This is what real record stores were like in the 90s when people stopped buying vinyl. This shop is for experienced collectors as you have to know what you're looking at grade-wise, have some knowledge of the pressing,, and be familiar with current values. . The guys who owns/run this shop are highly entertaining and have crazy music knowledge. You should be prepared to spend at least an hour when you go in. read more

Great little shop with a knowledgeable owner! Very friendly and he'll make you a deal!

I just went to this rocket star records and the owner was very unhelpful. Everything I asked him for the price is reply was "not for sale "then he proceeds to go to sleep. read more

RocketStar Records - Sad record store - Vinyl Records Near Me - Sarasota, Florida

Great selection. Fantastic prices. Knowledgeable staff that helps you find exactly what you're looking for.

OMG! this place is awesome! I went to to Barnes and noble first, there it was 40 dollars per record! No! So I went here! Discounts, deals and so much cheaper! So many options too! Go now! Also the service?! Great! Super nice! And the selection was amazing! If I could give it a 10 stars I would! read more

Great selection and service. I only got through about 15% of the store, but I found several albums to buy. I will be going back. Thanks, Tony. read more

RocketStar Records - Storefront - Vinyl Records Near Me - Sarasota, Florida

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'Tony is great I love Rocket Star Records the location is fantastic and prices are suitable. They have so much I'm always a happy returning customer. 7"'s 10"'s and 12"'s Rocet Star Records has it all and if not They can get any of your selections you may need ((: from Joe Hannah aka DJ Longboat Pilot see y'all soon!' read more

Negative stars- An absolute joke. The store was a filthy maze of unpriced junk, and the owner couldn't even bother to show up. The employee was openly trashing him to customers -- bitter, loud, and clearly done. He had to call the guy for every single price like it was amateur hour. Total waste of time. Embarrassing excuse for a business. There wasn't even a cat. Couldn't wait to leave read more

DO NOT VISIT THIS STORE!The service was awful the owner didn't even offer to help me. Most horrendously the building is flea ridden, I have never EVER been bitten by a flea in my entire life until I visited this store. I wouldn't recommend going here to my worst enemy. read more

Cool place but a little tidying up would go a million miles. Unfortunately it seems that the owner is more interested in entertaining people rather than cleaning up after his sweet shop cat ! Super nice guy. Super cool to see these stores still but this place needs a lot of work :( read more

I must admit we went to the store for pure entertainment purposes after reading the negative reviews and I must say we were not disappointed. Within 5mins the gentleman working there was bad mouthing the owner. Went we asked about a record that didn't have a price on it he was really pretty upset he had to call the owner to ask the price, saying he avoids him at all cost. The store was extremely cluttered to say the least. We did find a few things and the prices were somewhat fair on the rare item. Plus the in store record kitty was adorable! read more

RocketStar Records - Vinyl Records Near Me - Sarasota, Florida

This is one of those stores where the owner thinks he knows about the value of records and their current market, but really doesn't. SEVERELY OVERPRICED & OVERGRADED. VG+ records are MINT, $5 Twelve inches are $20 and up. Do your research on popsike.com AND Discogs.com before you buy. read more

Stopped in while visiting relatives in Bradenton. Anthony, the owner, was very friendly and knowledgable. Great selection of rare and obscure used vinyl. Picked up four LPs.... wished I had more time to dig! read more

I've been to many record stores and this one was by far the worst store I ever visited. The place is a wreck. Nothing is organized and as a previous reviewer stated - there is a cat and the litter box is out in the open and poorly maintained. The help that works there other than the owner was very good and knowledgeable. The problem lies with the owner. Most of the items are not priced or organized. When I asked for a price on an item I wanted to purchase the owner looked up the item on Discogs and then proceeded to haggle with my on what I'd be willing to pay for the item. I just wanted a bottom dollar price but he kept going with the games on prices. The owner also treated his employee really poorly. I don't know why anyone would want to work for him. He was very rude. There was a lot of rare music but it seems like a waste of time to shop there unless you want the runaround for each and every item you are interested in. I found Salty Dog records the next day and that was a much more satisfying shopping experience!!! Take your business there (or really anywhere else)!!! read more

