Half Price Books

[Hot Ptah]

I have been amazed at the three Half Price Books stores in my metro area, Kansas City. They have a surprisingly good variety of jazz CDs, vinyl and books, at prices which range from low to ridiculously low (like $1 for a new CD of a major artist).

I have picked up many jazz biographies there in the books section. The CD section often has avant garde jazz that I want, in addition to other styles. They always seem to carry many Proper box sets.

The decor (or lack thereof) of the stores makes it seem like the selection will be relentlessly Middle-American, but that is not the case. They certainly do not pay much for stuff that you bring in, so I don't even try to trade.

Are these observations unique to the Kansas City area stores? What is Half Price Books like in your town?

[JSngry]

We got a bunch of 'em. Most are interesting, if highly variable from visit to visit.

I'll put it this way - I'll never not stop at one if I haven't been inside it for a few months.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Useless. The main retailers are useless, too, nowadays.

MG

[jazzbo]

Here in Austin I used to frequent these stores weekly, and though the jazz interest is higher in books, and not really that high (I hardly ever found music there I wanted to buy) I did buy lots of books in general.

The last eight years without a car and the closing of the best of the stores near me has meant I haven't visited too often at all.

[Spontooneous]

I've visited HPB stores in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin and Texas and come away pleased with all of them.

Except Ptah keeps getting the good stuff from the KC stores before I do.

[sheldonm]

I've picked up many books from them, rarely any music. Poor selection for the most part.

Mark~

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

yea yea poor selection for sheldon who only wants to buy unreleased ECM master tapes, but for the rest of us 1/2 price books is great. ive found made great jazz items there, for truly "half price!" I like buying my Susan Surrandon videos and my Jazz in the same place.

[Aggie87]

Can someone tell me when this guy was "fun", as JSngry called it? Insulting someone for stating a valid opinion on something is tasteless.

Edited August 28, 2006 by Aggie87

[JSngry]

The notion of a "consumer" wanting to buy unreleased ECM master tapes (which I've never heard anybody here even remotely suggest) is funny no matter who it is. The notion that anybody who would want such things would be disappointed by not finding them at a HP is just cracko-wacko. Whether or not the dryness of the humor is intentional, the mere premise breaks me up!

Now, Tzewie, here's you chance to crack on me - I passed on a bunch of BN 78s at a HP back in the 70s. All Trad stuff, and I wasn't interested at the time. I also passed on some Bird Dial 78s in the same store a few years later because I had the stuff on LP.

Bust me. I deserve it.

[JSngry]

Can someone tell me when this guy was "fun", as JSngry called it?

I like buying my Susan Surrandon videos and my Jazz in the same place.

That's pretty damn funny if you ask me.

[tatifan]

Useless. The main retailers are useless, too, nowadays.

MG

Well, can a place be useless that usually yields nothing of interest, but then coughs up an $80 copy of the Mosaic Nat King Cole Trio set? Sometimes persistance in the face of overall uselessness yields a gem.......

[JSngry]

Useless. The main retailers are useless, too, nowadays.

MG

Well, can a place be useless that usually yields nothing of interest, but then coughs up an $80 copy of the Mosaic Nat King Cole Trio set? Sometimes persistance in the face of overall uselessness yields a gem.......

I see you're in Houston. I have not had good luck at HPs in either Houston or Austin (other than getting Unity @ the Austin HP back in 79 or so). Maybe it's a DFW thing. This is where the company began (I used to shop in the original store back in the day), so maybe they keep it more lively here. I dunno...

[Dan Gould]

How far south or east does this chain exist? I've never heard of them in south Florida or anywhere in the NY metro area.

[Ron S]

How far south or east does this chain exist? I've never heard of them in south Florida or anywhere in the NY metro area.

Click on "Store Locator"

[Rooster_Ties]

Just today stopped at the HPB about 4 blocks from my house. Here's what I found and bought...

Ingrid Jensen / Project O - "Now As Then" $5.98

Ingrid Jenson (tp), Gary Versace (b3), Jon Wikan (d) - (plus a few other guests on a couple cuts)

Ed Blackwell Trio - "Walls-Bridges" (Black Saint) $7.98

Ed Blackwell, Dewey Redman, and Cameron Brown (ba)

Saw about 8 or 10 used BN McMasters (and not all of them titles I see all the time), most $6 or $7 each, plus some Atlantics, some Impluses. Nothing spectacular, but not all that shabby either -- and probably better than any other used place in town. Plenty I might have bought a few years ago.

We'll worth a visit, twice a month usually.

