This is the holy grail mecca come to Mama haven for all vinyl lovers. My husband loves this place and by extension, I adore it as well. Step inside and Tommy, the owner, is the man to chat with. The place is teeming wall to wall, rack to rack and aisles oof records and cassettes and musical catalogue of every genre you'd want. Nicely labeled in black and white, they have new stuff coming in all the time, so often that we've been known to go there every weekend, each time my husband finds a piece of treasure, last Saturday, it was a treasured Dire Straits album, today it was the complete set of Fleetwood Msc, and before that, Pink Floyd. I. Mean. After having sold our entire catalogue of vinyl at once time to fund a business, here we are again in the groove to build it back up again, and this place is in our back yard. It's everything you'd want your local record store to have, where you can take your time and browse and pay respect to the shrine that is music. The parking is in front for free and easy and also the prices can't be beat. Love love love and then some! read more

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Amazing selection and passionate employees. My dad and I always find what we need and if we can't they'll order it ASAP. Ryan helped me find the record I needed last week. Much appreciated read more

Went to Vinyl Solutions for the first time today to sell some old LPs and had a very positive experience. The owner Thomas was friendly and efficient, and gave me a fair price. And the store itself has a huge selection of records and is well organized and neatly laid out. Would definitely recommend Thomas and his store! read more

What they did to me I can never get over My husband died at age 81, 8 years ago, he had a treasure trove of highly collectible vinyl records from the 60s and 70s Beatles, Elvis etc... I filled five cardboard boxes and took them to Vinyl Solution on 25th Ave in San Mateo, I asked the guy at the register is the owner here he said yes bring them in and the owner will tell you how much they're worth. I dropped them off and all of a sudden he was busy and not able to respond. They told me if I left them they would call me back in a couple of hours to tell me what they can pay me for them I agreed. Over the next 10 days I called in regularly to check and each time he was too busy to talk. Finally they called me to say the whole lot has $0 value and if it's okay with me they will donate them to a charity. Well suffice to say I never went over there and I never will for it has left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't know if it has changed since I went but I just wanted to warn people of what happened to me. read more

The Vinyl Solution has to be one of the "Best Record Stores" anywhere in the country. I live in Southern California and have never seen any record stores that could touch VSR. The Vinyl Solution carries with it Tommy Toone's and Bobalouie's years of knowledge as record collectors, music officiandos, and incredible backgrounds in music in San Mateo and the Bay Area. I can't say enough about the Vinyl Solution and their extensive recollection collection - AMAZING! Pieman read more

Vinyl Solution Records is located in Downtown San Mateo. It was Record Store Day, so I decided to visit this record store which I used to frequent but haven't since the pandemic. The crowds had died down when I arrived. The Record Store Day inventory had also went down. Despite that fact, I spent time wandering around the store. I could spend hours digging through the old and new records, CDs, and other paraphernalia (posters, magazines, to name a few). Alas, I came away physically with nothing, but I had new memories of records and such. I will be back. read more

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For people looking for vinyl, tapes, cards then this place has that and more. From the resell side they're lower than what I expected, but customer service was decent and loved the plethora of genres to choose from read more

My son found a gem in the s dollars sports card bins! Great place to check out not only for records read more

I went here for the first time yesterday, and got three vinyls; a Johnny Cash vinyl, the Nirvana Unplugged vinyl, and a Lumineers vinyl. All of them are fantastic quality with no warping and are in crisp condition. After a few disappointing visits to many other record stores, this was like a holy grail! Totally recommend :) read more

Waiting to kill some time south of town and near SFO? This is a cool spot to check out lots of vinyl and CDs. Located on a quaint street alongside other shops and restaurants, this store features mostly new vinyl at fair prices. It's a casual setting with nice people. read more

Vinyl Solution Records - Music & DVDs Near Me - San Mateo, California

When was the last time you were in a record store? Just saying maybe it is time for a visit? We had a great time strolling through the store browsing the record selections enjoying the album art and large selection of music to choose from. The people working here were super fun and helpful with knowledge of music and where to find things in the store. We were looking for music for a holiday album party and left with a James Brown holiday album how fun is that?!? read more

