Earlier this year I teased doing some music countdowns, which, at the time, I had fully anticipated getting to much sooner than I have. And while a combination of general busyness and other interests have delayed my list making, I still intend to do said countdowns at some point; though I won't be making the mistake of saying when that might be again. I'll just play it safe and say that they'll start showing up at some later date.
To my surprise, I actually had some time, and the desire, to work on my music lists a couple of days ago. I only put in about an hour, which just saw me going through CD's and adding my favorite songs to the decade appropriate paper lists that I've got going. It was while doing so that an old memory decided to resurface about a particular CD, which then in turn inspired this post.
I've never been much of an impulse buyer/shopper, as I'm usually one to shop around and make sure I get whatever it is I want for the best available price. That being said, I'm not totally immune to making impulse purchases. If I had to guess I'd say that I falter about once every a couple of years or so; and probably haven't made more than ten total impulse purchases in my lifetime.
Music Millennium is the longest running record store in Portland (OR), and while they've always had a great selection, their prices were usually the highest in town, and thus not a place that I frequented very often when I was growing up. My mom's friend, Bob, had a record store that was much easier on the wallet (plus he was really nice and had a solid inventory), and I was also partial to Jackpot Records as well. But we, and then later, I, did go into Music Millennium once or twice a year. It was on one such yearly visit, back around 2000, that I purchased the above CD there. I had already had a couple of Link Wray records for many years by that point, but didn't own any CD's of his, and when I saw this one on that particular day, I, for whatever reason, was not gonna be leaving without it.
I can't remember the exact price, but it was either $24 or $26 (brand new), which was by far the most that I had ever paid for a CD, and to this day is still the most that I have ever paid for a CD. The sticker price did give me pause, albeit very briefly, but again, in that moment, I had to have it; and nothing, including the price, was gonna stop me from getting it! And while it was a lot of money at the time, I still own it all of these years later, and I'm sure if I factored in how many times I've listened to it over the years, the price really wouldn't seem that unreasonable.
This is still the only Link Wray CD that I own. I did at one time have a bootleg live CD, which I can't even remember how I got, but the audio was the shits, so I ended up passing it along to someone else.
Having established the most I've ever paid for a CD, I thought for this post's sake that I'd try to remember what was the highest price I paid for music in other formats, namely on record and cassette.
Probably like 99.9% of my records were acquired long before vinyl became trendy, and were therefor still reasonably priced. I wouldn't put money on it, but I'm pretty sure the most I ever paid for a record was $1.99, and that was from the Value Village that's no longer in Vancouver, WA. There was a stretch there about 10-15 years ago where I'd go in once a week, and pretty much never left without a couple of records (and videos). I'll talk more about that though when I get around to the music countdown (probably during the 80's list).
As far as cassette prices go, that's actually much easier for me to remember, despite the fact that it's going further into my past. Fred Meyer, which if you're not familiar with, is the PNW branch of Kroger (though it was it's own entity way back when), but unlike Kroger, Freddy's has clothes, electronics, toys, etc. Think Target supermarkets long before there were such things. Anyway, when I was a kid they had a killer electronics section (and they had an even better toy section), which included one, sometimes two, depending on which location you were at, whole wall of cassettes (oh, what I wouldn't give to go back and see that again). This was the late 80's and early 90's when cassettes were still king. Not counting singles, which they also had a great selection of, pretty much all of the cassettes were $9.99, and I can recall using much birthday money on getting whatever the latest must have tape was at the time. Unlike most things that used to be expensive that now aren't, I don't regret buying any of my $9.99 tapes, as they brought me a great deal of joy back then, with some of them still doing so to this day (yes, I still listen to cassettes).
I've never been one to solicit comments, but if any of the four people reading this can remember the highest price that they've paid for a piece of music, in any format, and are inclined to share -- well then, consider me interested in hearing about it.
Is this what your Fred Meyer looked like? https://www.wweek.com/culture/2017/06/19/long-lost-video-tape-showing-fred-meyer-electronics-section-in-the-90s-is-the-greatest-time-capsule-ever/
ReplyDeleteI rarely bought music, certainly never paid much for anything that I did buy. I've always been a very casual music listener. Got to admit I never even heard of Link Wray.
Your ability to find things on the internet never ceases to amaze me! Thank you for finding this. And to answer your question, yes, sort of. I don't recall any of the electronic sections from the Portland, Gresham, or Beaverton stores ever being this brightly lit (they had what I can only describe as a mood lighting effect going on), nor do I ever recall them ever being this crowded at any given time. It's too bad the whole area wasn't filmed, but this was still pretty amazing. And to think that it was found on a website for a publication that was famous for going through the garbage cans of local politicians and hosting classified ads from prostitutes in the back of their newspaper.
DeleteAnd I'll just forget that I read that last line of yours :)
That's pretty easy. Last year I picked up the 4LP Deluxe Edition Check Your Head set and paid $125. I doubt I'll ever spend that much again unless they release a deluxe edition of Ill Communication.
ReplyDeleteI went and looked that set up, it appears to be quite elaborate. And after seeing it, I'm kind of surprised that they haven't done one for Ill Communication. One would think that they would've done that album first.
DeleteThe years I wasn't collecting cards, I was collecting music.. and it was common for me to drop $20-30 on a bootleg "import" of a live/rare recording (stuff like Jane's, Pumpkins, Nirvana). Sometimes I'd pony up for UK or Japanese imports of albums I like on CD for a bonus track. I've spent in the neighborhood of $150 a couple times on collectable vinyl or CDs. Only one big such purchase in recent years: the signed Pee-Wee's Big Adventure LP showed off on my blog recently ran me $200.
ReplyDeleteClearly you were all in on the music collecting. Your collection must be quite impressive. I have my fair-share of imports, but mine were almost always gotten, inadvertently, at garage/estate sale for less than a buck. Though, some of the records I mentioned getting at Value Village were imports too. And I figured that you had to have paid a bit for that Pee-Wee album, and was very tempted to ask how much. Thanks for satisfying my curiosity :)
DeleteCan't recall spending much on music, although I've bought a whole lot of LPs, cassettes and CD's in my time (still have many of them). Most of those purchases were one at a time and I remember when LPs were around $8.99. CDs seemed extravagant when they were priced in double digits. I'm sure some compilation I bought might've cost $40?
ReplyDeleteYeah, we didn't get a CD player until like '95 or '96, mostly just because of how expensive CD's were. Even by then they'd still often be $19.99 at a lot of places.
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