Why do thrift stores even bother with "junk" vinyl?

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MetalFisher

Semi-Vintage fan
Here is a comprehensive list of the vinyl selection you will find at thrift, every time -
Ray Coniff, Percy Faith, Streisand, Neil Diamond, Firestone Christmas albums, Shaun Cassidy, other Christmas albums, Orchestra music, random Brady Bunch looking families singing church songs, Herb Albert, and of course those Time Life collections...

And as a teaser, there will be a 1/2 decent album like say Bob Seger. Problem is, the LP itself will be missing. Hella good THAT does.

So these albums sit there, on the racks, never moving, smelling like an old attic. Why don't thrift stores just recycle that crap? NO ONE wants it.

I know it is mostly a pipe dream to think one could walk into a thrift store and find something that doesn't completely suck. Rummaging about 2,000 albums (no exaggeration) thru various thrift stores MIGHT render one or two that are even good enough for, "Oh what the heck, it is only a dollar". (cough) Laura Branigan (cough).

Supposedly Goodwill puts the "Good" stuff on their auction site and then the Ray Coniff type junk goes to the sales floor. They already know it isn't going to move which is WHY it ends up on the shelf. And, it never seems to get pulled. No colored price tags to indicate it has sat there for weeks, unlike the rest of the crap in the store.

DO the crappy albums ever get pulled?
 
I know what you mean. A few places I visit have had the same albums in the same bins in the same order for years. Dirty jacketless records, record covers with no seams intact - trash.

But there is good stuff to be found. I buy the box sets of classical stuff and almost any classical music on the Deutsche Grammophon label. Every one I've got looks like the records never left their sleeves. It was "old people" music when it came out, and old people tend to take care of their stuff.

I'd probably buy more Firestone Christmas albums if they aren't trashed. It's what my parents enjoyed a few years before they had me.
 
Every time I see a new batch of records, most times just added to the stacks in the buy the pound outlet, I know someone just died, and they simply give the stuff to GW.

That said, I never knew that John Denver, Englebert Humperdink, and a few others had so many albums out that I didn't buy back then, and still won't even for a dollar or less!!
 
They sell the good stuff out the back door to dealers and "special" customers. I've seen big classical collections come in — once saw 6 boxes of original Blue Note, Riverside and Verve jazz pressings come in — and us "regulars" never even get to see them. It's their policy. I've had big arguments with the managers about it. The only time we get a shot at something good, they screwed up.
 
If they took the time to cull & grade records that come in they'd become a used record store...and charge appropriate prices.
 
Could be that some people think that any Vinyl record has value ... just because it is a record.
Most records (thrift store cannon fodder) just belong in a dumpster.

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You missed out Lawrence Welk.

But yeah, it's pretty much the same here in South Jersey.
 
My local GW has a ton of absolutely horrible, moldy records that have been sitting there for months. They won't order more records to be delivered because they think there is no reason, they already have records, right? I joked with one of the employees that I would help her throw them in the dumpster to open some room for new ones. She said "Oh sure, you just want them for yourself". She didn't get that I was seriously offering to help throw that crap away. :no: For the most part they are clueless except for the employees who work there to score for themselves.
 
You guys are heading for the last roundup.

Topics that have been beaten to death, and we’re done with them:

Complaining that your local thrift store or charitable organization store is too expensive and/or never has anything interesting. :no:
 
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