The Record Man

Found what I was looking for on Amazon, and noticed most were here, only a short trip away. They held the CDs for me (for *2 days* a week before Xmas!). There was a huge selection of my particular genre (habit) and got 14 CDs for about $ 70. Thanks for everything!

Tests one’s resolve, but if you make the effort, climb the ladders, diligently search you can often find exactly what you’re looking for – often in shrinkwrapped mint condtion unopened since the 1980s. No super-​bargains cause he always checks eBay etc. when pricing out the vinyl, but fair is fair. Ain’t making any more of these discs, in general, so it’s worth supporting someone who is willing to maintain such a huge well-​organized inventory and stay open til 9 PM every day!
And, one of the caretakers there once gave me a detailed seminar in needle science including microscope inspection of a few.
My only disappointment so far is not being able to find any Italo disco in there, but this genre is so obscure in America that it’s not surprising… not too many of those discs ever made it across the Atlantic.

I should have come here first and read the reviews! They have a ton of ‘crappy’ records and they’re asking 3 – 6 times the going rate per title. All those reissues and represses they’re trying to rape customers for more than originals go for! I’ll never be back to this dump. Heed my warning if you haven’t gone in to this place before. Amoeba smokes in selection and pricing.

Ghairy is a load and the people defending the store amidst these reviews have no records. Sure, the jampacked rooms and shelving are Willy Wonkaesque, but don’t confuse quantity with quality. There is something to be said for an old fashioned record store where someone needs needs Led Zeppelin — Presence, walks in, grabs a copy, and immediately goes on their merry way, great that Ghairy can fill that void. Except the customer is going to pay 3x to 4x market rate to a tool, with condition often being off. If you’re looking for weird or unusual stuff, forget it, there is so much garbage to sift through. The fact that nothing is priced should be a major red flag — want to have some fun? Pull ten of the most boring, undesirable LPs you can find then ask for pricing. At least you’ll leave with a smile.

This is a interesting record shop.
If you are looking for difficult to find Vinyl at market prices, this place is great. You probably will not find a «steal» in the main (front) area where the hard to find stuff is but the reviews that say the prices are high are (I assume) from people who are used to scouring bins to find a dusty treasure. If that’s not you, this isn’t a terrible place to find a piece of vinyl to listen to.
For people who are starting a collection they have a great overflow area in the back where all albums are $ 5. I always go there first to check cause there are some really good finds to be had. Nothing that is rare but lots of collection starter material.
All records I’ve bought are in really good condition (even in the $ 5 area) and there are turntables all over where you can give the records a listen.
Guys in the front who price your records are eccentric for sure and I can see how they’d rub someone the wrong way. I’m not too bothered. The kids they have working in the back are always nice enough.

I took the hour drive to go record shopping in spite of the multitude of bad reviews on here. I’m glad I did. I found piles of records I’ve looked for everywhere and never see, especially in good condition. I left the records on the counter and they were priced while I continued browsing.
The fact is nobody is under a court order to buy a record if they disagree with the price. I bought most of what I selected and passed on a few I think I’ll find at lower prices. I left an extremely happy camper with 3 of the 5 records I’ve been hunting for over a year.
If The Record Man has vinyl you can’t find anywhere else why shouldn’t he price his records accordingly? I didn’t find his prices on the premium records any higher than any other store only he has much more to choose from.
I’ll be back, probably next week.

This place was absolutely trash. A young brunette woman gave me and my girlfriend the worst customer experience I’ve ever had at any music related store. The place smells bad, the music selection seems biased, and is just plain uncomfortable to be in.

Was unsure about heading here after reading some of the reviews, but couldn’t resist the large selection. Gary showed us around and was extremely helpful and upfront about pricing. We signed up for the mailing list to be notified about sales and we spent ages looking through the store. Found some great additions to our collection and some to come back at a later date to purchase.

I only had time to look at the jazz section so I’ll just speak to that:
I know that jazz sections are often the most-​picked-​over of all sections in vinyl shops, so I expect to do some digging and to – maybe – find something not-​so-​collectible in terms of either well-​known-​ness or condition. Because your average jazz head wants things in good shape, it can fun to find banged up copies of classic or collectible shit for cheap.
Because of variances in condition, it helps if records are marked with prices, especially if the selection is large. This is because it sucks to look through big stacks of dusty-​ass records if you don’t have a sense of whether the shop is looking to (even a little bit) rip fools off. Imagine you spend a ton of time digging, find some stuff, and take it to the counter only to find out it’s priced way higher than reasonable.
In this case, she told me straight-​up, «most of these are $ 16-​$ 20», which I learned – as I was looking through – was crazy, because there are a TON of crap records to sift through. One good thing is they’re all alphabetical, which helped it go quicker.
(not sure if they’re trying to capitalize on vinyl being «in» again, or what)
Bottom-​line: if you expect people to browse through a lot of dusty stuff, there should be some level of price reduction – below average mailorder values. If you just blanket price things at $ 16 – 20, you are sending the message that: 1) you don’t care what records are typically going for out in the world 2) you don’t care about your shopper 3) you want to (a little bit) rip people off.
I won’t be back mainly out of the principle of the thing.

