Success rates

[emperor tomato ketchup]

I was wondering what kind of hit rates people had with rummaging through old vinyl. And I mainly mean in the sense of how many bad albums do you end up with for a killer one. I’ve been trying to go through the in-pile of ratty old vinyl in the corner of my living room and about half of it is going on the "I'm sure I can live without this, in fact take it away ASAP" pile.

Certainly I've found that some of the better buys I've made have been ones I was steered to from this place: Young generation and Demis' "Souvenirs" being the two most recent. Though I did find a really nice Labi Siffri album for a few quid recently.

On a similar note I was wondering how people who are getting dozens of lps each week get through them? Do you listen closely to every song in case it "contains break" or do you slap the needle down a few times and get a general idea of the vibe?

Cheers

[ladyboygrimsby]

Obviously, the strike rate is rubbish, but I think if you've spent a tenner on a bunch of rubbish, but there's one decent track on the lot, then it's worth it. It's fun buying stuff in the (probably vain) hope that there's an eternal killer on there.

However, I've found tons of great records that I'd never have paid full whack for if I'd seen them in a regular shop. I found this Hirth Martinez LP in Grimsby a few years ago for 25p and it's got a great funky tex-mex tune on it called Valley Of The Music. I'd never have given it a second look in a regular shop. Mind you, I also bought a Nik Kershaw 12-inch in the same shop, mainly because it had a tune called Drum Talk on the B-side. Mmm, that was a mistake.

[Sie Vulture]

Quote[/b] ]"spent a tenner on a bunch of rubbish..."

... famous words, often spoken by Northern Digger Extraordinaire Towny-Boy...



... yeah, hit rates are very poor, but you know when you hit   that you are gonna blow peoples minds with some wierd, wacky, funky tracks !

... it's the thought of that elusive      that keeps you going, keeps you searching, an endless voyage...


Question - what do people do with the LP's they dig out of booters etc but are shite and so need to be offloaded ??

Straight back to the charity shop ??

I have bought LP's from charity shops that Towny had "recycled" the week previous, and vice-versa!



... typical conversation goes something like this...

Sie: "yo man, check out this LP I found in the charity shop. Looks cool, check out the titles, I got real excited but it was a load of shit"

Towny: "yeah I know man, I took them there last week"

Sie: "eh?"

Towny: "yeah, I picked it up for all those same reasons you did a couple of months back, turned out to be shite so dropped it straight on the recycle pile. Took it to Scope last weekend"

Sie: "arse!"

[theeman]

hit rate? current booting rate is buying about 1 LP in 500. as for whether they're good - maybe 1 in 10 is good and stays on the 'keep' pile. if i bought more rock the hit rate would be a bit higher but i usually go for black music.

[handcorkscrew]

Don't you have portables in the UK? Sure it bills you automatically as an obsessive collector, but it saves you the trouble and cost of lugging home a bunch of garbage.

[emperor tomato ketchup]

Ah now where's the fun in that?

In my case a lot of what I get is from cahrity shops which I happen to be passing and so I'm not gonna carry soemthing round like that on the off chance. I'm sure it helps avoid some crap but it would take a while to sample each track on an album - and since so many are one track wonders you'd easily miss stuff if you didn't check each one.

[handcorkscrew]

Quote[/b] (emperor tomato ketchup @ 08 July 2003,16:24)]In my case a lot of what I get is from cahrity shops which I happen to be passing and so I'm not gonna carry soemthing round like that on the off chance. I'm sure it helps avoid some crap but it would take a while to sample each track on an album - and since so many are one track wonders you'd easily miss stuff if you didn't check each one.

I keep my GP-3 in a dickies bag in the trunk of my car when I go out on a mission. For genres that I'm into collecting but don't really know the ropes of (eg pre-90's school hip-hop), it's indispensible paired with some sharp ears. It's literally taken stacks of 100+ records down to a handful, and has paid for itself many times over. It's nice being able to take home nothing but the tip wax... sure you might miss a break, but I'm just looking to get a feel for the music... but obviously if I'm on foot in a thrift shop I'll take a risk on a $.50 (25p) record!

[ladyboygrimsby]

Quote[/b] (handcorkscrew @ 08 July 2003,16:21)]Don't you have portables in the UK?  Sure it bills you automatically as an obsessive collector, but it saves you the trouble and cost of lugging home a bunch of garbage.

Firstly, I don't have a portable, though I keep reminding my wife that it would make a fantastic present. However, I think if you're digging in a charity store where records are usually no more than a couple of quid, it would be a bit churlish to break the record player out. For a record store, fair enough, but it seems a bit tight doing it in a charity. Perhaps others have fewer scruples (not that I have many).

[Matt Hero]

This is for me the real problem with where to actually use a portable.

Like LBG, I'd think it is a bit of a cheek to use one at the charity shop (unless we're back in the world of Oxfam's £10 LPs - but let's not go there again eh) - especially when we're talking 50p either way.

