So there I was earlier this week, wandering into one of Toronto’s so-called “best” record stores, expecting the usual treasure hunt vibes. Instead, I got smacked in the face by sticker shock — even with the U.S. dollar holding strong against the Canadian Loonie, those vinyl prices were brutal. And don’t forget the extra 13% GST tax sneaking up on you. Sure, Ossington Avenue has morphed into Hipster Central with its endless bars, pho joints, and quirky boutiques, but holy hell, the records — new and used — are priced like they’re rare artifacts. Has vinyl lost the plot, or is this just how deep your pockets need to be to join the party nowadays?
Let’s clear something up right away: Rotate This is a damn good record store. One of the best in the city, hands down. But it also sits on a street that’s seemingly been under construction since the beginning of the Trudeau years — which, to be fair, could describe just about every major artery in Toronto in 2025. The city’s infrastructure is an ongoing disaster, and I say that as someone who was born and raised here. High rents, nonexistent parking, and a squadron of overzealous parking enforcement officers make even a casual trip for records feel like a military op.
Despite that, Rotate This was buzzing during my 45-minute browse — a diverse crowd that spanned gender, race, and age. The vibe is classic Toronto: sorta cool and definitely pretentious. The space is well-organized, a little dim (it’s an old building), with music constantly playing and a few Gallo Acoustics speakers bolted to the wall that gave me a chuckle. This is a vinyl-first kind of place — so don’t roll in with a milk crate full of SACDs thinking you’re about to strike gold.
It also leaned heavily toward new stock rather than used, which means if you’re not bringing a credit card with a decent limit, you’re probably walking out empty-handed. Buying vinyl in Toronto now feels less like crate digging and more like investing in startup tech — only your ROI is emotional, not financial.
Case in point — every Blue Note Tone Poet release was on the wall, beautifully displayed, but at $60 CAD plus the 13% GST, it’s hard not to wince. That’s not cheap. That’s edging into “do I really need another reissue of Speak No Evil?” territory.
No wonder Eric Pye’s been scaling back or importing from overseas. Even hardcore jazz fans are starting to sweat the price of chasing audiophile pressings. When your love of classic Blue Note starts to feel like you’re financing a home renovation, something’s off.
Over in the “fresh wax” section, Craft Recordings had their latest OJC and Bluesville releases proudly on display — and for once, I felt a tiny bit smug (look, it had to happen eventually). Craft just sent me six new titles to review (coming next week), and yes, they cost me exactly zero dollars. You can read most of my reviews from their 2025 vinyl blitz here.
At $35–$40 CAD plus GST, these were surprisingly reasonable — especially when you’re still recovering from the Tone Poet sticker shock. If you’re in the 416 and looking for a solid score before rent eats your soul, snag them now before my brother beats you to it and stashes the last copies I don’t already own. Rotate This might be ground zero for Toronto vinyl inflation, but this batch actually felt like a win.
Used records at Rotate This were a real mixed bag. The floor was mostly clear of junk, which is a credit to the store, but prices were still all over the place. The cheapest I spotted was $10 CAD, and plenty hovered around the $30 mark — not exactly thrift-bin gold. On the bright side, condition was consistently VG to VG+ from what I pulled at random, which beats flipping through warped disco comps and moldy Englebert Humperdinck sleeves like you’re at a suburban garage sale in 1993.
If you’re a fan of lavish box sets, the front wall as you enter will either blow your mind or your budget — or both. There were some gorgeous deluxe sets on display, but let’s just say the thrill wore off faster than the Maple Leafs’ playoff hopes. Every single box set I checked was priced over $100–$175 CAD… and that’s before Ontario’s friendly 13% GST reminder that dreams cost more here.
