“You’ve got to have variety,” said store owner Bill Herren, whose collection of nearly 5,000 records, displayed in the business and stored in back, provides the bulk of the store’s inventory.
Each album generally sells for $5, $10, $15 or $20. Newly pressed vinyl arrives at the store three or four days a week and consists of actual new albums and reissues of classic albums in an artist’s catalog.
“CDs are fading out and vinyl’s back,” Herren said. “There’s more vinyl sold in the last year that’s been sold since the 1980s … so it’s a good time to do it.”
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Each day’s new shipment is highlighted via a Facebook post flipping through each album to highlight the available choices.
“I think a lot of it is you’ve got something there in your hand other than something on … an mp3 and the fact that vinyl gives you your true sound,” Herren said. “CDs are not really the true sound. People (also) enjoy the artwork on the vinyl and a lot of people buy used records just to get the cover for artwork.”
Also for sale are new and used turntables, record-cleaning supplies and turntable styli and cartridges, as well as T-shirts ($10 or $12) and used CDs ($2 each or three for $5).
A collector’s bin will include harder-to-find albums costing more than $25 each, with some running about $75 or $100, he said.
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Herren said he owned and operated a record store in Fairfield as a side job in early 1980s during the heyday of vinyl but had to drop that endeavor in favor of his full-time career as a heavy equipment mechanic.
Nick Montgomery said he heard about Main Street Vinyl via social media and stopped by with his daughters on Tuesday to check it out.
“My 14-year-old bought Boston and my 16-year-old bought Paramore,” Montgomery said.
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Sandy Sweeney said the new store is “absolutely great.”
“It brings back the old music, good times,” she said. “The store is really nice and I’m sure it will grow in time when word gets out. A lot of people still don’t know it’s here.”
Cindy Brosius, of Oxford, said “it’s about time” the area had a record store again.
“We need it,” she said. “We’re playing vinyls again and there’s no place close to get vinyls.”
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MAIN STREET VINYL
WHERE: 227 Main St.
HOURS: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays; 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays
MORE INFO: 513-795-6979 or www.mainstvinyl.com
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