Mystery Train

Records upon records upon records. If you are into vinyls you’ll be in heaven in this place. Plan some time to browse because you will need to hunt around. You never know what you are going to find. Also they have a free section out front which is pretty cool. Reasonably priced. Friendly staff.

Mystery Train is the kind of store you go in not realizing you need/​want anything, but always end up leaving with something awesome you never expected to find!

sometimes cluttered but I like coming here anyway
loads of hipsters frequent this place which is interesting
there’s a theater upstairs too

Friendly, good mixture of products and convenient. I like Mystery Train a lot. I go there as often as I am in Gloucester because they sell the music I like, the movies I want to keep and they are nice to my little dog who goes shopping with me. It’s low key and eccentric which I appreciate.

I wanted to like this place but after two visits, I’m not going to waste my time. Granted the store is large, well stocked, logically laid out and easy to get around. However, when you factor in high prices and downright stupid, disinterested staff the whole experience of «going to the record store» becomes frustrating and disappointing.
I buy a lot of classical and myself have thousands of lps. I know what should sell for what and I’ll admit that it is very rare for me to shell out a lot of $$ on one vinyl platter. Needless to say, there is precious little in terms of classical that should fetch Sotheby prices. What I see at Mystery Train are stock records selling for $ 2 to $ 3 more than what I would pay in Boston or Cambridge. And, the place apparently has no dollar bin for items that might be scratched or less precious. To pay $ 4.99 for a Vox lps that have been released previously on cd is a travesty.
What prompted me to write this negative review, however, was my visit to the store today. At the front of the store is an area with records mixed together in bins and boxes on the floors. These records are not priced like everything in the store so I wrongly assumed that they were «99 cent» offerings. After about 20 minutes of flipping through, crouching down and moving a few boxes around, I assembled for myself a nice little pile of goodies. I gathered up my pile and walked to the counter which was opposite of all this stuff and asked the kid, «how much for all of this?» The kid said, «it’s the owner has not priced any of it.» I spent 20 minutes going through this and that kid could see what I was doing and did not bother to say anything to me! I said to this kid, «so you cannot sell these records,» and he said ‘that’s right so why don’t you go and take a look at our classical section over there.” What a moron! I’m a customeryou have records out in the open at the front of the store and you cannot sell them?! I placed the pile down and said, «have a great day and walked out.»
I don’t know how other reviewers have had a positive experience at Mystery Train. Definitely not recommended.

This place is worth going to if you’re out on the North Shore and want to dig through records to find things you’ve been looking for FOR A WHILE. see thats what happens every time i’m here. I spend most of my time going through the 45’s and 7″ ‘s. I found a ton of great punk and hardcore records that were on my list of must haves for a while.
The staff is always friendly and helpful whenever I go in. Parking is easy (street and behind the building) and they seem to get new shipments in pretty often.
They sell cds, records, dvds, record box holders (I bought 3 there for my 45s) and record players. The window display is always rad too. Great place to go if you’re looking for soul, oldies and good rock records. They seem to have a ton of everything and I never leave disappointed.

Now this is what I call a record store. Definitely one of the best I’ve been to in years. Such a crazy hodge-​podge of a collection, such reasonable prices, and such a great shopfront window. Classic record store dudes, too. We were told they had tons of vinyl, and they totally did. Pays to rifle through the piles of uncategorized records near the front door (the ones on the other side of the door from the New Additions). We found many gems therein.

Great store to shop in. LOVE the fact that I can randomly find rare, ‘live’ CD’s fairly priced!

I wish there were more places like this to buy used recordings!
Most of the place is pop music, but there’s a pretty good jazz selection and a decent classical collection also. Like any record store you could spend hours here, and you probably won’t find exactly what you’re looking for but you’ll be seduced by the treasures they do have.
We didn’t want or need anything and left after an hour with 5 CDs, two pop, three classical.
Most of the place is CDs but there is a good selection of vinyl; in the back there are even 7-​inch singles!!!

Perfection in a record store! I was on the verge about getting a family member’s old record player, but this place tipped me over big time. The Mystery Train is well organized and has an exhaustive collection of CDs and records.
I walked out with Elton John, The Supremes, Jim Reeves, and the Beatles (they also had a ton of less pop-​y, off beat stuff) and a smile on my face. As soon as I get the record player — I’ll be back.

Solid selection, excellent prices. Also, the staff was friendly and helpful. Were I in Gloucester for an extended period of time, this would be on my list of frequented shops.

Been a customer since 1991
There is the photographic Proof. Yeah took my wife of 15 years there (had been dating for 2 months) to get that CD 19 years, 3 months and 2 days ago when we visited Boston from Ohio. Ill be back next week. Thanks Unilocal reviewer that let me know they moved to Gloucester.

