Stranded

I’m giving 4 stars not 5 because it is a little pricey for some things…
To be fair, every record I bought on my first visit (7) was near mint and I have no regrets but if prices were just a little bit lower, I would’ve bought twice as many.
I really like that the music isn’t separated by genre. Many times the only thing that makes something be separated into rock, r&b or country is the artists’ ethnicity. I applaud Stranded for not promoting that. Usually at most shops, I get remarks upon purchasing that I have an eclectic selection. Refreshingly, not at Stranded.
I love not having to go to a whole other section for a different «genre»!
I love the indexing system and the media quality.
I think over time, I’ll probably give 5 stars but also hoping they can come down in price a tiny bit.
10% less overall would be just right imho.

Very impressed with the selection of music here at Stranded. He prices are high but the music is rare. The one thing that made this less than a 5 star review is the fact that all the used music is alphabetized without regard to genre. I couldn’t quite get into my record store zone as I kept flipping to music i have no interest in. I suppose it’s my own fault for being a narrow minded listener but by the same token I feel like it takes away from the browsing experience.

Great store! Eclectic selection of vintage and new music, with knowledgeable and friendly staff and owners. Easy parking, good communications on orders, way more interesting than most record shops. My wife and daughter agree.

Make no mistake, music lovers. Lightweight space, heavyweight selection. Everything in its right space, uncluttered, varied genres. You can spend a good 1 – 2 hours in here and just lose your shit with all these OMG fan girl fanboy moments when you find that vinyl that tugs at your nostalgic slash elitist slash purist slash rare collector slash whatever-​moves-​you heartstrings. This place is cathartic. Definitely recommended for the music lover in your life.

This place is a small treasure — a very eclectic selection of classics of every genre. One thing to find used LPs (tho theirs are all in great condition) but where do they get new, sealed albums from 1968? Staff is friendly and knowledgeable. A fun place to visit and think about all the vinyl you left behind (or still have sitting in the attic).

It’s always a pleasure digging through their selection of hard to find records from multiple music genres. Every used record I’ve purchased here has been problem free. Steve and the rest of the staff very friendly and extremely helpful with questions. Highly recommended.

Stranded is either part of the new wave in recordings or the end of it. they feature old and new vinyl records. while i have old beatles and similar aged records, i haven’t plsy them for awhile…
Stranded is open to buying old vinyls. i may be interested in buying some. need to time to peruse available stock. aslo need to see if my turntble still works.
vinyls start at $ 15+.

What an absolute joke of a record store. Never been in a record store before where the cheapest used record is $ 15!!! For the most part all the records in their extremely small/​limited store are brand new, but I often go crate digging for gently used gems. Their «crates» in the lower shelves make browsing virtually impossible, it’s like a stand up box sort of, you can barely flip from alum to album let alone see the covers clearly. Has a real snobbish «holier than thou» feel that floats through the whole store. A store like this would be better suited in Beverly Hills or something where people enjoy forking over hundreds of dollars for supposedly «rare» pressings. There are much better record stores in Oakland and the surrounding areas that don’t gouge you for prices. Avoid like the plague!

I like any record store, just the fact that they still exist is awesome. Stranded opened not long ago down the street, I just visited their ‘new’ location this weekend. Staff is friendly and knowledgeable, stick is small but selective, prices are pretty high. Got two used albums and didn’t check the vinyl since the covers were in good condition. At home was surprised to learn that one of them was very dirty and the other dusty. Both albums played well after cleaned but at this price I expected a more careful product.

