Stumbled across this shop on a short trip to San Francisco, and I will definitely be coming back! I…read moreended up spending three hours in there just looking at all their cassette tapes. Found some hidden gems at a great price. Also got a cassette holder that I am very excited about.

Small but packed record store and worth the visit. Nice selection on most genres (country and folk…read morevery small). Stocks a bit of all old media with majority of course being records. Owner is nice, will talk your ear off if you stick around. Prices seemed reasonable, did not find any real bargains but found a couple records for my collection that compared to other stores were priced fairly.

What a cool place!…read more You can find things from vinyls to comics, to toys. There is a whole lot to see. At one of the desks, I received a free postcard and business card--which was cool. I also noticed they have a Photobooth. I believe it's $7 for two strips.

I still remember when this location was Park Bowl, but that was (gasp) over thirty years ago when…read morebowling was still a popular social activity. I myself was on a bowling team named the Orient Express, and I wish I still had my red team shirt with the dragon on the back. But I digress as this has been an independent record store since 1997, an offshoot of the Berkeley store on Telegraph. Digital downloads be damned, this shop is focused on physical media...CDs, DVDs, cassette tapes, Blu-rays, and of course, vinyl. Even before picking up spares at Park Bowl, I recall that moment in my youth when I made the monumental decision to switch my record purchases from vinyl to CDs. Nowadays, vinyl is making a comeback among a younger generation looking for a higher quality, more realistic sound quality. I saw these Gen Z audiophiles flipping through the long LP bins in search of the elusive underground classic their stereophonic friends could appreciate and envy. Personally I could find nuggets of my own. Albums like The Very Best of Spike Jones (Photo 10) and The Complete 2,000 Year Old Man (Photo 5) resonated with me. I was happy to see individual LPs consolidated into boxed sets like the Linda Ronstadt retrospective. Beyond the music is the expansive DVD collection of movie titles both classic and obscure. There's also books and collectible merchandise like pop-culture lunch boxes and celebrity prayer candles. I'm not sure I need a candle that deifies Aubrey Plaza, but it's good to know where I can get one. RELATED - Exploring the Haight? Here's a collection of places I've visited and reviewed: https://yelp.to/Mq6DbbrGGJ

love all the star wars in the store so i walk in..wearing a star wars tshirt no less…read more walked in and the guy at the desk didn't acknowledge me. thought it was a fluke went back a few weeks later and again...no hello, no eye contact...nothing. A smile and "Hi Welcome" goes a long way.

Quant and clean, this place packs a punch with top tier records in fantastic condition. Come here…read morefor a solid "selection" of soul, funk and jazz. Plus some damn good all around records. It's my new goto on this side of the bridge.

City Lights is one of my favorite bookstores in San Francisco. There's something about wandering…read morethrough it that makes me feel like a kid again. With every twist and turn, another staircase or room appears, filled with books and entirely new worlds to discover. It always brings me back to the days I spent with my grandmother at our old library. We would sit together on the stairs and read to each other, completely content to spend hours surrounded by books. I think that's part of why City Lights feels so special to me--it brings back that same sense of curiosity, comfort, and excitement I felt with her. I rarely come here looking for one specific thing. The fun is wandering the shelves until a cover, title, or completely unexpected book catches my attention. Somehow I always leave with another story I can't wait to disappear into. There are bookstores you go to simply to buy a book, and then there are bookstores you experience. City Lights is the latter. It's a little piece of San Francisco that I hope never changes.

One of the neatest bookstores in the US. The Poetry room upstairs is wonderful. So much fun…read morehistory here to learn about. And this bookstores has some amazing staff book recommendations with little tags on the bookshelf telling you why they loved that book so much; found some great new finds that way. Dont forget to get your books stamped with their bookstores stamp on the way out!

this place is legit. staff, products and location and all perfect…read more if you need records or beach stuff look no further. some real finds in the collection for sale. these guys go deep and deliver results which is seen in the merch.

I am a big music lover and I often go to a coffee shop right in front of this record store. I…read morelooked at the reviews, a lot of great reviews so I thought it was going to be a good place. It is, it does have a lot of items I was genuinely looking for. However, my mistake was not reading the reviews throughly and seeing that those reviews are for a different store because the owner or whoever that was working that day was extremely unpleasant to communicate with because he was a little condescending like I don't know what I'm talking about even though I just had a simple questions.

I went to Out of Sight (not the pizza place)at North Beach in San Francisco. Out of Sight records…read moreis a store which sells vintage clothes, records, and home decor located in North Beach in an alley which is out of sight from the bars, and restaurants which makes it a hidden gem. I stumbled here and went down the stairs and I felt I transported in a time machine to the past. A record store selling vinyl records sighting in San Francisco is a rarity like meeting a San Francisco born native still living in San Francisco. There were some interesting items here for sale . Lots of vintage items inside and it seems like a movie and television props storage space . It's a good place to explore classics from the twentieth century. Out of Sight records is a blast from past when things were built to last. Although record shops in San Francisco decreased and are at a low percentage Go to Out of Sight Records if you want to shop and go vintage

This is a nice little record and used clothing shop in an alley in North Beach. The owner is a nice…read moreguy and prices seem reasonable. I haven't actually purchased anything there but plan to keep it in my rotation (no pun intended).

