Popsike in the charity shop

[Little Jimmy Oddman]

Every time you use a phone in a charity shop, someone in U2 shoots a dove.

[medlar]

Here's a tough one bc

"Babycart you handsome hunk of a man, let me show you my raers"

[IAN]

Using this as an example, I'd have more fun buying the record, getting home, checking it, realising it was rubbish and then taking it back to the charity shop. I'd gladly spend a quid to do that. Using the phone would have stopped me buying a bad record but it would have stopped that.

Seconded. Nearly always it's the anticipation that I'm actually buying more than anything else. That feeling that you just might have stumbled upon something fantastic - that's easily worth a pound.

[mr sayers]

Seconded. Nearly always it's the anticipation that I'm actually buying more than anything else. That feeling that you just might have stumbled upon something fantastic - that's easily worth a pound.

I must be in minority as that's the bit I hate as i'm always the pessimist with regards my punts, and am sick to death of wasting my very limited funds on crap punted records from the charities!

[Payback3000]

Isn't using Popsike on your smart phone in a chazza bit like using a laser guided rifle on a rabbit?

Half the fun of digging is getting home and realising you've just bought a pile of crap. I now use the the same method of satisfying my consumer urges in chazzas as on Amazon.

Amazon - go on a spree and fill your basket. Empty your basket.

Chazza - pull out all the records that tempt you...look at them, put them back.

[eine]

You're right, for many people it is.

For me, the actual owning of the record is one small, final part of the enjoyment. I like planning where I'm going to go. I like looking through boxes of crap to see if there's anything good in there (much more than looking through boxes of good records deciding which one to buy). I like buying records I never knew existed, have little clue what they sound like and records that look, and hopefully sound, weird or unexpected. I like discovering things for myself, even if they are well known. I like getting home and needle-dropping. I like deciding whether I'm actually going to keep a record or set it free again. Humbly, I'd suggest that's where the old VV site was coming from.

I don't really care if other people use the internet (Youtube, Popsike, even this site) when they are out buying records but its not for me. To a greater or lesser extent, it would minimise a lot of those things I like about digging. It doesn't sit right. Not because I think I'm on some noble quest but because it would be much less fun. Babycart's fishing with dynamite analogy is a good one. For me, it would be like bowling with airbags.

Pretty much how I feel about it, 'cept I have used a phone/written things down when interesting records have been expensive. When they're cheap I buy pretty much anything. I've banged on about phones because I'm not sure it's ethically/David Essexly right to criticise people using technology in sensible/reasonable ways. It is irritating, but it isn't heinous.

[babycart]

Pretty much how I feel about it, 'cept I have used a phone/written things down when interesting records have been expensive. When they're cheap I buy pretty much anything. I've banged on about phones because I'm not sure it's ethically/David Essexly right to criticise people using technology in sensible/reasonable ways. It is irritating, but it isn't heinous.

"Yes, yes, that's all very well, but if you don't get out of this shop right now I'm calling the police."

[Viva Chiba]

Since bagging a smartphone: I often succumb to this tendency.

There are certain things which feel right and are definite impulse buys. Conversely, if chazzaland / record fairs were universally cheap I'd buy buy buy, but it isn't and my ropey finances are inclined to make me a little risk averse at a certain level.

Identifying something then looking it up is a (partial) test of digging 'intuition' - there's too much chuff out there to sift. It's hardly shooting fish in a barrel when, as we all know, most chazzas and record shops contain little in the way of fish (more like prawns or plankton, to strain the analogy). Even if you discover that something is purportedly good then, if you don't know it, your anticipation is likely to be even greater until you get it home and on the turntable. It's still a form of gratification - merely less deferred, or diluted.

Confronted with nothing that vaguely interests me in the wild, I quite often purchase stuff to try and punt on. Given the possibility that no-one will want some dubious tat, this is another form of gambling. The proceeds of a stack of ho-hrmm stuff or my funk offcuts can then fund a nice and obscure single from Discogs or elsewhere. Given that the dough remains in the vinyl economy (thereby sustaining it, since the cash goes to other dealers) I don't consider this particularly amoral since it sustains the marketplace. Moreover: you're helping someone else find something they want (albeit: hardly for altruistic motives). Ending up with a pile of junk you think you might sell compared to the merits of a pile of duffers you hoped might be listenable are much alike, methinks. In both respects, the rejects should logically end up back in the chazza whence they came.

Having just spent the week in Belgium and purchased a stack of mediocre LPs and some killer singles however, I can only conclude that the best way of assessing a disc's merit would seem to be ... listening to it before stumping up the cash

Using a mobile is perhaps reprehensible, but isn't using a portable sometimes more cringe worthy? I once took mine to the dodgy Vauxhall booter and felt really guilty after listening to some knackered 50p 7" - and buying approximately none of them. Never again ... !

