For many many years there was Serenade Records in Washington, D.C. that had contacts in UK and Europe to get almost any import CD, as well as a good stock of used and rare finds in CD and vinyl. They were even listed in the Penguin Guide as a place for Americans to get things in the Guide not available in the US. The owners retired a few year ago unfortunitely. Their inventory stock was bought out by a store in Philadelphia. I purchased something from them two years ago. These people are now are on-line as CDChoice.com; Worth giving them a look.
Sources for Difficult to Find Recordings
I have recently found a good source for new CD’s that are out of print or hard to find in the USA. It is the Crotchet Web Store in the U.K. Many big labels don’t release their entire catalogs in the US but they are available in the UK. Crotchet’s is a specialist store for classical music, jazz, film soundtracks, world music and audio books. They have direct supply arrangements with all the major and most of the minor music and media companies in the UK and supply some very difficult to find items. For orders from the USA their prices deduct the Value Added Tax so the prices aren’t too bad. They also calculate shipping by the each, so box sets are actually a bargain to ship. I have placed four orders with them over the last two months and all have gone smoothly. The order usually arrives within two weeks. Do any of you have a favorite obscure music site?