How Buying Vinyl Has Changed, and Where to Get it in Billings

I never knew what had happened at the time. And I couldn't even tell you what year it was. But it was the last time that I would buy a vinyl album.

As I was walking through the Heights Target last week, I walked by a big display of vinyl albums. There were older albums from folks like Tom Petty, Pink Floyd, and ABBA. They also had Carrie Underwoods' gospel album. But they wanted $23.99 for it. And this made me wonder, what percentage of people are buying vinyl again? I've got a turntable. In a box. Where it has lived for sixteen years when I moved into my current house.

If you're not old enough to remember, you used to be able to buy records at Montgomery Ward, J.C. Penney, and Sears. Later came the music stores in the mall and later, Budget Records and Tapes. Now you can ask Google to play you almost any song recorded in modern history. So I was surprised to see a major retailer selling vinyl again. I have not set foot in Cameron Records, Smiling Dog Records, or Ernie Novembers here in town, but they must be doing something right because they are still open for business.

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June 12th and July 17th are Record Store Days this year. This is a promotion that highlights new releases and tries to pump a little business into these small, independent record stores, and I think that all these places will buy your old vinyl. Just don't expect to get rich from your Columbia House collection. But at least you'll be rid of it.

And one of the more common record questions that we have received through the years is "Do you think that my album is worth a bunch of money?" If you've never taken the cellophane off of it, never played it and it's not bent, then probably still, no, but it's nice to dream isn't it?