There is a particular kind of New York shop where the lighting is fluorescent, the staff knows more than you do, and the entire square footage is given over to one obsessive pursuit. Academy Record Annex in Greenpoint is that kind of shop, dialed up to ten. It is a vinyl warehouse — the largest independent record store in Brooklyn — and it has been quietly anchoring the city’s used-vinyl scene for more than two decades.
Walk in on a Saturday afternoon and you will see exactly what it is for. There will be a guy in his sixties flipping through the jazz bins with the focus of a chess player. There will be a couple in their twenties stacking dollar-bin records on the counter and laughing. There will be a kid with a Discogs app open on his phone, cross-referencing prices. Everyone is leaning in. Everyone is hunting.
The Short Origin Story
Academy Records started in 1977 as a used-book and used-record shop, the kind of dusty Manhattan institution that defined a certain era of New York retail. The vinyl-only offshoot, Academy LPs, opened on East 12th Street in 2001 and is still there. The Brooklyn outpost — Academy Record Annex — opened in Williamsburg in 2003, then moved to Greenpoint in 2013, and in recent years moved two blocks over to its current home on Banker Street. The same family of shops, but each one with its own personality.
The Annex is the biggest of them, and the one most worth a dedicated trip if you’re serious about hunting vinyl.
What You’ll Actually Find
Tens of thousands of records, organized by genre and then alphabetized within. Rock, jazz, soul, funk, hip-hop, classical, electronic, world, soundtracks, reggae, country. New arrivals get their own bins near the front, and they turn over fast. The shop’s buyers are working New York estate sales, traveling collectors, and walk-in sellers constantly, so the inventory is genuinely fresh — not the same stale stock you see at lesser shops month after month.
The price range is the real story. The premium wall behind the counter has rare jazz pressings, original Blue Notes, first-press Beatles UK mono, and sealed audiophile reissues that can run hundreds of dollars. The dollar bins by the door have records for one, two, or three bucks. Most of the store sits in the middle, where a clean used pressing of, say, a Steely Dan album or a Curtis Mayfield LP will run you ten to twenty dollars. It’s not the cheapest store in the city, but the curation justifies the price: someone has already done the work of separating the good copies from the warped, scratched, and ruined ones.
There are also CDs, cassettes, the occasional DVD, books, and music memorabilia. But records are the heart of it. Everything else is decoration.
The Listening Stations
This is the part that separates a real record store from a place that just sells records. The Annex has working turntables set up where you can pull anything off the floor — including the expensive stuff — and listen before you buy. A used record can look fine and still pop, skip, or hiss. Listening before you commit is how you avoid bringing home a forty-dollar disappointment. The staff will not hassle you for using the stations. That’s what they’re there for.
The Atmosphere
Greenpoint on a weekend has settled into a comfortable rhythm: brunch crowds on Manhattan Avenue, kids on the waterfront, dog walkers on the side streets. The Annex sits a few blocks inland from the East River, on a stretch of Banker Street that still feels a little industrial. The shop is bright. The aisles are wide enough that you can actually flip without elbowing somebody. The music playing on the in-house system is usually something interesting that you haven’t heard before and will end up trying to identify before you leave.
The staff is the secret weapon. If you ask a real question — “I love the second side of Pharoah Sanders’ Karma, what should I try next?” — you will get a real answer, and probably a record pulled off the shelf for you. They are not snobs about it. They are people who love this stuff and want you to love it too.
How the Buying Works (If You’re Selling)
Academy is also one of the city’s main destinations if you have a collection to sell. They buy used vinyl, CDs, and music books, and they’ll come look at large collections in person. The website notes that appointments usually aren’t necessary for smaller batches, but it’s worth calling ahead. If you’ve inherited a collection or are downsizing, this is one of the fairest shops in town for cash offers.
Insider Tip: Get there right when they open at 11 a.m., especially on a weekday. The new arrivals bin near the register often has the previous day’s intake on it, freshly priced and not yet picked over. The serious collectors know this. By 1 p.m. the best stuff is gone. Also: bring a tote bag. The shop’s paper bags are sturdy but if you’re going to walk out with eight or ten records, your shoulder will thank you.
How to Visit
Academy Record Annex: 242 Banker Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week (confirmed on the official Academy Records site)
Nearest Subway: G train to Greenpoint Avenue or Nassau Avenue — both are about a ten-minute walk
Phone: 718-218-8200
Manhattan Sibling Shop: Academy Records (LPs), 415 East 12th Street, NY, NY 10009, 212-780-9166. Smaller floor, but a long-running East Village institution worth a stop on its own.
Payment: Major cards and cash
Selling Records: Walk in for small batches; call or email for larger collections. They’ll travel to look at significant collections.
What to Pair It With
The Banker Street location is a short walk from McCarren Park, a clutch of good Polish bakeries on Manhattan Avenue, and the Greenpoint waterfront. Make a Saturday of it: records first when the bins are still picked through, then coffee, then a walk along the East River with whatever you bought sitting in your bag waiting to be played.
If you want to keep the hunt going, the city has other strong vinyl stops — but very few with the inventory depth and the listening-station policy of the Annex. This is the one to start with.
Why It Matters
Independent record stores are not a sure bet in New York anymore. The rents have killed plenty of them. The fact that Academy has not only survived but expanded across three locations and stayed in family-style independent hands says something about both the shops and the community that keeps them in business. Every record you buy here is a small vote for the kind of city where a place like this can exist.
Bring your wantlist. Bring a friend. Bring patience. The good ones are still in the bins, waiting.
Primary source: Academy Records — official store locations page.
