Anyone who digs through record bins knows the feeling of not knowing what the next crate will hold. The collector behind @ForeverAnalog spent a month digging at two different flea markets, one in Franklin, Tennessee and one at the National Flea Market in Nashville, and says the trips taught him something important he had not thought about before. He sells at a vintage booth in an antique mall in Murfreesboro, but these were trips for finds, and he shared the whole run, purchase by purchase.
Franklin first
He says the Franklin market is held at the agricultural center, both indoors and outdoors, and that he and his wife went when the doors opened at 9:00 a.m. because he knew a friend would be selling records. A CD vendor there was the same one he had bought Mastodon CDs from a couple of months earlier at the Nashville market. Prices were near retail, including a $25 King Diamond CD that he says is about what it would cost online, so he bought nothing.
At another vendor he put together three cassettes, Dire Straits, Madonna and Rush, along with two band shirts, for $45. His friend’s records came to $68, including titles for his booth stock and for himself. The one he was most excited about was Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s Architecture and Morality. There was also an Alice Cooper album, a UK pressing of a Carter Family album for his bluegrass collection, and a French progressive rock record. Another friend sold him three CDs for $10, including a Church dual disc and a Pavement EP.
The junk pile
Next came an unpriced pile where you make a stack and haggle. He pulled laser discs of Batman, Apocalypse Now, Aladdin, The Jungle Book, Enemy Mine and Battlestar Galactica, plus Jimmy Buffett and the Xanadu soundtrack for the booth, and a 1960 deep groove mono copy of Bo Diddley’s In the Spotlight that he kept. The vendor told him, “You’re getting all the best stuff. How about 50 bucks?” He agreed.
At another table he picked up Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush on CD, Neko Case, the Kinks, a John Coltrane quartet album and a three CD Pearl Jam official bootleg, all for $21. Outside, he bought two prerecorded reel to reel tapes, Johnny Cash and a classical release, for $5 total. He notes that he owns an unused Pioneer RT-99 reel deck.
Then Nashville
For the Nashville market, which runs three days, he took Friday off, got up at 5:30 and was out the door at 6:30 for about an hour’s drive. The crate vendors gave him little: four records for $40, including a Steve Hillage radio promo, Canned Heat and a John Lee Hooker double album. His friend made a big vinyl purchase of his own, so there were fewer CDs than usual.
The dollar tables did better. The reel tapes he bought for $2.50 each in Franklin were $1 here, and he says he might have gotten a better deal if he had waited. He also found The Graduate soundtrack, a Carpenters Christmas album, Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark and a Pablo Casals three record set for $5 total. Another dollar vendor added Isaac Hayes, a Shure audio test record, Blues Magoos and an official Walt Disney World soundtrack, which he says sells for over $20 online, for $9 total.
A vendor with $5 and $10 stacks sold him a bundle for $40 that included Asia, Tom Tom Club, Luther Vandross, a Rick James promo copy and Minnie Riperton’s Adventures in Paradise. He calls the Riperton album the Holy Grail. He says he previously found a copy for about $5, sold it for $55 to $60 and regretted it. This one plays great, though the jacket has a tear.
Haggling with an eight year old
An unfamiliar vendor sold him a $30 pile that included a sealed REO Speedwagon CD, a Mission of Burma CD, a Labyrinth soundtrack CD, a bootleg Nine Inch Nails VHS tape and a couple of Stephen King paperbacks. Then, at the Nashville market, he found a vendor he knew from Franklin, and picked up The Descendants’ 9th and Walnut, sealed, and The Locust’s Safety Second, Body Last, at $12 each.
He also negotiated with a boy of about eight who was playing with Pokemon cards. He offered $20, the boy countered with $22, and they shook on it. He says the parents run the booth right behind and the sale was legitimate.
Back outside, he passed on a boxed Akai reel to reel with heart shaped reel covers at $375, since he had no way to know whether it worked. He did buy a Lucinda Williams debut CD and a 1940 to 1941 Victor Records catalog with Nipper the dog on it for $7 combined.
What two markets teach you
His lesson comes at the end. Many vendors sell at both markets. That is good because you build relationships and a better chance to haggle: “They know me, I know them.” It is also a risk, because the inventory may be the same two weeks later. Yet the record bins that held nothing in Franklin had The Locust and The Descendants in Nashville.
Tips for your own record hunt
Go early, but do not assume the best stuff goes first. Some of his best buys came from pairing a pile and a polite counteroffer.
Bring a short wish list and a small flashlight, and check records for warps, scratches and torn jackets. Sealed items and promo copies tend to draw more interest, but check recent sold prices before you pay a premium.
Ask for bundle pricing. As he showed, a stack of five or ten items often leads to a discount that a single record would not.
Note which vendors show up at more than one market. If you pass on something at one, you may see it again, and the price may have changed.
Finally, keep a few for yourself. He set aside a Bo Diddley record and a few CDs for his own shelves, and that is a good reminder that the hunt is about more than resale.
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