A friend who is a very serious record collector- far more serious than me- invited me to go along to this show. (I missed the Austin Record Convention for the second year in a row, which is another story). This was hugely entertaining- even if you are not into vinyl. The crowd was an interesting mix of characters- in some ways representing all the stereotypes: from the professorial looking classical collectors, to the hep-cat jazz guys with little berets, to the overweight white dudes with bad hygiene and even older T-shirts eating junk food at the food court. There were some seriously pricey records on display. One guy was basically just capitalizing on the vinyl bubble by selling off part of his collection- he claimed he wasn't a regular dealer- yes, they were nice records, but not worth anything near the asking prices.
I didn't find anything on my short list but did find some other things that I'm looking forward to playing (and, the condition of virtually all of the records I bought appeared to be impeccable- my impression was that the show drew some serious dealers, although i met virtually none that I have dealt with over the intraweb).
It was great fun, but exhausting. My friend is still there, digging through the stacks. I went into overload after several hours and bailed. I would definitely pay a serious premium to get in before the hordes; we arrived for an early admission and it was still crowded. People were very polite though, and the dealers were refreshingly pleasant to talk to for the most part. I think we are riding a bubble, though. So, with rare exceptions, I'm going to avoid buying big ticket used vinyl. Some of the prices were pretty astonishing.
I didn't find anything on my short list but did find some other things that I'm looking forward to playing (and, the condition of virtually all of the records I bought appeared to be impeccable- my impression was that the show drew some serious dealers, although i met virtually none that I have dealt with over the intraweb).
It was great fun, but exhausting. My friend is still there, digging through the stacks. I went into overload after several hours and bailed. I would definitely pay a serious premium to get in before the hordes; we arrived for an early admission and it was still crowded. People were very polite though, and the dealers were refreshingly pleasant to talk to for the most part. I think we are riding a bubble, though. So, with rare exceptions, I'm going to avoid buying big ticket used vinyl. Some of the prices were pretty astonishing.
