vintage vinyl | high plains thrifter

Hunt & Gather

Happy Friday friends! Here’s what the secondhand sales scene is looking like this weekend.

♥ Final Clearance at My Sisters’ Closet: Hurry over to My Sisters’ Closet’s Grand Avenue location to shop the final days of their annual clearance event. Shoppers can expect to find high-end designer pieces in addition to timeless vintage treasures. (Sale ends Sunday.)

♥ Rock ‘n’ Roll Music Sale: Vinyl-lovers who appreciate a good dig should check out this sale. 3,000 vinyl LP records, hundreds of CDs, cassettes and other music-related items will be up for grabs, including hundreds of $1 LPs. Sale runs today, ’til 8 p.m. and tomorrow from 9 to 5.

♥ Hunt & Gather’s Bi-Annual Sale: Take 20% off at the hippest “antique” store in town, today through Sunday. Save on vintage decor, furniture, one-of-a-kind found objects and all kinds of random wonderfulness you never knew you needed.

♥ Fill a Bag for $5 at New to You Thriftique: If the thought of stuffing a grocery bag full of clothes, shoes, outerwear and paying only $5 for the whole shebang excites you, head over to New to You Thriftique tomorrow through Tuesday. There’s no limit on how many bags you can fill, and kids’ clothes are included in this deal.

♥ Hope Chest’s Go for the Gold Sale: Pick your metal and take anywhere from 20-40% any one item today through Sunday. Additionally, belts, shoes and purses are 40% off, and all winter clothing is a whopping 90% off.

Happy hunting!

xo,

Meghan

Photo c/o: MSP Mag's Vintage Insider's Guide.

This past July, my forever-long wish to own a stereo was granted. And ever since, I’ve been obsessed with hunting for records. Like anything else, looking for records at thrift stores, garage and estate sales can be a crap shoot. And an overwhelming one at that! Here are some super basic things I keep in mind when I’m out and about.

♥ Before you you get your heart set on a specific record, check the condition of it first. See deep scratches, scuff marks, chips, cracks or gouges? Skip it. And be sure to inspect both sides too!

♥ Make sure the record isn’t warped. (Warped records = distorted sound.) The easiest way to check is to hold the record up at eye level.

♥ This is a total no-brainer, but while you have the record out, make sure that it matches the jacket. How sad would it be to go home thinking you’d found a rare Kitty Wells record, only to discover some crappy Billy Joel album inside.

♥ Keep a running list of what you’re looking for. I have a friend who keeps her record wish list on Pinterest, I personally keep a running list in my notes on my phone. Either way, just like thrifting for clothes, I find it helpful to keep tabs of what I’m hunting for.

♥ Take a chance! If you come across an intriguing cover, artist or song, and the record’s in good shape, where’s the harm in taking it home for a listen? I picked “Mustang Jazz,” a recording of the Southern Methodist University Marching Band out of a $1 bin at a record fair last month and it pumps me up every time I listen to it!

♥ And last but not least, it’s OK to thrift records just because you like the cover art! Inspired by this Easy Record Cover Art DIY I spotted over the summer, I painted over a pin-up-y instrumental album cover. It sits on my vanity now and I love looking at it when I get ready each morning.

Some other good resources for learning more about thrifting records:
♥ Thrift Store Vinyl: “Listening to used records so you don’t have to.”
♥ The Thrift Store Record Collector: “Collecting records the cheap way.”
♥ How to Clean Old Records