(
One of the most frustrating parts of starting your vinyl collection is finding out where to get the vinyl that you want, for a price that is affordable. True, you can always buy off of the internet which is perfectly fine as long as you are buying new, or sealed vinyl, which comes at a premium. If your interested in getting cheap $3 or less used records from old artists such as Jim Croce, or Willie Nelson buying online is not a good idea, it is better to have the record in hand so that you can inspect it before buying to make sure it dose not have any warps or scratches.
Depending on what you are looking for there are several places to look for records and they all have they're own reasons why you should go there.
For $3-$10 old LP's and $1 old 45 singles go to your local flee market and they will probable have at least one old either cowboy or hippie depending on where you live with a literal ton of old records most of which you've never heard of and are not worth anything, but if you' re willing to spend the hours digging through 70's crap you might find a few diamonds in the rough that are either worth a lot more than $3 or are just good albums, for example I love Jim Croce, his music is great and he had a ton of hits but none of his records are worth anything so I've never paid more than $3 for a Jim Croce album. The reason that there are albums in the $3 section that are worth more than that is because the guy selling them dose not know what he has, If he sells mostly country that probable means that he is a fan of country and only knowledgeable about country so he might have an old metal album from a band that most metal fans would recognize but that he's never heard of so he thinks it's worth nothing, this has happened to me to varying degrees almost every time I have bought from people at the flee market .
For $15-$30 LP's from the late 80's to the present as well as a few rare and expensive records you want to go to an actual record store. To find a record store with music you like I suggest searching "vinyl records" in your phone's map app and then going down the list of record shops and read a couple reviews and look at they're web site, and you should be able to figure out what they're niche is. Pro tip for you, if they are also a head shop that should give you a pretty good idea of the kind of music that they have (Psychedelic![150410170603-12-iconic-record-stores-0410-super-169.jpg] Rock, Grateful Dead type stuff). Also, if they are just a generic record shop or the only one in your area then they probable sell a lot of Indie rock, hipster friendly metal, lo-fi hip hop, and a small selection of everything else. Most record stores will also have a $1 bin, you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than this one dollar bin. You must be cautious. unlike the flee market, all of the records at a record store are researched and sold at pretty much they're exact value according to discogs.com, so if they are selling it for a dollar it is at most worth a dollar, and therefore the dollar bin in a record store is not worth looking through 99.99% of the time.
If your looking for rare and expensive vinyl then your best bet is going to a record convention/record show. They can be a little difficult to find out about but if your active in the vinyl community, going to the flee market and record stores then you will probable eventually be given a flyer, or see something on Facebook or Twitter if you follow your local record people. I've only ever been to one record show but it was pretty nice. The one I went to had everything from old posters, art, and super niche records. For example there was a guy who had a conspiracy theorist section, and it was a huge section. Anyway, this is where you go if you want to find Strange and rare LP's especially things like original Beatles pressings.
The number one rule of collecting records is; do not go in looking for a specific used LP. if its new that's fine, but if its old and your rummaging through used records don't be dead set on finding this one specific record, if it was popular back when it was released then you will find it eventually and it will probable be very cheap as long as it isn't Beatles, Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, or any huge name like that, that has a large group of devoted fans and collectors all vying for the same records.
For more stuff check out my website http://www.thevinyltalk.com