Record Store Experience
I want some advice on a recent experience I had with a record store owner. Im a relatively new collector and while I have a pretty strong knowledge for music and listen to artists across many genres, I admittedly wouldn't know a $2 record from $200. I just buy what I enjoy at the best quality I can but don't plan on ever spending more than $100 on any one record.
Anyway, there's so much to unpack from this record shop visit, I will summarize as brief as I can. The shop was overrun with records and some in tough places to actually get to. A great selection with really good prices and very knowledgable owner. We get to talking about music from jazz to grunge and everything in between.
Eventually we land on an artist and I ask if they happen to have any copies of one of his records. (I checked the spot labeled for him and didn't find it but figured I'd try). He goes into one of the side areas where people cant really walk and proceeds to bring out a first issue near mint copy of it. I mean the thing was pristine. He said it sells for $60 online but he'd do $40. It actually sells for $80-90 at near mint but at the time I was just happy to get the record.
I had grabbed at least 13 records that day and my total came out to just under $200. All cash so I couldn't see a receipt but as I got home I started to see that 2 records priced in didn't make it back with me. I could have sworn he handed them to me and convinced myself I put them back before he tallied. But I know I didn't because I remember the price he gave.
I get home and the first press I was so pumped about skipped on the B side several times. The A side is undeniably better but both are great. I started to build a really bad image of this guy, selling me a "deal" for $40 on a record that skips and holding back 2 records by slide of hand. But I couldn't be sure of the last part.
He offered to take back and replace any that skipped and coincidentally it was just this one. I did bring it back and he seemed genuinely suprised to see me. He played the record and waited until it eventually skipped. He played it back a few times to make sure and then said he'd take it home to look at it and said he "thought" he might have another. I walked around for a bit and found 2 records that equaled $40 and as I was I found the two he held back from me sitting on this side table. I laid them both across the main table, in a way obvious someone just looked at them today, and then asked if the two I had could replace his and he said sure so I left. He seemed a little on edge the whole time but was nice enough at the end.
Does it seem like he tried to pull one over on someone he knew probably wasn't going to know as much? He had to have known, if he knows it skipped, that I would eventually get to the B side. Or does it seem like he genuinely wanted me to be happy, stayed true to his offer and will try to get me a new one to buy? Between him taking it home for an undefined period after I paid for it with a "maybe I have another" to the two records he potentially held back my gut tells me he's a con.