Cheapo Records — Local services in Saint Paul

One of the last remaining dinosaur music shops, and thank effing god.

Selling your old CDs/DVDs/BDs is easy, and for a milk crate or grocery bag full of items it might take them 30-45 mins to go through (on a weekday). I've made back probably close to $1k selling stuff to them when I was pruning my then-massive collections. They'll tell you you won't get a whole lot for your discs and it's true, but some rare or out of print stuff will obviously get you more money. The thing is... After you sell your stuff you'll just want to turn around and buy more, haha! Beware!

They get a good amount of some of the more obscure new release titles in stock, which is a nice alternative to places like Best Buy that only carry the most popular stuff or run out of lesser-known bands due to underestimating demand. I was able to find multiple copies of Tuxedomoon's "Blue Velvet Revisited", as well as both new Twin Peaks soundtracks, the day each came out, after 6pm. They'll order stuff in for you too, if you ask.

Shopping there is a lot of fun. Good atmosphere with all types of music being played at any given time. Movies are in the front of the store, used & new CDs with new vinyl sections in the middle, used vinyl in back, and cassettes along with shirts and other memoribilia along the walls. Listening stations for records & CDs are in front of the registers. Everything is sorted out A-Z by genre except the New Arrivals section. Many a time have I lost myself for a couple hours or more just flipping through Everything, and this place is hard to walk out of without spending around $50, haha.

Only real downside is that yeah, of course you'll pay more here than you would on Amazon or another online seller (for new items; Used prices are the standard to be expected), but it's worth it if you want something the day it comes out or just want to have fun wasting some time looking through music. They gotta pay their bills so I don't mind paying an extra few bucks here and there. Plus, it's only been legit busy there around Christmas, and it's a great place to meet fellow...

I visited Cheapo, Know Name and Electric fetus to sell some of my early 80s post punk/indie/British CDs. Cheapo had the best selection of used CDs. They put out dozens to 100 or so (new to them ) used CDs every day organized by day of the week "new releases ". Out of my 60 or so CDs they were interested in six or seven of them, as these were in near mint condition (early cure, psychedelic furs, etc.). They're really not interested in anything with any kind of scuff or blemish on the disc. I got about two dollars per CD. Know name seems to cater more to the one dollar crowd, with very little outside of the mainstream pop artists. Electric fetus definitely concentrates on vinyl. They had a surprisingly small number of used CDs. I didn't ask, but maybe they are getting out of the used CD business? Super fun...

Super helpful staff, friendly, and great deals on used vinyl. I've found some pretty amazing gems for a great price. They also have a pretty good selection of new vinyl as well. I wouldn't go so far as to say they have an amazing new vinyl selection — I personally think they could stock more — but I'm sure that whatever they don't have they could probably special-order it for you

The only real improvement that I'd love to see though is the smell — it smells like a used goods store, like stale musty basement. I'm sure if they used one of those "loyalty scent" services like the Apple Store (and other places) use, I'd probably end up spending way too much time and money there. So maybe it's a good thing it smells like old basement — it saves me from crushing my...