Bargain Hunting Ethics

Bargain hunting for the music collector is getting a bit more trying in this age of digital downloads and the continuation of record stores closing up due to no business or hardly any although the folks at Ragged Records had a decent turnout when I was there on Monday.  The specialty junkshops and thrift stores are basically hit and miss.

Goodwill used to be the place to really seek out the stuff.  But I noticed that they have redone their stores to resemble a Bed, Bath And Beyond.  The creates and record holders have been replaced by some cheapassed wire shelves and the Salvation Army, the stacks of records were thoughtlessly thrown in and scattered all about.  I guess there's no love for the Frank Fontaine or the forgotten Gospel artist of the 60s or 70s anymore and the gospel chick Honeytree looks creepy 30 years beyond her glory years.

I don't see the music collector at these stores too often, but I know they come around and pretty much pick apart anything in the rock and roll section and bypass the scratched up Ktel comps of years ago.  Funny how things we used to grow up and got us through the times are now forgotten, ridiculed and  used for frisbees.  Grandma and Grandpa are no longer around so their family has no use for Mitch Miller anymore.  Or that 50 Timeless Classics that used to be shown in the afternoon before Time Life and their half hour infocommercials took over.  But nobody hardly bothers with the Reader's Digest box set of 5 long playing albums of complete works or Mozart or Slim Whitman.

We live in a world that the next new thing is replaced the next week and old fart bloggers tout about.  Myself I think I stopped caring after the CD came into play and have yet to invest in a IPOD or Smartphone.  Don't even have a cellphone although I should if the purple piece of shit stalls on the highway or hits shrapnel and blows a tire or two.  But having a car that gets me to the thrift store or HP Books to find more bargains still is vital.  But this summer, even our HP Books store hasn't had much in terms of music to listen to.  I managed to snag a couple of the Teenage Shutdown CDs before the collectors elsewhere bought them up.  With no real no CDs out there to get, we turn our attention to vinyl or to records to see what got donated or no longer needed.

45s are a bit harder to acquire than albums since most of the 45s I come across have been played or overplayed or left out in the elements too long.  Or if you return to the Salvation Army two months later and still see some of them still around but more wore down due to kids, or uncaring collectors,  which explains the Randy Meisner Never Been In Love 45 of years ago, still in good shape but would have better had I picked it up two months earlier.  Or Jack The Ripper by Link Wray, probably in a condition that would rival my dad's copy of One Beer.  But still cool to find.  On the long players, mostly country artists, TG Shepard's Motels And Memories and a couple of Dave Dudley albums that today's kids and parents know nothing about.  The only album not country was Eric Andersen's Best Song (Arista 1977) which included two songs off his Columbia 1972 release of Blue River.

Since I like the old country and western of the honky tonk era I still keep an eye out for vinyl that is in great shape although I noticed the majority of those album were mono copies and not stereo.  Mono being a dollar cheaper back in the 60s I'm guessing.  Wynn Stewart's classic Bakersfield country songs were on Gene Autry's Challenge label, his Capitol stuff shows him growing more slower tempo as heard on Love's Gonna Happen To Me (Capitol 1965) but perhaps the find of the day was a Mercury/Wing cheapo comp of Country Boys and Country Girls (Wing 1964) which has George Jones dueting with a couple unknown women (Jeanette Hicks and Virginia Spurlock).  The rest of the album have even more unknown women (Connie Hall, Betty Amos, Margie Bowes) and for the guys Jimmie Skinner and the unheard James O'Gwynn doing Mule Skinner Blues fine.  I'm also guessing that some of these artists actually recorded for Starday to which Mercury had access too.  For a cheapo cheapo comp, the record looks actually brand new despite it's almost 50 years of existence. But surprise it was the only country album that had that processed fake stereo, making the mono recordings sound like they were recorded from Mars.

Also from the Davenport Salvation Army came Harry Belenfonte's Midnight Special which skipped all over the place as well as Hanson Cargill's Skip A Rope album. Guess I didn't inspect it well enough.  But a mercy buy had to be Henry Lee Summer 1988 S/T album for CBS which was a promo copy but even had a picture of Summer's mullet back when mullets were cool.  I guess there's no love for Mr Summer, but for Bon Jovi Lite, you could do worse with I Wish I Had A Girl.

Davenport really didn't have much in terms of CDs either although I did get Vandenberg's 1983 Atco album via Wounded Bird (now out of print) as well as the out of print Axe Nemesis at Co Op Moline.  I did leave a couple potential buys back with the intent of picking them up next time I get back to town.  Wounded Bird Records have done a excellent job of putting things back in print but at times due to copyright limitations some of their stuff go right out of print.  Gary Myrick comes to mind, his 1980 S/T album came out on CD which surprised me not only because it included the album but a live album of the songs as well making it one of the must buys of last year's Arizona bargain hunts.  But now that CD has gone out of print, having some Yayhoo outfit in Georgia selling it for a Thousand Dollars!  I don't understand the logic behind that, no CD is worth a thousand dollars.  Wounded Bird also reissued The Blasters album but now have put their 1985 classic album Hard Line out of print as well.  Which goes to show, if something comes out as reissue, you better pick it up.  You might say it's for a limited time only deal.  But then again I don't think I picked that Gary Myrick CD up in Arizona, I think I got it from Import CDs last year after coming home from AZ.  Most of the stuff I found down there was used and not new.

For this month, the bargain hunter takes a break from the constant running around the tri state area.  Maybe next week, I might go to Iowa City to look on the day that Steve Earle comes to town to promote his new book and play live later on.  Problem is The Bargain Hunter would like to take a break, but then the old traveling bone starts going and we're off and running again.  Cause you never know what might be discovered in that stack of scratchy 45s and tossed off albums.