I’m not talking about guys with stores, I’m talking about people who only do business with people they know and you go around to theirs and leave very very poor.
Best/worst decision of my life was going to Joel Stones’ place and the box of 45s came out. All needed a deep clean but were absolutely magic.
Are they still around or is everyone Discogs now? I feel like Zaf did this for a while.
Nick Record maybe in Brighton?
Been round his a few times back in the day. Not sure if he still lets people go round for a dig.
Be a very dangerous visit for sure. He’d probably ease you in like one of his Dj sets and then blam you’re buying £200 records.
No experience of this but got visions of Vincent Vega scoring in Pulp Fiction
There’s a bloke at my local car boot sale who thinks of himself as a “record dealer” but couldn’t be further away from one, bless him. He’s a lovely guy so I’ll always take some time to talk music with him, but will always remember when he first realised I knew my stuff and whispered “Got some nice US imports in the motor if you wanted to take a look” to me, and then proceeded to excitedly show me a box of Elvis and Neil Diamond 7s… had to feign some mild interest as didn’t want to hurt his feelings!
I heard a story about someone in Brazil back when Madlib, B+, Egon, Cut Chemist, Jazzman, etc we’re getting in on the ground floor buying records for next to nothing ended up at someone’s house who had Brazilian presses of run of Rolling Stones, Elvis, etc and apparently got very worked up when they tried to leave so they ended up buying some random records that they left behind.
When I hear about they were buying records for in those first two or three visits, it’s incredible. Locals got wise to it pretty quickly though.
i know of a few up here in the NW but it’s much more jazz and punk and psyche and rock stuff - they aren’t like “hey come over and dig through my shit” type people. more like, you start a conversation with them and move from there, and meet in a neutral spot for the transactions. these guys generally don’t want anyone to know where they live.
these are the guys with the test pressings and signed promos and original artwork, etc. usually not DJs (unless there’s a radio show or something like that).
a few of the guys that sell at the record fairs leave a a crate or 2 in the local 2nd hand shop and the owner takes a commisson. Theyre usually loitering around (and have annoyingly started snapping up decent stuff that arrives in the store i think) and if you get chatting to them they usually have “loads more in the lock up”. Quality varies of course and its mostly classic rock, jazz etc
I’m in a very slow process of waiting to being let into a local dealers storage. He is sitting on quarter of million records, so he says. I have offered to help, sort and grade and spend long days digging as he is very lazy by his own admission.
I do think he is worried I will do him over on anything that isn’t listed on discogs. He does seem to price up and put out some rare US 12’s, they seem like deadstock also. Been riding the clutch more than a year on this…
When I lived in Brighton Nick used to let me pop over to pick records I had ordered. This was early 00’s. Not sure if he’s still in the same plave in hove but man, what a place eh? A sea of old US 12’s. That’s heaven for me.
My days of going to dealers are thankfully behind me. To be honest dealers are all the same to me, antiques, bikes, cars, and especially anything collectible. The kind of in your face, pushy, rude avaricious manner. I’m the kind of person that says, “well I was about to spend $500 on that record, but now that you have lied to me twice and been rude you can go f### yourself” Sometimes to my detriment but I just can’t stand them. I now have relationships with a few collectors that are lovely and buy/trade with them which I find much more agreeable.
Being Brazilian and knowing a bit about the people selling (& buying) some of these records, I’m not too crazy about these stories as I think a lot of these “next to nothing” buys were a bit exploitative.
On the other hand, Joel is a master at making people spend a lot on Brazilian records, so I guess things even out in the long run…
Oh it was 100% exploitive but that’s Egon’s general vibe.
Right. An absolute treasure trove of original twelves and albums.
I agree. The only reason I say “a bit” is because a lot of Brazilians didn’t give 2 shits about a lot of that music until the gringos came and took it all away (not just Egon & the cronies but also a lot of Japanese people, British folk too) then it’s all about how we all loved that stuff and how these guys took advantage of the sellers etc. It’s sort of bullshit. They were cheap, until they weren’t, and if any of you follow professional football you’ll know we are all excellent criers. heh
I’ve met more arseholes among people buying and collecting records than I ever did working in politics for 20 years. People who blatantly lie to your face, try and rip you off, don’t think twice about ripping off old and clueless people, and who will sell records with defects without telling you. It’s sad really. I once saw two men fighting over a record in a charity shop, literally throwing punches. In the end, they’re only records, you can’t take them with you and they won’t ever love you back …
My favourite record dealer.
Down Home Music Store
Continuous Since 1976
We have tons of rare LPs selected from Mr. Chris’s personal record collection, being sold in our store over the next weeks. They are immaculate.
Taken from the Down Home Music store’s email of today.
And there’s this.
Down Home will be selling there.
Only fair to mention I suppose that I worked there for awhile and Chris was a good guy to work for and a major record fiend. He had what was called “The Vault” which was stuffed full of all sorts of recorded media he had acquired as he bought Mexican record companies. Jaw dropping.
That’s a great photo
The internet changed everything, really. I used to love dealers’ lists (first paper and later on email) and their descriptions. Chris Pure Pleasure was my main guy - he turned me onto some incredible music and, in turn, I helped pay his mortgage.
I think given the time and effort it took to find these records, the price you paid was normally a pretty fair trade-off. Nowadays everyone thinks they’re a digger but really what those guys were doing before the web was something entirely different.
I used to love the paper lists back in the day from Nick DJF and Chris PP.
I remember calling Chris to place orders and he would play me stuff over the phone.
I also used to buy from a guy called Martin Safesounds, mainly a soul / funk / disco dealer - anyone remember him?
