We’re here in the midst of the holiday season and gifting will be in full force soon enough as we all make preparations.  I hope this wording makes it sound very regimented and official.  The purpose of this post is just to suggest a few easy suggestions for people you might not know exactly what to get, but you know they like this store.  

Also, feel free to give your folks (or friends, acquaintances, etc.) a list that we can help them with.  We promise not to bite them.  In fact, we’ll help them find exactly what it is that’s on the list (or let them know when we can have the item in question in – hurry! We only have a couple more orders coming in before all the exchanges between loved ones goes down.). 

 We just had these new Gift Certificates designed by our friend Todd (Teaessare; the maker of our sign, designer of our stickers and a few shirts).  They came out great.  I think anyone would be psyched to see this (a little more psyched than our old plain old paper ones – of course, if you’re loved ones came in before today they got that so please be extra excited that they planned so far in advance for you. Rule of thumb: be excited about stuff.).

Record cleaning kits are always a nice idea for a new collector or even for an old collector of records who might not have one (or if their old one is now pretty grimey).  We have a couple to choose from.  Right now, this one pictured is the only one in stock.  We’ll have more (of both models we stock) in on Wednesday after 3PM.  

In the spirit of keeping up the maintenance of a record collection we also would suggest Poly Sleeves (bags) for any collection.  Keeping your records bagged is a simple way to keep the outer jackets intact (protection from dust, from friction wear, etc.).  We carry them in 4ML and 3ML weights (4ML being the thicker of the two and what we use to bag all used stuff and any unsealed new stuff).  We are currently out of stock of LP sizes right now (there’s been a big rush lately – perhaps other people knew what we’re telling you now).  We have 7″ bags in stock and we will have more LP sized ones in on Monday after 3PM.  

And second to lastly, we can’t not mention the fact that we sell record players.  Maybe you’re in the market for a new one or you know someone who is.  We sell the Numark TTUSB ($120) which is a great introductory turntable that also can be used to rip vinyl to your computer.  It comes with the software.  Josh owns one of these and likes it a lot.  If you’re looking to move to an introductory audiophile grade turntable we carry the Rega RP1 ($400).  It’s very no-nonsense and straightforward. It plays records and has virtually no mechanical noise to speak of. If you’ve seen the P1 model at the front of our shop (pictured below) and if you’ve heard it you might know exactly why we love it.  The RP1 is the update to the P1 (in case you didn’t get that). 

And books! Books! We carry books dealing in may aspects of music and some that are just left of center and have only tertiary musical connections.