National Record Store Day 2012

Hate to disappoint y'all but I didn't make it to the Iowa City Record Collector or the Dubuque stores for National Record Store Day on Saturday.  It comes down to this, anytime I go to the record store it's Record Store Day for me and basically I wasn't that too impressed with the overpriced vinyl pieces that came out.    Cedar Rapids hasn't had a record store in here for the past 5 years.  Perhaps I'll pay Kurt a visit sometime soon when I hit Record Collector.

The original intent was to go to Madison for NRSD, but finding out it came on a weekend rather than a Tuesday, fighting the crowds for something overpriced wouldn't be much fun.   After all, I almost got ran over by a overzealous bike rider on State Street last Thursday.   Finding a bunch of dollar stuff at PawnAmerica was better than a 20 dollar album or 8 dollar single that I would probably play once and then file away.  But still, having vinyl or a cd is much better than a digital download anytime of day for me.

Instead of buying, I sold off a few of my vinyl and cds to Half Priced Books and got 35 bucks for my trouble.   I'm sure I paid more than 100 dollars for what I sold off but it was either that or donate than and get nothing in return.  Sunday I took a visit to see what inventory I had left up and came to find out that the KISS albums, The Velvet Revolver and Greg Brown vinyl pieces were not there anymore.  Somebody picked up The Stooges CD in the 2 dollar bins and for some reason the Pink Floyd Wall Outtakes is still up there for 5.99.  I'm very surprised that that's still up there.  In the coming weeks, I will be thinning a bit more of my collection in the dew room as well as CDs that I have no interest in anymore and a few other things and probably get less back than what I paid for.    I had aspirations of opening up my own store but since I won't be getting to that anytime soon, just as well get rid of things.  I figured I made a good buck or two from the finds at HP Books anyway.

It was my intention to start donating and selling off things before the Mad City Bargain Hunt happen but like a typical hoarder when I start sorting through, there are stuff that I hold on to in thinking I'm going to be playing them but over 10,000 cds it's impossible and so we go through the process of elimination.  The more I buy, the less time I have to listen to them all but the chase is better than the catch.  It's been that way since 1992 when the endless playlist began for me and then the pawnshop years a few years later made them much cheaper and easier to get to check out.  I wouldn't pay 16 bucks or more for half the stuff I found for 5 bucks or less.    It's also tougher for me to plan things and actually go through them, if that was the case, Madison would have taken place a month ago.  I donno, I think I do very well with what I find up in the pawnshops and HP Books here.

In short, National Record Store Day came and went and although I'm sure it was a success, I had mine last Thursday.  Maybe next year we can see about NRSD 2013 if we get that far down the line.  It's only National Record Store Day when I pay my record store buddies a visit......
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2012/04/record_store_day_against.php