I love supporting my local record stores and all. But I seriously despise that place. The owner is completely unknowledgeable and when he's not berating his employee (who has been nothing but helpful for me) for "using too much water" or yelling "no you cant go to the bathroom, I have all these customers here", when it was just me and my 2 friends. He is trying to price gouge the living hell out of you. I don't recommend buying here, and I definitely don't recommend selling to him, as he was selling the records I sold to him at SIX TO SEVEN TIMES THE PRICE HE OFFERED ME FOR THEM. I understand paying me half, a Third, or even a quarter of what you are selling them for, that's business, but SIX TO SEVEN TIMES is extremely sleazy. read more

This place is substandard. He sells bad stereo equipment and passes it off as rebuilt or refurbished . None of his titles are graded . Caveat Emptor! read more

As mentioned by other reviewers this guy's records are very overpriced and he is rude. Salty Dog Records in Gulfgate is much much better.

This is the worst record shop I've ever been in. The rude over-pricing owner was insulting & completely unknowledgeable about his below average inventory. He also slanders his competitors. Wouldn't surprise me if he gets sued in the future. Very unprofessional. BEWARE! read more

This place is great! The owner is filled with stories and entertainment and is brining the town a strong music collection for us to be entertained by! The shop is bigger then you'd think. Rocket star has a music archive that makes guitar center, target, and other random record sellers just annoying. This is a personally collected and acquired collection being sold all for market value or less and the owner has good intentions and interests in bringing in the new artists~ just a cool place in general. It's a shop with a in door rock stage that is connected to a restaurant next to Main Street Sarasota, Florida. I want to see my friends there read more

Great store with friendly staff , has some incredible jap pressings , I would say they specialize in metal but they carry many other genres

this store is a cluttered mess all overpriced covers looked tike crap don't waste your time unless you like overpriced junk and if you don't like cats there is a big fat black and white one smelled herendous my eyes started watering and nose started running not for people with allergies read more

my boyfriend and i went in after a different record store was closed and im glad we did. we stayed for an hour and a half just talking to anthony, the owner, and listening to his stories. he was very kind and very hilarious. we found some cassettes that were reasonably priced and will definitely be back just for the conversations alone, if we find more cassettes than that's awesome! read more

Overpriced selection, some interesting records but priced over the most expensive copies on discogs or ebay. the cheap bin was $7 records for stuff I see everywhere for $1-3. It's funny someone mentioned the owner berating an employee in another review, he was doing that when I was there too. read more

Really great shop can't wait to see the new location. Owner had such a great personality I could have stayed and talked about music for hours. Prices were good and I got some good deals on some top shelf stuff. Definitely became my go to shop for anything music read more

The owner was rude and making nasty comments and yelling at his coworker. Everything is overpriced, and the owner claimed he has special access to discogs (which sounds fake). read more

I always love checking out new record stores when I travel. I popped in this store recently while in Sarasota. The selection of records was decent and seemed to be well organized. However, there were a few issues which turned me off and I will never go back. First off, most records didn't have pricing. When asked, I was told to bring the record to the counter for pricing. To all you new collectors, this is a huge red flag. I need to have confidence in the owner that he knows the market and his inventory. I need transparency that he will quote the same price for me as others. The most frustrating thing in any business is when prices are not clearly marked. However, some of the records were priced. I went to the Pink Floyd section and was presently surprised to see several older pressings. It's unusual to see old PF nowadays at they fly off the shelf. When I flipped over the records and saw the insane pricing, I realized why these had not sold: $80 for a Water damaged Meddle. $83 for a beat animals. It was a joke. Keep in mind, most of the records are in sealable outer sleeves. A sign on the wall instructs the customer not to open, but to bring to the counter. Again, another red flag. These guys don't Even trust the customer to review the record before purchase. As I was browsing, the owner(s) (I think, very confusing) we're trying to sell a copy of DSOTM. A classic record. The copy they played sounded like rice crispies - snap, crackle, pop. The guy behind the counter proceeded to grade it VG+ and said it was $30 all day. Well, an actual VG+ wot posters and stickers would bring $30. His scratched noise bomb would be no more than $10. Pricing aside, the blatant lie, or sincere ignorance, was the final straw for me. I didn't care what was in there I packed up and left. It's up to the public to get these guys out of Business. Vote with your wallet. Visit the store and see for yourself. This place has business practices similar to a shady used car dealership. Stay away, not recommended read more

Pretty amazing and serious selection, Anthony gave us an awesome deal. Recommend most def.

