Face Records NYC — Local services in New York

This place may be worth going out of your way once to check out, but if you regularly buy Japanese records you will quickly exhaust its purpose. This place is primarily a City Pop gimmick/novelty store that sells OG pressings of the same 20-25 trending titles at inflated prices. On social media and in the store they primarily push the same titles by the same trending City Pop artists over and over (e.g. Mariya Takeuchi, Anri, Tatsuro Yamashita). Cool, but their business model seems to entirely focus on stocking these same titles over and over, which gets old very fast.

Also, INCONSISTENT WITH BUYING/TRADING RECORDS IN STORE!!! I one time brought a single LP for trade and got a good $10 in credit for it (sells on Discogs for ~$20). Next time I tried to sell them similar records (some which would sell for a little bit more), they say "I can't take this it's all cheap and I'm going to Japan soon." Wouldn't even give me some measly store credit for the lot of them (would have preferred that--primary reason I went to the store that day was to unload a stack of records that I was expecting at least $15 in credit for). By the way, their website literally says, verbatim, in their “Sell Your Vinyls” policy: “We will also collect records that have not been priced, If there are any records with no price, we can collect at the same time... Want to clean up your collection or clean records of belongings of the departed in your home.” But they didn’t offer this to me!

Finally, as much as I want to support my local record store (even though Face Records is actually a franchise in Japan), I'm not going to pay $180+ for something I can find on Discogs in better condition for $100. They also sell a bunch of stuff that should be $10 for $30+ (e.g. all the Seiko Matsuda LPs that are VG at best going for $35). I've dealt with them on Discogs before too and found that the record gradings were somewhat too liberal.

I'll probably still order a record here and there via one of the various Face Records stores on Discogs, but they have so many other competitors that I prefer to deal with, so that would be occasional (i.e., MION Records for example--they...

I like this store, a lot. They have so many rare Japanese records, it's not even funny.

Most of, if not all of their records are in immaculate condition. And for such a small collection, if you're into Japanese music, they have a LOT to look through. You're looking to spend in the hundreds for a few records.

However, I have two problems with this place:

While some albums are reasonably priced, I have seen some albums going for $300. A simple ebay search, and I found the same records going for $75-$150 with equal condition. I have come here several times and found something I wanted, and checked ebay or discogs and just bought the album from there. Why spend $200 when I can spend $50.

They only give paper bags. Most shops in Japan; even smaller ones than this have nice plastic or vinyl record bags. I have a problem with buying a $175 record, and taking it home on a rainy day in an unlabeled paper bag, which it could get ruined. Though, the solution to this is just bring your own protective bag, but they should have some their self. Nothing I love more than collecting record shop bags with the records I buy from there.

If they can improve this, I will buy more from them, but till then,...

The vinyl shops in NYC have nothing on what Face Records NYC has to offer when it comes to Japanese albums.

This is the SPOT for everything 50s to now. Video game music, ambient, jazz, rock, rap, anime, heck they even have American music but pressed in Japan for a visually pleasing cover of your favorites.

Two listening stations are in the store for already opened vinyls and the staff is helpful in allowing you to sample the more expensive from the wall works as well. I'm after some more contemporary indie rock and they're going to try and get them in from their Tokyo store!

Normally I pick through the new sections for hours for anything city pop, but here they have such a large volume you get, as one would say, "lost in the sauce" trying to ground yourself in their selection. Go in with intent for a certain sound and leave with a treasure trove.

Albeit expensive in comparison to other shops, it is still cheaper than anything online for most records since the import costs are part of the larger price tag. Really this is a discount store for the truly rare gems of the music world!

What are you waiting for? Go check out Face Records NYC and diversify/grow...