I finally had a chance to drop into the new Stranded location this afternoon. I had been to the old spot several times, and had fond memories of seeing Will Oldham play there, and finding several good old records.
The new space is quite stunning, perhaps the best looking record store I have ever set foot in. Think of this more as a record gallery as opposed to your typical record store, as Stranded takes a bit of a different approach in that it is a highly curated experience. There seem to be even fewer records than before, and it is as though the records are presented to you, as opposed to providing you with a hunting ground through which to crawl and sift in hopes of striking gold. I would say that you pay a bit for the work that goes into it; but if you have a specific want list, go in knowing that the work has been done for you and you can flip right to the spot where you hope it will be. Sure, as some reviewers have noted, you’ll find a Neil Young ‘Harvest’ for $ 15 that you could possibly find at a GoodWill for $ 1, but I don’t think of Stranded as the place for those kinds of records. This is the best source in the East Bay for good new music that spans every genre, as well as rarer old music that you’d be hard-​pressed to find elsewhere. The staff is always playing something intriguing and is very knowledgable and helpful. I usually leave having been turned on to something new.
Make sure to look into their proprietary releases under the Superior Viaduct label; it’s nice to see that side of their effort and to know that they value the importance of preserving and re-​presenting some great regional music that never got the attention it deserved.

Very small but nice records store in the northern part of Oakland. It’s pretty narrow and consists of two levels plus the back patio area. Some of the prices were a bit outrageous but the staff and owner seem pretty nice. I hear they even carry some of the rarest of LPs and collections.

The east bay has been missing a solid record shop for years now and it’s nice to see Stranded finally fill that void.
Like people have said before, the guys that run this place know there stuff, and have diverse tastes in music. That said, it’s not really the type of place you’ll be able to scour for a steal. People might complain that prices are high but I think they’re pretty fair, especially given the range and quality of titles they have. Some are very rare, a $ 1000 copy of Stark Reality for instance, which adds to the allure of the place.
Reminds me of some of the better shops in NY, and as many great shops as there are in NY I think Stranded would fit right in, which is saying a lot.

Pretty great selection at this small shop on Telegraph. Went through the used records first and came across a few unexpected titles, especially in the 45s. But it was actually the new vinyl section that was most impressive. These guys do a really great job stocking the store with hard to find re-​issue albums. There was some stuff in the new section that I didn’t even know had been re-​issued. Looking forward to coming back and combing through it some more when I have extra time.

WOW! i’m a oakland native that does business on trust and a handshake. beware of stranded. i went in with over 150 old great shape records. after they spent 20 minutes going over my records, they offered me $ 65.00. i asked if that’s the best they could do so they bumped it to $ 75.00. i was over a barrel seeing as how i’m only working 3 days a week i had to take it. my biggest mistake was going back a week later. they had 4 of my albums marked at $ 30.00 or more, with dozens more at $ 10.00 or more. when i confronted the the same guy that bought them from me he said, «you didn’t have to accept our offer». BEWARE! they ought to change their name to, BURNED.

Cool record spot, every time I go there I find some rare stuff. Yea it’s a little pricey but if you do the research a lot of records there are fairly priced.

I knew Stranded was going to be something special the moment I thumbed through the rare and collectables bin.
Like Mayans who couldn’t see the Conquistador ships approaching because it defied their constructed reality, I could barely perceive some of the LPs I was finding. These records don’t exist. They can’t. I’d only ever seen many of them online for outrageous prices and dubious overseas transactions that make buying them impossible. I can’t pay that much for something that I can’t inspect. And yet at Stranded, I had many of these records in my hands. They’ll even let me play one. (which I bought).
Besides the rare stuff, Stranded has an incredible selection of highly curated gems. Their taste in music happens to be my taste in music, so I can’t pull any punches:
This is the best record shop in the Bay Area.
And quite possibly the best record shop. Period. A new bar has been set.
How good is their selection?
My normal operating procedure for visiting a smaller store is to go through every section and pull my ‘selects’ — stuff I want, but then cull down further when I’m ready to check out. It’s OCD, but that’s record collecting for you. Stranded took about an hour to do the whole store. I’ve been to other shops about the same size and walked away empty handed. At Stranded, I must have pulled 50 records out, and I could have pulled 50 more. Their selection is THAT GOOD.
Negatives? There’s one. Isn’t a true negative, per se.
You are never going to walk out of Stranded with a «score.» You know, that dollar record that’s really worth 100. These guys really know their shit, so the pricing is about as Discogs median accurate as I’ve ever seen. Totally fair, market value prices. And because their inventory is small, they know what they have and what it’s worth. Unlike Amoeba, where if you know what you’re doing, you will find undervalued stuff all over the place. They’re too big to operate efficiently. Not so with Stranded. As I said, not really a negative. But if you are one of those collectors who gets off on underpriced discoveries, Stranded is not going satisfy your inner Antiques Road Show.
In closing: bravo Stranded.
Thanks for creating a bank account black hole in my backyard. I can feel your gravitational pull even as I write this.
DAMN YOU STRANDED! ***shakes fists at the sky.

