Rocking Chair Records

Rocking Chair Records in St. Augustine, Florida, is a used-record shop with affordable finds, stereo equipment, and a broad all-genre selection. In this interview, the owner discusses collection buying, Florida storage hazards, and the records that keep surprising the shop.

---

Interview with Rocking Chair Records

Rocking Chair Records — where does the name come from, and what's the shop about?

I thought it had a good ring to it, we're in a sleepy little neighborhood, one where you might sit on your porch and listen to music in your rocking chair. Rocking chairs are kind of an old-Florida motif in general, plus it's kind of alluding to ROCK music. I thought it was a good fit for all of those reasons. There IS a good story behind our logo too, it's a drawing of the rocking chair that my parents stole from a ski resort the day they met each other. My brother still has the chair.

St. Augustine's the oldest city in the country, and a big tourist draw. Does that mean visitors as much as locals in the shop, and who's coming through?

There are busy & slow seasons here for sure. The holiday season is crazy in St. Augustine. We are in a location that's a little off the beaten path so we rely a lot more on regulars and local traffic than some of the businesses closer to the heart of the city, but we are right on one of the main backroads, and have a huge parking lot, so it's pretty easy to find us whoever you are.

Where are the bins deepest — what's your real strength?

We specialize in used records, we do have new and sealed inventory, but we hear from our customers a lot that we have great prices, you are guaranteed to find a great deal on some cheap used records here. We also take in a lot of cheaper used stereo equipment for people who are just getting into the hobby. I'm super into collecting 60's Psych rock & folk music and would say the store does reflect that, though we carry music of every genre.

Before you've priced anything, what tips you off that a collection's worth digging into?

We buy used collections all the time, and will pretty much buy any record that has a value. I'm a notorious bargain bin trash digger myself & will dig through just about any bin. I tend to find value in a lot of records that other people might think are trash, so I might not be the best to answer that haha. Just because it's only $1 doesn't mean it’s not good music! there’s a bit of gold or something to learn in almost any record you can find.

What do people assume is rare that you actually see all the time?

the folks who come in with the classic 60's + 70's rock and pop collections are always the people who think they have gold. People don't realize that almost every home in America in the 70's had a record player & a few Beatles or Elvis records kicking around, these days vinyl is still popular, but it's much more of a nice interest than it was then. All those copies are still in circulation, so they aren't rare at all. Some can be worth a pretty penny, but those are few and far between, and condition is a huge factor in record valuation as well. A lot of the stuff people bring in thinking it has high value, are in bad condition and thus aren't worth as much.

What's the sleeper — the stuff that moves better than anyone expects?

Everyone talks about the vinyl boom these days but CD sales are rising too, and have been popular the whole time. When I opened my store I was surprised at how many people collect and listen to CDs. All forms of physical media are becoming more and more coveted and for good reason in my opinion.

How much more is store credit worth than cash here, and does anyone ever regret taking the cash?

I do hate to see a fellow music lover sell their collection that they spend years curating, hurts my heart a bit, but luckily that's not too often the case when i'm buying. I try to give all our customers the fairest deal I can, we value every record individually, which is time consuming, but it ensures that neither party is getting a bad deal. I am very transparent about how we are valuing records too, will gladly explain the breakdown, process, or reasoning to anyone who sells to us. We offer the same deal to everyone, we let you know what we are going to sell each record for, and pay you 40% of that in cash, or 60% in store credit.

Coastal Florida means heat, humidity, and salt air — hard on records. What condition damage do you see most, and what would you tell a seller?

Water-damaged records are definitely a trend here. The sun is extra hot too, records can warp a lot quicker or more easily than up north, even if left in direct sunlight indoors, so don't leave your records in front of your windows! It's not uncommon for people to store their records in garages up north, but that is a BIG no-no here as well.

Has anything ever come through that you almost couldn't believe was real?

Yeah, to name a few, a white label promo of The Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat from a NYC radio station that I wish i could've kept, definitely the first one that comes to mind. One of the rarest/most expensive records I sold was a 7" by a 60's soul group called the Deceptions. Someone once tried to sell me Phil Spector's handwritten sheet music from the Teddy Bears era, which I'm sure was real, but he wanted $7,000 for it so I passed, was really cool to see it and hold it in my hands though! I'm sure I’m forgetting a handful of other crazy finds too but there's a few.

Is there a record you sold that you wish you'd kept?

That White Light/White Heat promo I mentioned in the last answer, it was too expensive to justify keeping but man did I want to. I once sold a 1st US press of The Velvet Underground's self-titled "Banana" Album with the sticker still on, for $100, I regret that pretty hard but oh well.

Last updated: 2026-10-13

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