Rasputin Music

This store is hit or miss with what I’m usually after. My last visit the used blu-​rays were virtually non-​exsitant, they just closed the far superior Downtown SF store, so their inventory is in boxes EVERYWHERE, there was an employee with headphones on unkeepering CDs in one of the sections, when seeing I wanted to shop there, he looked the other way, didnt bother to move, or move his large box. They have went to a new browser that involves you to pull out a second drawer below for the sections flow, not very «stroll the aisles and browse» friendly. Prices tend to be good here, selection isn’t bad, but I am not a fan of the closure of the DT SF store, and the new browsers. If you know exactly what your looking for, the new browsers are fine, expands the inventory in a smaller space. Im guessing theres some anomaly to the Blu-​ray section this time…

This place is GIANT, filled with all sorts of music and DVD’s galore! I could literally spend three or four hours searching the whole place and end up with a pile of affordable DVD’s and music! I always save up to go on a major music and DVD splurge! So much fun!

Back in the day, Rasputin Records was the place to go for records – LPs and 45’s – albums and singles – back in my salad days with its competitors that were Tower Records, Rainbow Records, and Record Factory. The aforementioned competitors are now history and part of my her-​story. Rasputin Records has outlasted them all.
I have not stepped into Rasputin Records in ages. I took a much needed mental health day off from going to classes to come here and browse the offerings. I have been listening to music as a method of self-​care. After surrendering my backpack for the sales associates to hold and mind, I went off to explore the racks.
I have been listening to a lot of music by the British band Keane through their videos and music online looking for answers to life and it’s challenges through their philosophical music. Much to my surprise, Rasputin Records had a used copy of their two-​set CD limited edition of The Best of Keane (2013) that was marked much lower than the new one-​CD of the same name. (How I wish I could italicize, bold, and underline titles on my Unilocal!reviews!) I immediately purchased the Keane two-​set CD.
The sales associate who tended to my purchase made me nervous a bit. He knocked and banged the security cover off that I was quite afraid of my new purchase being damaged before I could bring it home. I looked at his colleague who was taken aback just as much as I was. Fortunately, the packaging was all right on my new Keane CD. No harm, no foul.
I have forgotten how much fun of going to record shops can be. Record shops in Berkeley were one of my many second homes. I will have to come back and get more CDs from here.

Huuuuuuuge cd and vinyl selection here. Lots of jazz records though to satisfy those pretentious yuppies. I thought they’d have a little more hard rock/​punk rock selection

Wonderful experience! I called ahead to make sure they had a copy of the CD I wanted. They held it until I walked down to the store and was greeted by an employee when I walked in (as I have been here a lot the greetings are few and far between so I was lucky)
The aisles are wide enough that your are contorting your body to pass another shopper. I wish there was vinyl. (very few in store) but I won’t hold that against them. I also wish they were opened later than 7pm.

Fun place to kill time and explore. This place is larger than it looks.
Vinyl, CDs, DVDs, blu rays, t-​shirts, magazines, posters and more are ready to be found here.

Love this place. I always find something perfect for my collection. I have visited 4 of the locations but this one is my favorite. Basement is vinyl alone which was really nice. A little hard to navigate and the genre’s were a little off from what I would categorize them as but overall not too difficult to find what I look for. Great atmosphere!

A great place to get used CD’s and movies, but the value for vinyl and TV shows is spotty. Keep Amazon handy for reference, keeping in mind you pay for shipping then, whereas obviously here it’s in your hot little hand.
Give yourself a couple hours and go through all of the clearance rock (and it is sizable), and keep a list handy (Dropbox for me) of what you own if you have a sizable collection so you avoid buying things you forgot you already own (been there, done that).
Vinyl collection is sizable at this location, and is downstairs (is a third level counting the basement). Large collection of dollar vinyl, but even for me nothing in there I didn’t already own or was interested in (and some of it is very tenderized). Didn’t find used rock at prices I agreed with (Dimple in Sacramento has every place beat hands-​down), so before giving up (although by now I had a large collection of used CD’s in tow), I hit the jazz section and country. Found 5 Maynard Ferguson Albums and 2 Pat Metheny Group albums I didn’t already have (and this is getting hard to do), all of which were $ 1.99-$ 3.99 and were in great shape. You just have to be patient and know a good thing when you see it. Sometimes you get lucky and there’s more than one copy to choose from, so you get the best of what’s left, one of which is usually good.
I’ve been to the Amoeba just on the other side of the street, and that was an even bigger let down on the used vinyl value, plenty of new shrink-​wrapped top-​dollar stuff there, but that’s not my style (yet, at least)…
If they could get to Dimple value for used vinyl I would 5 star in a heartbeat.

I’ve always been a big fan of the Rasputin Music establishments. Sure, the service isn’t all that great, and the place stinks, but if you’re able to provide yourself with your own hazmat suit and mask, then that won’t be a problem.
This place will often have hidden gems that you won’t be able to find online at the prices Rasputin will have them for. Sure, you’re buying used products, but believe me, 90% of the time they are practically new. I picked up the classic 1989 Punisher film yesterday for only four bucks which is quite a bargain to relive some of my fondest memories of my youth.
Plenty of music to buy and this location is quite larger compared to some of the other Rasputin locations. Overall, if you you’re looking for a film/​music then check this place out. Just don’t expect top notch service.

I found Keith Sweat’s first CD for 3 dollas and old Mac Dre CDs! HUGE selection of music, movies, albums, games, etc. I am so thankful places like this still exist, I am old school and haven’t gotten around to learning how to download music yet. I really loved looking thru the uses music section, found some really old jams I haven’t heard in years.