Guilt was the only reason I walked out with anything — namely one of the few R.L. Burnside records missing from my collection, the recent repress of Dolly Parton’s Jolene, and Today! by Skip James. Grand total? $116.23 CAD, which comes out to about $85 USD and a swift kick to the wallet. Naturally, that kind of reckless financial abandon triggered some typical Canadian shame, so I instinctively apologized to a stranger on Ossington and quietly mourned the fact that I now had less money for a Bitondo’s panzerotti or a proper veal sandwich coma with the hometown crew at the original California Sandwiches.
And let me be clear — until you’ve watched five 50-something Jews and a Greek inhale an irresponsible amount of veal and cold Brio Chinottos for under $120 CAD, you haven’t truly understood guilt. Or sodium overload. Or the need for a Costco-sized pack of Ex-Lax and a Brita filter the size of the Don Valley.
Tuesday morning, I found myself on Spadina just before 9 a.m., chasing a proper Toronto breakfast in Chinatown before heading into Sonic Boom. Freshly baked and steamed buns — one with curry beef and peas, the other stuffed with custard — served as a warm-up act. I’ve ditched coffee lately in an effort to drop some of the weight packed on courtesy of my bipolar meds, so I washed everything down with an ice-cold Brio Limonatta while staking out the store like a vinyl-hungry raccoon waiting for garbage night.
Same vibe as the day before. Zero guilt. Zero purchases. Mostly because the prices felt like déjà vu, and I didn’t feel like dropping another $100 on represses I can probably snag online for less — or get sent for review.
Am I kvetching needlessly? Maybe. But I don’t think I’m entirely wrong here. Just a few weeks ago I was in Croatia and stumbled across a tiny gem of a record store in Split called Dancing Bear. Perfect use of a small downtown space tucked among the tourist crush — though thankfully not the same “elbow your way through Khaleesi merch” nightmare that Dubrovnik has become post-Game of Thrones. Seriously, that show did more damage to Dubrovnik than the Yugoslav wars.
I walked out with a couple of CDs — yeah, CDs — mostly because the new vinyl prices were hovering between 30 and 50 euros. I stared at two Kraftwerk 180-gram reissues that looked stunning… until I realized they were nearly $70 USD each. That’s not vinyl. That’s high-end German conceptual robbery. I love Autobahn as much as the next synth geek, but for 70 bucks it better come with a small Moog and a BMW lease.
How are the rest of you faring out there? Are you also getting sticker shock every time you browse the new releases bin? Or am I just a cranky Gen Xer clinging to memories of $12 LPs at Sam the Record Man? Let me know in the comments — especially if you’ve found a way to game the system (or a store that hasn’t gone full Sotheby’s with their vinyl pricing).
But yeah… I think the whole thing kinda sucks. Vinyl’s supposed to be about love, not layaway plans.
Related Reading:
- Abroad and Brooding: The Wine’s Cheap, the Coffee’s Strong, the Food’s a Poem—But the Grass Still Dies Eventually
- Portable CD Players Are Back—Because Cell Service In The Balkans Sucks And So Does Spotify’s Bitrate
- SoundCloud On-Demand Vinyl Pressing Is Coming — Move Over Bandcamp?
- Burn The Algorithm: Why Bandcamp’s Survival Matters More Than Spotify’s Billion-Dollar Playlist Machine
- Turntables & Tulips: Hunting For Vinyl In Amsterdam On Record Store Day 2025
Mike Cornell
July 27, 2025 at 12:29 pm
Being out in the burbs, it’s been awhile since I’ve ventured into downtown TO (oh, the traffic!) and with prices being what they are, I’m not compelled to acquire more vinyl anytime soon. The veal sandwiches, however, just might get me back down there, and maybe pick up some CD’s while I’m there!
Ian White
July 27, 2025 at 1:24 pm
Mike,
Right? The traffic is insane. I grew up at Bathurst and Eglinton, and that insane subway (still not open) left a mess. The 401 might be worse than the Beltway in D.C. (I survived 8 years of that) or the GSP here in NJ during the summer and that’s nothing to brag about. Downtown is a mess. Every intersection is under construction and parking is a joke. I moved a parking barrier on Ossington (NJ plates) to get a spot. Monday is quiet so nobody noticed.
