2nd Hand Tunes

The store in Evanston closed but the owner holds record sales each month at his warehouse in Ravenswood that are great. Check the second hand tunes website or the facebook page for time/​date of the next sale.

Second Hand Tunes is CLOSING… last day of operation Sunday, 9÷8÷13. 25% off everything, from what I hear. Will pay my final respects sometime this week.

Crazy that I’ve lived in Evanston for 10 years and only just discovered this place. Great selection, great prices, great vibe. Can’t wait to take my teenage daughter here to show her there’s more to music than bloody iTunes and YouTube!

The selection in this place is amazing. I’m not in Evanston a lot, but when I came in to the store the other day, I spent a good hour looking at all the amazing CDs and records — new and used. The price of the new records and CDs are on par with your standard retail stores, and there are some real gems you can get for $ 1.99 or $ 2.99.

So this is for my friend Wendy who recently bought a house with a movie theater that uses laserdiscs! Yes, they sell them here. Okay, the movie Grease might not be your first choice, but you never know what you might just find here!
I popped in here with my hubby the other day and had the opportunity to meet Johnny the owner. Great guy… passionate about his business. While he and my hubby talked guitar pedals, I spent time checking out their collection of used albums. For someone who loves jazz, you’ll want to spend some time in this place digging through their collection. The price points are all over the place, so there’s something for everyone!
Aside from their music collection you’ll also find movies and guitars and cool old record players. It’s certainly worth checking this place out. It’s next to Hewn Bakery (
) and Paramour Bungalow (
) – two of my new favorite shops.
Just stop in!

great selection of 80’s and 90’s CD’s LP’s and for cheap… you can spot the regulars, they pop in flipped through the new or should I say old releases and debate, pay and go… I was lucky I stumbled upon this store walking the streets of evantson. Will be coming back to complete collections.

I have known Johnny for a long time and as a fellow business owner will go «on record» to say that people like him, the small business owner are the lifeblood and soul of our town. Just because the landscape keeps changing with new big box stores there are some people dedicated to preserving personal service and supporting other local businesses as well. Johnny goes out of his way to support *local* businesses and is a cool/​funny/​intelligent guy. I appreciate being able to walk down the street, pop my head in and see whats going on or listen to recordings he has. Thank goodness he is there and all the other local shops as well. I will go out of my way to shop at 2^nd hand tunes.

I was in need of some vinyl cleaner and I remembered a co-​worker recommending I check out their selection of vinyl, so I stopped by on a Wednesday morning. As I walked in I was greeted by a neatly organized store and a warm smile coming from behind the counter at the back. I told the person at the counter I was in need of some vinyl cleaner and he proceeded to show me 3 different options, informed me of there similarities, differences, and how best to use each. He demonstrated joy for his work and never once made me feel inferior or ignorant. I picked the Crosley cleaner for the nostalgic feel – reminding me of Saturday mornings playing records with my father. I then proceeded to browse the vinyl section; as I flipped though the stacks I discovered a wonderful mix of vintage and new 180 gram pressings – both at VERY reasonable prices! (I put the new vinyl prices to the Amazon test by scanning the bar codes with my iPhone.) I was having such a good experience that I stepped out to throw another quarter in the meter… yes you have to pay for parking, but its cheap. My trip of stopping by with just the intention of picking of some vinyl cleaner and maybe one album, instead turned into me leaving with the cleaner and FIVE records! **My reciept even acts as a 10% off coupon for my next purchase.** Due to the welcoming environment, care and organization of the store, and great customer service, I WILL BE COMING BACK FOR SURE.

Funny to read the crappy reviews from the guy stuck in the 90’s and the other guy with the shitty record collection. I enjoyed the 90’s too, but Jesus man, that was almost 25 years ago. And fortunately, I took care of my albums because I appreciated them! I went to Second Hand Tunes for the first time last weekend and bought a guitar pedal that Johnny modified He did a great job and was extremely friendly and accommodating. I thought the store was great. Maybe these dudes that wrote the bad reviews need to get out of their mom’s basement and socialize more.

wonderful shop great guys working there and VERY VERY good prices! I will be back!

The first record store I ever truly loved. I’m so happy this store is still a going concern. 2^nd Hand Tunes has the most reasonably priced used cds of any record store I’ve been to in the Chicagoland area (today I scored used copies of Slowdive’s ‘Souvlaki’, Brainiac’s ‘Electro-​Shock For President’ and a new copy of The Raveonettes’ ‘Raven in the Grave’ for less than $ 25 — it would have been even less had I saved my receipt from the last time I made a purchase, as they always print a 10% off coupon on the front). They also have a decent selection of LPs and vinyl accessories. I love this store!

