Vinyl Tip #2: Things to Check Before Buying A Vinyl Record at the Thrift Store

Make sure you examine each prospective vinyl record before making a purchase.

1. Free of deep scratches and gouges.
2. Not cracked.
3. Not warped.

Photo By CEphoto, Uwe Aranas (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

I recently bought a Frank Sinatra double-album.  It sounds o.k., but it is really warped.  The needle on my phonograph looks like a surfer on a big wave in Hawaii!  The tone arm really moves up and down!

Photo By Jeff Rowley [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The Best and Worst of My 77 Cent Vinyl Albums

When vinyl record albums are cheap, you can experiment and take some risks. So far, I've bought less than a dozen vinyl LPs. Most of the albums that I have purchased have been classical music. But, don't worry. I'm not going to get all snooty. My primary criteria for buying a classical record is that it "kick ass." If you can't fire rockets from a helicopter and level a third world village to the music, I don't want it.

Using that criteria, so far, I like the soundtrack to the old movie: "Blue Max." At least, the album cover is kick ass!

My worst album I've bought so far was the "Smokey and the Bandit II" soundtrack. First of all, it's country and second of all it's for a movie sequel so the music is very derivative. One song is a total rip-off of "Southbound and Down" from the original movie.

In truth, I bought this album on the same day as my record player.  I needed a disc to see if it would work. At least, it wasn't Lawrence Welk and it wasn't scratched.