We finally found ourselves headed East out of Charlotte recently and stopped in at Hardy Boys Records and Comics in Mint Hill, NC.
The “Hardy” in the name is owner Dean, and the boys are…you guessed it: his boys! (Be sure to check out the viral video they released last year set to ‘Sabotage’ by the Beastie Boys).
The shop is a “Booth store”, setup on the 2nd floor of the Homestyles Gallery & Specialty Shops in downtown. Similar to Crate Diggers in Hickory, Hardy Boys takes up what appears to be at least half of the upstairs area. In fact, while we were there Dean pointed out an area they are working on converting into a seating/listening area. We’re looking forward to seeing how that turns out!
Inventory-wise, they have really filled up the area. In addition to vinyl, you’ll find laserdiscs (lots!), comics, memorabilia, t-shirts as well as some cassettes and cds. There’s also a small amount of audio equipment.
As far as vinyl selection and pricing; being a booth store, they don’t seem to carry new releases, however when we were there they did have a good amount of new/sealed releases. We also found that those were quite a bit below standard retail prices! One example: we saw 2 sealed copies of the 2018 reissue of Metallica’s “…And Justice For All” that were priced at $16! It took a lot for us to not bring one of those home!
They have a strong selection of used vinyl, and we were surprised by the pricing overall. There are absolutely deals to be found here! Most that we saw were under $10 with many in the $5 dollar range as well as plenty of “dollar-bin” crates.
Organizationally…you’re going to want to be sure to check the corner areas off the main square as we found some gems in what seemed to be an “Overflow” area. The store overall could be better organized but it looks like this is more a matter of them growing so quickly vs. being haphazard in the layout. basically you’ll just want to take time to really browse when you visit. Some genres are well-sorted while others seem to be more mixed in.
And if you have some vinyl to trade/sell, be sure to let them know and bring it with you! Dean is there typically on Saturday mornings and you can always contact them via their social media accounts to see when specifically.
So, if you’re in the area or passing through, Hardy Boys is absolutely worth a stop! The combo of price and selection means you’re almost surely going to find at least a few to make it worth the trip.
And now…here’s what we picked up:Â
- “The Dirt Soundtrack”
Sealed: $15 - “Experience Hendrix”
Sealed: $15 - “Nirvana Unplugged In New York” (2013 Pallas Pressing)
Sealed: $14 - Thunder “Rip It Up”
NM/NM: $8 - UTFO “UTFO”
VG+/VG+ $5 - Stevie Wonder “Looking Back” (3LP Anthology set)
VG+/G+ $6 - Stevie Wonder “Characters”
VG+/VG+ $5 - Elvis Presley “He Touched Me”
VG+/VG – $3