Deadly Wax

Deadly Wax in Los Angeles takes its name from the part of a record that serious collectors inspect closely. Todd's answers are direct about in-person evaluation, condition, pressing details, and why some records need to be held before any price makes sense.

Interview with Deadly Wax

Deadly Wax is a name with real character. What's the shop's story, Todd?

The "dead wax" is the area of a record between the grooves and the labels. That’s where you’ll often find information on where a record was pressed, who cut it, and so on. If you’re obsessive and nerdy about records like we are, it’s one of the first things you’ll check. This is how we got to Deadly Wax.

You buy classic rock, jazz, international, reggae, soul, and modern rock, but pass on classical, musicals, and most pre-1960s records. How did that buying criteria take shape?

We’ll buy whatever people come here looking for that we feel good about selling.

You typically pay about a third of retail, more for rare or sought-after titles. How do you walk sellers through that?

That's not exactly right. 1/3 is a general starting point for common records. If you bring us a copy of Born In The USA that we’ll eventually sell for $15, we typically pay $5. If it’s something that will go right up on the wall and has a strong likelihood of selling quickly, we’re happy to pay more.

You'll take a list, photos, or an in-person look. What makes an in-person evaluation so important for accurate pricing?

We only buy via in-person eval. We need to see the condition and verify pressing info before we can make any offer on a record. Pics via email just don’t tell the story. We can take a look and say “that’s definitely worth bringing in” or “that’s not the kind of stuff that does well here” but I don’t even discuss numbers until I hold a record in my hand.

What does your LA customer base reach for most, and what's been quietly strong in the bins lately?

People come here for all kinds of stuff so there’s no simple answer. I suppose we do especially well with the kind of clean vintage copies of classics from the ‘60s to ‘80s that I go looking for when I’m out and about but I imagine that’s true anywhere.

What comes through in LA collections that still surprises you?

I don’t think this is specific to LA but walk-in collections are often surprising in some way. Sometimes 300 records will show up in dirty tubs and your first instinct is to quit looking after 50 dirty / busted records and then all of a sudden you’ll get a clean UK Black Sabbath OG in a stack of utter nonsense. Sometimes it’s a box of bluesy rock and a few desirable punk LPs sneak in. And sometimes it’s the people who are surprising — we get no shortage of characters with stories every bit as good as the records.

First visit to Deadly Wax — what should someone dig through first?

For me I am always starting in new arrivals wherever I go. The walls of course typically have a variety of premium stuff across various genres. And people really enjoy our staff picks section, where we write out our thoughts on certain albums and our relationships to them. It’s fun turning people on to things they might not have found on their own.

Last updated: 2026-08-09