Fully Booked have 11 stores around Manila and I have only been to their flagship store in Bonifacio High Street. It's located right after Serendra if you are coming from Market Market.
The Music Section is on the 4th Floor, and once you get off of the escalator you will find a familiar scene from Music One (the defunct record store in Greenbelt) - They have this i-dont-know-what-they-called-it CD+headphone machines that you can samp and listen to CD's - damn cool! and it's everywhere in the 4th floor. You can sit down on the floor and chill and start sampling songs. It would be so much cooler if they have an extra 3.5mm jack so you can use your own headphones.
Fully Booked have two racks for their Vinyl collections, 1 for the brand new sealed vinyls and the other for the used ones. They don't have a lot but they have interesting audiophile records ranging from Jazz to Blues to Rock to Opera etc..
If you're scouting for remastered vinyls of The Beatles, Fully Booked have 13 albums of all Remastered 180 gram Vinyl. Prices are from P1500 to P1800. Some of the vinyls that I saw and worth mentioning are:
- Blues Jam at Chess for stagerring P3900. It's a 2x LP but not sure if it is 180gram, maybe.
- Cold Play - Mylo Xyloto selling for P1800
- The Beach Boys End Less Summer - Oh I wanna get 'em! P1500
- Stacey Kent - The Boy Next Door - this is an expensive Vinyl, 180 gram pure analogue and limited edition. P2999
- Bee Gess - Odessa - 2x LP, 180g Vinyl Original Recording Remastered P2999
- Pink Floyd -Dark Side of the Moon - 180gram Remastered at P1500
- Fleetwood Mac - P1999 Pious Bird of Good Omen
- REM - Accelerate - P1999 LP + CD
- Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway - P2799. I am not sure if this is the remastered or the original press but the back cover towards the back says "Printed in USA @1974
- John Coltrane - Crescent - P4399. It's the ORG Ultimate Edition 180gram 45RPM double LP. I am not sure if this is the same one as the one in Amazon.
There must be a little over 150 pieces of brand new vinyls, mostly are remastered and at 180 grams.
The used rack on the other hand are fairly priced starting from P300 but goes up to P1500. Mostly are Japan releases. The conditions were from VG+ and others to some extent, Mint. You cannot expect to find any steal-deal on the used section, they are too expensive for me and you don't get to feel the record-digging-feel because the place does not smell old, and Fully Booked is located in High Street so I guess "cheap" is not cheap here.
I didn't expected to see a lot of used Vinyl Records so I'm not very disappointed during my visit. But.. man their CD collections are so damn wide! They have more than 10 shelves for both brand new and used CD's. It was arranged properly from A-Z on each genre so browsing through hundreds of titles can be a breeze.The used rack on the other hand are fairly priced starting from P300 but goes up to P1500. Mostly are Japan releases. The conditions were from VG+ and others to some extent, Mint. You cannot expect to find any steal-deal on the used section, they are too expensive for me and you don't get to feel the record-digging-feel because the place does not smell old, and Fully Booked is located in High Street so I guess "cheap" is not cheap here.
So aside from the Pop, R&B, Rock, and Hip Hop, Fully Booked have two sets of racks dedicated for World Music - so there's your fix for KPop and JPop music. Well what's notable are the Latin, Cuban, African, Italian artists, although they are being sold with a premium.
And there goes Jazz CD's. Wide, wide, wide selection of Jazz CD's. I saw Nude Ants for P1399, Bud Powell for P699, John Coltrane's Love Supreme for P1750 (this is the Deluxe Edition), Chat Baker 3Disc Box Set for P1999.
The Pre-Owned racks are mostly Japan-imports, and they are the expensive copies. Used-Japan-Press Iggy Pop and Iron Maiden sells for P825 and P1195 respectively.
I also checked the OPM section and I'm happy with the selection although some of the new local bands are not yet there, I still don't know the rule of the business when it comes to record companies but somehow they have tie-ups to different record stores. While in Fully booked I saw Hijo's and Johnoy Danao. That was the first time I saw Johnoy Danao's album in record store so I quickly grabbed one copy. PolyEast Gold Series also have some copies on the racks.
My overall experience was good, it's always an exciting feeling when I visit record stores. I'll be coming back for the following CD's
- The Rolling Stones - Grrr at P650. 2 CD set
- 2 Lisa Ono albums, Asia and Camomile Smile both at P350
- Jimmy Cliff - Rebirth for P995. Still thinking if I'm going to spend 995 but it's tempting
Yeah CD's only, I'm still thinking about the costs of vinyls, the only one that was close to Amazon was the Pink Floyd's record and it's cheaper than the other online sellers.
Visit Fully Booked at:
Fully Booked - Bonifacio Global City
Bldg. 6902 Bonifacio High Street
Bonifacio Global City
1634 Taguig City
Tel: (632) 858-7000 | 858-7036 | 858-7037 | 858-7038
Email: fb_fort@fullybookedonline.com
Twitter: _fullybooked
Facebook: fullybooked
Hey! great site you have here. You can also check out some vinyl items in some of the stores in cartimar in recto... there are great finds in there.
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