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best record shops in Southern California?


decade03
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I agree that Amoeba can be hit or miss. In my experience, it also depends on which buyer you get. Some of those guys are cool and some of them will totally lowball you. I’ve had experiences where one buyer offered me $4 for five CDs and I decided to kept them. I’d go back a week or so later and deal with a different buyer and get $15 in trade.

I’ll say this, don’t expect to get even remotely cost anywhere. For vinyl, I’d say expect to get max $5 cash for an LP.

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I'm not saying it's a bad store in general, I go almost weekly, just have had very bad experiences trying to sell vinyl to where it's almost laughable..

 

Well, yeah. Most record places don't pay a huge amount. They're a business that needs to resell your records make a profit to pay their employees, they need to need to make room for that in the price. It's decent to shop at though.

 

If I sell records, I use eBay or amazon. It's worth the additional effort. I've been meaning to try discogs sometime...

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  • 1 month later...

BUMP for awesome LA record haul last week while visiting for work. Stopped at Amoeba & Vacation Vinyl. Shoutout to Mark at Vacation for being the best dude and letting me dig through his backroom and personal collection. Also, cool to hear stories about the old Hydra Head days. Below is why I am broke:

 

VACATION VINYL:

 

12"

Wolves In The Throne Room ‎– "Black Cascade" 2xLP (Southern Lord Records | black)
Wolves In The Throne Room ‎– "Malevolent Grain" (Southern Lord | 180g forest green)
Austin Lucas - "Putting The Hammer Down" (Magic Bullet Records | black w/ white labels, 2007 U.S. Tour Edition w/ silkscreened cover hand #'d 170/200)
Agoraphobic Nosebleed / Converge ‎– "The Poacher Diaries" 12" split (Hydra Head Records | black)

 

10"

Pelican - "Pink Mammoth" (Hydra Head Records | baby pink w/ black splatter)
Botch - "An Anthology Of Dead Ends" 10" TEST PRESS (Hydra Head Records | black, limited to 15)

 

7"

Rocky Votolato & Seth Warren (Redwood Records | white)

Foo Fighters - "All My Life" 7" [single] (Roswell Records / RCA | black, UK press #'d 2979)
Some Girls - "The Blues" (Deathwish Inc. | pink marble)
The Hope Conspiracy - "Hang Your Cross" (Deathwish Inc. | blue/white inside/outside vinyl)
Converge - "Y2K" (Equal Vision Records | clear)
Converge / Brutal Truth - "In These Black Days Volume 2: A Tribute To Black Sabbath" split 7" (Hydra Head Records | black w/ white labels, 2nd press)
The Locust - "Locust" (Gold Standard Laboratories | yellow/white marble)
American Nightmare - "American Nightmare" (Bridge 9 Records | black, 4th press w/ marching band cover)
Steel Trap / Trash Talk split 7" (Spiderghost Pressgang | clear w/ red splatter)
 
Cassette
The Hope Conspiracy - "The Hope Conspiracy" (self-released)
Piecemeal - "Piecemeal" (self-released)
 

 

AMOEBA:

 

12"
Mutoid Man - "Helium Head" (Magic Bullet Records | translucent green) 
Mariachi El Bronx - "Mariachi El Bronx III" (White Drugs / ATO Records | Day-Glo vinyl)
 
7"
R.E.M. - "S. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)" 7" [single] (I.R.S. Records | black, UK press)
R.E.M. - "Stand" 45 rpm [single] (Warner Bros. Records | black)
R.E.M. - "Can't Get There From Here" 45 rpm [single] (I.R.S. Records | black)
R.E.M. - "Superman" 45 rpm [single] (I.R.S. Records | black, UK press)
R.E.M. - "Driver 8" 45 rpm [single] (I.R.S. Records | black)
The Hope Conspiracy - "True Nihilist" (Deathwish Inc. | red)
Doomriders - "Live At The Middle East" (Deathwish Inc. | black)
Seven Sisters Of Sleep - "Seven Sisters Of Sleep" 7"/CD (A389 Recordings | translucent light blue w/ poster & patch)
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I recently went to atomic records for the first time on my way to ikea in Burbank last week. Definitely a cool little store if you like digging for cheap jazz, soul, classic rock etc. Definitely aren't going to find splatter my chemical romance records or mondo soundtracks but it's still dope. The classical guitar section was pretty badass too.

