Singling out one of the city’s few used-record stores at the expense of the others seems almost cruel—they all need the publicity, they’re all loaded with jewels, and they’re all usually a bargain. All the same, Neal Becton’s basement outpost at 14th and T Streets NW has an uncanny knack for yielding the rarest of rarities. One recent visit found among the stock a long-forgotten Henry Threadgill album; a Singaporean pressing of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band; a classic Residents EP; a 10-inch 78 RPM shellac disc of Hawaiian luau songs; and Badfinger’s Ass (their last release on Apple), still sealed and priced at an astounding $14.99. That’s without looking in Som’s dollar bin, whose contents are marked down because of their condition but are frequently no less rare than the regular merchandise (and thus worth the heavy scratches). Vinyl treasure hunters, look ye no further. W

—Michael J. West