[orthobiz]

 2. Nilsson ~ Pandemonium Shadow Show....now I have a better copy

A MUST HAVE ALBUM for sure!

Paul

[Devil Doc]

My Beatles' Mono Box set arrived today. Just picked it up at my local B&M. Looks like I'll be busy for a while.

Doc

[vinyl_lady]

My Beatles' Mono Box set arrived today. Just picked it up at my local B&M. Looks like I'll be busy for a while.

Doc

I got a call from my B & M owner yesterday and he expects them tomorrow.

[missouricatman]

Thrift store clerk: How many you have?
me: 12
TSC: That’ll be $24
me: Sign says 99 cents each.
TSC: At bottom it says unless otherwise marked
me: None of these are marked.
TSC: It’s on the tub
me: You mean the one I had to pull out from the corner, that was buried under a bunch of CDS?
TSC: Yeah, that one.
me: So where are the 99 cent records?
TSC: There aren’t any.
me: (evil stare) OK, so I’ll just take these six.

1: Jean-Luc Ponty: Civilized Evil
2: Jean-Luc Ponty: Imaginary Voyage
3: Joe Sample, Ray Brown, Shelly Manne: The Three (direct cut, Japan)
4: Hiroshi Kubota: The Electric Future (2 disc set, Japan)
5: Vangelis: Invisible Connections (Deutsche Grammophon/Polydor, Germany)
6: Jean-Michael Jarree: Magnetic Fields (France)

All appear mint with nice, clean original inners.

[missouricatman]

Jean-Michel Jarré (oops)

[pumpkinman]

Surprise surprise today I stopped at DD's

[missouricatman]

some nice stuff there!  I made a stop and picked up a few myself - because after all first Saturday of the month is half-price day.

[vinyl_lady]

Reissues from Acoustic Sounds. Doors are 45 rpm AAA.

[missouricatman]

vinyl_lady: Nice buys.  The only Acoustic Sounds I have is of a local blues singer, Little Hatch, that got re-discovered by Acoustic Sounds when he went over to Salina to a recording session of a friend.  Salina's not that far from Kansas City, so that makes sense.  We also have Audio House in Kansas and they've been doing solid recording for decades - midwest artists, national artists like Doc Severinson who played in the 60's around here to support local schools. AH did their master in-house, but in some instances went to RCA to have the pressings done. Whenever their stuff shows up I do tend to grab it.

I should say I do find the variety of, call it "buying styles" in this thread, interesting.  Whether it's buying pretty high-dollar remasters, browsing through used record stores (we've got two or three here) or crate diving like I tend to do, the quality of the music, of the recordings people decide to put into their collections does shine through. Perhaps I'm the only one, but when I see someone has just picked up an album I have, I smile a bit, feel there's a bit of a connection there.  Of course when I see someone pick up an album that's kind of a hole in my collection by a particular artist, there's a feeling of "drat, wish I'd found that one too." 

My own buying style isn't entirely cost-driven, though I do love a good bargain.  For some reason I feel a sense of discovery, of recovery, of rescue when I find very good copies of very good recordings stuck away in a thrift store corner.  I know many of the titles could be had for probably reasonable prices over at one of Vinyl Renaissance's two locations, or at ZeeBeDees, but that'd take all the fun out of it for me.

[vinyl_lady]

missouricatman,

Thanks. My collection is of decent size (2,000-2,500) and is pretty much all rock n roll (includes doo wop, alt rock, indie rock, classic rock, folk rock, country rock)--no classical, no jazz, no opera.

I met Chad about 10 years ago at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. He's a really nice guy. I grew up in Denver and went to undergrad and law school at Mizzou so I drove through Salina many times. Before Chad, Salina was best know for Tony's Pizza. I lived in KC for 6 years in the 70's (in the Waldo area on 73d Terr near Oak) and worked at a law firm in Crown Center. I have really good friends in KC and get back there a couple of times each year on my way to Columbia for a football game. I have shopped at both Vinyl Renaissance stores. I found the Parlophone Beatles Blue Box Set in excellent shape at the Westport store and original still-sealed MoFi's of Dark Side of the Moon and Clapton's Slow Hand at the Overland Park store. They have a good collection, their records are in good shape and prices are reasonable. I am not familiar with ZeeBeDees.

I understand what you mean about a "connection" when folks post a record I have or one I would like to have. Pumpkinman and I connected on AC because we were posting music that each other liked. Three years ago we met in Cleveland (along with Mrs. Pumpkinman) and went to the RnR HOF and shopped a few record stores together. The last two years we met at the Capital Audiofest. I am not a thrift store or dollar bin shopper. I don't have the patience to look for the diamond in the rough pressing. I travel a lot for business and I love checking out record stores in different cities.

Last fall my friends and I went to Oklahoma Joes for BBQ and Chad and his mother were there along with a blues artist who was playing at his blues fest. We had a nice chat and he introduced his mother to us.

I have good friends in Raymore--Bob & Kitty Knight.

Nice to chat with you.

Laura

MIZ

[missouricatman]

Hi Laura,

Well this is a bit off-topic, but here goes. Not sure when it's considered appropriate to DM someone I don't know.

