Store Review: The Thing a Vinyl Wonderland
Granted we haven’t exactly had a lot of time over the past three years to add to our record collection (above), but our acquisitive juices started flowing a little when we read last Sunday’s story in The Times about the thrift store in Greenpoint that may have the largest collection of vinyl in the city….
Granted we haven’t exactly had a lot of time over the past three years to add to our record collection (above), but our acquisitive juices started flowing a little when we read last Sunday’s story in The Times about the thrift store in Greenpoint that may have the largest collection of vinyl in the city. Strangely called the Thing, the shop has over 100,000 records in its basement and another 30,000 upstairs. And the kicker? Unlike most other stores in the city that mark up their used records depending on their desirability, every record here is a sweet 2 bucks. At that price, we may even be able to justify hiring a babysitter so we can spend a couple of hours going through the bins. Who’s been?
Vinyl Underground [NY Times]
Haven’t bought vinyl in years, but there are two places in Williamsburg – the Fix on North 12th (?) and Bedford and another place on North 6th between Berry & Wythe (across from Tops, next door to Coyote Studios). The latter appears to have the larger selection.
To stuy blkbuttrflie have you checked out http://www.halcyonline.com/ (There store is in DUMBO.
Come on, you call that a record collection? My friend has a collection that spans the entire wall of one room of his home office. He had a incident where one of the shelves fell over sending thousands of records in front of the closed door, trapping him inside the room for hours until he could move all the records and shelf away from the door.
It’s ain’t a collection until it’s so big it can cause a cave in 😉
i spent a good long saturday there once and have record-fiend friends who frequent the place…i don’t think it’s cats (or at least there were no cats/cat smells last time i went) but mold. Friends sometimes wear dust masks when they go.
oh yea, and I hate cats or the smell of them so I may not be visiting this place anytime soon, anywhere else?
oh, that previous comment was mine – forgot my name. anyway, I have a small vinyl collection of about 75 records but they were all acquired outside the tri-state area. I’ve been meaning to find out some good places that sell great old school soul vinyl. does anyone know?
Brownstoner, where have you gotten your vinyl from in the past?
Take an allergy pill! Even if you didn’t start out allergic to cats, after 15 minutes in there, you will be. Everything in there reeks of dead or dying cats, which you don’t see, but you feel in the marrow of your bones. I bet the vinyl is uncompromised, but most cardboard record sleeves will retain the odor for months.
Shop at your own risk!
I went here a couple of times when it was barely a rumor. I think they got some giant vinyl donations and threw them in the basement.
A few funny things about it:
1) The ceilings down there are super-low. I’m 5’10”, and I wanna say I couldn’t stand up straight. So that adds to the spelunking vibe.
2) Its clientele is exclusively male record nerd shut-ins. I’m a chick, and as soon as I walked down the stairs, they all straightened up, shoved their protruding boxers back into their pants, and fussed with their hair. It was like I invaded the fort!
3) Get ready for hours of digging. The number of awful club 12″s from the 80s and 90s is overwhelming. Unless you like that kind of thing, of course.