Animal Records

When Animal Records opened on Grove Street almost two years ago, every single LP on the shelves came out of Greg's own basement. The shop has grown into a bigger Evanston space since then — with sidewalk 50¢ bins, three-for-$10 racks, and a buying counter that says yes to almost anything — but roughly half the inventory is still from his personal collection. We caught up with Greg between shifts at the new shop to talk about opening in a suburb next to Chicago, buying collections off the street every day, and why he'd rather give a record away than see it hit a landfill.

---

Interview with Animal Records

Animal Records is on Grove Street in Evanston — a north-side suburb with Northwestern University sitting right in it, but not somewhere people immediately think of when they list Chicago-area record shops. What's the origin story, and what made Evanston the right place for the shop?

Evanston is where I live, so putting the store near my home was the first reason. But I also felt there were some really good retail spaces here, and despite Evanston being much smaller than Chicago, it already had some draw for record buyers. Vintage Vinyl has been here since around 1980, and my good friend Tim Peterson's shop Squeezebox is on Main Street in South Central Evanston.

I wanted to do a store focused on a wide range of price points, and downtown Evanston felt suited for that. When I found a downtown space that worked, I asked Tim for his advice and he agreed that Grove Street was good for traffic and had the right vibe.

I'd wanted to open my own record store for decades, but I couldn't while my wife and I were raising our kids — I needed a steady income, so I worked management jobs in retail, wholesale, logistics, you name it. Eventually my youngest followed his sibling to Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and being a state school helped with the in-state tuition. That let my wife and me decide we could afford for me to quit my regular job and take a shot at this. As soon as she gave me the green light, I signed a lease on the original location at 624 Grove Street.

When I opened, 100% of the records in the shop came from my own collection. Almost two years in, we've brought in a lot of new records and bought many collections from local people, so I'd say the store is now about half acquired inventory and about half still from my personal collection.

We love Evanston. It's been a great place to raise my kids, and we feel very connected to the community — the Downtown Association and the Chamber of Commerce have been great partners. We also enjoy being close to Northwestern and a number of other schools. We're hoping to make Evanston that much more of a magnet for vinyl collectors, so when somebody's planning to hit a few record shops in one trip, they choose to come here knowing they can knock out several in one easy afternoon.

Evanston has a very specific mix — students, longtime locals, and Chicago residents willing to make the drive up. What role does Animal Records play in that community, and who's actually walking through the door on a given afternoon?

I didn't really know what to expect in terms of who the store would attract, but as you'd guess, we get a lot of college students and out-of-town visitors — we're within a block of a few large hotels. We're also a short distance from Evanston SPACE and a couple of newer venues, the Northlight Theatre and Local Note. We get first-time visitors every day who've never been to the shop, which is great. Our biggest focus is just making them feel at home, whether they're from Evanston, nearby, or visiting from far away.

We've had numerous events in the shop to give the community a relaxed place to gather, and now in the bigger space we have even more room for that, so we're going to increase the number of in-store events.

Our number-one goal is just to make everybody feel comfortable and at home, regardless of how much or how little they intend to buy. A lot of young people don't have much money, so we always have 50¢ records on the sidewalk and a big selection of three-for-$10 records. We regularly run sidewalk sales where records are a dollar each — same for cassettes and CDs. I'm happy if somebody comes in, hangs out for an hour, and buys a single 50¢ record. As long as they make a connection to the shop, I know they'll be back.

Somebody who's 14 or 15 and doesn't have much money now might be in a different position five years from now. If they had a good experience when they were young and broke, they'll have fond memories and want to come back later, when they've got some pocket money, to relive hanging out at the shop when they were younger — and still be welcomed.

When somebody walks in with a box of records to sell, what makes a collection an easy yes for you in the first thirty seconds — the tell-tales you look for before you've even started pricing?

Honestly, we pretty much say yes to any collection that comes through the door, with only a couple of caveats. Like any store that buys and sells used records, we base what we can offer on a range of factors, most importantly whether the records are something we can resell relatively easily. The general rule of thumb is that more modern and edgier music is usually easier for us to move, but we rarely say no to anything — we just adjust the offer based on format, popularity of the artist, condition, and so on.

There are some immediate telltale signs we're likely to offer more for. If the records have been well cared for and are still in their original sleeves and covers — or in protective outer plastic sleeves — that's usually a good sign.

Collections larger than 100 records are usually in better shape than smaller ones. There are exceptions, but it kind of makes sense: if somebody has over 100 records, chances are they haven't played the same one so many times that they've worn it out. If somebody is selling you their entire collection and it's only a dozen records, often those records have been listened to and handled a lot, so they show more wear and tear.

