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| - No. Just, no.
After seeing Dave's Music Mine win the reader's poll for Best Record Store in Pittsburgh yet again and having been gifted a Groupon to get 30 bucks' worth of used music, I finally had a reason to venture in here. I walked out not buying a single thing, though I did have three things in my hand before deciding to split without making a purchase, but they were albums I was just grasping onto to have some reason to use the Groupon. After walking out, I offered to reimburse the price for the Groupon, as I felt bad for not finding anything I even halfway wanted.
If you regularly read my record store reviews, on here, then you know how much I love Jerry's. You know that I sort of liked The Attic, but just found it a bit cramped and hard to browse through the vinyl. You're more than aware of my affinity for the various Half Price Books stores and going on vinyl hunts there. But Dave.s felt like I was rummaging through someone's collection who had vinyl as an afterthought and really didn't care what he did or didn't have.
Having read the reviews on here, I was hoping to go downstairs to the used vinyl and find all sorts of amazing things. What I found was a haphazard collection of disappointment. I found the racks to have placeholders for all sorts of bands and artists I would have loved to peruse, but in the end that's all they wound up being - placeholders. Other things I was interested in getting started out looking good on one side of the record, and then be wrecked on the other side when there would be a deep gouge or scratch through it. My question is does no one inspect this stuff, and if so, why would you sell it for more than a quarter at best? This kind of crap damages needles.
Anyway, I found one album downstairs that I sort of thought I wanted. Disappointed, I ventured back upstairs and started looking through the used CDs. I'm sorry, but $9.99 for a used CD? Are you kidding me? You can get these things for a fraction of that elsewhere. Anywhere, really, as the choice here isn't that mind blowing. It's certainly not like the selection out at Princeton Record Exchange where you can browse for an hour or so and find excellent deals. I got the feeling I was browsing through some '90s college kid's collection. Ah, yes. Please let me have that R.E.M. disc for eight dollars.
Dave's does have a new vinyl section, and maybe that's what some customers really dig here. Yet I can also wander in to an Barnes and Noble and find a selection about as big as Dave's. So take that into consideration, hipsters. Next to that section, there's also a "just in" used vinyl section that wasn't any better than the stuff they had downstairs or the regular one and two dollar section of Half Price Books' vinyl stuff.
Dave's also has a lot of DVD lining the walls, but I don't usually do much of my DVD or Bluray buying at places like this, but that's strictly personal preference. I didn't check out the prices on these as I wasn't interested, so have no comment there. I can assume they were on par with other used movie places.
The guys running the store seemed friendly enough and were doing some haggling with a guy who wanted to buy some TV series on DVD. I just wasn't wowed. For vinyl, Dave's is a major disappointment. Jerry's is still the best in my eyes. But, people still love CDs and movies and all those things, and Dave's is right down in the Sou'side, so the location is more convenient, and I understand all these things are bigger factors for other shoppers. I'll eventually probably go back to use the Groupon before it expires, but I'm in no hurry. So, if you're into vinyl as well, you may want to steer clear here. If you're into bargain CDs, you might want to give it a look, but don't be surprised if you leave with less than you expected. I wish my experience had been the exact opposite of this as I had been looking forward to going to Dave's for quite a while.
Although, this does remind me of the one year The Olive Garden was voted in as best Italian restaurant in Pittsburgh. So there's that. And that's even more depressing.
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