New to the world of Online Vinyl Shopping

[sidewinder]

29 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

I have made purchases from several Japanese dealers on eBay and discogs, and almost all EX rated items have been close to mint. However, Japanese covers are very often stained for some reason. 

Hiroshi was the gold standard.

You are right - back cover slight brown staining quite often seen, rarely severe. The humidity and temperature of Japanese houses perhaps?

[JSngry]

Spilt tea?

Don't laugh. I have coffee stains on some of mine.

Remember, LPs used to be like baseball cards for most people - cheap, disposable recreation, not rarified collectables.

[Daniel A]

In the case of the Japanese sleeves, they generally seem to be very well cared for and this issue is present on so many albums that I suspect non owner-related environmental factors, maybe even in combination with some paper quality aspect. Have any of you seen this on non-Japanese sleeves from Japan? 

[mjazzg]

I've read listings from Japanese sellers that describe the stains as damp or humidity stains.

I don't think I have ever bought a non-Japanese release from Japan.

Certainly never seen similar stains on European or UK purchases and we drink a lot of tea 

[Brad]

2 hours ago, sidewinder said:

Hiroshi was the gold standard.

We need to bring him out of retirement! Let’s start an online petition!

[sidewinder]

2 minutes ago, Brad said:

We need to bring him out of retirement! Let’s start an online petition!

Absolutely. Mr Tanno was a super guy to deal with and his LPs always arrived in superlative condition and pretty quick. If he said it was ‘M-‘ you would be hard pressed to find fault with it.

The new crew of Millennial vinyl fetishists need to discover Hiroshi-san !  

Edited 10 Feb 2021 by sidewinder

[Daniel A]

Do you remember the old stock plastic bags he often used as extra protection for CDs, meant for reel-to-reel tapes (I think they said "Music Tape" or something similar)? 

[sidewinder]

I only ever bought LPs from him - either King or Toshiba. They were always immaculately packed though, with the sleeves and LPs separated.

[BlueSpirits]

2 hours ago, sidewinder said:

Absolutely. Mr Tanno was a super guy to deal with and his LPs always arrived in superlative condition and pretty quick. If he said it was ‘M-‘ you would be hard pressed to find fault with it.

The new crew of Millennial vinyl fetishists need to discover Hiroshi-san !  

Haha, I'm not quite a millennial, but perhaps a bit younger than a lot of the board here. Please do tell- who is this mysterious Hiroshi?

Thanks for all the tips so far, I'm certainly reaping the benefits of all your expertise- which was why I joined this forum in the first place. Certainly going to go broke

 

[sidewinder]

Mr Hiroshi Tanno - very fine purveyor of jazz vinyl and CDs. He used to run an Internet site up until the late 2000s I think. He posted listings of what was in stock (much of it very difficult to get outside Japan and all of it in very fine condition) and the price and condition. You then emailed him to get confirmation that it was available and he tallied up your total so that you could then put in your order. I think he even did a $ or £ conversion so no faffing about with Yen.

All highly civilised !  And at a time that shipping costs were reasonable and import taxes a bit lower. And the Yen more affordable !

Much of the stock Hiroshi offered was King or Toshiba reissues but he did also trade originals such as Blue Notes. Beyond my pay grade ! 

Hiroshi took retirement I believe sometime before 2010. I remember hearing though that his shop remained open for some time for in-person custom. 

Edited 10 Feb 2021 by sidewinder

[sidewinder]

Thread here - http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?/topic/67350-hiroshi-tanno-to-close-down-his-store/

[BlueSpirits]

23 hours ago, HutchFan said:

Euclid Records in St. Louis is an excellent store.  They don't have the write-ups like Dusty Groove.  But their selection is very good -- maybe even better than DG's -- and their prices are reasonable.

But, like Niko says, I probably buy more records -- both CDs and vinyl -- off Discogs than any other single online store.  If you're like me, you'll likely end up finding Discogs sellers that you like and checking in with them often.

Thanks for the tip about this place. They have a bunch of records I am looking for, both new and used, that I didn't see at DG.  The prices are reasonable as well. Now to see whether their international (always trips me out to think U.S to Canada is international) shipping protocol is sane.

 

 

1 hour ago, sidewinder said:

Thread here - http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?/topic/67350-hiroshi-tanno-to-close-down-his-store/

Interesting!  Sounds like a great guy, and nice to see that level of co-operation between buyers and sellers.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 10 Feb 2021 by BlueSpirits

[HutchFan]

1 hour ago, BlueSpirits said:

Thanks for the tip about this place. They have a bunch of records I am looking for, both new and used, that I didn't see at DG.  The prices are reasonable as well. Now to see whether their international (always trips me out to think U.S to Canada is international) shipping protocol is sane.

Good deal.  I'm glad.   

Euclid actually has a store in New Orleans too.  The URL for their Discogs storefront is https://www.discogs.com/seller/EuclidRecordsNOLA/profile  It's a MUCH smaller online shop, compared to St. Louis, with less than 100 jazz records listed.

I don't think I've ever ordered online from the N.O. location -- but I have gone to the store when vacationing down there.  It's well worth a visit.  They've got TONS more inventory in the shop than they have listed on Discogs.  No idea why that is.

 

Edited 10 Feb 2021 by HutchFan

[BlueSpirits]

1 hour ago, HutchFan said:

Good deal.  I'm glad.   

Euclid actually has a store in New Orleans too.  The URL for their Discogs storefront is https://www.discogs.com/seller/EuclidRecordsNOLA/profile  It's a MUCH smaller online shop, compared to St. Louis, with less than 100 jazz records listed.

I don't think I've ever ordered online from the N.O. location -- but I have gone to the store when vacationing down there.  It's well worth a visit.  They've got TONS more inventory in the shop than they have listed on Discogs.  No idea why that is.

