During a trip to Encore Records in Kitchener, Ontario, I found some pretty cool stuff among their used discs. I used to work with the guy behind the counter, Chris — trained him in fact. We had a chance to catch up and discuss the difficulties of being a collector. Piles and piles of discs, an expanding collection and lack of space for it. Filing systems. How easy it is to get behind in your filing. Good to know there are still kindred spirits out there.
Thanks for the discs Chris, and without further delay…
1. VAN HALEN – In Concert
This double CD is at least partially taken from Live Without A Net, the old Van Halen home video. That’s cool to me — some of those versions, like “Love Walks In”, were the originals that I was first familiar with. It’s weird today hearing Sammy Hagar play guitar solos on Van Halen songs, but that’s how I first heard them. $9 used.
2. HELIX – Wild In The Streets (Rock Candy remaster)
PROS: These hard-to-find (in Canada) Rock Candy reissues have great liner notes and pictures. CONS: It lacks the lyric sheet from my old Capitol Records version. This one was expensive ($14 used) but the great Heavy Metal OverloRd tells me they are well worth it.
3. FISH – “Credo” CD single
Limited edition, #5945. Cool? Yeah, but how many copies did they make of a Fish single? Anyway, this has two non-album cuts, a 7″ remix of the title track and a song called “Poet’s Moon”. “Credo” itself is a great song from Internal Exile. Great cover art by Mark Wilkinson! $6 used.
4. IRON MAIDEN – Virtual XI with limited edition lenticular cover
This was a limited edition (expensive in Canada) that had a 3D cover similar to the current Kiss Monster CD. I tried to get an idea of this in the photos. Look at Eddie’s finger in relation to the boy’s headphones. You can see it’s not in the same place in the two photos. It’s much cooler in person. Now, I know Aaron is probably going to give me shit for buying a Blaze Bayley album — any Blaze Bayley album — twice. But it’s more about the Maiden collection than Blaze. This is one I’d wanted back in the day but completely forgotten about. $10 used.
REPORT CARD
Encore Records, 54 Queen St. South, Kitchener ON, (519) 744-1370
Encore is as good as as any of the stores that Aaron and I reported on in Toronto. Sure, I’m biased in that I did train the guy behind the counter, and it was great having a conversation with somebody who understands my point of view vis-à-vis collecting. But their selection is second-to-none in this town (rock, indi, roots, jazz, blues, vinyl), with fair prices, and excellent quality. Not one blemish on any of the discs that I purchased. As an added note I found a number of Guided By Voices singles for Aaron (some stealthily pictured below) — although he is apparently banned from purchasing them at this time, until he wins the lottery!
For these reasons, Encore’s grade is:
5/5 stars
mikeladano.com 
Van Halens Live Without A Net back in 1987 I dropped 40 bucks for it on VHS …hahahaha…me and my buds were pumped hey man lead singer change and bam there not missing a beat…Summer Nights,5150,Get Up all cook,the whole damn set rocks….bought the reissue on DVD a fees yrs back and in typical Halen fashion no special treatment or bonus footage…bummer cuz that looked like a great tour!!!
Wild In The Streets I think is the best Heix record next to No Rest( my opinion) that is….great songs/arrangements and still stands up pretty good today…never understood why it never took off in the States when bands like Autograph were going gold????….
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$40 for a VHS, how times have changed. I sold mine for 50 cents Deke. 50 cents!
Wild in the Streets is not my face Helix personally. I like Breaking Loose, No Rest, and Back For Another Taste a lot more. I think it’s the production. It’s too slick for my tastes. I like when Helix is RAW! Breaking Loose is a really underrated album…I liked when Brent was singing lead as well as Brian.
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Fair enuff….Billy Oxygen is a great track…!
Well the Halen VHS I had to buy as there was like 3 copies at music city( record store) so I panicked and bought the damn thing….hahahaha,than again i was 20 and goofy….that’s my story and i’m sticking to it!!!!
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Well I have paid more for less in the past! Shame that VHS is all but worthless now though. And a shame that Van Halen refuses to put some care into their DVD releases. Greatest Hits is also done without any special features or care at all.
