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| - My experience was pretty typical to the bulk of reviews posted here.
It must be said that Wax Trax has one of the best collections of records you're likely to see. The building was once a house (many years ago), and all three floors are stocked with vinyl. The organization of the records is also quite good--alphabetized, and well stored--no haphazard stacks on the floor or unsorted bins or boxes, everything is shelved. It should also be noted that there is little, if any, "junk" here. I don't like to call ANY records "junk," but you know what I mean...no beat-up, common, generally undesirable thrift store fodder here.
Unfortunately, I found what most of the reviewers say here to be true: the prices at Wax Trax aren't just "high," they're generally nonsensical. I am more than willing to pay more for a record from an actual record store than I would pay online, if for no other reason than to support a local record store. But the prices Rich asks are, in my opinion, borderline insulting. Don't get me wrong: it's HIS store, and HIS records. He can ask whatever price he wants, and if he can get these prices from some people (European or Asian tourists, wealthy locals, or Elton John), I say more power to him. But no amount of chest thumping from him--or the small but fiercely loyal contingent of collectors who defend him--will change the FACT that many of the prices he quotes are simply out of line. The person in line ahead of me was trying to buy an early-80s pressing of the Beatles' MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR in average condition. When the customer balked at the price, Rich said "Beatles stuff is premium. It's hard to find this record in this nice a shape." (There were several similar copies in his store alone...and it's THE BEATLES, for God's sake...so why he thinks that particular record is so rare and/or valuable is beyond me).
One thing I found, contrary to a lot of the reviews I see here, was that Rich was not particularly rude or pushy. He did ask me, more than once, what I was looking for, but once he directed me to where my ideal records may be found, he pretty much left me alone. He quoted me a price for the small stack of records I handed him, none of which were especially rare nor in especially pristine condition. The price was, quite simply, out of my price range, and I told him so (the price was also unreasonable, but I saw no need to pick that fight). I did not get angry, nor did he. The only hint of rudeness he showed me was when I made an off-handed comment about my wife "killing me" if I spent that much, he shook his head and said "oh, you're one of those." One of those? You mean...a married man, whose wife might rightly get a little angry if I spent this month's mortgage payment on a stack of records I can get across town for $50? Um...yeah, I guess I'm "one of those." I'll just have to live with his scorn, and the burden of being a responsible adult with realistic money management skills. If that keeps me out of the Record Collector's Hall of Fame, I'll get by somehow.
Honestly, that was as close to "rude" as he got with me, and it was nothing I couldn't handle. Apart from that, I found him rather pleasant. To be fair, I was probably ruder to him than he was to me; he asked how big my collection was, and I curtly replied "that's not relevant." I hated to be standoffish, but I have found that questions like that are usually intended to size me up, and I don't play that game.
Bottom line is that Wax Trax does have an amazing inventory. I mean, amazing. There were some records in the stack I tried to buy that I REALLY wanted, and they were records I had never seen anywhere else (except on the internet, of course). If you have the means, or if you need to have your collector's ego stroked by being able to say you spent enough money to buy a small car on some records, check it out.
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