Category Archives: Hauls

The weekend after I got my record player (An audiotechnica AT-LP-60) I visited two record stores, Rasputin and Amoeba Music in the Haight. I couldn’t find anything at Amoeba, but I brought home nine records from Rasputin for $30, but had to return one.

I made some mistakes on some of these records, but I learned some lessons and can hopefully sell this album of Inner City remixes from Japan someday for what I paid for it. Overall it was a good haul for the money, and built out my collection with some great albums. Additionally, I bought a copy of Steely Dan’s Pretzel Logic, but found later that the LP inside was Katy Lied, so I had to return it.

I started collecting vinyl after recently staying at a friend’s place and experiencing the pleasure of playing records as the evening went on. I have been streaming music for years, mostly at work, or while making and eating dinner, and sometimes I choose it based on how little of a distraction it will be. It’s terrible. I knew that I would enjoy visiting record stores, thumbing through rows of overpriced records that inveterate diggers passed over, but I was reluctant to take up a needlessly expensive hobby. But the searching, the buying, and the playing on my home stereo has been so fun for me that I can’t resist. And I’d like to share what I’ve learned and the albums I’ve been able to find in the Bay Area.

My first purchases were made at the Bookmark Bookstore in Oakland, a non-profit bookstore that sends proceeds to the public library system. This was my first experience buying records, and while the selection wasn’t great, I thought that I found some great records. However, I now see the Pointer Sisters Break Out and 5th Dimension records at nearly every store I visit, so in retrospect it was an average haul. I think that it was a good start, and at the time I was excited by what I found.