I can’t understand why people reviews are so harsh especially if you consider what another reviewer said «record stores are going the way off the dodo»!
I’ll lay it out for you…
1. Yes the store is dusty, but what do expect, it’s only Gary, King (dog), Mike, Gary’s wife when she is around, and whichever high school kid is working there at the time to man, clean, and upkeep a huge store with an amazingly huge selection. Keep in mind this store isn’t a chain like Rasputin or Amoeba.
2. People keep complaining about prices. I have been going to the record man for years and have also paid near fair prices. The staff there price match against Amazon and Ebay and only charge a little extra to cover their operations cost just like any other small business store. And yes the best times to buy in bulk are during the sales.
3. You can listen to anything any time! No questions ask as long as you know what you are doing and if you don’t, they will teach you.
4. HUGE COLLECTION WITH SOME RARE AND UNIQUE STUFF
5. I was a record novice there and they totally taught me what I needed to know as far as record players, speakers, and quality inspection of the vinyl and how to clean them.
6. Say you walk in knowing only that you wanna walk out with some blues albums but you don’t really know the genre. All you gotta do is ask Gary or Mike and if they aren’t busy they will walk you over to the right section and spend some time pointing out different artists to you and wait with you while you listen to the vinyl to see if you like it and if you don’t they point you in another direction. BOTTOM LINE IS THESE DUDES KNOW MUSIC!
7. Don’t be a tool when you walk in, say hi and ask to be shown to the section your looking for. They know their store.
8. The store is the only decent record store in the peninsula that has such a dope collection. You would have to drive to the City or San Jose to find a rival selection and who wants to do that on a week day night.
That’s all I got and I hope it helps shed some light on one of the peninsulas golden stores.

The Record Man has the best selection of any record store I have been to or ever heard of. If you are a genuine vinyl connoisseur and prefer to examine the goods before buying, this is the place. They have a shipping container full of wax 78s. They have hundreds of incredibly rare Sun 45s. If you’re looking for something more pedestrian like classic rock or jazz, they are your best bet to find an unplayed first pressing in shrink wrap. Yes, you will pay real money for the merchandise, but the quality and selection are unrivaled. Bargain hunters can find plenty of deals at their occasional 2 for 1 and parking lot sales, when they sell overstock for a buck a disc.

Amazing Service! The girl they have working there showed us around, showed us how to use the new turn table we bought and explained all about records! super friendly and great prices; very fair.

Another «this place sucks,» and «this place rocks» establishment in Redwood City.
Sucks: disorganized, dusty, funky customer service, and high prices.
Rocks: rare records, awesome sales (holiday and late summer), being able to listen to anything in the store, and funky customer service.
Choose your own adventure, but remember, record stores are going the way of the Dodo.

What can I say that hasn’t been said in multiple reviews already?
The stock is amazing, the prices are ridiculous! The best time to hit him is during one of his ‘in store’ sales when it’s buy 1 get 1 ½ off.
In a crazy twist of fate I notice that a reviewer below mentions paying $ 20 for a Suicidal Tendencies record that I turned down at $ 15 during one of their sales… That is a prime example of the problem with no fixed prices in this place! Fixed pricing would also eliminate those ‘awkward moments’ when you tell the counter staff ‘No’ after they spent 30 minutes figuring out a price for you. This usually results in the ‘stink eye’!
Also if you ask him, and he’ll let you look, those massive storage trailers in his lot are filled with punk, metal, psyche and all kinds of stuff… But most of that stuff you’ll find for less on Ebay. I pulled out a 7″ that I could still mailorder from the band and was quoted $ 30!
A wacky place that’s always fun to cruise around in, but it gets tougher all the time to buy there!

Exorbitant prices. Everything, even promo singles that you’d see in the 50 cent/​dollar bins are $ 15, starting.
I suppose if you’re looking for something in particular, you could call and have them scour for you and pay the piper.
Don’t bother with this place, you’ll leave disappointed.