Vinyl prices are very high in Toronto. I’ve been back to PRX (one of my kids lives in the Princeton area) since I came back to NJ and while it’s not cheap — definitely cheaper than Toronto.
Are there any pressing plants left in Canada? NJ has two right now which is a lot for such a small state. I know that a plant closed in Quebec. The value of the Canadian dollar does not help and then when you add the GST…like making a down payment on something far more expensive.
The College Street ghetto was the first place my grandparents and mother lived after coming off the boat in 1949. Clinton and Claremont are friendly streets for me. Bitondo’s looks exactly the same. Like it did when I was a kid in the 1970s. Pizza is meh. Panzerotti was not crispy enough but decent. I don’t venture into San Francesco’s. California Sandwiches was renovated inside and looks so different. Still the best. A lot more money too. But so worth it. I may have eaten two. With 3 Brios. $40 CDN. Or $4.59 USD.
IW
Anton
July 27, 2025 at 12:31 pm
Toronto seems very old and run down looking.
In regard to the price of vinyl, supply, and demand definitely dictates what retailers are able to ask and you probably should’ve purchased more vinyl if Canadian dollar so weak.
13% sales tax is BS. Canadians are suckers to pay that.
Ian White
July 27, 2025 at 1:28 pm
Anton,
My hometown looks kinda old and dirty. But 20 years of building unchecked and the collapse of the infrastructure will do that to any city. It’s also the most expensive in terms of housing, so not an ideal place to live right now.
Supply and demand does dictate that, but you have to factor in the weak Canadian dollar, high rent, and 13% sales tax, which used to be 15%. Only Torontonians would accept such thievery on the part of government.
When Sam the Record Man, A&M, and HMV vanished – it left the market wide open for independent record stores. Retail rent in the downtown corridor is also very expensive.
IW
ORT
July 27, 2025 at 3:22 pm
Perhaps it is time for a revival of the Colombia House Record Club? Probably not as spAmazon tried a club but it failed. I belonged but it kept asking me if I wanted the same album as my selection of the month when I already had it. No wonder it failed.
I belonged to RCA and Colombia House as well as the CD, Laser Disc and DVD/BluRay Clubs. And cassettes and 8-Tracks. I like music and movies enough to want to own them so that in the event the wokelings like Jisney decide that they must farce a “Warning!” Label about what they’ve deemed BROFFENSIVE, e.g., “Bro! I am offended!” I can watch it without their divershitty ego-salve B.S.
And they do it now all the time. They can take an airborne intercourse.
AristORTle of Greece (is the WORD!)
Neil
July 27, 2025 at 6:01 pm
This is just another vinyl bashing article. Most vinyl prices in the US are around $30 which is about the same as $12 was for Gen X back in the day.
Ian White
July 27, 2025 at 6:06 pm
How is it a vinyl bashing article?
I spend well over $1,000 on new records every year and am in a position to comment on the price of new records as both a Hi-Fi Editor and consumer.
Do I bash the sound quality of vinyl? Or ever tell readers to not consider it versus digital?
A quick search through our archives reveals that I’m one of vinyl’s biggest proponents.
It’s not bashing. It’s reality.
IW
David M.
July 27, 2025 at 8:08 pm
I thought the same as Neil as I tortured myself to finish the article. Whether Ian spends more than $1,000 a year on vinyl (I do, as well — 3 records a month would do it, and nobody sends me free records in exchange for an opinion).
Many articles have been written on this topic, and the conclusion is well-documented: inflation since the 1970’s puts the $25-30 cost of new vinyl on point. During the same era, gas was $0.49/gallon. Now it’s $3.00 if you’re lucky. That’s a 6x increase. An $8 vinyl record at 6x would be $48, which is where many of the small batch labels are priced.
Ian’s reply mentioned not bashing sound quality, but Neil never said he did. That’s called changing the subject, and since (Ian) did, let me add that for a price equivalent to 1970’s vinyl, the improvements in sound and jacket quality are both notable and worth the “extra” price we’re paying.