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Yeah for sure Mike,I remember when Warner’s were reissuing the first 6 albums remastered back in 2000, I thought they would include demos,anything…nope nada ,Nuthin,disappointed…but hey they did make it up for it with ADKOT!!!….at least they threw on some acoustic video footage….
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No liner notes either! The Van Halen remasters seem just thrown together. I doubt the band had anything to do with them. Luckily I hadn’t upgraded to CD on most of those yet so I was able to justify upgrading to the remasters. But look at Metallica…Scorpions…Kiss…any of these bands that put nothing extra at ALL on their remasters. At least expanded booklets and liner notes would be nice.
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Hey! The KISS remasters had liner notes! ;)
And apparently Metallica finally own their old catalogue so I wouldn’t be surprised it some tasty reissues were on the cards.
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The Kiss ones had liner notes? This is the first I have heard of this ;)
You’re right — count on Metallica remasters. Actually if they did “immersion edition” style sets, I would not be shocked at all.
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I wouldn’t be shocked either. Maybe they’ll throw in one of their new neckties! Metal!
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Good haul! Hope you like the Rock Candy reissues. Great sound quality on all of them but, I’m sure I’ve said this before, it’s their choices of albums that always impresses me. They just did some Quiet Riot and have got Dokken reissues on the way too!
That lenticular cover was the Virtual XI that I had! One listen. Binned.
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Should have tried selling on eBay! What Quiet Riot did they do? The old classics or newer stuff?
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I should have just traded it in (it wasn’t that unusual at the time). But I HAD to exorcise it from the building forthwith! It was almost ritualistic… like the only way I could undo it’s dark spell!
They just did “Metal Health” and the one that came after… “Condition Critical”? I think there’s bonus stuff on them too. Don’t have any Quiet Riot so I might get them (even though it’s not the original line-up!!!) The Rock Candy stuff can usually be got fairly cheap over here.
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I see. Metal Health has five live bonus tracks. But I can’t buy until I know where those bonus tracks come from. If I already have them on one of the QR live albums, it’s not worth a re-buy. I’ve bought Metal Health 4 or 5 times in the past.
Must do further research.
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As a label they’re not particularly great on rare tracks. If they have bonus stuff it’s usually been available somewhere before. Best looking into it.
I’ll definitely be getting them at some point cause I don’t have them at all.
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Incidentally, she’s at it again over at Wikipedia — the ex-porn star (Pinkmermaid) is editing the band’s article again. She’s at least not trying to edit out Randy Rhoads this time!
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Yeah? What’s she doing?
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Her edits seem pretty benign right now — nitpicks on who was in the band and who wasn’t. But her attitude is pretty shite. “I asked Frankie and he said…”
Well, idiot, Frankie wasn’t in the band back then!
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Yeah how appropriate QR would call there album Condition Critical and that was the shape they were in by that time…..the old quickie followup to the mega huge Metal Health ….
Having said that I did buy it……hahahahaha
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Me too! I don’t think anybody expected it to be as crappy as it was. But then again they really hadn’t done much aside from one hit of their own and one cover! And to this day their biggest hit is just a cover. And boy do they hate it when you remind then it’s a Slade song.
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This is a great haul. These discs will make you very happy, indeed!
I would need unlimited funds to start collecting the GBV vinyls now, man. Believe me, in all seriousness, I WANT TO! Gotta get y lotto ticket for this week…
I’ve heard you mention before about the editing getting done on the QR Wiki. Can’t somebody stop this person? I mean, if the revisions aren’t even accurate to the history, doesn’t that run contrary to the whole point of Wiki? Surely there are administrators who watch for this kind of stuff (especially if somebody points it out to them)?
HMO, man, I think if lived on your block I’d be digging through your rubbish bins before the truck came to collect. You seem to throw out a lot of CDs! ;) Like I said, you never need to do that. Aaron will adopt them and give them a warm, loving home!
