Time for the record show again! But first of all, my summer between the shows was pretty good. Lots of good stuff to buy and flip but not much to talk about music wise though. Not many records to be found this season, and when I did see them they were lousy. It's ok, as I have way too much vinyl and I never play them anyway.
I did buy plenty of CDs but most were for reselling and certainly nothing really worth talking about among the keepers. Most of the time I buy them for under a dollar to play in the van. If I'm lucky I may find one I really love, but most I'll toss in a pile to be sold off sometime.
In July, I did buy a large collection of bluegrass/country CDs for $150 or whatever it was now. I forgot really. The price was terribly high considering how CDs are almost trash these days, but I just couldn't tell which ones where the good ones. I had to buy them all as I knew there was enough to make it worth my while. Luckily I did find about 30 or so pricey ones. Made about two dozen same name lots for more money. And I sold the rest (about 70 or so common ones) for $200ish. So I done better than I thought I would, I think about $400 so far in profit. It was a risk though as it was all music out of my comfort zone and I just didn't know how well they would do. Lately I've been buying only stuff I feel has a high chance of selling as well as high profit, as lately I've been getting stuck with loads of unsold inventory in my eBay store. It seems people's wallets are not as open this year compared to last year when everyone was basically getting free money for the pandemic.
Anyway, this morning before the record show I went to a church rummage sale where they had a $1 bag sale and I bought all their CDs, at least 70 or so of them, but most were the most common of the common, like a ton of Mariah Carrey and of similar ilk. Nothing worth talking about at all as I bought the sorta decent ones (ones that I would listen to while driving vs ones I would never play even if I had a gun pulled to my head) the day before. Honestly, I may use the CD cases to these for replacements as I always need replacements and they cost about 75 cents now days. I'm nearly out of my spares. Actually, it's better to reuse used ones if they are in top shape! Those are always higher quality cases compared to the replacement ones I've been getting.
Anyway, that's enough random chat! Time for what I got. Sadly it wasn't a lot. Basically the same thing as always is the reason why. Same dealers as always with very high collectors prices. I am a collector sure, but I won't really pay collectors prices for anything...well anything that they have that is. My favorites are a little too obscure to be found at a casual record show. So I ended up with only 8 items for myself and a little more than that number with stuff to resell. Paid $26 for everything and I should be able to get about double that on my flips.
The first dealer I bought from was someone new or perhaps someone that I don't remember. Seems he has a shop somewhere local but I didn't recognize where. Some 3 story antique building or something. He had a fair selection of $1 albums and for whatever reason all of his $1 CDs were compilation ones. I guess he really didn't like those or something. And he had a ton of $2 DVDs, including lots of TV on DVD boxsets. Sadly most of everything were of almost no flipping value, but I was able to get one boxset that was worth around $15. 6 or so Time Life Sounds of the 70s CDs, which are always good for flips as for whatever reason people buy nearly any Time Life CDs in lots. I got a Wild Wild West Season 2 DVD, which I needed as I just got WWW Season 1 a month or two ago. Hmm. I thought it went to 3 seasons, but I see now it went to season 4. So I still need two of the seasons.
That reminds me, about two months ago someone had an amazing DVD collection at their garage sale. I bought a ton of Sci-Fi seasons and other rare things for $85 or so. Sold 1 DVD (The PJs Season 3) and got my money back. I still have to process the rest of the stuff, but I made out very well on that. I should have bought him out entirely as he was blowing them out and most where sealed new. But then again most DVDs have little resale value. Sadly DVDs are just as dead as CDs and people are dumping them for next to nothing, but luckily for me I know my stuff and can find gems.
Back to the first dealer, I got two LPs from him for a dollar each!
Blue in Heaven - Explicit Material ~ This one I was really excited about. I forgot how I knew about them though, but I knew it was one I wanted without testing it on my phone first. I did test about 7 or 8 LPs before buying, all obscure bands, but all of those save one were duds. Anyway, they are sorta like U2, sometimes like OMD, or Echo and the Bunnymen, or Simple Minds and so on. They go a little all over the place, but I find that to be a little more interesting than a typical depressing U2 album. Good stuff and surprised I even found one of these (cheap) as it's not exactly a common one but it is one that a shitty dealer would price $10+ hoping to screw over some desperate fan.
