Where to sell vinyl records in Los Angeles?
Where can I sell old vinyls in L.A.?
Who buys records in los angeles?
Where can I sell old vinyls in L.A.?
Who buys records in los angeles?
BUY MY RECORDS, SELL MY RECORDS
Record Recycler
17312 Crenshaw Blvd NE of Artesia Blvd
Torrance, CA 90504
(310) 767-7900 Tue - Sat 11:00am - 5:30pm
Record Recycler
17312 Crenshaw Blvd NE of Artesia Blvd
Torrance, CA 90504
(310) 767-7900 Tue - Sat 11:00am - 5:30pm
Here's an excerpt from the chapter on me and my store in James Goss' VINYL LIVES published in 2010.
Record Recycler
Torrance, California:
Needing to reevaluate his business plan, Kaiser down-
sized, moving the store to Torrance. After trimming
store square footage to 900 square feet and closing the extra employee position, he has less overhead and the store is in a better position to weather the times ahead. "The store that I have now is a response to the other store. I decided that I needed to change the way that I was doing things," Kaiser says. "I kind of got the idea that if I just had a smaller operation, essentially, at the end of the day, I'd probably make the same money." His usual business hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11 am to 5:30 pm.
Kaiser traces his progression as a record store owner back to his teenage and college years. "I had a subscription to Rolling Stone when I was thirteen," he notes. Later, attending college, he began to focus his attention on psychedelic--also known as psych rock--and punk. "I essentially started off as a Psych collector in the late '70s."
Spending time in the college library, Kaiser recalls
that he was "reading different English music papers, the punk rock magazine called Slash and the work of
different magazine writers who covered punk rock."
Reveling in following the surge in punk's popularity--
the Ramones, and later the Sex Pistols, having sounded the charge--Kaiser, with the help from the different writers he read, began to understand punk music's context. The writers, he said, "had a little bit of historical perspective and discussed the precedents, like '60's garage rock."
His reading was having additional effects on his awareness. "I was having this feeling that there might be this whole level, or kind of music, that I hadn't necessarily been exposed to on regular radio. I had just never done that much musicological digging."
During his early days as a record collector, he learned some specific details. For example: evaluating the information on a record label. Later, these seemingly basic observations would help him with other types of music. "The thing about some rare psychedelic records is, essentially they're local records. They don't have a bunch of money to be spending on graphics or the cover--or for the labels."
Some years later, when he became a freelancer and
started selling disco and rap records, he realized that
those same details still applied. "The local rap record
had the same basic looking label, because they didn't
have the funds or the need to create a real fancy label."
Born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1959, Roy was
the son of an Army officer. His mom is Japanese. both of his parents live in California. His mom's family still lives in Japan. "One of the reasons I got into the record business was that I was like a freelance record guy--I was running around looking for records. A large percentage of my sales ended up being Japanese people that had stores in Japan."
In the early 1990s, black music--1970s-era American soul, blues, rhythm and blues, and jazz--was in demand. "I knew a little about black music. At that point the stuff was still findable. If these Japanese guys would've come over here and said, 'Hey, we're looking for these records from the '50s,' it woulda been a lot harder to supply those types of records than records from the mid-'70s on."
Selling product to visiting Japanese store owners traveling to the U.S. in search of product was good business. But in 1999, Roy took 2000 of his records to Japan to sell--his goal being to cut out the middleman(I didn't actually take any records to Japan. I went to see if selling at a Japanese record show would be feasible). Visiting family, he attended a record fair near Buddokan. Entering a small hall--part of the larger events complex--Kaiser realized that "there wasn't really enough people or money in the room to make it worth my while." He
later sold his records to Disc JJ in Osaka.
While the record fair hadn't gone according to plan,
the market for selling records to visiting Japanese store owners back home was still going strong. As Kaiser recalls, at that time, other collectors enjoyed good sales in Europe. "That was like a real sweet spot in the record selling game. My main focus was on plying these Japanese stores with a lot of soul and r&b and disco from the 70s and the 80s." when business was booming, times were good.
But, at that point, Kaiser began to understand another not so subtle distinction: the Japanese culture approached the music differently than we did. "I came to the conclusion they had the upper hand on us. We were operating blind. The main thing we had to go on was if these guys got real excited about certain records, we might have an idea: 'Maybe I priced this record too cheap here.' So, slowly people would start comparing notes. What was happening in Japan wasn't that people were getting interested in collecting records." Instead, the cultural trend was more about people educating themselves about American music. "At that point, it was a big campaign over there. There were books and magazines coming out about black music and record collecting and CD compilations." Today much like their counterparts in America, the collectible market in Japan has changed dramatically and many small independent stores have closed. "It's not a robust market like it was," Kaiser says.
*
sized, moving the store to Torrance. After trimming
store square footage to 900 square feet and closing the extra employee position, he has less overhead and the store is in a better position to weather the times ahead. "The store that I have now is a response to the other store. I decided that I needed to change the way that I was doing things," Kaiser says. "I kind of got the idea that if I just had a smaller operation, essentially, at the end of the day, I'd probably make the same money." His usual business hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11 am to 5:30 pm.
Kaiser traces his progression as a record store owner back to his teenage and college years. "I had a subscription to Rolling Stone when I was thirteen," he notes. Later, attending college, he began to focus his attention on psychedelic--also known as psych rock--and punk. "I essentially started off as a Psych collector in the late '70s."
Spending time in the college library, Kaiser recalls
that he was "reading different English music papers, the punk rock magazine called Slash and the work of
different magazine writers who covered punk rock."
Reveling in following the surge in punk's popularity--
the Ramones, and later the Sex Pistols, having sounded the charge--Kaiser, with the help from the different writers he read, began to understand punk music's context. The writers, he said, "had a little bit of historical perspective and discussed the precedents, like '60's garage rock."
His reading was having additional effects on his awareness. "I was having this feeling that there might be this whole level, or kind of music, that I hadn't necessarily been exposed to on regular radio. I had just never done that much musicological digging."
During his early days as a record collector, he learned some specific details. For example: evaluating the information on a record label. Later, these seemingly basic observations would help him with other types of music. "The thing about some rare psychedelic records is, essentially they're local records. They don't have a bunch of money to be spending on graphics or the cover--or for the labels."
Some years later, when he became a freelancer and
started selling disco and rap records, he realized that
those same details still applied. "The local rap record
had the same basic looking label, because they didn't
have the funds or the need to create a real fancy label."
Born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1959, Roy was
the son of an Army officer. His mom is Japanese. both of his parents live in California. His mom's family still lives in Japan. "One of the reasons I got into the record business was that I was like a freelance record guy--I was running around looking for records. A large percentage of my sales ended up being Japanese people that had stores in Japan."
In the early 1990s, black music--1970s-era American soul, blues, rhythm and blues, and jazz--was in demand. "I knew a little about black music. At that point the stuff was still findable. If these Japanese guys would've come over here and said, 'Hey, we're looking for these records from the '50s,' it woulda been a lot harder to supply those types of records than records from the mid-'70s on."
Selling product to visiting Japanese store owners traveling to the U.S. in search of product was good business. But in 1999, Roy took 2000 of his records to Japan to sell--his goal being to cut out the middleman(I didn't actually take any records to Japan. I went to see if selling at a Japanese record show would be feasible). Visiting family, he attended a record fair near Buddokan. Entering a small hall--part of the larger events complex--Kaiser realized that "there wasn't really enough people or money in the room to make it worth my while." He
later sold his records to Disc JJ in Osaka.
While the record fair hadn't gone according to plan,
the market for selling records to visiting Japanese store owners back home was still going strong. As Kaiser recalls, at that time, other collectors enjoyed good sales in Europe. "That was like a real sweet spot in the record selling game. My main focus was on plying these Japanese stores with a lot of soul and r&b and disco from the 70s and the 80s." when business was booming, times were good.
But, at that point, Kaiser began to understand another not so subtle distinction: the Japanese culture approached the music differently than we did. "I came to the conclusion they had the upper hand on us. We were operating blind. The main thing we had to go on was if these guys got real excited about certain records, we might have an idea: 'Maybe I priced this record too cheap here.' So, slowly people would start comparing notes. What was happening in Japan wasn't that people were getting interested in collecting records." Instead, the cultural trend was more about people educating themselves about American music. "At that point, it was a big campaign over there. There were books and magazines coming out about black music and record collecting and CD compilations." Today much like their counterparts in America, the collectible market in Japan has changed dramatically and many small independent stores have closed. "It's not a robust market like it was," Kaiser says.
*
There was a small article in this Japanese DJ magazine about my store. This issue was a survey of record stores around the world. I gave my views on selling records and the availability of collectible vinyl in Torrance, Los Angeles and the Southern California area.
Here's a promotional video Cut Chemist did in my store in June 2006 for his release THE AUDIENCE IS LISTENING. I remember selling him records in the early 90's thinking, "Oh, this guy likes to play around with records!" I didn't know the half of it!