[Filthy Rich]

"I don't really care if other people use the internet (Youtube, Popsike, even this site) when they are out buying records but its not for me"

I think that's a better thing to say. A few people are getting on their high-horse and saying that people are morally wrong for something that is really just a difference in attitude.
nb I do not possess a smart phone myself.

[ashra]

For me, the actual owning of the record is one small, final part of the enjoyment. I like planning where I'm going to go. I like looking through boxes of crap to see if there's anything good in there (much more than looking through boxes of good records deciding which one to buy). I like buying records I never knew existed, have little clue what they sound like and records that look, and hopefully sound, weird or unexpected. I like discovering things for myself, even if they are well known. I like getting home and needle-dropping. I like deciding whether I'm actually going to keep a record or set it free again. Humbly, I'd suggest that's where the old VV site was coming from.

I don't really care if other people use the internet (Youtube, Popsike, even this site) when they are out buying records but its not for me. To a greater or lesser extent, it would minimise a lot of those things I like about digging. It doesn't sit right. Not because I think I'm on some noble quest but because it would be much less fun. Babycart's fishing with dynamite analogy is a good one. For me, it would be like bowling with airbags.

We should put that on a brass plaque or something

[Campag Record]

I'll just add that I waited until I was outside the charity btw...on the other side of the road. I googled the LP...I recognised the sleeve but couldn't remember if it had some redeeming feature. Kid on drums with his dad behind him...on Decca. A blog confirmed it was naff...as were my suspicions.

I'll rarely need to rely on my phone...I only ever see crud of the highest order in charities anyway.

[LDJB]

I'll just add that I waited until I was outside the charity btw...on the other side of the road. I googled the LP...I recognised the sleeve but couldn't remember if it had some redeeming feature. Kid on drums with his dad behind him...on Decca. A blog confirmed it was naff...as were my suspicions.

I'll rarely need to rely on my phone...I only ever see crud of the highest order in charities anyway.

I wish I'd googled that one first Nige

[Campag Record]

I wish I'd googled that one first Nige

Ha ha...you fell foul of it eh mate. I was 99.99% sure it wasn't worth the purchase and as I walked away remembered I now had the facility to check for sure. No regrets and no feelings of amateur digger guilt.

[LDJB]

Yes Nige - I knew Format had used the cover for a mix tape cover so I thought there must be something on it. It was a long time before I had a smart phone mind.

[Campag Record]

Yes Nige - I knew Format had used the cover for a mix tape cover so I thought there must be something on it. It was a long time before I had a smart phone mind.

Possibly where I recognised the sleeve from then Lee. The question is will I use the smartphone at Utrecht? No denying its uses there (in tandem with a portable).

[ninja simone]

I'll just add that I waited until I was outside the charity btw...on the other side of the road. I googled the LP...I recognised the sleeve but couldn't remember if it had some redeeming feature. Kid on drums with his dad behind him...on Decca. A blog confirmed it was naff...as were my suspicions.

I'll rarely need to rely on my phone...I only ever see crud of the highest order in charities anyway.

but if that's the same record I'm thinking of - blue background with the seriously goofy-looking dad - it's worth having solely for that cover, not the music. That's entirely why I got it, no musical expectations whatsoever...

[giantchicken]

I do love it when trash transmutes into gold in your own cupboard. And I will tend to buy any old record in Sheffield that still has a Violet Mays sticker on it - usually a better indicator than google

At least you'll never have to take it back to Violet May's if it has a scratch or skip - believe me, that was an experience far more scary than facing any of the shopladies pictured above, especially for a young teenager...Violet could cut you to the quick with a choice one liner in no time!

[Lord Thames]

but if that's the same record I'm thinking of - blue background with the seriously goofy-looking dad - it's worth having solely for that cover, not the music. That's entirely why I got it, no musical expectations whatsoever...

'Steven Smith and Father' - to be fair, his drumming's actually quite good!

[ninja simone]

'Steven Smith and Father' - to be fair, his drumming's actually quite good!

Yes, that's it - bloody well ought to be good if they went to the lengths of making a record devoted to his precocious skills. I wonder if Steven remained a drummer into adulthood or whether the parental pressure was just too overbearing for him and he packed it all in and found God or something? I'll clearly have to revisit this item with a more open mind some time....

[BestDressedChicken]

I saw someone doing this yesterday with some turdy looking 90s dance action. I felt embarrassed for him.

[mp3000]

From an ethical, or etiquette, standpoint, the only way it would make sense to me is in the case to make sure you are not overpaying for something that costs 'real money' or to double-check a release version(I often came close to spending money on what seemed like a reasonably-priced original which was actually a bootleg). Having said that I don't own a smartphone.