Vinyl Solution Records - Music & DVDs Near Me - San Mateo, California

This is great local record store with a wide selection of pretty much everything and a friendly staff. I used to buy used CDs here back in the day and lately I'm digging through their vast vinyl selection. I look for used vinyl so it's a fun experience to dig through the crates and boxes. You can find a lot of gems for $2.99 or $3.99, but you have to look. And sure you may need to clean them up when you get home, but that's part of the experience! Their new vinyl selection is also great and if they don't have what you're looking for - just ask! They can order it for you. During COVID, they are doing a nice job of enforcing masks and providing hand sanitizer and even have "personal shopping appointments" on Mondays. Sure, everyone is going to be biased when it comes to evaluating their "local record store" and while this place may not be perfect, it checks all the main boxes for me. read more

This place has a massive selection and kind of a hidden gem. You don't have to go all the way into the city for a decent record store. Their selection of new albums is pretty varied and well stocked. Their used CDs inventory is also massive and well organized. They've still got a wall of cassette tapes if you're into that. The clearance section is almost impenetrable cause of its size. For those that love flipping through piles of clearance records to find that one gem, you'll have a good time. The prices are pretty much on-par with market rates for most albums. The CDs are excellent deals if you pick-up 3x. The owner is very chill and totally leaves you alone to treasure hunt. From the website, they're hoping to retire and sell the place to a new owner. So I'm keeping fingers crossed that the new owners also love records/music and keep this place around for the foreseeable future. read more

Wow! This place never disappoints and is one of the main reasons why I keep coming back. Today I found a very rare and hard to find vinyl by 80's metal band Dokken - "Breaking the chains" and it's in mint condition considering the album was pressed back in 1983. Their selection has grown since my last visit. As usual I can't recommend Vinyl solution enough. So if you're looking for that hard to find piece on vinyl this business has it all. I want to thank the owners of vinyl solution for keeping vinyl alive in a digital world. This place is awesome! read more

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Vinyl solution is amazing I've been coming here for years now and Love the record selection, The great prices ,and the great service from the employees , highly recommend popping in and if you have the time to get lost in the store through all the great stuff you will find yourself coming out with tons of goodies . read more

Amazing store with a great selection! I always find so many amazing things here. Tommy always has so many fun stories to share about many different artists and is very knowledgeable. This store has everything you need including vinyl, CDs, cassettes, posters, stickers, patches, magazines, and many many more. I come here all the time and will continue to do so frequently. read more

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I love coming to this store! So much variety along with friendly and helpful employees! I've even discovered new music from what they had playing on their speakers. Great selection of king gizzard vinyl! read more

Sold my CDs for a fair price in store credit. Will be back to stock up on vinyl. Great selection and friendly service, easy parking.

We love coming here to pick up vinyls, cassettes, VHS's, DVD's, Blu-rays and other accessories. You can spend hours here looking around and cruising down memory lane of all the wonderful we had back in the days. Very knowledgeable people working here. read more

Well all the records are clean and nicely stored. Easy to shuffle through and search for some things. Good prices and friendly service. We will be back. read more

Manager (regret not getting his name) checked out my CL find, an old Technics TT, installed a new headshell/cartridge, cleaned and tuned it a bit and threw in a missing rubber mat. Thank you so much! Looking forward to finding old 80s new wave to play...and reminisce. read more

HUGE STORE with lots of records, CDs, cassettes, stickers, even some baseball card packs. Varied selection, pretty well organized by alphabetic order. For all my bargain bin bros out there, there IS a clearance section. $0.49 for a CD, $2 for 5. CREDIT CARD MINIMUM $10!!! Bring cash if under. Had to pick up a few extras to meet the requirement. read more

This record shop is great. Street parking is easy, and the area is great. They have everything you can think of and more. Friendly staff and cool shop. Records are all really well organized and everything is clearly labeled. We will definitely be back and we highly recommend. read more

Ok, this place is F-N Rad. Always has been. Been coming here since the early 90's. Back then I use to come and buy tapes, then CD's and Vinyl. What strikes me about this place is that you can usually find what you're looking for but what can get you into trouble is the fact that you can fine what you aren't looking for. Yeah, I walked out the other day spending more than I wanted to. But that was my fault. It was for a couple of new sealed vinyl. Although the used stuff is really fairly priced. Also I may add that the quality of the records is pretty high. I've never bought anything that was sub par. Ok, another thing I dig about this place is the fact that it's such an old school record store, I feel right at home! Also... the stereo system in the store sounds really good. It's an older set up that really does some of there stuff the play justice. Ok go check it out! It may cater to the audiophile but it also caters to people who seek what they are looking for. BTW, one can still buy tapes and the CD selection is not to shabby. But the Vinyl rules their inventory. read more

