Best Place for 45's?

[kmerenda]

I just got my hands on a Seeburg SS160, and I'm looking to fill it up.  The titles strips that came with it are all classic R&B, Funk and Soul, and I love that - I'd like to fill it back up with the same style music.  

I went to my local Half Price Books and went through every 45 they had, and found about forty that were the right genre and in decent condition.  $0.75 each.  Next I went to the internet, but found eBay and other sources to be considerably more expensive with no guarantee that the record is in good condition.

Where do you all find your albums?  Any place that is particularly good for R&B?

[Ron Rich]

Do you want to buy "Albums", or 45's (singles)? There are a couple of record sellers listed in our 4 sale section-- and there are many dealers in records listed in the advertising at Always Jukin. Ron Rich

[kmerenda]

I was looking for Singles. I'll check out the the 4 sale section and always jukin. Thanks!

[jakedaniel]

Go to the nearest major urban area near you. There will be record shops in that town. Call ahead and ask if they have any boxes of unsorted 45s you can flip through. At least one of them will. Go there, flip through the boxes, find records you want, make a deal.

Call all the junk/antique stores near you and ask if they have any boxes of 45s. Same deal. Go there, flip through, find what you want, make a deal. One of the best honey holes I ever found was a junk store in Pasadena TX where one of the owners had bought out a jukebox operators estate. They picked out the obvious gold but there were so many records they missed a lot of obvious stuff and of course they had no idea what they had in there. I got a LOT out of there until I’d finally been through EVERY box and picked the place clean. I don’t think anyone else knew about it either, it was sweet.

Keep an eye out for estate sales and online ads selling bulk 45s. I bought 2 lots that way, one was for 1k records at an agreed upon $0.05 a record and the other was for around 400 for the same deal. I probably didn’t keep but maybe 1/4 of each of those lots but do the math, that’s still a pretty good price per record and I struck gold on a few records in each lot, the rest were just gravy.

Index your collection at 45cat.com. Keep an eye out on Discogs marketplace. Learn how to clean 45s, how to eyeball them and spot what you can. Don’t be afraid to pay a little more if it’s something you really want and be prepared to jump on a good deal before someone else does.

[doghouseriley]

I've used eBay and Discogs for my two jukeboxes for over a decade.

There was one eBay seller that had a stock of mint classic 45s from the "Collectables" label. I bought quite a few of those until the cost of postage from the USA to the UK got too expensive. So I only occasionally buy records from the USA. No more than a couple a year. But the USA is the best source.

As a current example, last year I made an exception I paid $7.99 for a new Durand Jones and the Inspirations, "Cruisin to the Park" from Colemine Records as I liked it, but the postage was twice that.

The thing to do is not to be in a hurry.

The same records come up every now and again on eBay. Sometimes a couple of bidders get into a war over a particular record ramping up the price. Click on the next page and you might find another example at a "buy it now" reasonably priced.

You can strike lucky. It just depends on your personal choice. I like some lesser known artists.
I've some more popular 45s that sit in a record rack as they've had to make room for others.

I bought this mint copy for $6 last year.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_Zncqf6taw

Records in charity shops here in the UK, I've found are usually of poor quality and often of inferior artists. Few Motown classics turn up.

When it comes to eBay and Discogs record quality descriptions, "The guide rating " is  a nonsense.

Mint or "Near mint" are usually OK, but the rest of the gradings in my opinion are well overstated and some records may be unplayable.

However if they are really bad, complain and you usually get your money back as sellers don't like bad feedback.

[TCW]

Half Price Books Store and also Goodwill Store $.65c ea.

Tom