Record Swap — Local services in Urbana

Record Swap offers used vinyl of varying quality at collector prices. I was hoping to pick up a few classics on vinyl at reasonable used prices, but what I found instead was a selection of classic albums for $15-25. I like buying vinyl, but I'm not a fanatic and there is absolutely no way I'm paying $15-25 for a well-worn LP when I can buy a brand new CD for $10-15.

Sadly, you won't find any bargains here. Basically, if it's a classic album, you're going to pay extra for it. Even the most ubiquitous, widely available ABBA album is going to run you $6-10. It's simply too much when I can go to Exile on Main (also in Champaign-Urbana) and find it for less.

The shop is dumpy and the owner is as apathetic as it gets. He's not a pretentious record store worker; he just doesn't care if you're there or not. This is not a huge deal for me. Really, it comes down to the prices. It's as if the owner thinks everything he buys is Near Mint and priced accordingly (plus a markup for popular albums), when most of the records are Very...

I had read the other review prior to coming into Record Swap today, and I realized something. The review prior to mine was obviously written by someone who works for Exile trying to slam another record store.

Exile is not a bad spot. This is not a slam statement. This is a review.

The guy at this store is simply amazing, and takes quite an intrest in his customers! He knows his music, knows what is in the store and great with conversation!

The selection is incredible! This is the first real record shop I've seen in Illinois outside of Chicago.

The prices are perfectly fair, unlike the review before. It was honestly misleading. My experience was the exact opposite from what was said before.

If your looking to do some serious digging, in a loaded store, this place is a gold mine. It's crazy how well it's sorted too.

The other two record stores in town are pretty good, it depends on what your looking for, but this is officially...

I had bought a vinyl that I was having trouble with playing on my record player. After returning to the store with the vinyl, they had gotten it to work on their record player, offered and sold me a record player and vinyl cleaning kit, and gave me many suggestions as to how to improve my vinyl listening experience at home. I got home and used the cleaning kit, and sure enough, I listened to the whole vinyl with no problems (for those curious it was Arctic Monkey's AM). Every employee I talked too, I specifically remember Andrew, were very helpful and I would highly recommend checking this store out if you are at all interested in vinyls,...