Private Lines - Trouble in School ~ This one blew me away with about 15 seconds of the opening song and I knew I had to have it. It went all over the place in the way I like my music to be. Listening to it more properly now and the first song (at least) is simply amazing. The guy sounds like Alice Cooper, the music proggy AOR. Very happy about this one so far. This is basically why I still go to these record shows. To find LPs that I've never seen before for $1 or two, test them out on my phone and to be blown away by some secret gem that I found. I'm looking the band up and nearly nothing about them. One album. OH! The backup singer "Steve Barth" was in "Intergalactic Touring Band." Well that is one of my fav albums, but they had a few dozen singers on that as well, so it's hard to pick him out from that. And he had a hand writing something in "Nektar - Magic Is A Child" which is another one of my favorite albums. The producer "Peter Sobel" also had a hand in Intergalactic, as well as "Strawbs's Heartbreaker" and "Larry Fast Synergy's Cords". Those two are also ones I love. The guitarist was in "Fireballet - Night On Bald Mountain" which I adore to death and played hundreds of times as well as two "Nektar" LPs. One of be backup bassists was in both Fireballet albums. A lot of this makes sense as they were released on Passport records, which also put these other groups out. So I'm assuming the group was mostly backup peoples from secondary Passport bands coming together to make an album of their own that went no where because Passport wasn't exactly a big label. Passport only had three LPs that ever charted high. It's really sad as they have a really good sound. Anyway, I'm really digging this one half way through. It's sorta "Supertramp" but way better and more interesting. I've googled them and basically nothing other than Youtube and Discog. No fandom at all. Pity! I'm sorta wishing I had this on a remastered CD, but I'm sure that will never happen. LOL
I then went to my Albany dealer friend and bought some CDs. $2 each! And other goodies for reselling ( Sega Genesis Humans for only s $1 WOW) for example.
Sly & Robbie - Rhythm Killers ~ I only discovered this group either this or last year by a vinyl that I found at the local thrift store. This one is VERY strange and wasn't what I had expected as the LP I bought was way different. They normally do Jamaican music but on this one they went all crazy to something almost inexplicable to the point where I call it progressive. OH, I see why now. It's a Bill Laswell (Material) produced one. Yeah, come to think of it, it sounds VERY Bill Laswell. Laswell can be very strange at at times and I don't like everything he does. It's sorta like an "Art of Noise" album, if they collabed some late 80s rap/reggae band. I keep expecting to hear "Peter Gunn" play at any time during "Bank Job" as they basically stole the dur-dur-dur-dur-dur-dur-dur-dur riff from it. I rather like the entire album because it's so strange and fresh and yet late 80s dated to me. A good impulse buy!
Tower of Power - S/T ~ Oops! I was thinking of "Return to Forever" when I bought this and it was one of their older albums that I never saw in the wild before. I keep doing that, I think because they had one LP (or perhaps one song) that was very similar to "Romantic Warrior." This one was actually good, if not rather common and standard stuff. Basically I'm not a huge fan of this style as honestly if you hear one, you've heard them all, so I get tired of it after about 15 minutes and put something else on. Not bad, but nothing amazing either.
Steve Howe - Not Necessarily Acoustic ~ Yes? YES! Yesh? Yeah...maybe. LOL! Oh boy! Seems I'll buy anything by a Yes member it seems, even if it is the dreaded acoustic which I tend to despise. The mid-90s sucked as everyone seemed to have to do one of these albums as it was the fad back then. I prefer layers of instruments, especially synths, which is taboo in acoustics. So I bought this mostly because it's Yes but I knew I wouldn't like it.
New Riders of the Purple Sage - The Adventures of Panama Red ~ Yee Haw! Oh boy! LOL! Actually I mistook this band for "Black Oak Arkansas" which I do like. I'm going though all the New Riders albums on Youtube and I don't like the majority of them. I do like their 1980 LP though, which has them dumping their normal sound and doing something more modern for then. BOA is a bit more rocking and way more interesting than NRPS. And way less of that annoying sound that most people dislike about country music. Some people don't like any country rock at all, but I'm OK with it as long as it's more rock than country.
Flash and the Pan - Early Morning Wake Up Call ~ I bought this on Vinyl. WOW, really rare! Seriously I only have one FatP, their second LP, and I do like that one. Oddly I've never got around to looking them up until now. I see they have 6 albums and I've never seen the others than the the one I owned prior. Anyway, this is their 4th album and it's more good stuff! But then again I knew I would like them and I bought it without any testing. Good New Wave music. I'm going to have to make some time to check out their other albums. I also keep thinking they are "Crack the Sky" for some reason. I have odd little quirks like that.
Nektar - Down To Earth ~ A $2 LP. I just couldn't recall if I owned this on LP (or even CD) or not. I probably don't, but I remember seeing this on LP, so maybe I do. I like Nektar, some albums more than others. For $2 I wasn't going to worry if it's a double or not. This is one of the LPs I like better than the other the Nektars, so a good pick up! Love my more obscure (than others) prog bands.
And that's it for this time. My speical 8! Honestly I never got around to playing any of the many ones I bought last Spring. Oops! LOL! Oh well! I'm glad I spent only a little this time on stuff I'll probably never play. MP3s are just too convenient and honestly I cannot hear any difference unless the quality is really bad.
See you all next Spring!
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