Scotti’s Record Shop

One of the rudest people I’ve ever met. I had called and spoke to a nice young lady who said to bring in some CDs I had in storage. I said just bring the bin in and she said yes, they’d look at them and give up to a buck a cd. So I go over there and Scotti said bring them to the back on the table (no hello). He opens one of the CDs and there was no cd in it. He literally throws it in the bin and says we’re not intrested if you can’t take the time out to put all CDs in cases and walks away. Imagine? All he (or the girl that I spoke to) had to say was please take a few minutes and put all CDs in cases (would of taken literally 3 minutes). Instead he walks to front of store and opens door and stands there waiting for me to leave. I have never been treated so rudely (look at my reviews). Scottie, please treat people the way you’d like to be treated and spoken to I can guarantee you’ll have a better quality of life.

Once again, Record Store Day, 2016. Gary and his hard working staff did a bang-​up job trying to satisfy everyone. First, I must the folks waiting on line at 6pm were very friendly, watching out for each other, nice family vibe. Again, having coffee, cookies, etc made for an enjoyable experience. And, live music at 9:30am! Very cool. The staff knew exactly were to find each item the customers asked for. My surprise was Billy Joe Shaver, first they had it and found it quickly. Very smart, helps move the long line thru. 100% satisfied. Can’t wait to return, maybe next time just to browse.

Scotti’s is cool. It gets a 4-​star review from me because of the friendly people who work there… but it’s not my favorite record shop.
Its inventory is just not my jam. I’m not a Beatles fan and apparently the Beatles are a big thing there (at least when I went there)… All the books were Beatles books and I even saw a yellow submarine hanging from the ceiling. In addition, the finds that did interest me were marked up and a little too steep in price for me.
Again, it is a nice shop. It’s well run by the awesome people who work there and the store is very organized. It’s also located in a cute part of town. To sum it up — To me, Scotti’s offers a good shopping and browsing experience because of its relaxed/​chill environment, but rarely would I find something I would actually purchase.

One of my favorite records shops in the world! Awesome discount bins and rare imports. Lots of new and old vinyl. Nice people

As most of the other reviewers have stated, the prices are too high, inventory very run-​of-​the-​mill. They’ll start out pricing at $ 15-​$ 20 in the new arrivals, and weeks later they’ll be in the back for $ 3-​$ 5. They do not price aggressively to move inventory at a fast rate, and I’m positive the rare stuff goes online and not in the racks. The majority of the records are 70’s rock and jazz. I’m sure Gary does not want 12″ or hip hop people shopping there. I watched a guy bring in a crate of hip hop/r&b 12“s, Gary said it was garbage, the guy left. I tracked him down and he had some GREAT stuff, in great condition, bought it off him myself. Plenty of money to be made there, guy just didn’t want to sell it. It’s a shame he’s very closed minded in this regard, as there are very few record stores in the area. You are not getting any deals in this place, this is not a place for the experienced used vinyl buyer. Please, lower your prices and carry a wider selection.
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‘best hip hop selection people have seen, hearing that daily?’ Wow, obvious lie. You have sealed, new, recent re-​issues priced way high. Nothing used, rare, etc, you could buy the stuff online and get it shipped for cheaper than what you charge. Not buying 12“s is just dumb, considering the enormous overflow of the same AWFUL 70’s titles I see constantly. Listen, read your reviews, your prices are too high, and I’m not expecting dirt cheap, just reasonable. The selection is really painful to go through at times. Jeannete captured my sentiments perfectly, and got voted up 19 times, your 60 year old friends who listen to the beatles are not the only people who buy vinyl, maybe cater to other people as well?

Don’t waste your time! The combination of a VERY average selection and RUDE employees makes for a bad experience. Life’s short shop elsewhere…

This is not the place you want to go to Buy/​Sell or Trade any of your records. First, the employees and owner act like they don’t want you in their store to begin with, which can sometimes be dealt with but got to a point where it got on my nerves. They are not interested in helping you and act like doing anything to help you or even check out is a chore. On top of that, the selection they have here is not only fairly weak, but very overpriced. They mostly carry new releases and reissues, but do have a fairly large used section. Everything is overpriced! Non valuable 70’s Beatles reissues can only be had for over $ 20! If your in New Jersey and need a quality record store with amazing prices and an even better selection, Princeton Record Exchange is the way to go. This place cannot hold a candle to its competition elsewhere.

