though. Over the last year alone I've found dozens of gems for a couple of quid or less.

 

They are still out there, but slowly disappearing, I find stuff in far flung shops when I'm visiting places like IOW, Weymouth, places like that, I got some very nice uk stuff in a shop in Glastonbury 3/4 years back, sadly now gone...

London  is pretty crap now, certainly oxford street area, not what it used to be...

charity shops have deals with local rock n pop dealers I find, so anything is worth anything gets creamed off, boot sales and markets are one place you can still occasionally find stuff, but let's face it, it's slender pickings...

stick to the shops like Beatin rhythm, soul brother, soul jazz etc, as they do carry original stock, soul jazz is crap for Northetn btw....

The Diskery was always good when I lived in Brum, haven't been in years... I guess you will get good us originals,  but it will be ballads etc, you probably won't find collectible northern I'd think

not as fun as it used to be eh...

mal

Edited September 6, 20177 yr by Mal C

Found a few bits and pieces over here in Spain mostly Latin tinged , seems to be a lot of Geoffrey's HI-NEG floating around here as well , charity shops.  A. Take anything in ! 😱

14 hours ago, son of stan said:

Mind you, I posted this feeling all doom and gloom and then I remembered, the previous week I spotted a funny little shop in the back end of nowhere. Mainly classical LPs and nothing on 7" but I did pull out some oddball comp LPs, a few nice disco 12"s and a copy of Detroit Spinners 'I Just Want to Fall in Love' on a 12" for 50p each..

And now I come to think of it, I found a stone mint copy (with 'original birth sleeve' lol!) of Madeline Bell 'Picture Me Gone' on UK Philips for 50p in a charity round here the other week...

I should have given this more thought this before posting.....I promise I didn't start to go on about recent finds. I still think there's a dearth of decent record shops.

But I do know of a charity shop that's just got in about 150 of Ian Levine's 1980s Hi-NRG productions, if anyone is interested!

 

 

Les Hare's shop, King Bee Records in Chorlton is a proper digger's delight. They have a website too if you're too far for a visit. https://www.kingbeerecords.co.uk/kingbee_records_northern_soul.htm

 

On 06/09/2017 at 11:48, Mal C said:

They are still out there, but slowly disappearing, I find stuff in far flung shops when I'm visiting places like IOW, Weymouth, places like that, I got some very nice uk stuff in a shop in Glastonbury 3/4 years back, sadly now gone...

London  is pretty crap now, certainly oxford street area, not what it used to be...

charity shops have deals with local rock n pop dealers I find, so anything is worth anything gets creamed off, boot sales and markets are one place you can still occasionally find stuff, but let's face it, it's slender pickings...

stick to the shops like Beatin rhythm, soul brother, soul jazz etc, as they do carry original stock, soul jazz is crap for Northetn btw....

The Diskery was always good when I lived in Brum, haven't been in years... I guess you will get good us originals,  but it will be ballads etc, you probably won't find collectible northern I'd think

not as fun as it used to be eh...

mal

Not necessarily northern but I've had Joe e young and the tonics, the stockingtops, the heavyweights plus a lot of psych / garage from there - had at least one £100 record and never paid more than £5 each.  Not been myself for about 5 years though, but very surprised that no one local ever cleared the place out - that's what I would have done - always in a rush to catch a train whenever I've been there

On 06/09/2017 at 10:02, jazz said:

My good friend rob smith robs records Notts never fails to amaze me go every couple of week and always get something last week Darrell banks angel baby - Laura lee to win your heart 👍

defo Robs used to work for him in the 80's found shed loads of stuff in there at the time always got new stuff in