Ebay Versus The Storefront: A Cultural Shift

The thing with eBay: The inventory replenishes every day, by at least several hundred new items. It’s much different than when we used to buy our records in physical stores. If you didn’t get to your favorite store for a few weeks, you may not have missed anything. Or, if you happened to walk in at just the right time, you might have been in luck for a major score. With eBay, you get the sense that if you miss something one day, don’t worry, it’ll eventually come back. The challenge with eBay, versus the traditional record stores, is that there is only one item and you are competing on price with every other collector in the world. That’s one of the reasons the prices on eBay are high versus what you might find in a store, and why so many of the top sellers — such as Euclid and Jazz Record Center and Atomic — do a lot of their business on eBay these days.  What do you think? If you comment on this post, you can be eligible to win the free Leo Parker Blue Note record we’re giving away.

Infinity Records on Long Island — A Favorite

Riffs

 

            Went to my favorite local record store the other day, Infinity Records on Long Island, and walked away with some nice things. Joey, the owner, always seems to be able to find nice jazz and he’s usually fair and reasonable with the prices. He also knows what he’s doing, unlike some dealers who rely on outmoded and outdated price guides and wind up dramatically overpricing records. Anyway, I hadn’t been to the store in a few weeks, so there was a lot of new stuff to choose from. Here are some of the morsels I bought: Read more