Vinyl, cassette tapes and much more at this pretty big, ol' school, memorabilia-filled, stuffy record shop. Great selection and lots of bargain (as low as 50 cents) but quality records. Make sure to check out the free bin at the front for any record or other item you can grab at no cost once you've made a regular purchase. read more

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What a gem! Heard about Vinyl Solutions while researching Bay Area records stores in 2019 and had a great first visit finding a wide variety of rock, funk, jazz, and blues vinyl. Fast forward to 2020 and the owner has setup a unique "solo shopping" experience during COVID SIP. The owner is very friendly and provided solid recommendations during my recent visit, he even played some records that he thought I would like based on my taste. Visit this store soon and make sure Vinyl Solutions is here to stay. read more

Owner was super cool and chill help me out with everything I needed if you're gonna buy records or CDs or anything to do with music come support this business read more

This is really a great store, such fun to look around. Sure thier vinyl is a little expensive as a lot of other reviews have pointed out, BUT they are still cheaper than alot of stores out there! They have a great variety to that you can pick up on a whim and not have to wait for it to be shipped to you. I love thier used dvd section, stores that have this always manage to get some money out of my pocket. I bought my kids 3 dvds for $10 (buy 2 get 1 free deal) which is a really great deal, but it also kept my kids happy so i could continue to browse uninterrupted which was priceless. I also brought a large collection of records for trade at the store. The owner took them and let me know he had to go through them - he said it would take over a week which was fine. The owner was true to his word and called me back to the store, and offered me a trade amount I thought was low. I think he saw this and he took the time to explain it to me. He offered to recycle and donate what he couldnt use for me to so i didnt have to lug the rest back home which i appriciated. I would sell to them again and i will definately be frequenting this store when I am in the area. read more

For years I have visited this true treasure nestled on 25th Ave. And never disappointed. I go there to enjoy the records, reminds me of when I worked at Musicland in Tanforan Mall in San Bruno,CA and enjoy listening to the music played. And a lot of times it inspires me to purchased the music I just heard in the store. Tommy is quite a wizard when it comes to music and everything involving it. read more

tl;dr If you're in to vinyl, this is not where you want to spend your $ I really wanted to like this place, having recently moved to Redwood City, and being in need of a solid, nearby record store. I visited on 2 separate occasions over the course of a month hoping for a good experience. However, compared to all of the other shops I've visited around the US, Vinyl Solution really falls short. Very few MOFI or Analogue Production pressings available, so if you're an audiophile, just skip this place. Any new record of interest is guaranteed to be priced higher than anywhere else I've seen, both online and in store. I'm a big fan of supporting indie shops, but compared to my former go-to record stores in Austin, this place only disappoints. Personally, I won't buy a used record unless it's already in a plastic sleeve, and most of the selection here is not. Now, if you're really into well-used, classical LPs, and just want to pay $5/record, this might be the place for you. All the other inexpensive used LPs I looked at were only low priced because (1) there's no market for them or (2) they have defects on the vinyl. The staff is friendly enough, the place is laid out well, and it's reasonably spacious, but with such a poor selection and high prices, I can't think of a single good reason to come back here. read more

Great record store with tons of inventory. They carry all of the latest new lps, but are also always getting used lps which are very fairly priced. I always find something whenever I stop by. Highly recommended read more

Great store! I love the retro atmosphere! They have a great selection of vinyl's, cassettes, CD's, DVD's, Magazines, Posters and VHS! Althought it gets a bit pricey, their used items are very affordable, and you can pick out some great vinyl's for as low as three bucks! read more

If I owned a record store, it'd be something like Vinyl Solution. The owner really is passionate about music - he's like a real life Rob Gordon (from High Fidelity). He was telling my friend and me some stories about the bands he had seen. If I were a teen, I would definitely want to work here and learn about music from him. Prices are pretty reasonable for a mom & pop type shop especially for the used stuff. The new stuff is pretty high but it's expected because there isn't as much inventory as a big box retailer. Vinyl Solution has a great variety of vinyl, used & some new CD's, tapes, music books, posters, equipment and so much more. Oh yeah, there's also a selection of DVDs and videos as well. If it has to do with music, he probably has it here. They even clean your vinyl here. This is the peninsula's best kept secret. If you are a music geek, like me, you must stop in here at least once in your life. It's a fun place to browse even if you don't buy anything. Support your local record store. read more