I started collecting in the 1970’s. Then, like nearly everyone else, I flipped to CDs, but I kept my 100ish records. Around 2010, I started exploring vinyl again, and my collection today is somewhere around 700. By far not the biggest collection, but one I enjoy every time I sit between my speakers.
The last time I paid for a car was January 2016. I wrote a check for $13,500, and I still drive that car today. Even if you spread that purchase price over five years, I’m 4 1/2 years without a car payment. At $400 a month, that’s $21,600 in car payments I haven’t made in those 54 months, so if I’ve averaged $100 a month on new vinyl, I’m still more than $16,000 ahead of the vast majority of households that pay monthly for at least one car.
To me, and likely many others with limited resources, it’s about prioritizing what’s important. I can live without (whatever food Ian was describing), and I can’t remember the last time I paid $6 for coffee like so many people do each morning. $6 x 5 days is $30 a week. That’s a Blue Note Classic album a week just for making coffee at home.
And on the bright side, I get to build my collection without dragging everyone down by complaining how expensive the records have become.
Now get off my lawn.
ORT
July 27, 2025 at 9:59 pm
David M., I have owned all 3 of my vehicles for years now. There aew 2 from 2011 and 1 from 2018. I eat the exact same thing 3 times a day every single day. Salad, chicken and tuna. I do this because not only am I required by doctors but also because of a powerful will to survive. The same exact thing and I am grateful for it. What I would not do for a non-licorice pizza, LOL! But my will to survive is stronger at least (estimated by the finest mathematicians!) 97.89832838283828222115858857473 percent of the time.
I no longer drink caffeine and when I did, I rarely had anything from BarStucks. My priority is not records. It is family and those I am close enough to by choice to consider nigh on as close as family. I am not come to shake neither fist nor finances at anyone but suffice to say I hold no malice toward any but speak the truth as I know it.
No one here “hates” or “bashes” vinyl. But if I wanted to, I could rain down like a Monsoon after the herald that is the Haboob on those that would farce their flaccid feelings on us like pigeons in flight sparkling a clean car. 😉 I have no dog in this cuque-fight (LOL!) save what I hold true. This is but a drop in the bucket that is time. No one here means any more than what they say even if the truth of what they say is less.
I have cautioned about making more of something that is not worthy of doing so and the reason being that sometimes in trying to make more, we make a fool of ourselves. There is no reason for any vinyl enthusiasts to be offended here. “Broffended”? Yeah. These days more than a few folk are so easily vexed. I suggest they look into a mirror if they wish to be even more aware of the source of their vexation(s).
It’s not as if it were the Picture of Dorian Gray. Or even the gatefold artwork of a $50.00 (U.S.!) licorice pizza. 🙂
It is nice to see such passion among fellow audio enthusiasts! Yes sir, it is nice indeed!
The ORTacle at HelFi
ORT
July 27, 2025 at 6:54 pm
Neil…Neil…Neil…Surely you jest? Nay…Methinks thou kiddeth not.
In 1971 an LP usually ran me about 3 dollars at the Pearl Harbor Navy Exchange or roughly $20.81 today. A gallon of gas was usually 25 cents (or less) a gallon and today that would be roughly $1.98. Except in commiefornia where Dystopia isn’t just a ride at Jisneyland.
No one here that I can think of, “hates” vinyl or “bashes” vinyl. I like vinyl records. I do NOT “love” vinyl records because I do not use “love” for anything but family, friends, God & Country and pooches and kittens.
The point is things cost more but economy of scale and manufacturer processes have vastly improved, turd-world child labor excepted because, well…I loath that sort of crap.
Neil…Neil…Neil…Do not mistake being upset for “bashing”. Do not attempt, albeit poorly in this case, to make more out of said upsettedness (izzat a word?!) than is warranted. Or go ahead anyway. It makes no real difference to me as I am not harmed but I do so enjoy a bit o’ silliness.