I talked to the owner for a bit and he said they never participate in RSD either, +1,000 points for that.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Dang, 10 minute walk? I would be there every other day for sure. I live in Denver. I was there for work all last week. Best shop around.

 

 

Crazy to hear all these good things about Vacation Vinyl.   I live about a 5 minute (no traffic) drive away and have never set foot in it.  Didn't even know it's name til right now when I Googled it.   People are always asking "have you been in that shop on Sunset".  Now I know I gotta go.

 

For the record [pun intended], I usually go to Mono (when trying to fill in my classic rock collection), Origami (for pre-orders) or Amoeba (for modern, non-new releases). 

 

Also, what part of Denver.  That's my hometown (moved to LA for college in 05').

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Here's what I know.

 

East Side:

 

Permanent - My favorite record store, really easy to keep up on his stock if you keep an eye on his discogs page.  Owner Lance has a sixth sense for sniffing out rare private press records and awesome old punk/psych/krautrock.  He also does the best at stocking garage rock from Australia, which is an important criteria for me.  

 

Wombleton - Always has a dozen or so records that I would bleed to own in my collection but his prices really stick the knife in and twist it.  OG britpop and Flying nun aplenty, come for the original pressing of Loveless and stay to drool on the OG Nick Drake.

 

Gimme Gimme Records - Old school  record shop owner seems to have an unlimited stock of records and every time I stop by his shop it seems like it has almost completely turned over.  Good stuff at reasonable prices.

 

Mount Analog - I find this store hard to maneuver but it sure looks pretty and they are probably the place to go if you're looking for weird minimal synth records or obscure new avant garde electronica.  

 

Hollywood/Echo Park

 

Amoeba - The best record store in LA.  Don't let anyone tell you any different.  They get so much stock on a daily basis that I almost always find something I need to own and usually find it at a reasonable price (discogs median or lower) and occasionally I find something that's so ridiculously underpriced I can't believe my good fortune (last night I found Flaming Lips cover album of Stone Roses for $30 with "light wear").

 

Rockaway - Focuses on memorabilia but I've found some good stuff here and I always find their prices good and generous, especially when taking into account the grade.  I am especially fond of their 7" section.

 

Origami - Does a great job of keeping up with all the local bands and you can find some gems if you dig (especially recently OOP records).

 

Blue Bag - I almost never make it over here but this is another old school record owner type guy who has a lot of back stock and usually prices things pretty reasonably.  He has a lot of lower priced records that are worth the dig.

 

Mono Records - Small stock and easy to go through this store, he mostly focuses on punk stuff but has a lot of friends in local bands too and I think they bring in some local stock.  I've found good stuff here but it's a total crapshoot.

 

Vacation - I hardly go here anymore because I find the prices are too high.  Probably the most essential record store in LA if you are into Metal.  

 

Headline Records - Keeps up on punk releases and has a lot of new punk shirts, I've only really found this store helpful when digging through their stock looks for records from a few years back and they carried and never sold. 

 

Jackknife - Not really worth checking out unless you really love old tapes.

 

Lolipop - Not really worth checking out unless you really love local LA tapes.  See also Gnar Burger.

 

Counterpoint - Impossible to park here because of UCB right next door and the few times I have gone here I've found it overpriced and not worth the time and effort to dig (and climb their stupid ladders)

 

High Fidelity - Haven't been here for awhile and I've never found anything really worthwhile.

