I was in a junk shop in Evesham one day in 1976 and in amongst the usual Val Doonican and Tom Jones spotted just one single import on the beautiful Moonshot label.  It was Doctor Good Soul by Landy.  A little bit knackered but more than playable and a new one on me at the time.  10 pence?  Thank you very much.  But the point is, there was nothing else, not a sniff of a soulful sausage.  Maybe it's not the rarest record ever, but to this day, I can't get my head round why that solitary Detroit goodie was lurking in a grotty second hand shop in a sleepy market town.  It's not like there were other imports in the rack.  Just masses of Winifred Atwell etc.

Has this ever happened to you?  What's the weirdest, most unlikely find you can recall?

I live in Germany, really in the poorest part you can imagine! Not a record shop anywhere, no clubs, no nothing! I meet a Rockabilly guy and we´re talking records. He mentioned a guy just around the corner who has a 45 collection for sale. I ended up with 800x 45s sorted by label. 40x King / Federal 45s / 50x Checker and Chess etc. Bought those at 77 pence each.

When I lived in Plymouth in the early 80s, I was round at my wifes aunties house, and spotted one of the small 25 count record boxes. I looked in and there was the usual 60s chart stuff, but also a Panic Bell demo, which she kindly let me have.

 

Paul

Another from Plymouth, at a school jumble sale, and the only interesting record for sale was a Valentines Breakaway on Sound Stage 7 for the princely sum of 2p. I was going to haggle over the condition because unfortunately someone had sellotaped a spider in the centre.

Here's a good read on Car Boot finds -

All the best,

Len 

 

When I was aged 20 years old (first 80's) I come to "Els Encants" in Barcelona, a great outdoor area for second hand articles for sale. After searching in some second hand vynil "stores" without any interesting finding (predominantly Fausto Papeti, Los Panchos, Raffaella Carrá, Dalida, Salsa and Conga compilations, Boney M, soul music by very known artists - Atlantic "Hits & Soul" compilations and similars,...-)  finally in another  "store" consisting in a mountain of dolls, doll's heads and arms, electronic components and pieces (TV, radio, wires, compressors,...!) and the owner reading a paper news sitting on a  "beach" seat... in the top of that "muntain" I saw the "Got To Find Away" album by Curtis Mayfield (Buddah, 197?) for 100 pesetas!!!! And totally new!!!

Edited December 21, 20177 yr by josep manuel concernau robles

was walking in a street in St Helier Jersey and walked past some bins out of the corner of my eye I saw half a dozen records in a pile on the top of one, the top record was a mint u.k demo copy of Jimmy Holliday & Clydie King-Ready Willing & Able

Edited December 24, 20177 yr by ric-tic

Popped into an electrical shop in Clapham Junction mid to late 70s, memory is shot can't remember exact year, one side of the shop sold radiograms, record players etc & for the life of me I can't remember what was on the other side but they had a small box of records, all ex chart stuff & stuck in the middle was a mint copy of Frank Dell He broke your game wide open for a quid. Where do these odd copies appear from ???? at the time that was Clarkie territory as well

A few weeks later I popped back, the singles had gone but there was a box of Albums, full of crap of course ........... except for a mint copy on Okeh of Billy Butler Right Track album, can't remember how much but sure it was less than the Frank Dell.

 

What about this then. Walked into a co op  store in 1969 spotted a box of records   And sitting there all together were 10 copies of the Invitations. what’s wrong with me baby   Brand new  unplayed  on stateside.  10 p. Each. 

  On 21/12/2017 at 16:00, Dothe45 said:

What about this then. Walked into a co op  store in 1969 spotted a box of records   And sitting there all together were 10 copies of the Invitations. what’s wrong with me baby   Brand new  unplayed  on stateside.  10 p. Each. 

That's what you call 'Loving by the Pound' Dave

Was en route to a Yellow Pages ad sales interview in Surbiton in Surrey in the late 80's. I popped into Oxfam in the High Street beforehand and managed to pick up a copy of Ann D'Andrea don't stop lookin'. Like Dayo's scenario in post # 1, it was the only decent record in the shop (and yes, still got it).

I was in our small market town in Wiltshire and went in to a charity shop. They had a pile of singles. Going through them I found the usual Val Doonican, Ken Dodd stuff then found some Ray Merrell pop stuff, at this point I thought my luck couldn’t be that good, but low and behold almost the last record was a mint copy of Tears of Joy.

  On 21/12/2017 at 18:03, britishbarry said:

I was in our small market town in Wiltshire and went in to a charity shop. They had a pile of singles. Going through them I found the usual Val Doonican, Ken Dodd stuff then found some Ray Merrell pop stuff, at this point I thought my luck couldn’t be that good, but low and behold almost the last record was a mint copy of Tears of Joy.

Have you still got it, if yes do you want to sell. ?

Great fun in London in the late 70s / early 80s....Wil Collins & Willpower, Brand New, Alfie Davison, Bill Brandon (Streets got my lady), and heaps more all for 10p or thereabouts. 

In the local mace store in Goole in the early seventies used to get multiple copies of valentines each week.  25p each. The only problem was half of them jumped but still managed to sell them each weekend 

  On 21/12/2017 at 18:39, 3b48 said:

Have you still got it, if yes do you want to sell. ?

Sorry but the answer Is no. I sold it on eBay as i already had it. I forgot to mention it cost me a whole £1.00

My first visit to New York staying with my cousin in East Village on 2nd Avenue. This was Summer 2002, and a couple of blocks up from her was a record and vintage shop called Wowsville. Browsing the racks the first record I came across was Alfie Davison 'Love is a serious business' - all of $1.

The guys running the shop put on very enjoyable soul and '60s nights not far away on Avenue A, mainly aimed at the retro scene as opposed to full on Northern.

The I Can't Break The News To Myself UK Shapiro Bernstein acetate  in a small bric a brac shop in Gillingham.

Major LanceAint No Soul UK demo with The Game It's Shocking demo for 50p each Teeside Racecourse car boot

My Heart Needs A Break Turkish issue in a junk shop in Istanbul

 

 

  On 21/12/2017 at 13:59, ric-tic said:

was walking in a street in St Helier Jersey and walked past some bins out of the corner of my eye I saw half a dozen records in a pile on the top of one, the top record was a mint copy of Jimmy Holliday & Clydie King-Ready Willing & Able

I had a similar experience .

I was leaving a car park in West Bromwich , where they had some recycling bins situated by the exit, as I  was about to leave I saw some 45's leaning against the recycle bin. The one I could see was a Blue Beat 45 (Keith & Enid). I just , jumped out the car and scooped them up. 

The bloke in the car behind me went mental as he never expected someone just to dump their car in the middle of the  entrance / exit.

What could I do?  I just held up a 45 and said  " Derrick and Patsy".

Strangely, he didn't look too impressed.