This place is pretty blah for interesting used titles. If you’re looking for 180 gram reissues or Third Man Records tchotchke crap then head over and shop local. Scotti’s was a chain of five (or more?) record stores with each one slowly biting the dust, in many ways the lone Summit homestead was saved by Record Store Day and the novelty culture it espouses. The used records are pretty dire, in 4 – 5 visits over the years the only thing I’ve purchased was a $ 20 T. Rex — The slider original. Either the cream from collections they buy goes directly to their eBay store or good records don’t walk in the door at all (judging from some of the Unilocaler complainers below trying to sell Scotti’s used records, sounds like the latter). If you just bought your first turntable or want to pop shrink and dad rock out to a Led Zeppelin box set, by all means, go. Sure beats Best Buy.

This place has the most overpriced vinyl I’ve ever seen. Hard rock and metal lps from the 70s and 80s that are only in ok condition are all over $ 10. Most of them seemed to be above $ 20. I wouldn’t go here, unless you live close by.

Rude. Took a million years to go through a hundred CDs of mine only to offer $ 5 for the lot after saying they’d be less than a dollar each on the phone…05 each? I drove 30 miles to come here. Nah. I’ll pass and give them away. It would have been helpful if they could have given an estimate after walking in instead of me waiting 20 min to open each one and see they’re in perfect condition and offer nothing.

Easily the best record store experience I’ve had thus far in my ~3+ years of collecting. I often hear/​read mixed reviews of prices at these shops, but Scotti’s has great deals if you know how to look. It’s true that some records may be just a bit more than they are online (mere dollars) but at least they are always guaranteed to be in great shape if it’s a newer release. Almost never have I looked at a price and thought «that’s crazy!» There’s a decent amount of records can be found for less than they are online. In fact I got lucky and managed to grab two records that had recently gone out of print for just regular price. It was great to not have to pay inflated prices. Like I said before, look carefully, be patient, and you too can stumble upon a hidden treasure. Even if one LP you want isn’t ideally priced, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll find another record on your list for just the right amount. The older, vintage LPs in the back are priced just like at any goodwill or thrift store, and are often in better condition too. Additionally, if you’re on Facebook and «like» their page OR are signed up for their mailing lists, there are a couple coupons and promotions each month that can save you some cash on vinyl or other goodies.
I’ve personally never had any issue with the staff, and have found them to be quite helpful when asking questions about releases and record maintenance or making requests for special orders. There’s a good selection of audio stuff from newer headphones and turntables to vintage receivers and amplifiers. Another plus is the in-​store VPI machine, which for a small charge can be used by anyone to clean and restore even the dirtiest records. It’s been a real lifesaver when regular brushes and solutions didn’t do the trick. Record Store Day is always a great experience here. There’s free coffee, donuts and cookies early in the morning and live music later as the day rolls on. What I really like is how the line is managed: only a small amount of people allowed into the RSD section. After x amount of people leave, then x amount who are waiting outside will be let in. It can feel slow sometimes, but it’s the best way the avoid the chaos that is typical of many stores on RSD. A+ ! looking forward to my next RSD and all other future visits to Scotti’s.

