Discovery Used & Collectors Records

Discovery has been around longer than the internet. If you dont beleive me, check out their greatest asset, their archaic website. Honestly. Owner Jim updates the ancient 16bit spreadsheet religiously every Monday with sheer simplicity.
And that’s all we really need sometimes. Make a list, go to shop, buy records at low price, go home and enjoy. There are no frills here, and Jim knows exactly where everything is if you don’t have time to dig. Just approach with caution :)

I’ve been going to this place for 20 odd years, off and on. When I am in town I make it a point to visit this place. The selection is typically very good, and the prices are decent. The stock on hand is typically well organized, and they do not suffocate on crappy bargain bin used stuff. That is great for browsing — no exhausting digging through whupped junk and the same old titles over and over. The owner gets some mixed reviews here — I believe that is Jim — but I have always been able to chat with him and found him to be helpful and knowledgeable. He is not a gab fest kind of guy, and having been in the biz as long as he has I am guessing he has had a few nut job record collectors drive him up the wall a few times. But different strokes. He also encourages cash over credit, but he does take credit cards. I have bought dozens of lps from him, and sold him a huge load a long time ago. Both ends of that were are very fair. This place is a standby and a must-​visit for me. I hope they are here for another 20 years! My only beef is they used to use price stickers that would not come off the jacket without messing them up unless you knew to use naptha to get them off. I don’t think they use those anymore.

I really liked the selection; organized and thorough. And the prices were decent. The main reason why i’m giving it a low rating is the customer service. The owner was abrupt and fairly rude during my visit.

Love the place. The labels on the album jackets are SN for surface noise, SS for surface scratches and no labels indicate error free.
The prices are bang on compared to most of the shops in Toronto.
They tend to get many new albums in each week and list them on their website each Sunday afternoon. Store is closed on Wednesday’s.
Some have issues with the owner being a bit standoffish etc… but deep down I think he is a good guy.

I concur with others who have said this is the best record store in Toronto. Well, best *used* record store. Discovery has a pretty steady turnover– always boxes of new records coming in. The store is also quite well organized; there aren’t just things piled up everywhere as you find in other stores. What I like most is that the owner maintains a complete and up to date list of his inventory online. So you can browse without making a trip there, ask him to put something away for you, or make a shopping list from home. I don’t find the owner grumpy so much as terse. I guess the one caveat is that this place deals solely in used records, and there as yet does not seem to be market in used, recently released vinyl. So if you want the new Arcade Fire or whatever, this isn’t the place.

so heres the goods on the table: i no longer have a record player.
okay, so here goes. this place is filled with records mostly, that are very well organized. you can go online, in fact, and download their record list which is updated every two weeks. as well, you can search online for records or just download their entire list for later. to illustrate how dedicated discovery is, you will be comforted to know that each and every record has been listened to at one point or another because on that list there is a grading system thats accompanies the records thats need it. in other words, records that arent perfect in terms of sound quality are categorized by codes like ss for slightly scuffs but plays well or sn indicates scratches on surface noise.
for those of you who still listen to cassette tapes (why god knows) will be happy to find that there is also a sizable amount of those available as well. in addition you will find towards the back of the store is a shelf dedicated to dvds — mostly music related, and some books of the same subject matter in the back room.
for me this store would be perfect for hard to find stuff thats not out on cd or i cant find online. but, hey, id welcome an eye opener any day of the week from a die hard record player to school me in the finer details of phonographic sound.