I imagine if I were working, I'd be more inclined to shop for records the way you do.  After all, when one is working time management becomes more important.  I dropped out some decades back (long story, very stressful, somewhat dangerous public job in Nebraska). Thought I could go it on my own, but learned I'd been conditioned to be part of a team, to have people put things in my in-basket, people calling me.  Being on my own didn't work out so well. I did check out a few similar positions when we were in Phoenix, but I soon learned my years of experience couldn't outweigh my failure to do the last year or so and get the degree (boards setting hiring criteria). In any event, I've got plenty of time on my hands to spend it on my knees in thrift stores.  At least nobody's threatening me these days, a big plus.  Unsure just where I'd be if it weren't for my wife - living under a bridge perhaps.

I will say that having to dig through piles of abused records has helped fine-tune my on-the-spot grading skills.  I recall when I thought "heat damage" was limited to warps.  Then somewhere along the way I realized I was letting the reflection of fluorescent lights play across the surface so i could look jacket texture heat embossed into the vinyl and eventually connected the worst of it to the whooshing sound of crushed lands.  The stuff I never thought of when I spun records for a living in my 20's.  The only damage I was ever aware of back then was that we inflicted on lead-ins by cuing.

ZeebeDees is over by UMKC.  I've been in there once, but it seemed a good enough place and somewhat different from the Vinyl Renaissance operation.

http://zebsrpm.com

Nice to hear about Chad.  I've never met him, but have read a few interviews and thought he sounded like a decent guy.  I really have no contacts here (old but true joke: I'm lousy with people, which is why I went into public relations).  We moved back to the midwest from Phoenix several years ago so my wife could be closer to her family up in Nebraska.  My parents are gone, but her mother's still alive and it's important these days for Ellen to be close enough to get there for weekends.  She's up there now actually.

I did by accident happen upon a fellow in Raymore who just based on his comments about his stereo setup suggested he was far beyond anything I'd ever be fortunate enough to own.  I recall he gave me a tractor full (seriously) of old 78's he had no use for.  Digging through them I found one of the original vinyl over aluminum picture disks from the 50's - the ones that today are more prized for their 50's cartoon art than the music. Only one of those I've ever come across.  Don't recall the fellow's name, though we did exchange an e-mail or two. He lives over on a pretty big spread off Hubach Hill, which we're very happy now goes out to the highway.  Makes it easy for my wife to get to work.

As an attorney with connections to KC, you may know Dianne Acker Nygaard.  Dianne was in my high school graduating class back in Brookings, SD. 

A little communication goes a long way for me.  Thanks for taking the moment, Laura

Jim Neal

[vinyl_lady]

Hi Jim,

thanks for the detailed reply. Interesting how looking at thrift store records has improved your eye for grading lps.

I do not know Dianne. I left KC (and the practice of law) in 1979 and moved back to Denver to work in a family business before moving to Spokane in 1996.

My friends in Raymore are not into high end audio, but they do like music.

Laura

[missouricatman]

Laura,

To fully appreciate the best of something, one must know the worst of something. 
I'm sure someone, somewhere at some time said it much better than I.

Good as my visual grading skills are, it's no substitute for play grading. A week ago I purchased what appeared to be a near mint disk - and it was - until track 1 of side 2.  For four revs, a tick.  Light tick on first rev, very annoying for two, light on rev 4 then vanishes.  Somebody probably bounced a stylus.  One of the reasons I suppose for the word "looks" in "looks mint" in all those ads.  And yes, on occasion the reason a record ends up in a thrift store. It's why I always grab the records I think are most interesting, then go sit on a sofa somewhere and live with them for awhile.  Sometimes half of the records make it to the register.  Sometimes none of them do.

I've also come to understand that even play grading is subjective, which is why I've never been able to get into selling. I know what may sound fine to my ears, played on my system, might not to someone else. I'd like to think the fact that I'm using headphones, cranking it up to listen to fadeouts when I'm doing analog to digital recordings, that I hear just about everything.  But I'm not kidding myself.  There are certainly more revealing systems out there and I couldn't bear the thought of someone being disappointed in a record they purchased from me.  Guess I was never meant to be an eBayer.

Jim

[missouricatman]

This thread reminded me I'd neglected to take advantage of the gallery aspects here, so this morning I've put up a few album covers, equipment, record library and other pics.

[vinyl_lady]

Jim,

thanks for posting the pics. Wow, a Dual 1219. I had one of those back in the day. You and Bill (pumpkinman) share an interest in the vintage gear besides vinyl.

Just got a call from my B & M guy and guess what has arrived for pickup after work? 


 

[missouricatman]

Laura,

Well I guess that qualifies as a "catch of the day" even if you haven't arrived home yet! I've considered buying it.  My Beatles collection consists of about a 6" stack of LPs, plus a lot of 45's in picture sleeves - all picked up at the same store one day a year back.  Nice stuff, but by all accounts anybody who knows the originals is going to be very happy with this new boxed set.  Congrats. Look forward to hearing your impressions.

[vinyl_lady]

The two Grateful Dead albums are in mint condition, part of a large, mostly modern metal collection Bob bought. The RSD Winterland live album was one I missed when it originally was released. The one in the middle is singer songwriter Jason Mraz new album.

[orthobiz]

Boulders is classic. If you are unfamiliar, you are in for a treat. Roy Wood did this solo album while he was still with The Move, it got released after The Move broke up...basically (but not exactly) Roy Wood to head Wizzard and Jeff Lynne to head ELO. Except for the weird harmonium at the beginning of Songs of Praise, he played and sang the whole thing. It's great.

Paul

[S Clark]

Bud Shank on flute.  Not your typical West Coast cool jazz stuff.

[S Clark]

Miles w/ Sonny Rollins+Art Blakey ... "Dig" an original 1956 copy in pretty decent shape for $5 at the local lp store.