Recommendations for Record Stores in...

[Pim]

On 5/30/2025 at 4:32 PM, Rabshakeh said:

Thanks 

My worst is first hand record shops that sell records, pot plants and coffee table books. They always have an espresso machine. Online vinyl culture loves them. 

There's only one kind of record shop I want to visit and that is the one that stocks stuff that I cannot otherwise purchase. That means second hand shops only. 

Agreed and very recognizable. When I was in Gent last weekend I visited 5 record stores and didn't buy anything, nor had I seen anything interesting. They all had a coffee bar filled with people who probably call themselves 'hip'. Some of them had enourmous ammounts of second hand bins with the same 1 dollar crap. All unsorted which really doesn't make me want to explore anymore. Small jazz sections with the same Duke Ellington and Coleman Hawkins compilation LP's no one is interested in. Yikes...

[Niko]

Had the same the last time I was in Gent... Antwerp used to be much better but they lost quite a few good stores in recent years... That said: I love used record stores, pretty much all of them, still agree that this is the best way of discovering a city - they are often in nice neighborhoods, too... But if things are at least sorted by genre, that's a big plus... I also still like the small differences between places/countries...

[Big Beat Steve]

13 hours ago, rostasi said:

Tho they didn't specialize in LPs, Zweitausendeins, for instance, was a favorite of mine for the reason that they usually didn't carry stuff like that.

But Zweitausendeins was a different "kettle of fish" in the record store pond altogether. Their primary objects were (I say "were" because in my hometown, for example, the shop is long gone) books that no longer were subject to price maintenance as well as selected foreign books at cut prices (sale iat the time of going OOP?). And boy, did I find and buy music, art photo and mid-century modern books there over time - and saw a handful more music books there that I wished I had not bought full price elsewhere not all that long before ). And the same applied to records (in the pre-CD or very early CD days) and then CDs. All of them new, not secondhand. E.g. over here they were very heavy on OJC items (vinyl first, CDs later) when these were all over the place on the market, except that Zweitausendeins seemed to be able to negoticate better price deals and sometimes carried some more obscure items from that series. And they also carried plenty of those public domain CD reissue labels. Niche music and artists, yes - but niche LABELS? Some, from time to time - but not very many overall. 

[JSngry]

Once upon a time, cities that had U S. military bases could be fruitful.

[rostasi]

24 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

But Zweitausendeins was a different "kettle of fish" in the record store pond altogether...

Exactly! Not dull.

[Big Beat Steve]

25 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Once upon a time, cities that had U S. military bases could be fruitful.

And sometimes still are - one owner's generation later. That Buck Owens Taiwanese pressing Capitol bootleg LP that I scored at a clearout sale at "our" local record shop 1 or 2 years ago certainly did not have a German original owner. 

[JSngry]

I found a Taiwanese Willie Mitchell record in Albuquerque, home of McGill AFB.

[sidewinder]

1 hour ago, Big Beat Steve said:

But Zweitausendeins was a different "kettle of fish" in the record store pond altogether. 

In the vinyl days I got a bundle of Jasmine Impulses from them plus a 'Sun Ship' original in their stores (Munich and Koln I think). They also did those bargain 'Euro-Mosaics' in the 2000s (with Tal Farlow's Concert Band). They also seemed to specialise in Wolfgang Dauner's 'Mood' label. Indeed, their tome-like recycled paper catalogue used to have a whole category called 'Mood' - which really confused me at the time as I thought it was something to do with mood music/MOR and why were Wolfgang and co. recording in this genre?

Edited June 2 by sidewinder

[paulfromcamden]

9 hours ago, danasgoodstuff said:

I suspect that Mr. Moore may have preferred the nearby NOISEAGONYMAYHEM, but perhaps not.

Thurston is a regular at London record fairs and no stranger to the jazz dealers. He's generally pretty friendly and really is the total record nerd his reputation suggests 😀

Living in the UK it's always a treat to visit used record shops in Europe. It sometimes feels like our European neighbours were all digging Mingus and Monk while we Brits were stocking up on Chris Barber LPs...

35 minutes ago, JSngry said:

I found a Taiwanese Willie Mitchell record in Albuquerque, home of McGill AFB.

One of those pirates with the weird paper sleeves? I have a Taiwanese Jimmy Smith LP with both a Van Gelder stamp and a bunch of Chinese characters in the run-out groove. I couldn't figure out what that was about until I read how they created the stampers from regular imported US copies 😂🙃

[mjazzg]

I can think of two London shops that have claimed to have had chunks of Moore's collection for sale at different times, no reason to doubt them

[JSngry]

2 hours ago, paulfromcamden said:

One of those pirates with the weird paper sleeves?

Yep!

I have created numerous backstories about the life that record had lived before settling down with me.