Difficult used record/CD store owners

Well played, sir!

 

Our local store(Downtown Discs)will search for info on Ebay first, then sell gold discs, etc, there at auction, which really pisses me off because I've been a loyal customer for years, and I'd like a chance to have first dibs, at the very least.

Evan

 

my reaction to this practice works 2 ways - if you think you can get that price on ebay, why don't you just sell it on ebay?- and - if i have to pay ebay prices why shouldn't i just buy it on ebay?

 

Exactly...someone needs to tell this to the loser near me...the owner of Merle's in Orange, CT. He does the same thing. I'm sure his doors will close soon also. BTW...he also does the "I'll make you a CD-r" stuff as well. Convincing everyone it is perfectly legal.:thumbsdn:

 

I've been to this store before. Not sure how his doors are still open. I talked to the owner once (forget his name) and I guess he is no longer connected with the other Merle's in the area (one of which closed last year I think). I got the impression he makes extra revenue from fixing stereo equipment etc.

 

I went in there once when the moved right around the corner from Virgin and he had a common 80s metal record that would go for $3 in NJ priced at $40! Insane! I think they wait for those Japanese tourists you read and hear about that come in and buy hundreds of records and ship them back to Japan to sell at an even higher price.

 

this store is a joke. they will try to charge you $15-20 for stuff you can find for a few bucks at amoeba. but oddly enough some of the CDs are fairly priced ($5-8).

 

Paul: My friend who shopped there for a long time had a similar insulting experience with this same (new) character. The regular owner here is a lovely guy and always pleasant. In these cases the owner HAS to know what this cranky guy is doing to his business and loyal customers. It is your duty to inform (you know who) about this idiot. (By the way, this works because I had a similar experience up the street from this store and the owner who I've dealt with for 26 years was furious with his obnoxious employee who treated me terribly). Get this off your chest with the owner of Harmony. If he knew this was going on, he'd flip!!!

 

Wax and Tracks, Right!

I will say that here in Atlanta most of the shops are decent, although many save their choice stuff for Ebay. A few of the owners and staff are quirky but I think that is the nature of the business. Just one regularly makes me throw a fit. They are only open Fridays and Saturdays 12 to 6 and that time is based on the guy remembering to show up. The owner is a genuine nice guy but he is ADD big time. He'll tell you he has sometime in the warehouse but I'll take him 6-9 months before he remembers to bring it. By that time I've lost interest or found it.

 

No doubt when the store closes down the owner will be quoted saying something along the lines of "it's sad that my longtime customers stopped shopping here."

 

He seems like the type that can't boil water. It would be the LAST place I would ever bring anything to get fixed.

 

Heh. Yep. Had an interesting, very long talk with the owner once (an odd guy to say the least), but have had no desire to return and buy anything.

 

There was a record store called Rowe's Rare Records in San Jose some 20-odd years ago. The owner was a portly putz who, aside from over-pricing everything he had in stock, would stand around and WHISTLE while the customers browsed. Music store owners take note: DON'T WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK!!! Play a damn album, a CD, a mix tape, a flip side even... but making your presence known every second that a vinyl collector is in the store can be a major turn-off.

Having started collecting at a young age, I found many used record store owners to be jerks because they (a) immediately suspected, by my youth alone, that I was there to steal, (b) knew everything about music while I must have known nothing, (c) sucked up to a Joe-Schmo-from-Kokomo (or somebody) customer who wandered in and claimed to have once played in a name 50's or 60's band, but snubbed the average Joe customer who just enjoyed collecting.

I give credit to the one-of-a-kind Rip Lay from Concord, California - a character in his own right - a mouth on him like a truck driver - but back in the good old days, he let his customers browse for hours in his warehouse filled with MINT stock copies of 45s - and didn't pull bull**** when it was time to pay up and check out.

 

Never visited that store when it was Rowe's Rare Records. The guy who owned Big Al's Record Barn bought it and took it over.

I used to love Rip Lay's store up in Concord!! I found lots of very hard to find reissue 45's at that place. Used to ride Bart up to Concord on the weekends and walk up there. Was really sad when he decided to close up his store.

 

The original owner or Rowe's Rare Records, I think his name was Dave Rowe, started it in the 1970s and passed away in the 1980s. His widow remarried and kept the store name but eventually sold it to Al Farleigh, aka "Big" Al of Al's Record Barn. Al had just sold off his entire store to someone in the east bay area after a liquidation sale and had thought he was out of the record business. I remember when he started in the later 1970s in an old horse corral next to the Santa Clara Flea Market, with wood shavings for the floor.

 

Well, it's about time I had my own story for this thread...and it happened today!

I stopped by a "high end" record store here in Los Angeles just to browse. Unfortunately, this kind of action (browsing) is frowned upon at this particular "high end" store...which describes it self as a musical "library of Congress".

There are no stickers on the LPs so in order to get a price you must bring all of your records to the boss up front. After he inspects them he'll offer you a price (usually in the range of $30, $40, $50) and if you refuse the price he'll get clearly agitated. As if you're a ***** to refuse this price. But the problem is sometimes I just want to know what the price of a record is...and then LATER I'll decide if I want it...sometime I just won't want it based on the price. Hey, it's just business. According to the boss, this is "jerking him around" and his "time is much too valuable to be wasting time with idiots".

So when I brought him my outrageous pile of 3 records to price he asked me if I had been there before.

"Yup."

"Have you BOUGHT anything here before?'

"Yes I have."

