Charity Shop Trawl

[cloughie]

A not unfamiliar story at Oxfam in Cirencester yesterday.

The good news:

Four long shelves of classical CDs

Alphabetical by composer, no riffling through browsers needed
Content was good to interesting

The bad:

Only a giraffe could comfortably look at the top shelf
Prices seem to range from £6.99 to £9.99

The result:

No haul for me.
Against my instinct, I did buy one item 'to say I'd been' (to Cirencester, not Oxfam). Piano works by Lennox and Michael Berkeley, Margaret Fingerhut on Chandos, for £6.99 which I now see I could have bought new for £3.00 on Amazon.

Had prices been the charity shop norm of £1.99, I would have probably hauled seven or eight items of possible interest without thinking.

£1.99 - well that's OK for better items but 50p, 75p or maybe £1 is quite usual down here. One shop last Saturday had 50p or 5 for £1.
The hosts may think it appropriate to move a few of the recent entries on the Bargains thread on to this thread!

[visualnickmos]

In my experience of Oxfam shops, they are expensive - no two ways about it. And the other charity shops are usually not worth the bother. Although on my last trip to London, found 2 bargains in one such shop in Crouch End. Two excellent CDs at 99p each! I partially eat my words!

[Conchis]

In my experience of Oxfam shops, they are expensive - no two ways about it. And the other charity shops are usually not worth the bother. Although on my last trip to London, found 2 bargains in one such shop in Crouch End. Two excellent CDs at 99p each! I partially eat my words!

Yes, Oxfam do tend to be more expensive. It's the place where you're least likely to pick up any bargains.

[Cockney Sparrow]

A not unfamiliar story at Oxfam in Cirencester yesterday. .....Prices seem to range from £6.99 to £9.99........
The result:
No haul for me...........I did buy one item Piano works by Lennox and Michael Berkeley, Chandos, for £6.99 which I now see I could have bought new for £3.00 on Amazon.
Had prices been the charity shop norm of £1.99, I would have probably hauled seven or eight items of possible interest without thinking.

Exactly. The manager at my local Oxfam knows of my interest, as I look through, buy the odd vocal score, but seldom buy a CD. When asked if I would come to a special music collectors day, I gave her some feedback - that my days of interest in vinyl (dirt in the grooves, scratches, clicks and pops) were long over. And that I am not interested in buying items at inflated prices - which they almost all are. I did recognise, however, that someone must be willing to pay their prices, so good luck to Oxfam. And that I would likely find CDs cheaper on Amazon. I also mentioned streaming services - for £10/month I can find their offering and much, much more. Or Naxos Music Library free via my library membership. I can listen to an unfamiliar recording, and not have to pay their £6.99 or more to find out if it is really worth retaining. The manager mentioned that sale of CDs generally as well as DVDs are slowing down (it must be the streaming services...)

I also mentioned the removal of a comfortable chair, then of an upholstered office chair, then of a plastic bucket chair so that there is no place to sit and look at the books I might buy. Moreover, every spare space in the shop is filled with "product" - stands of cards, book lights and whatever (Christmas buy a goat in Africa gift vouchers no doubt too) as well as the books, DVDs, vinyl and CDs etc. So I have to clear a space on the window sill to take a pile of books so that I can stand to consider them. These, together with a few other things, lead me to feel that there is lesser consideration of customers, and maximum profit and turnover - on goods which were donated.

The last CD I remember buying from Oxfam, was a result of a Google search for the Torsten Rausch orchestral song-cycle "Mein Herz brennt" - after Rob Cowan played it on the morning programme (in the days when I listened to it) and the CD was not distributed here). The Oxfam shop in Sheffield had it!

OTOH a hospice shop yielded a BIS Sibelius Violin Concerto (original and final versions) a Barbirolli BBC legends and a Lindseys Janacek dis - for £1.50 each. However, a rare event, for me, to find worthwhile CDs in any charity shop......

[Bryn]

A not unfamiliar story at Oxfam in Cirencester yesterday.

