I made it to the Belmont swap meet twice during my holidays but only once as a buyer. During the first weekend of my holidays my fiancée and I went there as sellers and sold a fair amount of stuff including clothes, some of my books, furniture and even a lamp shade that we have tried to sell at the markets on numerous occasions now and this time it finally sold. When I go to sell I try not to buy and I was successful this time. I didn’t even look at another stall.
My second visit, towards the end of my time off, was a buying visit and I came home with a good haul.
It was not until I was halfway through the markets that I finally found something worth buying. Initially the records at this car park bay did not promising. His records were not even in a box. They were stacked up in a haphazard pile on the ground and from a distance I could see a few well worn LP corners. However, I know from experience, that you still have to look, just in case. This was one of those times when it was worth it. The second record from the top was this gem.
The condition of the packaging was great (no water damage on this item) and it had the correct LP inside. The seller was selling all his records for a buck each.
At that price I kept on digging to see what else there was.
There was this Soft Cell album.
It is an LP with bonus tracks that are on a long play 45 included inside.
Also there was an Anne Murray album, that, even though I am no Anne Murray fan, since it had a cover like this, was in good condition and going for a dollar, I just could not pass it by.
Lastly there was this album. I had no idea who Lani Hall was but a quick look at the songs on the back revealed she was doing renditions of two of my favourite Elton John songs (Tiny Dancer and Come Down In Time). With that magical price of a dollar what harm was there.
This album really does live up to the title of “Sun Down Lady” as it is truly a sun down type of album to play when kicking back during the last few minutes of the day. Beautifully mellow and relaxed with great arrangements and some wonderful singing by Linda. Turns out Linda was a vocalist with Brasil ’66 before cutting this as her solo debut. I might have to check out some Brasil ’66 offerings that feature her. A find like this reassures me to keep looking because there is great stuff out there and sometimes at a great price.
The next seller offering records was just a few bays away. These records were in a neat pile and were in an open suitcase. They were all from the 1970s and featured more Leo Sayer albums than I can remember ever seeing in the one place. I had already starting to put aside some of what he had to offer before I remembered to ask him how much he wanted for them. I guess I was spoiled by having just paid a dollar each for records so I was thrown a bit when told $5 dollars each. The seller did add that he would offer a discount if I bough a few. Since I didn’t have a lot of cash set aside for this day’s outing I started to drastically whittle down what I intended to buy from this seller.
I won’t dwell on what I put back but believe me I could have easily bought more than the four items I did select.
Everything on offer was in very good condition and so after much deliberation I bought
- a Bob Welch era Fleetwood Mac album (Bob would commit suicide about two weeks later),
- Heart’s first album
- a solo offering from Graham Bonnet (no, I hadn’t heard of him either but I thought to take a chance)
- and a Ross Ryan album. This last one I picked up as I keep on seeing a CD release of his “My name means horse” in JBs and so wanted to find out what he is like.
Having picked out four records the seller was good to his word and let me have them for $18. All in all, I think I got some great records but I do prefer my prices lower.
Arotulon's Blog 