He sneered as he priced the records. $40 for a W1/2 Sinatra "Swingin' Lovers" with the alt. cover. But Side 2 was a little scratched, and I could probably find it for much less on eBay. I refused it. Then he asked me why I'm watsing his time if I don't have the money to pay for these LPs...etc, etc.

I tried to make him understand that even though I wasn't buying his LPs now there was always a chance in the future that I could become a good customer of his when I have loads of money. His general attitude was "well when that day comes, then fine, but stop wasting my time now because time is money"...

There was no one in the store except me.

Then he asked me what I do for a profession and why was I wasting my time here? After I told him what I did, he started to verbally abuse me. I told him that maybe he has something against youngsters and he's afraid of being taken advantage of. He wouldn't listen to me and instead gave me a 10 minute monologue about how he doesn't need the business and how he has a wife and a house and a plant and some other crap.

(Why is it that these guys always say they don't need your business? Just a strange thing to say.)

He then said that he knew I wasn't gonna buy anything and that's why he low-balled me on the prices...to see how "stupid I was to refuse his generous offer."

I thought to myself, "See, this is why I won't buy from you...you make your prices up on the spot...if you don't like someone you could go as high as you want."

I asked him if he felt better now that he had gotten all of this off his chest. And then I told him that he's "not getting rid of me that quickly. I'll be back." The I introduced myself and left.

But I only did that to show him that I wasn't some jerk-off kid. I probably won't buy from him. He's an as**ole and I hope he dies in a massive LP avalanche because he's too proud to actually sell them.

This is him. Can you guess the store?

 

Yup, it's The Record Collector.

I see I'm not the only one. Is this guy the "king of record a-holes" or what?

I forgot to mention that his little assistant guy jumps all over me when I try to look at vinyl. He grabs the records from my hands and does it "his way", but strangely his way is more damaging to the record than mine.

Also one time a few months ago the boss made me wait for the assistant to get back to the store so I could venture into the back and look at the Rock/Pop LPs...as if I would sneak out with some vinyl under my t-shirt!

And what about the weird assistant guy? He files Led Zeppelin under "Z"? Jethro Tull under "T"? The whole place is weird!

 

Wow...been a long time since I've met up with such a tremendous a-hole, but I have in the past. You've got to wonder why they even pretend to be in the record selling business with that kind of attitude...

Dale

 

There is a guy around where I live who claims to have a record collection larger than the Library of Congress. He also had some role in writing those big yellow books that list all of the albums and prices. So, on two occasions (prior to ebay) I asked if he had something that I knew existed but couldn't find anywhere. I had serial numbers, a picture, and numerous write-ups about it (a Pete Townshend 12" by the way). Well, he pulled out the big yellow book that he wrote, looked through it, couldn't find the item I requested so he said it didn't exist. I explained that it most certainly DID exist. He said it didn't and that was that. Years later I got it on ebay.

On another occasion, I was desperate, so I went to this guy again. I figured that the prior time was a fluke. He has a great reputation, he's got to be good. I asked for the 45 of Scaffold's "Liverpool Lou". He pulls out the big yellow book, turns to the S section and says "Are you sure you have the name right?". I said, "Yeah, absolutely. Paul McCartney's brother was in that band in the 60s and 70s". He checks again and... "it doesn't exist". Again, years later ebay came to the rescue.

Meanwhile, he was running a pretty decent business simply selling new and used cds. The selection was excellent and his prices were reasonable and you didn't have to deal with guy if you were just buying a cd because he had family members working the counter. He was in a very good location with bad parking. It wasn't a big deal though. We'd go there, eventually park somewhere and it was fine. Year after year I'd go into that store and it was packed every day. So what does he do? He moves to a worse location with better parking. So now there is all the parking in the world, but business is almost non-existent. I've been in the place at least five times, and each time I was the only customer or maybe there was one other customer. His selection of cds has gone well below Best Buy levels now. But he still has his massive collection behind the counter. I don't know how that business sustains itself.

 

I'd be pretty bitter as well if I had breasts like that.

And the pink shirt doesn't help!

 

There's a place in Dallas called Bill's Records This guy would do the same thing used with new and no price until you went up to purchase and then give you some collectors wrap and charge a arm and a leg be forwarned

 

Yeah and he kept saying "I'm doing just fine. I'm looking good for my age. I don't need this crap."

Sure buddy, keep telling yourself that.

Oh yeah! And then when I told him I was an actor he asked me if I knew William Conrad. When I told him I didn't he said I probably wasn't a good actor because I didn't watch "Jake And The Fat Man".

 

Yes, that is where I found the Ray Charles LP, but refused his mono copy when I told them I MUST have stereo. It felt really good to tell them sorry, wrong pressing!!!! and then walk out.

Everyone I know has the same story about that guy and his store. I don't know how people like that stay in business over the long haul. Back in the 80s there were three stores a block away in each direction from his Melrose store. That's right, four stores within three blocks. Aron's and Rene's were the two good ones, the third was less exciting, but still it is interesting that they are all gone now and he is still in business sort of. Can't imagine he does that well.

 

I'm convinced that these kinds of people are operating "hobby" businesses--that is, they aren't viable as profit making businesses themselves, but have benevolent wives, parents, trust funds or other financial support to pay the rent and the bills and keep the place open and the owners in cheeseburgers and fries.

Dale

 

I refuse to buy any disc , new or used ,lp or cd unless it has a price tag on it..i've heard it all before ...as soon as you show interest in something.." let me check my guide and see what the book value is"..."i was going to sell it on eBay..they usually go for....on eBay"..."i don't know that's doing there..i really don't think i want to sell it right now"...and it goes on and on.