Not only does this shop have an excellent assortment of records and various mediums of music, but the ice cream here is actually so underrated! It is WAY cheaper than CREAM (which happens to be right across the street) and the quality is about the same (if not, then cheaper). An ice cream sandwich is $ 2 with cash, $ 2.50 with a card (told you it’s cheap). I recommend the rainbow cookies, soy french vanilla ice cream, and the green tea ice cream. Really great, check it out if you aren’t willing to wait in CREAM’s never-​ending line

This rasputins is HUGE! It took me a solid hour to get through it all. They have a really wide variety of everything, and the staff is always helpful and nice. Love that they have Ice Cream now. It gives me something to eat while I’m browsing!
Also all the records are downstairs, in an enclosed area. There’s so much to look through there.

Yeah absolutely love it!!! got the vibe, good music playing. everytime friends come over from overseas i’ll bring them to this cool record store!!!
Friendly and useful customer service. .
when i want to cheer up my soul i go for a quick visit, a place where music is alive :)

Came by today after having been away from this store in a while. They added a cart to the front of the store that sells ICE CREAM! I’m assuming it’s in competition with Crème across the street, and let me tell yah — the $ 2 cookie and ice crème sandwich was comparable to crème and much cheaper. LOVED it.
I do feel bad for Rasputin because I did notice business is slowing down with the digital revolution, so I hope they stick around!

The crown of the Rasputins empire the Berkeley location is massive! Based on my experience the other day it isn’t necessarily the best one to do your trading/​selling at though. Having been to every store in the chain multiple times you are best served taking to the East Bay Stores: RAP, Metal, psychedelic rock… others…San Francisco stores: Rock, Soundtracks, psychedelic rock… others…South Bay stores: Metal, Punk, Rock, Psychedelic Rock… others…Ya gotta figure out the best store for what you’re selling, and if you’re going that way!
Selection is impressive, though it needs a good thinning! Lots of damaged overpriced stuff in the used bins thats been sitting. Tons of gems that make you wish you had more money to go digging over these 2 floors!
I’ll be back!

I’m a die hard vinyl fan and a radio DJ. So, a music store has to try pretty hard to get a poor review from me. But, these numbskulls somehow managed to pull it off.
First, the staff — college kids who have little passion for music and would rather be anywhere else. They don’t care; they’re waiting on their shift to end. Then, there’s the hours. If you work in S. F as I do each day and ride the train home, you might as well write this place off right now. Despite the mobs of kids with Daddy’s money and their financial aid checks, walking Telegraph by the thousands, these guys close early every day. One Friday after waiting all week to go in and buy some Ella Fitzgerald on Verve. I walked up at 8:10 pm and these guys were CLOSED — yep closed by 8pm on a Friday night in a college town.
But wait, their lack of basic business sense gets even better…
So a few months latter I decided to give these guys another chance and RUSHED back to the East Bay after work. I arrived at Rasputin at 6:20pm — cool beans. I have an hour and 40 minutes to flip through the vinyl and find some treasures right? WRONG!!! Just 35 minutes goes by and the P.A. announces «Attention, we will be closing in 3 minutes» WTF happened to closing at 8pm??? Sorry — looks like it’s 7pm tonight. So, once again I left with empty hands and a full wallet. The second time being disappointed was the charm for me — I was through with this place.
They do seem to have a good selection — although I’ve yet to be able to stay in the store long enough to know for sure.
Two stars is all these guys get. I shouldn’t have to make a special trip on the weekend for the «privilege» of handing them my money. In a 2 income household society PEOPLE WORK — that means you need to be open till 9pm so they have time to get off work, commute back to the East Bay, grab a bite/​relax a few minutes and then come to your store and shop. It aint rocket science!!!

5 whole stars for the guy downstairs in charge of the vinyl collection.
He went through hundreds of albums in search of an album I was looking for. He didn’t find it but the effort alone will make me come back to this store alone.

Have not been to this location in almost 8 years, but when I first walked in I was a bit surprised at how big the store was compared to the one in Campbell. The music and DVD selections are great, and pricing is very fair.
I was really stoked to find that the entire basement was dedicated to vinyl, although I was somewhat disappointed that their vinyl selection was not as good as Amoeba’s right down the street. A few of the genres in the vinyl sections were a bit difficult to navigate, especially the rock section.
There’s a really cool $ 1 and .50 cent vinyl section right under the stairs when you step down — I had a lot of fun digging through all the titles and was pleased that I came up with some good selections.
The sales associate at the register wasn’t too enthusiastic or talkative, so I mustered an awkward smile to break the ice. Didn’t really seem to work though, haha.
There is no designated parking so make sure you bring a lot of quarters to feed the meter! I found myself digging through vinyl for almost 2 hours and did not even realize how quickly the time was passing!

Let me begin by saying that I’m much more of an Amoeba girl. To me, amoeba is far more organized and the employees are more knowledge about music in a broader sense. However, Rasputin wins in two aspects:
1. Their jazz cd and vinyl collection is great and pretty well priced. So many classic and obscure records left by legends. I love stopping by just to check the jazz section.
2. Their television and film selection. So cheap (usually), way more options than amoeba on telegraph, and goes from the blockbusters to the 1960’s Bergman.

This is my favorite location in the Bay Area. This one is huge! And since I started DJing, this has been my go to for used vinyl as well as Amoeba. What’s the first thing I look for when I go to any store? Duran Duran of course. This one always seems to have something that I don’t already have in my collection. I usually throw down my money not caring about price when it comes to the all mighty DD.
This is definitely the place to go to when looking for music since their collection is vast.
P. S. Please get more Kid Cudi on vinyl. Thank you, mucho!