Edited August 29, 2006 by Rooster_Ties

[tatifan]

BTW, in Houston today I saw multiple copies of the Savoy 2 cd "Modern Red Norvo" and Complete Lester Young sets for $9.98 (and this weekend is 20% off everything, starting Sept. 1, I think). There were a few other Savoys, but mostly compilations. Oh, and the Adderley "Bohemia after Dark" (I gather it's better to pick up the 2 cd Savoy Adderley set if one is interested in that material??).

Edited August 29, 2006 by tatifan

[Big Al]

The last eight years without a car and the closing of the best of the stores near me has meant I haven't visited too often at all.

The store on Guadalupe closed????

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Useless. The main retailers are useless, too, nowadays.

MG

Well, can a place be useless that usually yields nothing of interest, but then coughs up an $80 copy of the Mosaic Nat King Cole Trio set? Sometimes persistance in the face of overall uselessness yields a gem.......

In my town, Cardiff, Wales, they're useless. That's what the thread's about - how are the cheapo bookshops in your town?

MG

[jazzbo]

Yes, and then a store opened on Lamar near Koenig, what was a Randall's. Haven't yet been there.

[Hot Ptah]

MG, Half Price Books is a chain of used bookstores which began in Dallas, Texas and has spread through the Southwest and Midwest U.S. They are different from most cheap used bookstores or music stores. They feature publishers returns and whatever customers bring in (which they pay incredibly low prices for). They are usually located in nice, suburban style shopping centers. They are bright and clean, with white painted walls, bright lights, spotless bathrooms. They attract ordinary people in droves, who would never step foot in a quaint, run down used bookstore or music store. Stereotypical middle class Americans can be seen lugging heavy boxes full of books, records and CDs to their "buy" counter on most visits. I think it is seen as a safe, pleasant way for ordinary people to clean out their houses and get some small pittance for the books and music they don't want to keep around. The clerks are not snobbish and do not act like clerks in most used bookstores or music stores. It is a pleasant, non-intimidating environment.

I picked up a David Sanchez CD for $2 and a World Saxophone Quartet CD for $3 on a recent visit to Half Price Books, together with a hardcover biography of Lionel Hampton for $5.98. I bought a 2 CD set, a Shorty Rogers anthology, brand new in its shrinkwrap, for $1 ("Sweetheart of Sigmund Freud.") There are often 5-10 jazz CDs I could buy at $3.98, 5.98 or 7.98 there--sometimes I exercise control. I have picked up some 32 Jazz label reissues there (such as Don Patterson), some Spanish import label jazz which has been excellent (such as the Peggy Lee cuts which are on her Mosaic box set--but for $7.98), some Proper box sets, some out of print oddities that I had been looking for for years--at $5.98.

Some visits, there's nothing. Some visits, the CDs I had wanted to buy at $7.98 but had exercised rare control over, been moved to the $2 bin.

They also have a great selection of children's books, for what it's worth to some on this board, including collections of 1950s and 1960s books, which are very appealing and often better than the new children's books coming out. Again, all for very low prices.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

MG, Half Price Books is a chain of used bookstores which began in Dallas, Texas and has spread through the Southwest and Midwest U.S. They are different from most cheap used bookstores or music stores. They feature publishers returns and whatever customers bring in (which they pay incredibly low prices for). They are usually located in nice, suburban style shopping centers. They are bright and clean, with white painted walls, bright lights, spotless bathrooms. They attract ordinary people in droves, who would never step foot in a quaint, run down used bookstore or music store. Stereotypical middle class Americans can be seen lugging heavy boxes full of books, records and CDs to their "buy" counter on most visits. I think it is seen as a safe, pleasant way for ordinary people to clean out their houses and get some small pittance for the books and music they don't want to keep around. The clerks are not snobbish and do not act like clerks in most used bookstores or music stores. It is a pleasant, non-intimidating environment.

I picked up a David Sanchez CD for $2 and a World Saxophone Quartet CD for $3 on a recent visit to Half Price Books, together with a hardcover biography of Lionel Hampton for $5.98. I bought a 2 CD set, a Shorty Rogers anthology, brand new in its shrinkwrap, for $1 ("Sweetheart of Sigmund Freud.") There are often 5-10 jazz CDs I could buy at $3.98, 5.98 or 7.98 there--sometimes I exercise control. I have picked up some 32 Jazz label reissues there (such as Don Patterson), some Spanish import label jazz which has been excellent (such as the Peggy Lee cuts which are on her Mosaic box set--but for $7.98), some Proper box sets, some out of print oddities that I had been looking for for years--at $5.98.

Some visits, there's nothing. Some visits, the CDs I had wanted to buy at $7.98 but had exercised rare control over, been moved to the $2 bin.