This is a follow-​up to Gary S’s reponse to my earlier review. I posted below that we had brought our lifelong collection of records to the shop after calling ahead to tell them about the condition of the records. The records themselves were in good shape but the covers were not — they’d unfortunately been scratched up by our cats while we were storing them in hopes that we’d eventually be able to transfer them to a digital format. Unfortunately we never found a way to transfer them but we were now downsizing to a much smaller living space and so couldn’t keep then any longer. I knew that resale places might not be interested in them because of the condition of the covers so I CALLED AHEAD! The person I spoke with asked somebody else for their opinion — presumably somebody in a position of authority — before telling me to go ahead and bring the records in for them to look at. They looked and only ended up giving me about 10 cents on the dollar, which was less than I expected, but that wasn’t my complaint! My complaint was about the attitude of the guy looking through the records. He treated us and our record collection like garbage he was being forced to deal with and as far as I’m concerned there is never an excuse for treating people that way. Gary S’s response is that his business never deals with product that isn’t in pristine condition and faults us for caring so little for our records that we gave them to the cats as scratching posts and then for having the gall to try to sell them to his store. That is exactly the point:
A) WE CALLED AHEAD AND DESCRIBED THE RECORDS CONDITION AND WERE TOLD TO BEING THEM IN BY A SCOTTI’S STAFF MEMBER
B) It’s entirely obnoxious and insensitive to describe the loss that was caused by our cats without our knowledge as being our choice.
C) Even if the records turned out to be in a condition that was unusable by Scotti’s, there is no excuse for being so rude about it, regardless of whether Scotti’s staff had given us approval for bringing then in or not. It’s simple enough to say «I’m sorry, I’m afraid these records are not in a condition we can use» without making any other implications about the «disgusting» condition of the records or about our intentional negligence in allowing them to get into that condition. Besides being far less rude and obnoxious, this approach would also have taken much less time, which in itself should have made it a better option for the Scotti’s rep, since a steady stream of complaints about the waste of his time that reviewing our records was taking were liberally scattered in amongst his other surly asides the whole time he was looking at our collection.
Gary S’s response in no way explains, excuses, or apologizes for the unpleasant experience we had in the store, but instead continues it.

My favorite record store in the area. The staff know their stuff, and their selection is usually on point. As a hip hop & R&B/Soul fan, it’s always exciting to find a place that actually has a good selection of these genres, old and new.
They’ve also been expanding their used vinyl & cd sections over the past year and the selection has grown to the point where you can spend an afternoon going through all the stuff they have (which is all very reasonably priced, and there are always a few gems too).
They also offer record cleaning! Their machine is pretty cool and they’ll teach you to use it yourself so if you’re a frequent customer you can just DIY. It’s only a dollar or two per record, and a great way to keep your collection in good shape.

I like Scotti’s. To David L that said the staff was snooty and complained about prices, I find the people there to be nice if you’re nice, and the pricing on collectables in line with many other places. I think it’s pretty hard in these days to run a used record store with sky high rent in a town like Summit, so I think they’re doing a great job and I like supporting them with my money versus buying online.

I was looking to buy some vinyls since my dad had just found his old record player and I was hoping to play some good music. So I looked up where I could buy some cause amazon wouldn’t get to me when I wanted it right away, lol, so I stopped here and it is absolutely perfect! I did feel a little weird in there big not sure why, it was just a bunch of old men looking and myself. But they had a great selection and I bought AM by the Arctic Monkeys and I listen to it all the time! I will be back soon to buy many many more :)

Scottie’s Record Shop is a great little shop that I love stopping by when I’m in the area. Despite it’s small size, they have a great selection of rock & metal albums and have a nice crowd that shows up for Record Store Day each year as well. You can also get all your vinyl needs here as well!

It’s been over two years since I reviewed Scotti’s Record Store. Place is fabulous. Take your kids there and let them see how nice it was growing up and spending an hour on the weekend picking out albums. The owner Gary is a good guy. Please support our local record store.

This is an outstanding record shop. They have a stupendous selection of used and new records, ranging from jazz to classic rock and even to punk. The owner and staff are very friendly and helpful. I highly recommend this store.

Prices, meh… selection, meh… nothing too special here. The only thing that makes this place worth the trip, is that it’s one of the only record stores left in New Jersey.
One of the gals working in front had a pretty crappy attitude, which is the last thing I want to deal with when I’m trying to support local businesses. And it wasn’t a music snob attitude, (which I can deal with, I’ve worked at indie record stores in the past) just a plain old, shitty, Jersey attitude.
Worth checking out once but won’t be returning. I’ll venture into the city instead or shop online.

I have a real soft spot for independent small businesses. Maybe it’s from growing up in a family of small business owners. Maybe it’s that most of the independent places I’ve been to really take pride in getting to know their customers needs. Either way, I’m a fan of Scotti’s. Surprisingly, I see that a lot of their pricing is on par with the big box stores/​chains. These big stores are supposed to be able to flex their muscle and bully suppliers into giving them merchandise for cheaper, aren’t they? Guess not, in this case.
Scotti’s is one of the few places I know where you can still find a decent collection of used CDs… and cassette tapes… and 8-​tracks… and vinyl. They carry the new releases as well, so you can still stay current while picking up some nostalgia on the cheap. I definitely look there first whenever I want to buy some new music since I love supporting local businesses.