A1 Record Shop

Amazing amazing selection of records

Dig thru their bins and you are sure to find a gem! I love this place!!!

Nice record store focused mainly on hip-hop, soul, jazz, r'n'b records. The selection of other genres in comparison is very limited. On the other hand, saw some promo recordings from Nine Inch Nails, I guess it's still there, because listeners to that kind of music don't come by that much. ;)

I went to a lot, A LOT of record stores while I was in and around Manhattan, and this is the only one where I found a lot of the stuff I was looking for at a reasonable price. The staff was a little snooty with me until the (I assume) owner pulled the guy running the floor aside and informed him that I had already picked out and agreed to purchase several high dollar records I had him pull from the wall. After that, I was treated like a damn king... which shouldn't really matter. Most record stores are filled with disgruntled staff that think they're better than you. After collecting for 30 years, I've learned that's just a quirk of record shops. However, it is the only thing that kept them from being a 5-star shop for me. Well, that... and their refusal to take a debit card.

As for the selection, don't expect to find "the hits" here, or much pressed after the '80s. But if you're looking for the not-so-easy-to-find stuff... you might find it here. There was a good jazz and punk selection, and the common records were really well priced! Even the higher dollar items I bought were in line with other recent sales of the same titles. You're not going to get screwed over here.

The best way I can describe this place is like if you went into a slightly higher priced Goodwill looking for records, and everyone in the town that had donated records had really good taste in music! The condition of the records for sale generally hung in the VG+ region; played, but well taken care of.

My advice? Carry cash, and lots of it. You won't be leaving with it, but you'll have a big smile for what you do get after parting with that cash!

always like this kind of small place full of records, reminds me of the place i used to work in taiwan, really nice collections from hip-hop to jazz, but i finally got something like mongo santamaria and some salsoul, disco records. think i'll be back again before me leaving nyc, just to see if i can get some classic hip-hop album here.