As a season veteran of the bargain hunts, I tend to overdo in the search for good music and obscure LPs from long ago not many people care about anymore. But as I get older and the choices to find a good cd are getting less and lesser around here, it's time for me to compile the places that I can find bargains.
In the case of Arizona music stores, there still remains a good plenty of choices although I didn't venture far from the tried and true. While Tempe's Hoodlum's Music got best of 2010 down there, I must have drove past that place a few times and not known about it. Nor Stinkweeds another Phoenix place of vibes and good cheer. There was a great record store on University but it closed up shop and so did Rockaway. But in the end, it came down to Zia's and FYE and both finished in a dead heat. They still got the inventory but FYE wins by a hair due to more cheaper bargains and a less pushy sales associates. I do miss the old days of Wherehouse Music though. For good vinyl albums it came down to Bookmans vs Zia's again with Bookmans winning that. Always amazes me what I find in the dollar bins at Bookmans but I do give Zia's points for their 50 cent albums to which I found a sealed copy of Oh How We Danced by Jim Capaldi and Pattern Disruptive by Dicky Betts Band. If you leave Phoenix and hit the smaller towns along the way, it's Hastings who seemed to be more cheaper on their cds than Zia's although I may have hit them at the right time with Sony Music Cds starting at 3.99 to 4.99. Completed my crappy 80s Bob Dylan period that way. Hastings may be despised from their pull out of Ames last year but the Arizona locations do bring a interesting find from time to time. Which means that if I'm in the neighborhood at Bullhead City or Kingman or Flagstaff I'll send the GF off to shop while I hang there for a couple hours. Due to the big snowfall of last winter Bookmans in Flagstaff was closed for repairs but should be opened soon just in time for another winter and snowfall to collapse that roof. Let's hope not.
Overall Ratings (4 way tie)
1. Zia's Records & CDs
2. FYE
3. Bookmans
4. Hastings Music
Now Madison, the closest place for CD paradise for me. It used to be that Cedar Rapids had no fewer than 10 good music stores for me to hang at but back in the 1990s. Relics is no more, neither is Rock n Bach and for that matter anyplace else. And Best Buy has cut their CD section in half once again. So, every four months I go up to the Mad City and spend a day seeing the bargains up there. Even if nothing else, they have two Half Priced Books stores up there so there's always a guarantee of finding something in the Clarence bins. They also have two Frugal Muse bookstores with a smaller selection of stuff but on a good day I can find one or two cds of note as well. Pre Played used to be the place to go but they also have cut their CD section more than half and what they do have isn't what it used to be. The alt presses continue to give St Vincent De Paul's the best place to find vinyl but I disagree, what I found wasn't much and there's hardly any parking around that place so Goodwill wins on better selection and more surprises. But then again Mad City Music Exchange remains the best in terms of cheap dollar vinyl. The Exclusive Company (say it with me) has actually begun to in corporate more space in their store for vinyl and the CD space is shrinking as well. As I get older I tend to pretty much park my car around Lake Monona and walk to State Street to go to the Exclusive Company if I spend a couple days up in Mad City. Some days it's worth the effort, most times it isn't. B Sides Records is also on State Street and they more specialty than used.
While I do remain loyal to Mad City Music Exchange and go there when I'm there, I think the best place to find the most recent music is Strictly Discs close by campus. On a given day you can find the new releases in the used bins since the guy does have promo copies out for people to listen to. There's also Sugar Shack on Atwood but must admit I have never been there, their hours closely resemble Mad City Music Exchange and there's not much parking over there. Used to be that the pawnshops up there had some surprises, the old Mister Money store would have used cds stockpiled up to the skies, which did warrant a bit of sorting through crappy old rap cds and old Marah Carey cds to find the hard to find. They closed up and moved across the beltline, and been pretty much a waste of time. However, in the old Circuit City building is a Pawnshop Superstore Pawn America, and they had the biggest collection of used cds, about four rows full and three times more than Best Buy ever did. Again you have to sort through a lotta crappy old rap and Garth Brooks limited edition stuff to find some decent stuff for three bucks and it can be worth it and worth the trip. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Madison and if I was about 30 years younger, would have moved up there to the UW and partied there and would have a collection of 20,000 cds!