We're always looking for modern pop, jazz, hard rock, punk, blues, world music, reggae, and electronic music. The only time we'll actually say no is if a collection is extremely dirty, covered in mildew or mold, or badly scratched, cracked, and warped. Other than that, if the customer is reasonable with their expectations, we'll always buy — regardless of what's in the box.

When we do buy a collection of records that aren't in high demand, we often do free mystery-bag giveaways. If we can tell a record probably won't even sell on our 50¢ table — usually easy listening, classical, or opera — we'll put them in mystery bags and give them to customers for free. People appreciate getting free records, and honestly, we'd rather give them away than see them end up in a landfill.

What does the buying process look like at Animal Records for a whole collection versus a handful of records — do you handle them differently, and when should someone call ahead first?

We don't require an appointment. I always tell customers: if you can fit the records in your vehicle or on your person, come by any time. We're open noon to six, no appointment necessary.

Obviously, if someone has a really large collection I'm happy to do a house call. Collections walk in the door every day, varying from just a handful of records up to around 500. Once it's much bigger than 500, I'm usually going out to meet the customer at their location.

We also accept records as gifts. If someone has low-demand titles — Lawrence Welk and the like — some customers just prefer to give them to the shop rather than take the small amount we could offer. That's fine with us.

On the actual sale, we always give the customer two options: cash or store credit. We typically offer double the amount in store credit. So if we offer $40 in cash for a stack, we'll offer $80 in trade. Most people are looking for cash, but collectors sometimes just want to swap out records they're tired of for some fresh ones. It works out to roughly two-thirds cash, one-third store credit.

Illinois has humid summers, brutal winters, and lots of basement-storage collections. What condition damage do you see most in Chicago-area collections, and what would you tell a seller to do differently going forward?

The most common issues are records that have been stored in non-climate-controlled conditions where they weren't tightly packed — so they leaned sideways under pressure and warped over time — or records that have been in a damp or flooded basement.

Both are pretty easy to avoid. Pack the records tightly into a standard U-Haul record storage box, and keep the box a few inches off the floor of the basement or storage space. Most basement flooding is only a few inches deep, so just keeping records off the floor usually saves them. And if records are stored upright and packed tightly, they usually don't develop warping problems.

Being close to Northwestern means you probably get a lot of students clearing out at end of semester, or coming through with a first-collection budget. Does that show up in what walks in and what walks out — and does it change how you price?

We don't see a big change in what's being sold to us when Northwestern and the other schools reopen in the fall, but we do see a change in what we sell — there are just a lot more young people around. Northwestern has a serious classical music program, too, so we also see young students coming in for classical.

We try to ramp up our selection of new records in the fall and add a lot of titles requested by NU students and customers that age. A lot of new releases ramp up in the fall anyway — summer is a relatively slow release season — so this happens somewhat naturally.

What's the most overvalued type of record you see people trying to sell — the "I saw this go for a lot on eBay" collections that turn out to be worth much less than the seller was expecting?

The most misunderstood titles are your standard classic rock and oldies — Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones. There are records by all three of those artists that are worth a lot of money, but there are also many that aren't worth much at all.

I always tell people, when they bring in good records that just aren't worth much: the street value and the sentimental value are often very different.

Opening a record shop in a north-suburban market that already has Chicago's massive scene half an hour south is a specific bet. For someone thinking about opening in a similar suburban market rather than the city center, what did you learn early on that you wish someone had told you?

Technically this applies to my store, though downtown Evanston is more like a close-in Chicago neighborhood than a wide-open distant suburb. We're a couple of blocks from the L, the Metra, and several active bus lines, so we get a lot of commuter customers on public transit. We're not in the city of Chicago, but we're in a relatively dense spot.

My take: no matter where you're thinking of opening, pick a place where you can draw a large number of casual passersby. Record stores will always attract committed enthusiasts, but to really grow the business you need a strong flow of people who aren't destination shoppers — they just stumble across your door and come in. That's the easiest way to grow word of mouth.

One thing I wish I'd started doing earlier is closely tracking every new record we were buying and selling. At first I was doing it manually — relying on memory, scratching things on a clipboard — and missing a lot of opportunities to restock titles. We've since moved to a proper inventory management process, and it's saved a lot of time and made sure we're re-ordering the right mix of product.

Last updated: 2026-09-21

Store owners

Add a VinylPackman badge

Use this small badge on a Press, About, Links, or News page to point visitors back to the feature.

Show badge code

Need to fix store details?

Owner or staff? Send a correction for review.

Correct this listing