Remember When Records & Videos

I really wanted to love this place, I really did.
Let me start off by saying I’m a serious record collector and have been to dozens of stores across the country. I was in town for the summer and saw pictures of this place and knew I had to check it out. I know sometimes serious collector-​oriented record stores can get negative reviews from inexperienced buyers who are taken aback by the whole experience. I went in with high hopes and a very open mind.
What I found left me with a terrible taste in my mouth.
They have a vast stock of amazing records, mostly because they price everything so absurdly it all sits there. The owner is rude and is convinced he knows everything there is to know about records, yet he mislabels everything (which matters when every record is taped shut and you have to bring it up to the counter to even examine it).
What really drove me over the edge was my return experience. Because of his obsessively anal sorting and labeling system, i bought like 4 records clearly advertised as first pressings that were nowhere near that. Upon politely trying to explain this to the owner the next day, he; A. seemed completely confused by the concept of identifying pressings by anything more than just the catalog number (label design, deadwax, etc),
B. Seemed deeply angered that anyone would want to return his records (despite the fact that they were clearly advertised-​as, and sold-​as something they’re not). In fact he pretty much told me he never wanted me to come back.
The educated record buyer should stay far away from this place. At the best it will unfairly gouge you with its FAR above current market prices. At the worst it will leave you with little faith for humanity. There’s thousands of great record stores in this country with vast and incredible stocks and friendly and knowledgeable staff. There’s absolutely no excuse for this place to suck this bad when so many places get it right. Don’t give this place any of your money.

I was making my way down the east coast, driving from NY to Florida. Instead of driving 14 hours and getting there in 2 days. I decided to go leisurely and stop at Record stores along the way. As I am a ardent Vinyl collector/​listener.
As I drove up to the store from the road, the large free standing sign, with the name of the store caught my eye. The building had nice signage as well. As I entered I was immediately impressed by the size of the Store and the layout. In addition to thousands of records,. There is a vast array of VHS movies and Digital Video Discs all very neatly organized on the left hand side of the store. Cassette tapes and a very large compact disc section as well. Don’t forget the very large 45 section as well!
Only USED Records are sold. No NEW Vinyl.
The owner came up to me, within a minute or so after I walked in. He said hello and smiled. He asked what was my main interest. I told him records! He said every record was cleaned, and graded (M M– VG+ VG VG-​) All the records are alphabetized and arranged by the year each and every record came out by each artist. He asked that if you take a record out, to please help them out and put it back in the exact spot it was in. With the seemingly endless rows and rows of neatly arranged records. I knew I would be spending a lot of time in the store. I found the meticulous way each artist was arranged (exact date each release came out 1968 to 1988) to be very helpful.
Three are signs asking one, not to open the records, but any item can be taken up to the counter to be looked over. I can understand how some people might feel a bit put off by that request. As I always check each record before buying. However the owner told me as I was looking to bring anything over to the counter to check the condition.
There were several copies of a particular artist (America) one graded at M– another at VG+ VG and VG-​. Each priced accordingly to the condition. Which gives a buyer a choice as to what they want to spend.
I found the prices to be quite reasonable. Some of the rarer more collectable hard to find records by a particular artist, were priced higher. But no record on the floor was marked above $ 50.00. However John told me he did have rarer records priced over $ 50.00 on the walls and in the back of the store if I was interested.
I was impressed that I found several releases in a artists catalog, that I had never seen before. Which was pretty amazing as I have been to well over 200 record stores.
There were also sections arranged by just letters (B, C, D T etc) not by artist. These were the most intriguing. As these sections were made up of obscure artists. Many of them with only two or one release In their musical carer. Some of them were bands local to the area.
As I made my way thru the pop rock, folk sections (leaving out the separate sections for blues, jazz, county, big band, soul, gospel as I sadly had limited time) my pile of records getting larger and larger. I chatted with John about the nature of the business. He said a lot of younger people are now coming in to buy records, in addition to those aged from 40 and up.
After 2.5 hours that flew buy. I brought my stack of Vinyl to the cash register. The owners wife was working behind the counter and we chatted a bit.
John was very friendly helpful and shared a lot of interesting informative information about the history of music and the pulse of the brick and mortar record business, over the 25 years he has been in business.
I have been to many many records stores over the past 34 years. I would have to say. This is one of the best stores I have been to.
From the vast selection of all types of music. The maticlous organization of each artist by exact year each record was released. To the excellent use of space in the store. Along with the choices of LP’s45 RPM Records compact discs, cassettes, VHS movies along with DVDs. Gives one a vast choice of treasures to take home.
I highly recommend all music lovers to visit this treasure trove of physical items. In a world where downloading and streaming makes music something cold and sterile. Verses the warm realistic, natural sound of Vinyl. The joy of that tactile feeling
Of sliding out a record and putting it on the phonograph. Owing music in a physical format, makes it much more valuable and precious.