They also have a great selection of children's books, for what it's worth to some on this board, including collections of 1950s and 1960s books, which are very appealing and often better than the new children's books coming out. Again, all for very low prices.

I didn't realise it was a specific chain. You get the same thing here - they're always crowded - but they only deal in books and there's hardly any on jazz or any other kind of black music. At least in Cardiff - other cities here have a wider range.

MG

[micha]

Half Price Books is my favorite book store though usually I just go for the books, and then quickly scan the cds for the occasional Connoisseur or Rare Groove (which is the most I can usually hope for).

However, one of my local stores has been a gold mine over the past month, with some of the highlights being discs by Air, Henry Threadgill solo, Sun Ra, Vienna Art Orchestra, Rashied Ali, Billy Bang, a couple of World Saxophone Quartet discs (plus a bunch of solo Oliver Lake, two Julius Hemphills, and a David S. Ware), William Hooker, Jimmy Lyons, and other miscellaneous Silkhearts, Hats, Black Lions, ECMs, etc. I also grabbed a few cheap Mingus/Dolphy 1964 live recordings and they had a bunch of McLeans and later Miles Columbia japanese imports. Last time I ended up with a stack of about 15 so I had to skim some out, I'm hoping the WSQ Ellington discs and some of the others I had to pass on will still be waiting by the time I make it back with another paycheck.

[Big Wheel]

Has anyone been to the Berkeley or Fremont stores? Are they worth a cross-Bay trip?

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

CHEWY-CHEW-CHEW-REPORTING-HERE: I CANT BEGIN TO TELL U HOW MANY GREAT CHEAP THINGS IVE FOUND AT 1/2 PRICE BOOKS. 1 TIME I SWEAR TO GOD THEY HAD AT LEAST 20 JAZZ CDS ALL ON 'STEEPLECASE' AND ALL THESE WEIRD ASS MISCULLANIOUS CLIFFORD JORDAN CDS LIKE ON STRATA EAST AND ALL THIS WHAKY SHIT AND I FOUND A BOOTLEG DON BYAS TAPE FOR .49 CENTS AND A VHS VIDEO OF THE GENESIS 'MAMA' TOUR, FOR LIKE 2.99 (THEIR RAREST VIDEO) AND ALSO A COPY OF 'WHITE PALACE', WHICH IS ONLY THE GREATEST SUSUAN SURRANDON MOVIE EVER, FOR 1.00.

[AndrewHill]

Great Story about Half Price. I live in Cleveland and there are four HP's in the area. There is one in Mayfield near Cleveland, that I frequent about once a week. On average you may find the occasional RVG or some other semi-popular jazz release. But last summer I went on vacation and when I came back I went to the Mayfield branch. As soon as I walked in, they had this book cart loaded with cd's with a sign on the side of the cart that said "unique jazz". When I looked closer, they were advant garde cd's from labels like FMP, Hat Art, Intakt, Incus...it was nuts. And they were priced at mostly $6 a piece. When I asked what was going on, it turned out that some dude died and his wife was selling his collection to them. It turned out to be about four huge boxes of cd's, and it took them about 6 months to get it all out, but this collection was phenomenal. I got to look in a couple of boxes and pick out what I wanted, and then I got a lot of stuff at a steal, because they didn't know what they had. I got a ton of Braxton (including a lot of Braxton House Hat Art, Arista, BYG ) Brotz (mostly FMP and Okka Disk) Cecil Taylor (FMP, Leo, Hat Art, Black Saint), Albert Mangelsdorff, Three Origianls, both sets (Both for $8), Bill Dixon: Berlin Abozzi, Thoughts, Ornette: Of Human feelings, and some boots, Last Exit (the hard to find Virgin Venture, Enemy, IMP) etc etc. I probably spent something like $500 dollars once I was done. This guy's collection was just incredible. Oh yeah, and then the stuff that ended up in the dollar bin: AEC's Nice Guys, Peter Kowald's When the sun comes up..., Cecil Taylor's Vienna Concert, Mengesldorff/Scofield on TuTu, Shepp's Splashes, Louis Moholo's Viva le Black: Exile on Ogun, Yves Robert on Evidence (France) Vinny Golia on Nine Winds, Oliver lake, David Murray, Kenny Wheeler, Jan Garbarek, it was just crazy. And that's just a fraction of the collection. There's other standouts like a sealed copy of Dereck Bailey's Solo Giutar on Incus sealed for $6, Horace Tapscott's Dark Tree both volumes on Hat for $6 a piece, Steve Lacy's New York Caper and Quirks sealed on Hat for $4!!! Half Price is cool with me. For that blowout alone, nothing beats it, hands down.