My partner and I had mixed results record shopping in Zurich. Unfortunately, Katalog was one where…read morewe both walked away empty-handed. First, pros: really conveniently located to the central train station area. This store is a place you could easily stop at on your way to or from the station. Further, it's a good-sized store, which usually lends to a higher likelihood that you'll something you want. Cons: the kinds of things I was looking for (a strange mix of 80s indie guitar pop and 60s/70s rocksteady) just weren't there. I don't want to chock it off to not having deep enough cuts but maybe that was part of the problem. As for service, there were a couple of folks there but they seemed pretty busy doing various shop tasks. I didn't need their help, nor did they check in on whether we needed any (which is totally fine!) So if you're a completionist when record shopping, trying to hit up as many stores as possible, try your luck. But if you're short on time, I wouldn't go out of the way to visit.

My favourite second-hand record shop in Zurich... a huge range and very reasonably priced. I wasn't…read moreexpecting to pick up any bargains in Zurich (Switzerland being as expensive as it is) but I really did. Because there's so much though, be prepared to do some crouching - although even the floor boxes are well marked alphabetically and by genre.

It's been mentioned before, but bears (in English) repeating to say that the dude behind the…read morecounter isn't there to engage you. I made the mistake of greeting him on my way in (the shop was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop) and my 'hallo' fell into the abyss. Whatever. What brought me in to the shop were the fun and funky furniture bits that I saw through the window as I made my way down the street en route to the Sport Bar. Beyond the furniture one can find a limited selection of vintage men's and women's clothing of good caliber, airline bags, shoes, wool sweaters, desk lamps, and, most importantly, records of various description (seemingly the more obscure the better) and a few turn-tables. Record enthusiasts are able to pop a record on a turn-table, put on a head-set and listen to the recording before deciding to buy. I only know this from direct observation as I didn't trust myself to talk to the shop owner. What I really dug were the record sleeves displayed up on the walls. 16 Tons is nothing if not very visually interesting. For those of you of a certain age and certain geographic locate, then I could have skipped the above description and merely said: this place reminds me exactly of the slew of shops on Haight Street in San Francisco that existed back in the 80s and early 90s. -should've told the owner of 16 Tons that, eh?

A cool second hand store in Kreis 4 !…read more At a first glance you would think it is a very cool second hand (furniture) store. Once you are inside you will see that the store is selling more records and actually furniture. Still a nice store, with a lot of fancy things (exspensive off course) but nice. They also have a bit of clothes.

Small store right at the heart of the Limmaplatz tram circle. A decent place to buy second hand…read morevinyl records, DVDs and CDs. For those who enjoy taking a lazy afternoon or Saturday to patiently search through piles of stuff, one might find an interesting old item or on the other hand, something totally amusing, trashy and unworthy. The vinyl record selection is not huge but worth a small browse if you have the time and like to collect them.

My experience with Blutt Records was horrible. I spent two hours going through normal and marked…read morediscount bins, then some bags of records at floor level, chose one LP from the latter. I had about 15 LPs in total. When I went to pay, I was told that the bags were "out of bounds", and the owner refused to sell to me any of the records. So, I am supposed to know by magic that some records fully accessible in the shop area are not for sale! After civil protestations (I'm stupid like that) I managed to buy about about 60% of the records I had selected. My understanding is that what Blutt Records did is illegal. They offered records for sale at marked prices on the bins, I accepted their offer, thereby creating a contract, and then they refused to sell to me. May they burn in hell.