The good news:

Four long shelves of classical CDs
Alphabetical by composer, no riffling through browsers needed
Content was good to interesting

The bad:

Only a giraffe could comfortably look at the top shelf
Prices seem to range from £6.99 to £9.99

The result:

No haul for me.
Against my instinct, I did buy one item 'to say I'd been' (to Cirencester, not Oxfam). Piano works by Lennox and Michael Berkeley, Margaret Fingerhut on Chandos, for £6.99 which I now see I could have bought new for £3.00 on Amazon.

Had prices been the charity shop norm of £1.99, I would have probably hauled seven or eight items of possible interest without thinking.

I have long considered the 'catch all' BHF CD price of £2.99 a tad high, but it did not stop me spending nigh on £100 in the Windsor branch some months ago when a massive collection of mainly Chandos items was donated. Lots of decidedly obscure 20th Century works were included.

[pastoralguy]

One of my local charity shops has jumped on the internet bandwagon by placing stickers on their classical discs saying 'minimum price on Amazon is £xx)! An example being a double Testament cd of Gunther a Wand conducting Beethoven's 'Missa Solemnis' and the Eroica symphony. £9.99 is the price (!!) but another label tells me the price on Amazon is £19.99. Needless to say, it's still there three months later.

[Don Petter]

One of my local charity shops has jumped on the internet bandwagon by placing stickers on their classical discs saying 'minimum price on Amazon is £xx)! An example being a double Testament cd of Gunther a Wand conducting Beethoven's 'Missa Solemnus' and the Eroica symphony. £9.99 is the price (!!) but another label tells me the price on Amazon is £19.99. Needless to say, it's still there three months later.

I'm not surprised! The price on Amazon is actually £8.05!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00006S1YO?keywords=WAND%20CHORAL&qid=1441299609&ref_=sr_1_1&s=music&sr=1-1

[Conchis]

I'm not surprised! The price on Amazon is actually £8.05!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...s=music&sr=1-1

Whenever I've been in an Oxfam bookshop, I've noticed how the staff there can be of the rather studios, informed, beetle-browed type - i.e., people who do their research. Your best bet for bargains is usually in places where the staff have no real interest in the items they're selling - it's all just 'product'.

[pastoralguy]

Whenever I've been in an Oxfam bookshop, I've noticed how the staff there can be of the rather studios, informed, beetle-browed type - i.e., people who do their research. Your best bet for bargains is usually in places where the staff have no real interest in the items they're selling - it's all just 'product'.

Such as the complete Perahia Mozart piano concerto set, still sealed(!), for £2.99 in a local charity shop. I did let them keep the penny change...

[Conchis]

Such as the complete Perahia Mozart piano concerto set, still sealed(!), for £2.99 in a local charity shop. I did let them keep the penny change...

You're a man after my own heart! :)

[cloughie]

You're a man after my own heart! :)

Have we become the zoverstock generation of CD buyers where £1.27 has become a yardstick and with the big box set £2 per disc quite expensive?

[pastoralguy]

Wow!

My Cancer Research shop was selling CDs 4 for a pound. So, I got Hickox's 'Peter Grimes', the artist now known as Nig's 'Classical' album (and superb it is too!) and Iestyn Davies 'Arise, my muse' album on Wigmore Hall Live. Unbelievable!

(The Britten has no booklet but, at 50p, I'm not complaining.

[Conchis]

Wow!

My Cancer Research shop was selling CDs 4 for a pound. So, I got Hickox's 'Peter Grimes', the artist now known as Nig's 'Classical' album (and superb it is too!) and Iestyn Davies 'Arise, my muse' album on Wigmore Hall Live. Unbelievable!

(The Britten has no booklet but, at 50p, I'm not complaining.

You're slipping! You could've alerted them to the absence of said booklet and asked for a 20% discount...



:)

[Conchis]

Last week, in Belper, I picked up the JEG recording of the St.Matthew Passion for...£2.00

[Conchis]

In Matlock on Saturday:

Keith Jarrett Trio: Birth

Sea Train: Sea Train/Marblehead Messenger (2CD)

Marlena Shaw: Out Of Different Bags/Spice Of Life(2CD)

John Martyn: Sweet Little Mysteries (double CD compilation)

Pharaoh Sanders: Save Our Children

John McLaughlin/Jaco Pastorius/Tony Williams - Trio Of Doom


Total: £6.00