The vinyl record I found at a garage sale in Austin looked COMPLETELY different after cleaning it

I picked up a 1972 pressing of Carole King's Tapestry for 50 cents at a garage sale off South Congress. The cover was dirty and the record looked scratched up, but I used a Spin Clean washer on it and it came out looking almost new. The difference was NIGHT and day between the grime and the clean vinyl. Has anyone else had a record that cleaned up way better than you expected?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_tessa14d ago

...and honestly my buddy Marcus had this exact same thing happen with a copy of Rumours he found at a thrift store in Round Rock. Looked like someone had used it as a frisbee or something, just totally trashed and dusty. He almost didn't buy it but it was a buck so he figured why not. After a proper cleaning with a little dish soap and water it sounded immaculate, like barely any surface noise. It's wild how much grime can hide the real condition of a record, even at garage sales.

anthony12914d ago

Well, I'll be. That reminds me of a time I picked up a copy of Boston's first album at a flea market that looked like it had been stored in someone's shed for twenty years. I was embarrassed to even hand the guy my dollar for it. But I gave it a careful cleaning with just plain warm water and a microfiber cloth, and I'll be dang if it didn't play as clean as day one. Makes you wonder how many perfectly good records have been thrown out just for looking rough.