Westsider Records

Great stock, wide range. Best secondhand classical & jazz section I've seen in NY. I could have stayed all day - very friendly welcome. Will be my first port of call when I next visit. Will make a point of recommending this place to all music fans heading to NYC.

What a cozy vintage records store, you can find a large variety of vinyl, dvd or cd records. The owner of this place is such a great and kind guy, who is always ready to help and assist you with suggestions or recommendations. Love it! I will come back!

I went there to buy some cassettes and they had a wide variety but not many popular ones. That is just cassettes though, as there was so much of the other stuff like vinyls and cds. My only complaint was that one of the cassettes I bought was broken, but I do not believe the owner was aware of this and might have been a one time mistake. Overall, very peaceful and great shopping experience.

Westsider Records is a hidden gem that you could spend hours in. If we weren’t on a time crunch during our visit, I would definitely be there for that long! The man who runs it is kind and helpful and you can talk to him about all kinds of genres. Coming back here is at the top of the list of things to do next time I’m back in NYC.

TLDR: Wonderful. This small space, already packed with interesting and quality finds, felt even fuller with shared connection and engagement. This place brims with history - the fact that the man that works there was too, made it twice as good. I focused on the opera and musical theatre vinyls and CD’s, but skimmed other sections, which seemed diverse. What I looked at in detail was meticulously organized. When I confessed I might have initially scrambled it up a bit due to blurry vision, I actually stressed / worried the man working there for a moment. He had every reason to be - he’s an older man and I made more work for him! What matters more about that (at least, to me) was it also shows how he cares about this store and the items within. As I shopped, I heard him share truly interesting details about or related to every item a customer brought for checkout. He was knowledgeable, and generous with his knowledge as he conversed with all the customers there. I bought the book of Maria Callas’ Julliard Classes as well as three opera vinyls: two operas with Maria, and one copy of Die Fledermaus boxed in purple silk with gold text. He recommended the film adaptation "O, Rosalinda!!" to me. Not just that, he shared a bunch about the actors, the translation. Altogether, an absolute joy. I hope to make many return visits. I believe the man I met with was Bruce! He really seemed to know something about everything.

No item is worth dealing with the grumpy guy behind the table who couldn’t care less about customer service. Pitiful. Wanted to buy some stuff, but his bad attitude and inept awareness of what good service is made me put everything back. Give your money to a better record store that knows how to treat people with respect. Like Academy Records. Kids, don’t grow up to be that crotchety guy who thinks it’s ok to treat people like they don’t matter.

Bruce was very helpful!