Pretty good selection of rock/​pop/​alternative, although a bit thin on some of the older essentials. However, they make up for it by having a more esoteric mix of stuff than a lot of other area stores tend to have. Also, a great classical and jazz selection. Great prices and fair and accurate vinyl rating, which is totally a plus. Also, seem to have a nice staff. Another plus that makes them more distinctive – you can buy nice old turntables here. Better stuff than the plastic junk with built in USBs we get stuck with these days, but similar prices since all the decks are second hand.

I haven’t been in here in several years, due to living pretty far from Evanston now, but if it’s still anything like it was back when I went, then it’s one of the best used record stores I’ve ever shopped. I love electronic music and not only did they have a decent selection of it here, but the prices were often jaw-​droppingly low. I got my copy of Biosphere’s «Substrata,» one of the great 90s ambient releases, at this place for around $ 5.
They used to have these boxes filled with random CDs that only cost a dollar. I made a couple of amazing finds in those. Once, I found an unfamiliar CD in them that featured some remixes by artists that I recognized and liked, and it being only a dollar, I thought, «Why not?» When I got home, I looked it up on Amazon and found that it was very rare and that the cheapest used copy was selling for around $ 50.
If I’m ever down in the Evanston area again, I will definitely try to stop here. Great store.

Who doesn’t love selling all their stuff to buy groceries. Whooo! It’s awesome to scrape by like that! Yeah!
/​sarcasm
If you have a big pile of CDs gathering dust, this is the place to unload them and get CASH. I happen to have a lot of pretty unusual world music stuff, and this usually goes for a better price than the mass-​market American music CDs. DVDs too can be changed into $$. They’re not really as valuable as you ever think, but it’s something.
And they have vinyl here too. Wow. I remember vinyl.

I moved to Ravenswood and still make the trek up to go to this place. They have a great selection. Every time I go in there I seem to find the one CD that I’ve been searching for (and at a great price) and then some treasure that I didn’t know I wanted. This last time I went in looking for Tenacious D (found it) and left with Jenny Owen Young (love it).
They also have these boxes that you can buy for $ 5. You don’t get to see what’s in it, so you’re kind of taking a leap of faith. Great if you feel open-​minded and want to listen to something new.

Been coming here for many years & still dig it… as a 45 lover, all those racks & racks of singles to thumb through… oooooh man, what a way to spend a day!
If your there with your girlfriend & she’s getting bored, there’s a cool mexican jewelry place across the street, too!

All the talk of physical record stores going to the dogs is a truth — unfortunately it can be easy to get jaded with them if one spends too much time in them. Fact is this: record stores all start to bleed together after awhile — the Bowie section is large (but nary a copy of Low) and the Jackson Browne records which were seemingly issued with every container of detergent in the 70’s are overflowing like the bubbling waters in the springs of Xanadu (or the dollar bin when put in context).
2^nd Hand Tunes gets stars alone for having turntables to listen to the used vinyl on hand. I’m almost tempted to take away another star though since the Lady found an lp of nothing but covers of Louie Louie (her alltime favorite song), but I can’t really hold it against THEM what her tastes lean towards.
2^nd Hand isn’t the most relevant of all of the Chicagoland record stores, but it’s certainly one of the oldest and it’s easily worth stopping into when in the area.

I don’t remember «the good olé days»…seems like the bad reviews are recalling fonder times when Pink Floyd was king of the stadiums and 2^nd Hand Tunes had another store solely dedicated to vinyl. *sigh. I wish we could go back there too, dudes! But sometimes you gotta change the bong water and move on!
2^nd Hand Tunes has a great selection of new and used CD’s. They don’t have as much in used selection as say, Reckless, but I got three excellent barely-​used CDs for $ 4.99 a piece. Unbeatable price! They have used vinyl and have tons of boxes of cassettes, which people were rummaging through when I was there.
Good selection of VHS tapes and DVDs. The counter help was very nice in that High Fidelity cool sorta way. I guess I made some righteous purchases, dudes!

I love 2^nd Hand tunes, especially now that Dr. Wax is gone.
What I enjoy most about 2^nd Hand is their convenience since I’m on the North shore, and the fact their good selection of vinyl. Admittedly it can get a little expensive at times, but honestly it’s always worthwhile. I make a point to stop in every so often, and pick up something new to listen to. Even before I started listening to vinyl more, I still loved coming here because their used stuff was reasonable and plentiful. Now it’s a regular stop of mine whenever I’m back from school for a break.

As one of the few remaining physical music collectors, I often frequent the many used CD/​record stores in the Evanston and Chicago area.
I am consistently impressed with the selection and prices at 2^nd hand tunes.
Example: a used copy of Beck — Midnight Vultures (CD) at Dr. Wax is $ 10.99, at Reckless Records is $ 8.99, at Groovin’ High (Belmont) is $ 9.95 and at 2^nd Hand Tunes is $ 4.95
’nuf said.