Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. I’ve been posting demo albums that I will be using at CES, and have got messages from numerous people asking which copy to buy, how do I find a good copy, etc. So, here is how to fish…
When there is an album I am interested in – I will first research the history. There are a few places to look. Online, there’s discogs.com and allmusic.com.Discogs is more accurate and allmusic could be all over the place music. For example, on the Ellington Jazz Party, allmusic lists the 1959 release as a CD. Then, I also have my copy of The Penguin Guide to Jazz and the Collector’s Illustrated Vinyl Bible (unfortunately this is only in Chinese).
To get some indication of pricing, I will check popsike.com, ebay history and amazon.com. With Google or Bing! you can also search for reviews (informal and otherwise).
I tend to buy from various places – discogs, gemm, ebay and amazon.
However, that’s only if there is a specific album I’m interested in – other times, I find albums from independent record stores, thrift stores, garage sales, half-price bookstores. I even found an album at Costco and another at Target. Unfortunately, with the recent upsurge in vinyl, prices have been going up and quality and quantity have been going down.
Good luck fishing.