Where to buy cheap hip-hop vinyl

The cheap copies are usually on Discogs and eBay, not on a new-release shop. Digging in the Sales Crates checks both at once, plus CDandLP and Turntable Lab, so you can compare sellers without opening four tabs.

Start with the record you actually want, not a random sale. Search the artist and the album. eBay, CDandLP, and Turntable Lab results come sorted by price, and Discogs results open the release page, where you can see every copy for sale. Then look at the seller, the sleeve grade, and the shipping. An $8 record with $12 shipping is not a deal.

A few habits that keep the cost down:

• Buy the common pressing first. First presses and colored vinyl cost more, and a clean reissue plays fine.
• Check more than one seller. The same album can be $14 on Discogs and $9 on eBay the same day.
• Skip sealed if you only want to play it. Used VG+ is often half the price.
• Watch the weekly newsletter, This Week in the Sales Crates, for store sales from shops that ship to the U.S.

Hip-hop crates fill up fast if you only chase hype. The records people still play, the ones with a real sample or a real single, show up used all the time. Search those.

Digging in the Sales Crates is free. No account. One search, four sellers. Here's why I built it.