So a young friend of mine recently got into vinyl. He requested some for Christmas, so I went to my local record shop. I have never shopped for vinyl before. I always go the CD route. Apparently vinyl is way more expensive than I thought it would (should) be. New albums were $22 and used were $15. The new selection was pretty weak and the used selection was pretty...messy...and random. I couldn't find any albums that I love that I would recommend for him.

I was looking for:

Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever
U2 - Joshua Tree
Spoon - Kill The Moonlight
Eagles of Death Metal - Peace Love Death Metal
Frank Black
Cult
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Weakerthans
...and many more

I ended up getting him:
Black Angels - Passover
Iron and Wine - Woman King
U2 - Unforgettable Fire

And I spent $50...I wanted to get him so much more. Where do you guys shop? How much is a normal priced vinyl?

yeah, the price of vinyl really is pretty ridiculous, unfortunately regardless of where you go (at least what I've found)

I’ve actually had some pretty decent luck with eBay when it comes to some of the more common classic rock stuff. You have to be patient, though, and it’s not a good route to go if you’re looking for last minute gifts. You also have to pay close attention to the descriptions and the condition of used records and what’s included.

Amazon is typically a little cheaper than brick and mortars, but then I think it comes down to who you’d rather support.

Vinyl prices did generally go way up a few years ago to the point where many new records were retailing at close to $30 with crazy deluxe editions of everything going for much more than that. But I don’t think the market has really supported that so prices have settled at around $20 for most new records. These days if a band I like puts out a new LP for under $18 it’s almost an automatic buy for me because that’s become such a rarity.

I combed through some bins at Half Price Books and there were some really cheap stuff in there...it was mostly disco, "really bad artists", or groups I've never heard of. I found an ancient (1977) best of ZZ Top for $2, so I got that too. Not sure of the condition, but it was older than most of their popular songs. I guess the typical shopping trip for vinyl is what I experienced.

For anything currently in print and in wide release, Amazon for price, convienience and service is hard to beat. For indie releases, often Bandcamp or direct from the label seems to be best. For used stuff Ebay and Discogs are the biggies, occasionally Musicstack.

Rare titles can be pricey, but you can get loads of solid stuff from the past in good shape for a couple bucks each.Some older releases, especially from the 90s, are just not easy to find so when you do, you'll pay for em just like any hard to find collectable item. Fortunately, a lot of that sort of thing gets reissued more reasonably eventually. For new records, 20-25 seems pretty typical with a decent amount of stuff released below that, and I don't think that's really bad when you consider they were close to 10 bucks a pop back in the late 80s or so before vinyl declined. Adjusted for inflation, they have remained relatively level, outside of the fancy "audiophile" releases that go through the roof. I think we have all gotten so used to have massive free music libraries, buying music seems expensive however you go about it or whatever a place charges anymore.

Reckless is probably the most reasonably-priced online vendor for old stock but their shipping department is slow and someone may have purchased the item you wanted while you were waiting for your order to be filled. Still, worth the effort. Dusty Groove is the same way. Shuga Records are a little pricier but has a good selection for commons.

I've also ordered from Bull Moose out of Maine and Craig Moerer out of Oregon in the past. For the best prices on new releases/reissues, importCDs is pretty great too.

Rough Trade & Norman Records sort me out (apart from car boot, charity shops, auctions etc)

heyyyy timmmmay. I can hook you up with all those titles in mint condition. Gonna sell my collection to invest in crypto!

Lol. Sounds great. Maybe we should go in on the Debi Thomas inspired Karat Bars. I heard about them during the Olympics so they have to be legit!
https://www.karatbars.com/