The Record Man is a total ripoff! I had a full Nintendo 64 console game system with all the Mario games. Being a Mom and not really knowing what the value was I sold the complete unit to him for $ 64.00. He told me he didn’t have that much cash available and to come back with my receipt he would reimburse me then. When I went back a couple weeks later he told me the receipt was not his and would not honor it… Really… I lost a Nintendo 64 w all the Mario games worth way more than what he offered me. I will not return to that store again. He probably sold my game equipment for well over $ 500 or more. Each one of the games we had sells for $ 200 to $ 300 on EBay. He totally ripped me off. Never to go there again!

First off, let me start off by saying that this shop is Overwhelming at first, when you step in there you forget what artist you like and don’t like. the store is literally wall to wall records.
One of the problems ive had i guess has to do with my music taste.
If you like Heavy Music like i do, this place is not for you. Let me clarify, if you like music other than Classic rock/​jazz/​reggae, good luck finding it here.
Sometimes i wonder if he knows what music genres are, Gary Saxon, the owner has a «great» selection of what he calls «thrash and speed metal» under this Genre are, Ac/​Dc, Black Sabbath (not even the early albums), a few other unknown bands until you get to Kiss (yes he considers them thrash metal), and then Quiet Riot. All these are originals which are priced for about 20 bucks each for the ones i happen to pick.
Punk Rock bands, i didn’t actually happen to find any i have heard of, if the bands are after 1980s they wont have it, but seeing as they don’t have The Screamers, Dead Kennedys, or the Misfits, but instead have the soundtrack to Escape from New York, one must really wounder what kind of musical interest the person ordering or collecting these must have.
inside the store are what he believes to be pure gold records. trying to charge me 30 bucks for a chipped dark side of the moon record which i later found at Vinyl solution (not trying to say its better its just the only thing we got in out city except for the goodwills) for 4 dollars. Seriously
From the Record Man i have purchased multiple original albums, here are the prices ive paid.
America-​Greatest hits, 18
The Beatles-​Hey Jude compilation album (reprint) 18
CCR-​Willy and the Poor Boys– 15
The Doors– L. A woman– 25
King Crimson –In the court of the crimson king (album cover is worn down seriously and the song Moonchild has a scratch during it) 38 bucks. let me inform you also that a week later i went down to Vinyl solution and saw a re issue double 180 gram LP for 25 bucks sealed. damn, well what can you do ya’know?
Led Zeppelin– Houses of the Holy– 30
In Through the Out Door– 16 (surprised me!)
Malo– Malo– 24
Suicidal Tendencies– Join the Army– 20
Sir Douglass Quintet — Honkey Blues– 36
Queen– Greatest Hits– 20
Quiet Riot– Metal Health 18
Rush– Exit through stage left– 16
I also bought a record player at the record man for 75 bucks and still works great to this day! easily the best/​most reasonably priced item ive bought til this day there.
I walked to the shop today after work because i was reminded of his Yearly Sale through Email. i show up at around 6:08 and Gary the owner is standing outside with potential sellers for him. In the truck bed there were about 4 – 6 cases of what looked like to be old records someone must be trying to sell. seeing that these are the only boxes now in the entire lot i ask if they’re for sale. the man with the truck smiles and said yea! Gary the owner looked over his shoulder and told me to «not interfere». to not interfere? a reapeting customer asks if you have anything for sale and you told me to not interfere? Alright man you got me. I wont interfere anymore!
I really like the other Man in the store i believe someone said his name was NIck?
But if ebay doesnt have a steady price for the records, Gary will come in, eyeball the record then you and give you a price.
Ive been coming in there for the past year and have spent 400+ dollars on records and its safe to say i will not return.
Sorry, You seemed like a cool dude until you blew up in my face.

Rip off and the guy is a dick. Really gonna use eBay to price your records? We aren’t stupid..

Bait and switch, very rude, picked over
I picked out a handful of records and they were priced at the counter. I could see in the reflection he prices them based on the top-​selling eBay price, plus shipping. It is practices like this that ensure a demise in today’s economy.

The owner is a bait and switch a$$hole. Owner told me that most records that I was looking at range in price from $ 10 to $ 15 — I searched for 2 hours and then the owner had the balls to price everything I wanted at exactly $ 26.
ME: «what happened to the $ 10 to $ 15 price per lp???
OWNER: «I told you it was $ 15 to $ 25»
So not only did he lie in my face, but he priced everything over his imaginary $ 25 price maximum that he quoted me the second time. I’ve been collecting records forever, I’ve seen every type of jerk-​off record dealer — but this guy takes 1^st prize.
We exchanged words and I left. This is why people would rather buy on Ebay or at the flea markets — which I recommend or SF record dealers (who actually price their stuff before hand)
The owner tries to come off as some sort of «cool» record dude, but he’s just some bald headed prick hoarder who would rather keep everything and taunt clients. Read the other posts, like 10 other people have had the same experience. What a miserable experience.