Ratings
1. Half Priced Books (2 locations)
2. Strictly Discs
3. Mad City Music Exchange
4. Frugal Muse (2 locations)
5. The Exclusive Company
6. Pre Played (3 locations)
7. Pawn America
8. Sugar Shack
9. B Sides Music
CR/Dubuque/Quad Cities/Iowa City
On the home front, the only thing we have for new music stores are the big box locations and all of the big box locations have cut their cd section in half the past year. Thank God for Half Priced Books who are celebrating their fifth anniversary at the old Pharmor location where the old Twixt Town Drive In used to be. With Cd Warehouse and CD's Plus closed for over a year, (the latter now where we get our 5 dollar pizza pizza from) HP Books remains hopping and every week seems to have a lot in the dollar bins. Yes I'm biased, it's my second home and I seem to find more oddities at that store then even at the Madison location. HP Books knew where their target audience lived and took advantage of it. The other decent place for cds is Siegal's Jewelry and Pawn to which former Relics head and good friend Bruce Stanley works. And the only person that can tolerate me for more than three minutes. Mister Money Pawn had pretty good selection about 10 years ago but nowadays they have a skeleton section and they're crap anyway. If you want the latest, best place to go is either Moondog Records in Dubuque, Record Collector or Real! Records in Iowa City. Best place for vinyl records is the misleading cds4Change store on Asbury in Dubuque, famous for their dollar albums. Waterloo is SOL for tunes. CDs Plus and maybe the Record Station in Cedar Falls/Independence but never had much luck going there and they're pricey. Quad Cities, has Co Op, the better one is across the river in Moline, likewise the FYE in the mall at Moline. For thrift stores the Goodwills in CR remains the best although the Davenport Salvation Army does take me back in time when I search their vinyl. The St Vincent De Paul in Waterloo is better than the one in Madison but again, the record store scene in Waterloo is nonexistent. As for Des Moines, the less said the better, ZZZZZ Music and FYE in the Mall. Ames lost their Hastings store so going there is only a road trip wasting gas.
CR/IC/QC/DQ Stores
1. Half Priced Books (Marion)
2. Segal's Pawnshop (CR)
3. Moondog Music (DBQ)
4. CDs4Change (DBQ)
5. Record Collector (IC)
6. Real! Records (IC)
7. Co-Op Records (Moline/Davenport)
8. St. Vincent De Paul (Waterloo)
9. Salvation Army (Brady Street-Davenport)
10. Borders (DBQ)
Thrift Stores-Always a hit and miss, you never know what your going to find but Goodwill is that way. I've been known to find a few interesting things at the Independence location but most of the cool stuff is found in our backyard at the Marion and NE Cedar Rapids area. The SW CR store always seems to get picked clean. It's lesser in the other areas. Which means there are lots of bargain hunters in that neck of the woods. Stuff Etc. is another good place to find things although I don't go there as much as I used to. I do have better luck going to the college towns of Madison and Iowa City/Coralville. Which means if i don't listen to certain cds anymore I usually will donate them to a college town. Better way of getting rid of it and not coming across it up here.
For the big box stores. The bare essentials. Everybody hates Wal Mart but they do have 5 dollar cds and they do sell some a dollar less than Best Buy. Borders, Barnes & Noble are overpriced but have been known to carry essentials in the 7.99 bins. For me, Wally World is on the way home and I do scour that every chance I get but I think in the future as they keep shrinking the cd section that online ordering is the wave of my future. Saves wear and tear on the car.
Big Box Stores (who cares?)
1. Wally World
2. Target
3. Borders
4. Barnes & Noble
5. Best Buy
6. K Mart (do they even sell them anymore?-judging by their selection not really)
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