What a treat! A fabulous vinyl collection, a clean well organized shop run by extremely knowledgeable proprietors And with their special events, Stranded now includes occasions for literature.
Tuesday evening Michael Chabon read from his newest book «Telegraph Avenue.»
That the protagonists own a record store on Telegraph Ave added to the charm of the evening
One question: which actors will portray the shop keepers in the movie?

I’ll still shop here. But I won’t try and trade records here.
At two weeks ago, I brought fifteen or twenty records to trade. Pretty good stuff, a DNA live record, Elvis Costello pressing on Stiff, a few afrobeat reissues, a couple of great blues records. The guy behind the counter wanted most of it. He didn’t want the Numero Syl Johnson boxset, but what the hey, neither did I.
So I walk back to the counter with a Sandy Bull record I wanted, priced at twenty dollars and a couple of other things. For the fifteen records he wanted he offered twenty dollars in trade. Let’s stop right there.
A couple bucks in trade a piece is fine for records that will be sold at eight or ten dollars. It’s a small shop. They have to make a profit. In a word, I get it. I’ve worked at a lot of record stores. I know how it goes.
When you know, however, that you’re going to prive those records at thirty dollar apiece or more, giving two bucks apiece in trade is something less than fair. It’s what, as a lawyer, we refer to as a «sharp practice.» It’s sticking it to someone.
What would have been fair? I had about forty dollars of records in my hands. A clean wash would have made me happy. But I blinked a couple of times and coughed up the addtional twenty bucks. I figured, whatever. I’ve been in here a bunch. They’re a new shop. They want to encourage me to come back, right? Right?
So when I came back a week later, and saw that half the records I sold them were gone, I was happy for them. I want them to succeed. When I saw that what was left was priced at thirty dollars or more, I was a bit angry. I don’t like being taken advantage of.
So from now on, I’ll still drift by here to browse the stock and go to their killer in-​stores. With Amoeba, 1−2 – 3−4-Go, Grooveyard and Amoeba down the street, however, I won’t be trading here. I can’t afford it.
Luckily for the shop, from the way they treated me, they have all the customers they need.

Cool spot for all the vinyl addicts. My cousin and I stopped by the other day and she found a couple of rarities that were on her want-​list.
Nice selection of titles; new, used, reissues. The shop is modestly sized, tidy and the guy who assisted us wasn’t intrusive. There was plenty of street parking (corner of Telegraph and 65^th) on a Saturday afternoon. I’ll be making Stranded one of my regular stops when I go vinyl hunting again.

Brown paper bags
Wax paper for sandwiches
Vinyl records
These are things I’ve missed dearly but are now in everyday use once again.
It was a beautiful cloudless day so I drove my 1966 Mustang convertible over the Bay Bridge. When I arrived at the Oakland-​Berkeley border, I and my vehicle seemed to enter a vortex. Gas was 39 cents per gallon. On the corner of 65^th & Telegraph, children and dogs frolicked in dappled sunlight outside of a new RECORD STORE. How could this be, I thought, applying the brakes rather too strongly and adjusting my cat-​eye glasses to take in the scene more fully. The voice of an angel wafted through the open front door of the shop. I had to investigate. Parking was abundant.
Inside, I found the angel’s voice belonged to Penelope Houston, who was singing music from her new album. The atmosphere was jovial. I went to flip through the Blues section and was pleasantly surprised to find a neatly alphabetized, excellent selection. No Classical yet, but they are working on it.
The co-​founders of this gem are very knowledgeable and friendly. When I purchased an album, the title was written down on a clipboard. Comfortingly old-​fashioned way to keep inventory. I found out the live music will be an ongoing thing for Saturday afternoons. Well worth a visit.