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Yeah people stop her on wiki all the time because she doesn’t use references. Just, “Frankie says…”
The edits she’s making now are very minor. What she used to do is excise the entire first era (pre-Metal Health) of the band. That way, she can make it look like QR are out there touring with an original member (Frankie) even though they did two albums with another drummer before he joined.
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Hey A, I’ve got a space put aside for you. Any unwanted CDs will now be added to A-Pile! Although, in all honesty, would you have wanted the Virtual XI album? Binning was too good for it. I should have jumped up and down on it a couple of times too!
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I have an extra copy of Virtual XI.
Actually I have extra copies of numerous things that I’ve upgraded. Perhaps I should do a giveaway in the new year? A contest maybe? A way to get more people to comment? First comment from a first timer wins a prize?
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I’ve got a pile of unwanted stuff building up too… I usually just do trade-ins at the second-hand shops.
A giveaway is a great idea though! Virtual XI can be the booby prize! ;)
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Hahaha yes!
I rarely do trade-ins. The place where I used to work, the kids there now don’t really know anything about discs anymore. I remember one idiot passed on my remastered Planet of the Apes (original!) soundtrackl He had no clue. The only way to sell there now is to find out when a buddy of mine is working, but for the value of the discs I’d often rather give them away to people that appreciate the music, like Aaron. Aaron and my buddy Peter get the majority of the discs these days…but NEITHER will want Virtual XI!
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I trade much less than I used to. But it’s sometimes still worthwhile. I’m considering doing some eBay selling next year if I have anything interesting to flog.
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I had waaay too many problems on eBay. The post office quotes me the wrong postage, customers complain that it hasn’t arrived yet. I just could not be bothered anymore.
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Ewww… sounds like more hassle than its worth then. I had a good experience selling a Kansas Box Set last year and thought I could maybe off load any unwanted items that way. Hmmm maybe not!
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Well that’s just my experience. But I can say that I don’t have any plans to sell on eBay again.
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Well, I’ll be giving it some thought anyway. I’ve got Ross Halfin’s “Photographers Led Zeppelin” Book and I’m fairly certain I could get some good money for it but I don’t know the best way to go about it.
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Don’t let me scare you off eBay completely because everybody’s experience is different. I’ll just say it’s not for me.
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No, it’s cool. It’s why I’m quite wary of selling anything too valuable on there. I thought I could just sell some smaller things and get a feel for it. I don’t really like buying on it much anymore either. Prefer Discogs.
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Never played on ebay (not allowed), but I will say that people on Kijiji SUCK. The trouble with doing things this way is people treat everything like a yard sale. Your price is too high (no matter what it is). And then they agree to get it. You make a plan. They don’t show! You make another plan! Same thing. You give up. Someone else wants it. Your price is too high (again). They actually show up, and want to talk your price down once they arrive! Even though you’d agreed on a price! RRRRRRG!
People suck.
Surely to goodness you have a good used book shop in a city the size of Glasgow that could appreciate what you’ve ogt and be fair to you for it.
A
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I sold all my Lego via Kijiji. But my buddy who was selling his Vince Neil guitar failed several times on Kijiji. Stood up, people wanting to renegotiate, all that stuff.
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Hmmm… it’s a thought! I can think of a couple of places. It would just depend on how much they skimmed off the top! But it would maybe worth it to save all the hassle of eBay.
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Don’t forget though that Canada Post does suck and was the source of much of my agony.
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That’s true! I remember you talking about that when I ordered from Canada a while back. Did take a while!
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They haven’t put motors on our canoes yet.
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Also, meant to add: when I lived in your town, I loved Encore. I always found cool stuff in there, even when I wasn’t looking for something in specific. I had to make sure I had cash on me before I went, ‘cos I never came out empty-handed! I used to go there and then up to Looking For Hereos for comics. Is that still there too?
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Yup. I did both in one day. That’s where I bought my comics last week.
And I wasn’t looking for anything specific at Encore either, and just look what happened!
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Thanks Mike ! Just saw this today !!
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No, thank YOU Mark! Merry Christmas!
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