Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.
Last week we went in search of a Panera Bread. In Kokomo, it was almost a weekly routine to go there for breakfast on the way to church. Everyone in the family loves their bagels so we thought going to one here in Texas might make us miss home a little less. Now when I say we went in search, what I mean is that we asked Mr. Google and he told us that there was one about 10 minutes north of us. We weren't just aimlessly driving around hoping to stumble upon one.
In the strip mall next to the Panera was a Half Priced Books. Despite their name, they sell more than books. They have used VHS, DVD, CDs and even LPs. One of my favorite things to do is flip through used CDs so I jumped right in. Unfortunately the wanted about $9 for a used CD which I think is insane (especially with eBay out there and all the online music stores). Initially I was disappointed since part of the fun of flipping through the piles is the hope that you might find something you want for a decent price. I wandered around the store a little longer and then discovered that below the LPs were other stacks of CDs and they were marked DISCOUNT. I jumped in but did not have the time to devote to it since the family was ready to head home. I made a mental note to get back soon. Today I was able to get back.
I would estimate that there were 2,000 CDs there and all were marked either $3 or $1. Since I am a seasoned pro, it only took me about an hour to flip through them all (that is about a CD every 2 seconds). I ended up selecting 11 CDs but after inspection, 2 of them appeared to have too many surface scratches so I put them back. Of the remaining 9 that passed the grade, 5 of the CDs were $3 each and the other 4 were only $1. I ended up with the following...
- $3 EACH
- Matchbox Twenty, "More Than You Think You Are"
- Matchbox Twenty, "Mad Season"
- Matt Redman, "The Friendship and the Fear"
- Deep Forest, "Deep Forest"
- Deep Forest, "Comparsa"
- $1 EACH
- Steve Bell, "Each Rare Moment" (live in concert)
- Hokus Pick, "Brothers From Different Mothers"
- Scott Blackwell, "Walk on the Wild Side" (out of print)
- Alice Cooper, "Hey Stoopid" (hey, it was only a buck and I actually like the first song)
Now we each have our own taste in music and I am fortunate to like things that others would, oh I don't know, think less enough of to put in the bargain pile. There seemed to be no end in the pile to stuff that I had never heard of but there were lots of CDs that I did recognize but could not justify even $3 (or at times $1) to purchase. There had to be at least 4 copies of "Cosmic Thing" by the B-52's along with many copies of every older Mariah Carey album.
One thing I did see though disappointed me. It was Volume III of Charlie Peacock's "West Coast Diaries." Charlie Peacock is my all time favorite artist. Most of you reading this will never had heard of him. His only claim to fame is co-writing "Every Heartbeat" off of Amy Grant's 1991 multi platinum "Heart In Motion" album. That song went to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Anyway, I got to see Charlie in concert back during that time frame and his music and lyrics have always spoken to me on a personal level. I have just about everything he has ever released. So to see that not only had someone brought in that CD to trade in but that someone else at the store did not consider it worthy enough to escape the bargain bin, well, that really bothered me for some reason. I almost bought it just so it would not have to be there any more (even though I have this on both CD and cassette already).
Anyway, I think I got some pretty good music for my $20.57 (tax included). Faithful reader I do ask 2 things of you this day. Please don't make fun of me for buying "Hey Stoopid" or point out the irony in spending $1 for an album with that title and please, please if you ever see a Charlie Peacock CD in the bargain bin, rescue it, for my sake.
Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.
Jon
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