What a find this place was! I was just moments away from clicking the "Purchase" button on itunes when it hit me. Why not actually be a real CD instead of something from cyberspace that I will never own outright, can never share and only play on my iphone/ipod? Instead of running off to a mega chain or buying off of Amazon I Yelped my local area for a small mom and pop business. Vinyl Solution was the first place that came up. There were so many glowing reviews that I just needed to check it out for myself. True to it's name, there is plenty of vinyl here. Along with hard to find imported CD's and a plethora of live performances of your favorite musicians. Vinyl Solution also has a vast selection of used cd's and if you are lucky enough you may find what you're looking for there and save yourself a few dollars. The staff is very helpful and if you can't find what you're searching for are more than happy to special order it for you. read more

Went here on a whim with a co-worker after a quick lunch. Thank god I did, because for once I can buy records in person instead of Amazon! Finally I can find way more artists I can actually recognize. They have plenty of oldies with songs I actually grew up with - Beach Boys, ABBA, MJ, etc. A lot of these artists you'd expect everywhere but apparently not. If you want to maintain your needle-in-the-haystack, approach, you can! They have many different categories, including sales and clearance racks as cheap as $0.49! You'd expect that to be complete garbage, but some of these included a couple songs I've jammed to in the past. Plus they got much more on the media side, including old books, VHS, CDs, and even laser disc. I'm a simple man. I just want to buy songs I want. Vinyl Solution Records lets me do that. Thank you. read more

Just came across this place and we'll definitely come back! The fellas at the front were so nice and very knowledgeable of music and different artists. There's a wide array of records, DVDs, CDs, Laser Discs, cassette tapes, even some VHS tapes! They also have some new and vintage radios and other equipment. Great store! read more

This place appears as strong as ever and I am glad its still here. I do love this place yes I do. Hey I got myself a Marky Mark and the Funky bunch CD today, talk about an antique and it was only 99 cents, ooh joy!. This place makes me wish I still had my cassette player because they have such a huge selection of tapes. They also have the latest Iron Maiden cd, rock on!!! They have soo many great records too. They even have a cool area where you can listen too the music before you buy it , y'know just in case your like ah I don't know if I really want it maybe , maybe not and then there ya have it a quick great way to come to the solution. read more

Great selection of tapes and records with a bunch of interesting other collections including Beatles and some older equipment. Great vibe in this place. However, the guys who work in there are either indifferent or seem to have a bad attitude - actually got yelled at by one of the guys while trying to show my daughter how did the arm on a $79 turntable works. Came out from behind the counter yelling "No, no, no." Jeez. Lots of other places to buy records. Try Record Man in San Carlos / Redwood City. They are super knowledgeable and won't yell at you. read more

TL;DR Audiophiles avoid. If you're a hipster who wants to brag they "listen to vinyl" then come on in and spend obscene amounts of money on 180gram trash. My experience over 4 years of this place is below. First off, the kids that work there (2015-2019) are nice enough in there. This review is not for them. This review is for one particular owner I had "an experience" with. I stopped going after my "deal breaker" moment. I'm just a little heated with this place after how I was treated after spending thousands of dollars in this place. I go in and buy a Dylan Bootleg (vol11) for $150. That was way over priced to being with, but whatever. I go home and realize I already have this in my collection!! If you collect and purchase as much as I do, sometimes you duplicate. Ok, my bad. I go back and explain the story to the guy and ask if I can get my money back or get equal in store credit (I had not opened it btw). He says "No, sorry." I'm thinking, "Ok that sucks. No refunds I guess." I tell him, Come on man, I spend a lot of money here. Is there anything you can do?" He says, "Sure, you can sell it if you want. I'll give you $50 for it." This guy said it with a straight face too. I couldn't believe it. $50!!?? It's my fault for buying a record I already owned. But screw this place if that's how you "work with" the customers who drop big cash there. I did want to support that type of vibe any longer so I stopped going. I mean, most their records are "new 180gram" anyway. Hardly any crate digging here. There is no MOFI or actual decent pressings in this place. Avoid if you are an audiophile. This place is for all the hipsters who want to brag that they listen to vinyl "cuz it just sounds better maaan." Well not the vinyl here. Go to the Record Man in RWC if you want to find gems and get the real "record store" experience. Or better yet, stick with DISCOGS read more

Decent to good selection of vinyl. The only problem is that the prices are very high. You'll often see the prices are two or three times what you'll pay online. If you want to support a rare independent business then maybe shopping here is for you. Otherwise if you're looking to save money you might want to stick with other record stores or online shopping. read more