ALT Books and Records

ALT Books and Records in Sedona brings together used books and vinyl gathered through estate buying and regional collecting trips. The interview explains the shop’s high-traffic setting, selective buying approach, and the challenge of finding records that are genuinely worth shelving.

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Interview with ALT Books and Records

ALT Books and Records is in Sedona — a town more known for red rocks and metaphysical shops than for its record scene. How did a books-and-records shop end up there, and what does the mix look like in practice?

After I moved to Sedona I opened an estate art gallery, selling previously owned art and collectibles. I would frequent local sales looking for inventory and started to find interesting collections of vinyl and books at prices I couldn't pass up. Eventually I ended up with so many great records and books that the only way I could keep buying was to start selling. A small upstairs location became available at Tlaquepaque, a very popular shopping area for visitors to Sedona, so I decided to open a store for used books and records.

Sedona has a very specific mix of locals, tourists, and a well-known spiritual community. What role does ALT play in that community, and who's actually walking through the door: residents, weekenders, folks passing through from Phoenix or Flagstaff?

I don't think our store plays much of a role in the community. We do have some locals that stop in frequently, but I would have to say that the majority of Sedona residents don't even know we exist. Sedona does welcome around 2 Million visitors per year, and Tlaquepaque is one of the most popular shopping and restaurant areas. The largest majority of our customers are visitors from out of state, with the next largest being from the Phoenix metro area. We hear many of our repeat customers say that it is one of their mandatory stops when they visit Sedona.

When someone walks in with a box of records — or books — what makes a collection an easy yes for you in the first thirty seconds?

We are on the second floor only accessible by stairs in a crowded shopping village where parking can be a challenge. Having someone walk in with a box of records or books is an extremely rare occurrence. I rarely work in the store and spend my days searching for books and records, and out on buying appointments. Typically I will go to the collectors homes, or wherever else the collection is stored. Good titles in decent condition will always an easy yes.

Books and records are two very different resale worlds — different pricing culture, different condition standards, different customers. Do you approach buying them the same way, or does each side have its own rules?

The resale worlds of books and records don't seem all that different to me. Fundamentally you are looking for titles that other people want to buy in saleable condition at a price where you can resell them, pay your bills and make a little profit. Frequently I will buy both books and records from the same seller. The main difference I see is that there is a much smaller universe of records that sell reasonably quickly vs. books. It is more challenging to source the records.

Sedona has high desert climate — dry, sunny, dusty, cold nights. That's actually pretty gentle on vinyl compared to humidity, but the sun and dust do their own damage. What condition damage do you see most in local collections, and what would you tell a seller to do differently going forward?

Sedona has hot summers, and many records we buy come from Phoenix which of course has famously hot summers. I've purchased collections that were stored in Phoenix garages or outbuildings for years that were in good condition because they were stored upright and packed tightly. If they have been more haphazardly stored, there are going to be quite a number of warped records. The most frequent damage you see is water damage, and it can leave the collection unuseable. Sometimes there can be evidence of bugs or rodents, and that is never good. The advice would be to store them upright, in the correct size cardboard box, not on the floor or anywhere that has roof leaks. One standard frustration seems to be double albums missing one LP. Hard to spot when quickly evaluating a collection, and leaves you with numerous unsaleable incomplete sets.

Sedona has real turnover — people move in, retire, downsize, move away — which means a lot of estate collections. What's the honest picture from what walks in: how often does an inherited or downsized collection turn out to have real value, and what's usually in it?

As I mentioned before, hardly anything ever walks in. I'm out on the mean streets competing for inventory. The majority of the records we buy come from outside Sedona. The resident population here is less than 20,000. However, when venturing further afield, sometimes collections do hold very interesting and rare records. As can the occasional local finds.

Between the books and the records, what's the wildest or most memorable thing that's come through the door — a title, a record, a piece of an estate that had a story?

Sedona does seem to be a good town to find books that are hard to find elsewhere. I come across a fair number of quite important books that qualify as memorable. The best record find was a big jazz collection off craigslist that was out in the middle of nowhere that turned out to include a number of very clean 1950s Blue Note first pressings.

Opening a shop that combines books and records in a tourist-and-spiritual town like Sedona is a very specific bet. For someone thinking about a similar hybrid shop in a market that isn't a music town, what did you learn early on that you wish someone had told you?

I think the main lesson is that it is very easy to find quantities of used books and records. However most of the records and nearly all of the books you see in abundant numbers are not going to be worth trying to sell in a retail setting. You have to know the market and be very selective about what you put on the shelves and in the bins. And the only real way to find out is to purchase it, price it, put it out and see if anybody buys it. Also, I think our hybrid shop works because we are in a very high traffic center. I would say that the majority of our sales go to people who had no plans to visit a book or record store that day. Our situation might not be easy to replicate.

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Last updated: 2026-09-20

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