Visited Amoeba today, after a not so favorable stop at Rasputin's and am happy to say it was a way…read morebetter experience. Customer Service compared to Rasputin's is a definite 10! We walked in and yes, there's a gentleman at the door. However, he was polite and advised us that our food bag was ok but to please keep it closed. No problem. Then as we proceeded to walk in we passed the cashiers counter and there were at least 3-4 people working there (all non-minorities) and none of them watched us. They were genuinely focused on doing their real jobs, which included ringing up a legitimate purchase being made by a person of color. Yes, he PURCHASED his item! So not being really noticed or treated any different from anyone else shopping/looking at what was available was nice and appreciated. That was the case the entire time we were in the store! Lots to browse through too. They even had a variety of the cool lunch boxes I remembered from years ago... not the Brady Bunch one I hoped would be there but a good selection nonetheless. They also had a cool mix of music playing from 80's Stacy Q, to Deep Blues playing. I couldn't find the Olivia Newton-John CD selection and asked a gentleman at the front for help and he kindly pointed me in the right direction. Unfortunately, they didn't have the cool one I saw at Rasputin's but that's ok, I'll look online and pay whatever crazy price it's for versus giving them my money. I did make a point to also thank the gentleman at the front for being nice and not following me or profiling me like they'd just done at Rasputin's. Really wanted to purchase something but maybe next time if on that side again. Would definitely go back and refer them versus... well you know by now. Shaking my head thinking about being labeled as giving "fatigue" when the encounter from earlier today has left ME exhausted, especially because I'm tired of being treated like I was. Yeah, fatigued! Anyway, Go Amoeba Records and thank you for still being a pleasant place to visit 29 years later! Thank you!

We visited Amoeba Music yesterday, and the staff there were so welcoming to our doggie Meatball…read more They even gave him some treats. So nice! :) I bookmarked this spot to visit since it was my boyfriend's 1st visit in Berkeley, and I thought this was a cool store to check out. We did have to check in his backpack at the entrance of the store, which is no issue. They have lots of selection of music, and my bf found a vinyl that he has been looking for a long time - The Big Lebowski one. He was so happy! This is definitely a good spot to check out if you're into music and especially if you want to get vinyls and cds. They also have some cool lunch boxes and posters as well plus other interesting items. Parking in Berkeley can be tough though. We drive around for about 18 minutes before we finally found a spot to park.

I can't say enough good things about Originals Vinyl. Matthew went so far above and beyond to…read moredeliver one of the best customer service experiences I've had anywhere, not just at a record store. I came in to have several records professionally cleaned, and Matthew was incredibly communicative, friendly, knowledgeable, and generous with his time. He gave me a ton of helpful information and education on how to set up my sound system for the best possible quality, and he even personally tested all of the records I brought in after cleaning them. That level of care is rare. He also kept the store open just for me since I was coming from out of town, which says everything about how much he cares about his customers and the vinyl community. The shop itself is clean, well-organized, in a cool location, and has a great inventory with plenty of unique and hard-to-find records. They also offer professional vinyl cleaning, which I've had a surprisingly hard time finding anywhere else in the Bay Area. There is no better person or shop to support if you're a vinyl collector and care about stellar customer service. I can't wait to go back, and I'll absolutely go out of my way to support this amazing shop and Matthew.

If only you could learn about Originals Vinyl as I did you, you'd understand the 5-star rating…read more The best way to experience Originals Vinyl is to happen upon it by chance, when you're out walking the neighborhoods. Wander inside, enchanted by the sounds emanating from the spinning discs. Rifle through the modest bins of records, each labeled, organized, perhaps even curated. Stop to inquire about the big machines you see behind the counter. Learn that this is where you can bring your LPs for whatever the world has decided is the best way to clean them. Wish that you could just hang out on a sofa here, drinking in the sounds. But this is not a place to linger unless you're looking though the bins. It's intimate and the vibe is whatever the owner or staff is spinning at that moment. On this visit, it was a pure delight.

Village Music is legend in Mill Valley. Open weekends only (or by appointment) this Mill Valley…read morerecord store was so legendary back in early iterations that Elvis Costello played here along with Jerry Garcia, Sammy Hagar and Annie Sampson. The shop features vintage vinyl, vintage concert and movie posters and original autographs of everyone from Elvis Presley to jazz greats. This is a completely different popup location to the original store. The original shop closed in the early 2000s, but the original owner of Village Music, John Goddard, is back at it, manning this small pop-up down the alley from Kitchen Sunnyside in Mill Valley. Open weekends only or by appointment only when the owner is away, the shop is dusty, with very narrow, tall aisles packed full of a remarkable collection of vintage vinyl from the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond.