Record Store Day 2025

I left the house at 6am.

got home a little while ago. Spent way more than I wanted to, and even still didn’t pick up some of my high-priority picks, just bc they had a ton of copies in stock and I figured I’d be able to grab them in a few weeks in the leftovers bin.

I feel like the titles this year were generally more expensive than in the past. My local store was like $5-10 less than the rough trade price (which is my baseline to go off of for RSD stuff to make sure a store isn’t price gouging) but was still a lot of single LPs for over $30 (which I mostly avoided)

I got:
  • Ry Cooder- live 1972
  • A-Ha -1984 demos
  • Count Basie- Roulette years comp.(only Basie era I don’t have *anything* of)
  • Alex Chilton - Set
  • Pond -early years (got on line at 6:30 am, and got the last copy. Thank god. It was my absolute #1 priority)
  • both Vince Guaraldi records
  • Gloria Jones - Vixen
  • Nick Lowe - (Not) Indoor Safari
  • OMD - Peel sessions
  • Talking Heads - Live on Tour
  • Queen - De Lane Lea demos
  • Wang Chung - everybody have fun tonight
  • Gil Scott Heron - Moving Target (just the CD version)

I had a copy of the High Anxiety soundtrack in my stack, but I put it back right before checkout bc I noticed it had really bad seam splits. It was the only copy too.

the Joni Mitchell, Todd Rundgren, and Geddy Lee releases were all very high priority for me, but the store had so many copies of each that I wouldn’t be shocked if they each still have a few copies hanging around in 6 months. Mingus and Sun Ra were waaaaay too rich for my blood this year. I wanted to grab the George Harrison 12” single, but $30 for one song is asinine. 13th floor elevators was gone before I got in- They only got one, and there was a guy who lined up at 4:30am for it.
 
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What's this Record Store Day thing all about?

I got an email yesterday about an album I'd actually like to buy, but is apparently part of this "Record Store Day", and I have no idea what that means or where you'd buy it....

If it involves getting up at 6am I'll continue listening to the MP3s. :ROFLMAO:
 
What's this Record Store Day thing all about?

I got an email yesterday about an album I'd actually like to buy, but is apparently part of this "Record Store Day", and I have no idea what that means or where you'd buy it....

If it involves getting up at 6am I'll continue listening to the MP3s. :ROFLMAO:
It's an annual event started in 2007 which brings exclusive releases to independent record stores in order to promote shopping at local record stores over Amazon, Walmart, and other big corporations. The list of what special RSD releases will be available drops about a month before the event each year, and is broken into 3 categories:
- RSD Exclusives: These are only pressed for Record Store day as a one off
- RSD First: These are planned for a later release, but RSD is the first chance to get them. Often the RSD version will differ slightly from the broader release, such as being on a different color vinyl, being individually numbered, or having some other neat little difference.
- RSD Regional Focus: These are exactly like RSD Exclusives, except their availability is based on region, so it might be exclusive to shops on the West Coast, or the Chicago area or whatever else.

Just because stuff is a RSD exclusive doesnt mean that it can't be sold after that. There are frequently less-desirable albums that have much higher availability than demand that wind up sitting around for weeks, months or even years after Record Store Day.

The list also has pressing numbers published for everything, so it's generally not too hard to tell if something is gonna be hard to get. You really don't need to line up super early unless you're after something that's going to have a higher demand than its availability. Today for me, that was the Pond record– it was limited to 1700 copies globally, and I think only 700 for the US, so I knew if they sold out before I got to my local store, I'd be looking at crazy resale prices (their stuff consistently has astronomical resale pricing).

What album were you looking to get? I could let you know if it's something that was pretty popular or hard to get ahold of, or if it's the type of thing you might have luck picking up later today or in the leftovers bin sometime this week.
 
Ahh this was the Collective Soul Blender album. I believe it was an RSD First.
My local had probably 20 copies. I’d guess it’ll be around for the rest of the weekend at your nearest independent record store.

It was an impulse buy more than anything, I don't even have a way to play it at the moment. :ROFLMAO:
Well then fix that. If I widhlist some hifi equipment does that mean you’ll need to buy a turntable to test the PCBs?
 
For some reason i thought albany was a decent sized city. I guess portland metro is probably a bit more vinyl leaning than georgia.

Nah, there's not much to see in Albany. I think there might be an R&B / hip-hop record store but I can't guarantee even that is still open.

I think the nearest best bet would be Columbus or Tallahassee.
 
It has become an annual tradition. We usually roll up around 3am and end up in the first 5 or 6 in line. This year? We were 27th. The weather definitely had something to do with it—it’s usually freezing or snowing, but it was a super mild 55 degrees when I got there.

Thankfully, the store I go to always does a solid job stocking up. They had a bunch of titles and multiple copies of most. I had 10 on my list and managed to snag 9 of them.
 
The scalpers are the worst.

I heard a report, there was a guy somewhere that was first in line selling titles they hadn't even bought yet. "I am first in line and will get this for you"

What could go wrong with that?


Ahh the scalpers have already hit eBay, no need to panic. :ROFLMAO:
 
Yeah looks like the nearest RSD-participating Record Store to you would be “Apollo Records in the USA” in Thomasville, GA
 
It has become an annual tradition. We usually roll up around 3am and end up in the first 5 or 6 in line. This year? We were 27th. The weather definitely had something to do with it—it’s usually freezing or snowing, but it was a super mild 55 degrees when I got there.

Thankfully, the store I go to always does a solid job stocking up. They had a bunch of titles and multiple copies of most. I had 10 on my list and managed to snag 9 of them.
Which did you miss out on?
 
Yeah looks like the nearest RSD-participating Record Store to you would be “Apollo Records in the USA” in Thomasville, GA

Oh wow, I wouldn't have guessed that. Thomasville is worse than Albany. :ROFLMAO:

Looks like they'll be available for purchase online this evening (assuming there are any left)... if so, I have a few things I might throw in my cart along with it.
 
There are a couple stores near here that have a fair amount of inventory, I can check there for you as well,

Oh wow, I wouldn't have guessed that. Thomasville is worse than Albany. :ROFLMAO:

Looks like they'll be available for purchase online this evening (assuming there are any left)... if so, I have a few things I might throw in my cart along with it.
 
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