 

Record Collector - Hilariously awful record store.  No prices on anything and an owner prone to hissy fits.  Visit their yelp page some time and you will find hours of entertainment.

 

The Valley:

 

Freakbeat - Good store with decent stock and fair pricing.  Leans towards psychedelic and classic rock.

 

Atomic - Leans very hard on classic rock but if you need a Led Zep record for under $20, I bet you'll find it here.  Decent selection of wall items too

 

CD Trader - Fine.  If you end up in this part of the valley this is about the best you can do.  Probably only worth checking out their new arrivals section.  

 

Westside:

 

Record Surplus - I don't usually find much here but they do have a lot of classic rock and they usually price things conservatively.

 

Touch Vinyl - I've never found anything here but the owner seems like a nice enough dude.

 

Soundstation - If you are near the airport with time to kill you might find something decent here but I've found they tent to not take condition into consideration when pricing.  

 

Long Beach/OC:

 

Fingerprints - Feels like an old school record store and they have some cool events.  I haven't really found much notable in their used bins but I never mind browsing.  

 

Bagatelle - Walking distance from Fingerprints and essential if you have the time to dig.  Their stock is not organized very well and they don't have prices on a lot of the records but when you do find something you'll probably be satisfied with the price he quotes (it is usually very fair).

 

Port of Sound - I've only been here once but I liked this store.  He has a VPI cleaner and so the stock is very clean and pretty reasonably priced.

 

Radiation - A disaster to browse through, it's probably just easier to stand in the store and look at their discogs page rather than browse the chaos, but even then he might not have that in stock.

 

Glasshouse Store - I've found some good punk records here at a decent price but it's very hit or miss.

 

Burger Records - They have some new good tapes.  I don't usually find anything great in their used section.

 

Rhino - I only really like this place for the new stock that has gone OOP.

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Clouds that is a great summation my man. Having hit up all these stores on rotation for the past 2 years I couldn't have said it better myself

Awesome that you found a crazy Lips record at Amoeba too. I found a "light wear" copy of their King Crimson cover album for 30 a few months ago. Almost shit myself.

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I'm gonna try hit up Permanent after work on Saturday. The bands alone will be worth catching, also heard from Liz that they're getting lots of RSD releases.

 

I have to work on RSD, but I'll definitely try to hit up PermRex at some point.  Would love to catch John Doe and Exene and get them to sign my copy of Los Angeles.

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Crazy to hear all these good things about Vacation Vinyl.   I live about a 5 minute (no traffic) drive away and have never set foot in it.  Didn't even know it's name til right now when I Googled it.   People are always asking "have you been in that shop on Sunset".  Now I know I gotta go.

 

For the record [pun intended], I usually go to Mono (when trying to fill in my classic rock collection), Origami (for pre-orders) or Amoeba (for modern, non-new releases). 

 

Also, what part of Denver.  That's my hometown (moved to LA for college in 05').

 

 

It's definitely worth a stop in. Allow 2-3 hours for browsing especially if you're into hardcore, punk, or black metal. You're in for a treat.

 

I live in the Highlands, but grew up mostly in Aurora. I can't see myself living anywhere other than the Highlands. Great coffee, food, and away from all the downtown nonsense.

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Here's what I know.

 

OC:

 

Fingerprints - Feels like an old school record store and they have some cool events.  I haven't really found much notable in their used bins but I never mind browsing.  

 

Bagatelle - Walking distance from Fingerprints and essential if you have the time to dig.  Their stock is not organized very well and they don't have prices on a lot of the records but when you do find something you'll probably be satisfied with the price he quotes (it is usually very fair).

 

Long Beach is Los Angeles County. How dare you.

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Haha.  Fixed.  I swear I wasn't doing that to be a dick.  I always just lump Long Beach in with Orange County.  I'm sure some people in Burbank with argue with its placement in the valley too.  

 

No biggie. The fact that we only get the OC Weekly despite being LA County is far more offensive. Still confused by that one...

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