Community Corner

Vinyl Revived at Mr. Cheapo

The CD and record exchange store at the Mayfair Shopping Center has been going strong 25 years.

Video may have killed the radio star, but vinyl has outlasted time at Mr. Cheapo, a new and used CD and record exchange store within the Mayfair Shopping Center in Commack, near Kings Park.

Owner Stu Goldberg has been in the same location for 25 years and the business is still going strong.

“Despite technology and the internet, we’re still here. It’s beyond me,” he said. 

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Goldberg said that while the internet turned the music world on its head, the business, which also has a location in Mineola, has been profitable every year since it opened. 

Recently, the re-emergence of vinyl has given the local business an extra boost. Many new artists are now releasing their albums on vinyl in addition to on CD and iTunes.

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“Some people like to touch and feel it and physically have it in their hands. I think it’s nostalgia – whether it’s fantasy or reality. They just feel the digital takes away from the highs and lows of the sound,” Goldberg said. 

Even his son, who works alongside Goldberg in the store, is a vinyl collector. “Those small niches are good for business.”

Owning a record store had always been a dream for Goldberg, a Rock 'n’ Roll fan. He went to the Woodstock Festival in 1969 in a Volkswagen microbus, and he and his wife, Marcia, who also works in the store, are still classic rock fans. The pair was planning to see Paul McCartney perform Monday night. 

In his early 30s, Goldberg worked on a candy route, delivering to supermarkets, when the opportunity to open a store came about. He had saved enough money from his candy route to start the business, which was then located in Flushing. Three years later, he closed the Queens location and opened the Mineola store. The Commack shop opened soon after.

Goldberg said that the business has been successful because it’s been able to outlive its competitors, even giant retailers. When the big stores came in, Goldberg offered used and pre-owned items that he would buy and sell. When those giant companies went out of business due to internet competition, Mr. Cheapo was still there, ready to pick up the customers that the market had left behind. 

“Then all of the sudden, the world changed. One moment we’re cursing the monster stores. Now, we’re sad when competition closes because there’s nothing left,” he said.

Today, Mr. Cheap stands king as the local go-to place for the newest release, the obscure and anything in between.

Goldberg said that he’s been able to use the internet to his advantage. Within a few seconds, he can look up a CD or rare item that someone brings in and find out its worth. When a customer came in to sell 15 boxes of CDs last month, Goldberg bought them as a package for a few hundred bucks. Afterward, he came across a classical CD in the pile that he was able to sell to a buyer in Japan for $1,000. 

“Before the internet, I would have just put a CD like that on the shelf and sold it for $3 like the others,” he said.

The full list of merchandise available at Mr. Cheapo is long: new, used, and imported CDs; LPs, 45s, and 12'' from every genre; movies and concerts on DVD and Blu-ray, VHS tapes, cassettes, and laserdiscs; videogames for virtually every console; and other assorted musical parapharnalia like posters, sheet music, and T-shirts. Crate after crate and shelf after shelf are jampacked with items.

And if Mr. Cheapo's is selling it, he's probably buying it, too. The store boasts a sizeable used catalog, stocked with choice offerings obtained from store visitors and garage sales.

“It’s been great. I like wheeling and dealing and talking music,” he said.

The store is open from 10:30 a.m. until 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and closes at 6 p.m. on Sunday. Those looking to sell their items can call ahead at 631-543-8686.


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