CD CELLAR - ARLINGTON VIRGINIA BRANCH
Basic Information:
Name: CD Cellar
Location: 2614 Wilson Blvd Arlington, VA 22201
Location: Grade B: They're within walking distance of a couple of Metro stops and there's plenty of street parking. Just be aware that Arlington Country charges for street parking virtually 7 -24 and they are extremely aggressive when it comes to parking meter enforcement. Street parking is also very expensive so bring lots of quarters if you're planning to browse awhile.
Staff: Grade B: I was in the store on a fairly busy Saturday afternoon and while none of the staff went out of their way to help me out, that's not a bad thing in my book. If I wanted help, I'd ask for it. The staff on duty were your standard aren't-we-cool, college aged kids who seemed thankful to have jobs. They didn't seem to have all that much interest in the merchandise, but I will give them kudos for treating customers courteously and they went out of
their way to help me load purchases in my Jeep. Curiously, a couple of folks came into the store asking to sell LPs and CDs. The staff took a quickly look and politely declined the merchandise in both cases. Guess they didn't need another copy of Journey's Greatest Hits.
Inventory: Grade B: I'm guessing they have about 10,000 LPs in the bins. Musically it's a mix of genres and old and new releases. Look closely to make sure you aren't buying a repress. Unlike some other local stores, their buyers seem to pay attention to the condition of LPs bought and put out for sale. Inventory is categorized by genre, though some of the categorizations were
curious. Some '60s rock was with mainstream rock. Some was in a '60s bin. Not a big deal.
Pricing: Grade C-: Wow. If I could sell my collection at these prices I could literally retire. I'm guessing the average LP price is $10 with some releases going much higher than that. $10 isn't necessarily bad, unless you're talking about fairly common flea market-type inventory. In this case there were tons of LPs that you'd be able to buy at a flea market, or charity store for $1 - $5. At least a dozen times I picked up an album and put it back because of the asking prices were just way out of line with value.
Facility: Grade B: The store is located in a standard, anonymous strip of small ships. Inventory is in and under bins located along the outer walls. To their credit, the store is bright and they've left wide aisles so you can move around without too much difficulty. No listening booths in the place and the store sound system was no great shakes. I have no idea what they were playing, but at least one guy standing next to me told his girlfriend/wife that it was giving
him a headache and he left. Kind of hard to compare it to their Falls Church branch, but if I had to pick one of the two ... probably go to the Falls Church location.
Damages: Again, I'm not sure I want the wife to know this but I ended up buying 27 LPs for about $400 (they gave me a small discount for the quantity purchase). Hard to pick out specific treasures, but they would include an original French pressing of Francois Hardy's debut LP "Francois Hardy" and a reissue of "The David" psych LP.
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