Simply put, this is the greatest record store I’ve ever been in. It’s got a huge selection that is half organized half not. One thing I appreciate in a record store is digging through a ton of LPs until you come across that one you’re looking for — the feeling of triumph is rarely matched ;).
Another necessity of a good record store is a varied and solid play list coming over the soundsystem while you’re shopping. Preferably you’ll get some funk, punk, Stones and some newer rock. Mystery train matches it almost to a T, and that sealed the deal :)

This place rocks! One of the few authentic record shops in the area.
Their used CD, Record, VHS and poster and other novelties selection are unmatched anywhere. The prices are right, the parking sucks but I’m letting that go even though I usually don’t that’s how much I love this place.
And it’s also in downtown Gloucester which is a sweet spot to take in some pretty interesting sites and to have a nice lunch or dinner. I

I love the mystery train.
The Mystery Train is probably one of the best treasure hunting places of all time. Black Beard himself probably didn’t stash as much treasure as what’s hidden amongst the walls of goodies inside the Train. I’ve been a frequent visitor of the Mystery Train for a few years now and have found nothing but a massive amount of high quality hard to find pressings.
If you’re into vinyl and have a few hours to spare head on over to the Train (Trust me, you’ll need a few hours). I could easily spend all day sifting through the records in the store. While they have a lot of organized records split up into genre and artist, there’s a large quantity of completely unsorted records along the back wall of the store and underneath the organized stuff. This is where the X marks the spot.
I’ve managed to get my paws on some records that I’ve NEVER seen anywhere else, whether in other stores or even on ebay. If you’ve got the patience, go to the Train and good things will come. Guaranteed you will cross off some of those discs on the list of the records you’ve been searching for for a while. If it’s not priced, bring it up to the counter and the owner (Who’s pretty much the man) will lay it on you — a reasonable price that is.
I can’t even recall the number of records I’ve brought to the counter expecting to be fairly expensive and they end up being $ 4.50 or $ 6.50. With all these deals to be had (in addition to all the lowly priced records that are organized) you best lower your anchor, put on your best eye patch and start digging — cause there’s loads of booty waiting to be discovered inside the treasure chest we all know and love as the Mystery Train.

If you’re a record geek or even an amateur record geek like me, you’ll get excited when you walk into Mystery Train. Most records are between $ 5 and $ 12 dollars. The selection is huge, and includes some amazing finds. I got a record of historic radio broadcasts between 1933 and 1945 as well as some great blues records.

It’s high time for this place to lose a star. ²⁵⁄₂₅? That’s crazy talk.
And I’m not just breaking up Mystery Train’s perfect score to be a bastard (although that’s certainly part of my motivation). No sir. It downsized considerably when it moved to Main Street’s West End from the location it took over from the Salvation Army some years before. For anyone that fondly remembered that incarnation, the new digs are a huge step in the wrong direction.
Otherwise, Mystery Train is a solid place (the only one of it’s kind in Gloucester) for vintage media. Lots of vinyl treasures and random collectibles. The staff — mostly hipsters outcast from a local high school packed to the gills with quintessential yahdoods — is extremely enthusiastic about their work and does a pretty good job of maintaining organized shelves and drawers.
It’s not the place to go if you have something specific in mind but always worth a visit just to browse and explore.

We stumbled on Mystery Train when taking a day trip to Gloucester. We planned to go to the beach but the weather was yucky, so we walked around Gloucester. Mystery Train is AWESOME. Totally worth going up to Gloucester JUST for Mystery Train. Lots of vinyl. CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP.

Mystery train has got it goin’ ON. If you are a vinyl junkie, a rampant used CD collector, have a lonely tape deck waiting for some tunes in your mom’s ’85 station wagon, if you’re a quirky collector of vintage items, into books, sci fi, animé, collectibles, posters, whatever, you belong in this store, and you may never leave. There are more records than you could paw through if you spent days in there. The disorganization of some of it may give you an anxiety attack, but a great deal of the records are neatly categorized and alphabetized and whatnot.
There are always some funky associates willing to help you (and I mean that in the cool, non-​smelly way. Though they may smell, who knows) and you can sample cds in players or records on in-​house turntables and headphones before you buy (though if you’re a bigtime audiophile afraid of poor quality stylus damage and such, you may be better off taking a peek at the record and buying it without playing it).
So get your retro emo ass into Mystery Train and take a ride to vinyl town.

how do I love the, let me count the ways…
1 killer selection
2 super cool and nice staff
3 cheap prices
4 great section of records
5 A+ selection of CD’s
6 amazing selection of books
7 good DVD’s
8 cool toys, art, posters, pinball backs, vintage nick nacks etc.
I could go on, but I want to make you go there to check it out yourself. They moved into a bigger space and they are still appearing to be packing themselves to the gills!