I discovered this place on a whim and can't stay away. I'm not even local and I don't mind traveling for quality service and products. You could literally spend the whole day going through all of the records, CDs and cassettes. This is the perfect place for a beginner just starting their collection or an avid collector. The staff of two are knowledgeable about the inventory that can be overwhelming as there's so much to look through. If you think you are just going to come in and get one thing, think again...or maybe that's just me! I've been to this store several times and I feel like I've gotten great deals for the used records that I purchased. You can even sell your records to the store. Although I haven't experienced that side of the business, I have no doubt that a fair price would be offered. The owner was very disrespectful to his employee on one occasion which can make some customers uncomfortable but I have a big mouth and let him know that it wasn't cool and he apologized to him. You can definitely tell they've been working together for years and are friends. They are just a couple of friendly guys that have a passion for music. read more

RocketStar Records - Great find at Rocketstar Records! - Vinyl Records Near Me - Sarasota, Florida

I spent a couple of hours here today and came away with a bunch of nice finds. Enjoyed chatting with owner and other customers. I live in the Chicago area so it will not be a place I will go to regularly, but I would if I lived here. A good sized inventory well organized. read more

Avoid this store: overpriced, but hard to tell just HOW overpriced, because many records have no price. Plus you can't open records to look at condition, so you have to create your pile and then take up to review. The items that ARE priced are way too expensive given the condition of the covers. Went out of my way to go here and it was a waste of time sadly. read more

Good selection of imports and rarities. Prices are a bit steep, although there is some haggle-room. I have to agree with Alex P.'s comment about the staff fighting. The owner treats his helper like an unwanted stepchild. read more

Hands down the worst record store experience I have ever had in 20+ years of buying music. I got a lot of red flags right away but really wanted to try and support the local record store, I should have turned around the instant I walked in and I knew it. I was overcharged by a fair margin for a special order that the owner (Peter Anthony Ramirez) did not know what to charge me for. I offered to pay when the record arrived so I could be charged an accurate amount. He insisted I pay upfront, I obliged. Mr. Ramirez first asked for $25, when I said that was a lot for a 7"he told me he didn't even know it was a 7" and then charged me $15 instead. I was never notified my order arrived and had to follow up on my own after the latest date I was told it would arrive had passed. When I asked if he would refund the difference from his guesstimate charge and the actual cost he became VERY combative over the phone and expressed no humility. Mr. Ramirez misrepresented stock and prices while I was in the store. Many item were priced WELL ABOVE their normal sale prices (be it retail or secondhand online), even considering covering a brick and mortar cost. Rocketstar is not informed or knowledgable about contemporary stock or the state of the vinyl community AT ALL. Mr. Ramirez talked down to his staff Collin Kellogg repeatedly and belittled him in front of my family which made us all very uncomfortable. Mr. Kellogg seemed to be a bit more informed and considerably more polite and less abrasive. Mr. Kellogg seemed noticeably very uncomfortable about Mr. Ramirez interaction with me as well. I felt bad for Mr. Kellogg and so did my family. All in all this record store is everything wrong with record stores like these know-it-all guy at the counter, 10,000 records from rummage sales and goodwills to endlessly dig through to find nothing and no real clue other than they want to make a buck somehow. These are big reasons why the ones like this fail as I am sure this one will too. We have all seen it before and this one is no different. Avoid this place like the plague. If you want good service in the area and you are serious about vinyl go to Jerk Dog or stick with fair priced items online from Discogs or even eBay without the hassle of surly owners. I was really hoping this place might be Sarasota's vinyl store savior but NO CHANCE! NEVER AGAIN! *NOTE* the only other review at the time I posted mine is not at all a review but seemingly an ad written by the owner......pure class. read more