Fear not, oh Knight of Neil…I shall not say…Ni! To you but this once…errrr,twice. Ni!
ORThur, King of The Britons
KM
July 27, 2025 at 10:18 pm
Ian-
6 months ago and 2 albums to my name ( all were stolen decades ago ) I decided to add a Rega P2 with a ND3 cartridge to my humble system and started buying records. I agree, prices are crazy, but when I get a great overpriced new copy of Santana’s Abraxas or new copy of Linda Ronstadt’s Heart Like a Wheel and listen to all the nuances and emotion that come with it I am a happy man !
Thank you for the read. Always enjoyable and down to earth.
Ian White
July 27, 2025 at 11:23 pm
KM,
Appreciate the readership. Glad that you liked it. And understood the point.
IW
Rick
July 28, 2025 at 7:52 pm
I had the same felling the other day at Amoeba Records in Hollywood. Lots of $40, $50 and $60 records….
I ended up walking out with 4 used records in great shape for about $20 total. Very happy with those after a good cleaning.
Thanks for the article!
Ian White
July 28, 2025 at 10:37 pm
Rick,
Appreciate the kind words and awesome on those finds.
Headed to PRX in Princeton on Tuesday to dig through the used jazz and blues sections that get refreshed on Monday.
The last 4 visits resulted in 20 used CD purchases. For only $52.
IW
CY
July 28, 2025 at 1:45 pm
This article was a big help because I’m visiting Toronto for the first time in a month and need to know some shops worth checking out—thanks for namechecking a few. If you have any other suggestions (ideally relatively near each other), I’m all ears.
You also prepared me for sticker shock, so thanks, though as a tourist, it all works out in the end because when you buy records in another country, you’re in shops where every record is an import. 😉
All my beloved wants to do while we’re there is somehow visit that college library where Tears For Fears shot their “Head Over Heels” video (how’s that for a Gen X call out?), so if I can pull that off, it should give me the social currency necessary to get an hour or two of cratedigging. Fingers crossed.
Ian White
July 28, 2025 at 2:11 pm
CY,
The two stores I mentioned are good. Both are downtown. Just be aware of the traffic and parking issues. Sonic Boom is a larger store and is not just music. It’s also located in what I consider to be the real “Chinatown” in Toronto (the city has more than one because of the very large Chinese community that is domiciled mostly in the suburbs and Scarborough). Ossington has really shitty parking. City has installed barriers during construction. Monday/Tuesday are quiet days. Thursday to Sunday is very busy. The subway is meh. Was much safer when I was a kid. Sonic Boom is also close to Kensington Market which (aside from the dirty streets, garbage, and homeless) is filled with some interesting little restaurants.
College Street (west of Bathurst) has some great places to eat (all of my Italian places in the article) and so does Queen Street West (from Spadina).
Toronto is not cheap. But depending on the currency (USD or Euro), definitely more affordable.
Have fun.
IW
ORT
July 28, 2025 at 3:59 pm
CY,
To add support to your crossed fingers, I will be crossing my eyes in solidarity. To be honest, I do not know how long I can hold out, my brother! 😉
Keep the Faith and enjoy yourself in Toronto!
The ORTacle at HelFi
Andres
August 3, 2025 at 3:06 am
You’re right. Vinyl prices have gone up, New and used. I live in Bogota, Colombia, south America. There is no point on buying used records here,they go from 30 to 50 dollars, and they are not even in top condition. What i believe is that sellers believe the vinyl revival allows them to charge whatever they want. But i stopped buying used records , there is no point. I could get New copies on Amazon sometimes for half the price. I guess in a few years stores will realize there is no point on hiking prices if you can get them cheaper online. Now , will these make them go out of business or drop prices? I dont know, but what i do know is that i wont be paying 40 dollars for a New record , nevermind a used one. If these were special or rare editions i might think about it, but most are standard and not in mint condition.