 

One day I would like to visit New Orleans...And much of the Southern U.S. I bet there are some great records to be found!

Also, I see you're name and picture are of Bobby Hutcherson- one of the records I've been looking for ages is Knucklebean, and they have a few copies there at Euclid, so I'm probably going to order one once I find out about shipping costs.

[kh1958]

Louisiana Music Factory is a fine store worthy of a visit in New Orleans (also online), just a stone's throw from Snug Harbor.

Edited 11 Feb 2021 by kh1958

[HutchFan]

1 hour ago, BlueSpirits said:

One day I would like to visit New Orleans...And much of the Southern U.S. I bet there are some great records to be found!

Also, I see you're name and picture are of Bobby Hutcherson- one of the records I've been looking for ages is Knucklebean, and they have a few copies there at Euclid, so I'm probably going to order one once I find out about shipping costs.

 

 

[BlueSpirits]

My vinyl arrived today from Dusty Groove!

Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus

Bill Evans- Interplay

Grachan Moncur III- Evolution

Joe Henderson- In n Out

Blue Mitchell- The Thing To Do (Cool that this is one of Chick Corea's earliest sessions, and has a tune called Chick's Tune)

 

It took approximately 5 weeks for the records to go from Chicago to Sweden and back to Toronto. That's not bad, to be honest, as nonsensical as it is.

Now awaiting my order from Euclid and Discogs...

Edited 16 Feb 2021 by BlueSpirits

[sidewinder]

6 minutes ago, BlueSpirits said:

My vinyl arrived today from Dusty Groove!

Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus

Bill Evans- Interplay

Grachan Moncur III- Evolution

Joe Henderson- In n Out

Blue Mitchell- The Thing To Do (Cool that this is one of Chick Corea's earliest sessions, and has a tune called Chick's Tune)

 

It took approximately 5 weeks for the records to go from Chicago to Sweden and back to Toronto. That's not bad, to be honest, as nonsensical as it is.

Now awaiting my order from Euclid and Discogs...

Too bad that Sam’s and A&B Sound are no longer there on Yonge St !

I spent some enjoyable hours in both of those stores in the period when vinyl was on the way out and CDs on the way in.

Edited 16 Feb 2021 by sidewinder

[BlueSpirits]

1 minute ago, sidewinder said:

Too bad that Sam’s and A&B Sound are no longer there on Yonge St !

Wow! Yeah, Sam's was a great place. A place of historic and legendary status.

We still have a bunch of excellent small brick and mortar shops, but they don't have their inventory online, and everything is shut down here...

[Daniel A]

8 minutes ago, BlueSpirits said:

My vinyl arrived today from Dusty Groove!

Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus

Bill Evans- Interplay

Grachan Moncur III- Evolution

Joe Henderson- In n Out

Blue Mitchell- The Thing To Do (Cool that this is one of Chick Corea's earliest sessions, and has a tune called Chick's Tune)

 

It took approximately 5 weeks for the records to go from Chicago to Sweden and back to Toronto. That's not bad, to be honest, as nonsensical as it is.

Now awaiting my order from Euclid and Discogs...

100 percent quality sessions! Is shipping to Sweden only half the price, BTW? 😄

[ejp626]

23 minutes ago, BlueSpirits said:

Wow! Yeah, Sam's was a great place. A place of historic and legendary status.

We still have a bunch of excellent small brick and mortar shops, but they don't have their inventory online, and everything is shut down here...

I did a reasonable amount of shopping at Sam's in 93-94 on my first stint in Toronto, though on a student budget!  Then hit it for the last time in '97 or '98 on a visit. 

If my memory hasn't completely failed me, Sam's was one of the merchants that pushed for liberalized Sunday shopping rules.

[sidewinder]

Sam’s was always good for entertainment. Remember calling in at one of the branches out in Alberta (West Ed Mall I think) and the clowns serving on there had put Coltrane’s ‘Live in Seattle’ on the house system, which quickly cleared the aisles !

I always thought their Toronto Yonge St. store was the second most garish, OTT store in that city, after ‘Honest Ed’s’ of course.

Yonge St. used to also get free live performances on a Saturday - I can remember Tuck and Patti appearing.

Edited 16 Feb 2021 by sidewinder

[Gdgray]

I buy regularly from  Dusty Groove and choose Priority Mail and generally receive shipments within a week in Tampa. I had to learn about grading, I feel they are very accurate......if it is VG don’t expect VG+ or M-. Only negative is it hard to discern accurate version or label from description. Best example is 70’s Atlantic .....could be Broadway or Rockefeller address. IMHO the Rockefeller are less desirable sound wise. Also discovered Vinyl Vault at Acoustic Sounds , pricey but most inventory is minimum M-. Regarding Discogs I found Park Ave CDs to have good pricing and occasionally heavily discounted premium box sets. 

Edited 8 Mar 2021 by Gdgray
Grammar

[JSngry]

2 minutes ago, Gdgray said:

I buy regularly from  Dusty Groove and choose Priority Mail and generally receive shipments within a week in Tampa. I had to learn about grading, I feel they are very accurate......if it is VG don’t expect VG+ or M-.

Definitely. And also, the older the record is, the more generous they can be with the VG+. I've never gotten outright burned by this unspoken sliding scale, but I have definitely noticed it, learned from it, and now transact with eyes wide open about it.

By the same token - if you see any record there rated VG-, you know it's going to be noisy to the point where you need to decide exactly what you're looking for, an object, a nasic play copy, or a serious listening copy. If it's the latter, stay away form a DG VG-. (And for damn sure do this a DG Good).

Otherwise, hey, proceed accordingly.