Record Deals!

Ecrits Blogophilia Week 17.14 Topic: Everything Pumpkin Spice
Hard Bonus: Use a line or quote by Henry David Thoreau
Easy Bonus: Include a “new girl”

As the Pet Shop Boys once sang, “I’ve got the brains, you’ve got the looks, let’s make lots of money!” Who doesn’t like making money?!! This past week I went on vacation to see my son, who lives near Houston, Texas. On the way there I stepped into a second hand store with the express purpose of making “lots of money”. Well, actually, not a LOT of money…but even making a little money is kinda fun, right?!

I was always the guy who could lose himself for hours in a record store…unfortunately, record stores have gone the way of the dinosaur these past few decades. Well, a few years ago I took my grand kids to a store that sold used video games and what did I see in that store…boxes and boxes of used records! I came back on my own later and had fun perusing all the different records they had…for really cheap prices! And you know what I did? I bought some records! Some I kept and some I posted on E-Bay. Did you know there is a resurgence of interest in owning vinyl records? There’s money to be had in those old records! Like I said, not a lot of money…I won’t retire off of selling vinyl records, but as someone who has always enjoyed shopping for record albums, it’s been a fun way to acquire new and old albums while making a little money at the same time.

So on my vacation last week, I stepped into two different Game X-Change stores and ended up buying 45 record albums for $61. I was very excited about some of the records, knowing that I had gotten a steal on them! Believe it or not, I got back ALL sixty one dollars that I had spent off of ONE album!

Think of your all time favorite musician and then ask yourself, would you spend $61 to buy one record from them? My answer would be “NO!” But some people do such things! The above pictured album is Era Extrana from the band Neon Indian. It’s autographed by the leader of the band, Alan Palomo. I sold it on eBay for $61! I bought it at Game XChange for 99 cents! At the time I bought it, I thought maybe I’d get 20 bucks for it. Who knew! Two more that I sold from my 45 album haul:

Arctic Monkeys and The Last Shadow Puppets

Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is an album by Arctic Monkeys. The catchy album cover with the pumpkin spice background is from The Last Shadow Puppets, a super group which includes Arctic Monkeys lead vocalist Alex Turner! Sold for $25 and $21.50 respectively, I bought Arctic Monkeys for two bucks and Shadow Puppets for 99 cents! Score! As I said, I sometimes keep what I dig up. Two that are going into my personal collection:

Cende, pronounced “send”. How do I get rid of that beautiful blue vinyl record. I love it!

My new favorite girl singer! Ashleigh Ball of Hey Ocean! I could probably get $20 or so for this double vinyl album, but this one is staying with me! I love their sound!

So those are a few of the 45 albums I collected last week. You may have noticed that those albums aren’t exactly household name type of bands. I bought many of those as well…Olivia Newton John, Elvis, Hall and Oats, Nilsson, Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin, Marshall Tucker, Diana Ross, etc, etc. But the ones that sell for the higher prices are the newer bands, or albums that were previously released only as a CD that now have a vinyl reissue. As I wrap up this little blog about investing in used records, let’s always remember this timeless truth from Henry David Thoreau, “Goodness is the only investment that never fails”. So true, so true. And in closing….thank goodness for rock and roll!