There are a lot of negative reviews on here so I was wary at first of stopping by. I have to say though, that my visit was very positive. Everything is in meticulous order and the owner has a specific organization system that is easy to follow. He was very nice and helpful… even pointing out things that I might like based on sections I was looking in. Very wide selection and everything is rated on a very good and up scale. Lots of research involved that is clearly labeled on every record (ex. 1^st edition, 1977, stereo) Definitely a place to stop by if you are a collector or just love records!

I learned about this place from WRAL’s Tarheel Traveler. Had some free time this morning so I decided to have a lil’ road trip to Greensboro!
Prior to the trip I read about all of the negative comments from you Unilocalers about John being a jerk and rude to his customers I thought may be he’s just serious about his business and passionate about his inventories. And he is.
I stepped into the store around 11:30 and obviously I was the only customer there on a late Tuesday morning. He greeted me with a smile and we introduced each other. He showed me around the store and explained how he categorized/​catalogued his inventories and the gradings on the records.
He is incredibly organized. Each record is meticulously cleaned, graded and packaged in new paper jacket and would include the original jacket too, assume it’s in good condition (for example a Charlie daniel’s band record I purchased today). They are pricier than ebay and some used book stores/​thrift stores but believe me, every single record I purchased today was nothing but excellent and I know each one on the shelves, crates would be the same.
Bottom line, if you respect the records hopefully he will respect you back.

the number one thing to know about this store is that the guy who runs the place is an intense — and i mean intense — record nerd. everything is meticulously organized, not just by artist, but also by release date and vinyl condition grade. this is the kind of record nerd who scoffs at reissues, doesn’t give a shit about anything that came out in the past decade (at least), and is generally content to hang out all day with his wife and his records (and i’m not 100% sure that wife and records are in the correct order). so, if you’re not an intense record nerd, here are some things you should know:
1. record nerds are not normal people.
2. don’t fuck with a record nerd’s organizational system.
3. when in the presence of a record nerd, handle every record as if it is the most delicate flower.
i am not surprised that people have posted some negative reviews of this place. i, however, am a total record nerd, so i loved it. it wasn’t the most amazing record store of all time, but it’s a good place. most of the stock is 50s-​80s. don’t expect to find anything released in the past 15ish years unless it’s a dj single. and yes, most of this stuff is marked up, but if you actually collect records you know that a lot of the prices could be worse. another thing you know if you actually collect records: if you think something is overpriced, don’t buy it. if you think you’ll be able to get another copy somewhere else, get another copy somewhere else.

I read some of the negative reviews of this place, but I thought it was great. The owner is definitely particular, but he knows his stuff and he has a great selection of vinyl in really nice shape. This isn’t your average used record store.
I could have spent hours in there. I’ll be back soon, and I live 2 hrs away.

I wish there was a way to write a review and give it zero stars. I went here a few years ago and walked away with nothing in hand. The prices were over the top and the owner was a real jerk. Typically, I’ll buy something just to support the vinyl community. I don’t need this guy to do me any favors by blessing me with the honor to be inside his store.
Save your money.

I was in there for a couple of hours yesterday. In talking to the owner he had told me that there were more records underneath the shelves throughout the entire store so his inventory was actually double. At first he seemed like a nice guy, but turned out to be an uptight, rude, typical record guy. When I lifted the curtain to see what was under there he VERY RUDELY yelled out «if I wanted you to look under there it wouldn’t be covered with a curtain». It was a simple mistake on my part met with an uncalled for response to a customer that was getting ready to spend $ 100 in his shop. Normally I would have just left immediately but I was buying a couple of records for a friend. So instead I cut my visit short and went to pay for the records I already had. After his wife rang me up he went through the records I had purchased a couple of times like I had pulled something over on him. He even asked where I had gotten one of them (the answer was out of the bin). If you’re looking for goldmine style prices and want to get treated like crap while spending lots of money I highly recommend this place. Personally, I’ll never go back.