At the boot sales, where it would be very useful, I'm always in mind that wandering around with a portable, especially where prices are 'variable', that it will almost always drive the price up if I look like I'm a bit seriously interested. I've spent a while working on my 'poker face' for such situations.... hauling out a GP-3 would only serve to make sure that the eventual price would be trebled.

Second hand shops, where the owners are not utter Nazis (a rariety I know) would seem to be the only place to use them.... unless you are able to find fabled warehouses *full* of gear, where I'm sure that they would be invaluable.

[theeman]

Quote[/b] (Matt Hero @ 08 July 2003,17:16)]This is for me the real problem with where to actually use a portable.

Like LBG, I'd think it is a bit of a cheek to use one at the charity shop (unless we're back in the world of Oxfam's £10 LPs - but let's not go there again eh) - especially when we're talking 50p either way.

At the boot sales, where it would be very useful, I'm always in mind that wandering around with a portable, especially where prices are 'variable', that it will almost always drive the price up if I look like I'm a bit seriously interested. I've spent a while working on my 'poker face' for such situations.... hauling out a GP-3 would only serve to make sure that the eventual price would be trebled.

Second hand shops, where the owners are not utter Nazis (a rariety I know) would seem to be the only place to use them.... unless you are able to find fabled warehouses *full* of gear, where I'm sure that they would be invaluable.

couldn't agree more Matt. i never take the GP3 to a charity shop, but don't find much of interest there anyway down here in London.

boot sales - yes, i use it quite a lot. it's invaluable for really big crates or boxes, particularly 45s, when you don't want to end up lugging a stack around or dropping 10 quid on 100 7"s. there's definitely a rule of thumb to abide by though - i always keep the portable in the record bag well hidden, and always ask what the price of the records is before looking through them. after pulling out what i want to hear (and knowing the price) only then does the portable come out, usually to the amusement of the seller!

haven't ever takjen it to a 2nd hand shop - basically i won't shop in places where you can't listen to stuff or where they're not prepared to play it for you, so there's never a need.

however it has been brilliant on several warehouse-style digs... as several Heros can attest!

this GP3's been hammered for a couple of years and it's still on the first set of batteries. it's pretty robust too - it's taken a lot of knocks without complaining. but if anyone wants rid of a soundburger...

last sunday one of the sellers at the local booter saw the gp3 and mentioned that some guy had been round about 1/2hr before with a long, thin record player where the record stuck out the side.... grrrrrr!!!

[theeman]

and i have had one example at a really shite flea market where one seller went ballistic when i played his (absolutely trashed) 45s without asking his permission first! they weren't even good enough to melt into ashtrays so i didn't see the need to ask first, jeez!

[handcorkscrew]

I hear ya... things sound different in the UK vs. here in the US. People here usually don't care if you use a portable. One or two store owners will flip out on you if you even ask, but most are cool as long as you don't that harlem river drive down off the wall to spin. I guess it's kinda cheeky to spin records at the thrifts, but really, all you're going to get are a few stares.

[urko]

There is so much competiton at booters in this neck of the woods [mainly e-bayers rather than diggers], checking stuff with a portable is too much of a lengthy option. Waste too much time at one spot and the rest is fleeced

TaTa

Urko

[Motown67]

I usually buy a lot of vinyl each month either in stores, flea markets or eBay and it's a bitch for me to get through. I have a big stack of records from January that I STILL have not listened to yet! In fact, I think I have at least 50 LPs + on my floor that need to be listened to.

That being said, I listen to all of my records from beginning to end. Not only that but I'm in the process of re-listening to all of my records from A-Z which I started last year. I also write reviews of everything so I'm actually paying attention (or at least trying&#33. (Shameless plug: You can read my reviews in the reviews section at Soulstrut).

As for how successful I am when digging, I try to hit stores 1-2 times a week. Ebay goes through ups and downs. Sometimes I'm looking all day all the time, other times it might be just once a week. Stores are up and down. Sometimes I'm finding at least one record a week, othertimes I've gone through a whole month without finding anything. I don't go through the whole stores, just the "New" bins. When the stores aren't working I usually turn to eBay even more than usual.

I have a Soundburger which helps immensely. At least that's what I try to tell myself. Actually after I got one a couple years ago, my buying went up exponentially because all of these records that I would just pass on because I wasn't sure what they sounded like I now pull and give a short spin. This means that I sometimes end up pulling a LOT of stuff just because of a cover, producer, one track, etc. It's also getting harder for me to find records because my collection is pretty big now so I've got most of the common stuff that you see in your average store.

Whew. That had to be my longest VV post yet.

[rolex baxter]

hmmm, success rates ... I don't really rate a lot of my local stores. With the one which is decent, there is always something to get .. often 'success' comes after a 'realisation' about an artist or an album, be it Eddie Henderson or Booker T so I need to re-rummage the jazz bins or whatever.. (possibly after a browse through Motowns reviews )

the best diggin for me is typically when I hit up places in other cities, like Real Groovy in Formigo's neck of the woods or some unknown barber/antique shop - for some odd reason people in those places often 'overlook' things that I'd snatch up in an instant, be it a Weldon Irvine piece or a Mike Zoot 12" nahmean?