ET Land: Seoul’s Vinyl Heaven

I haven’t done much record shopping since I arrived in Korea. It is one of my biggest regrets. The reason for this is a practical one; I have nothing to play records on. When I left the California to come to South Korea I stuck my 1500+ record collection in a storage unit and my turntables were locked up with them. My intention was that the next time that I visited the states I would get my portable record player and return to dig deep into the Korean crates. But here I am, three years later with six records to my name. It’s embarrassing really, especially since I know the best place for record shopping in Korea. This location has been one of Seoul’s best kept secrets for vinyl, until now. Welcome to Seoul’s vinyl heaven: ET Land.

ET Land is a huge building that lies northwest of Yongsan Station. You can see ET Land if you look out across the construction site where Yongsan Landmark Tower will soon be. However, those of you who have listened to the Yongsan episode of the Two Crude Mandudes podcast may recall that getting anywhere in Yongsan is no easy feat. And ET Land is no exception. To get to ET Land you’ll have to take a convoluted path through buildings and across bridges. You’ll probably get lost on your first attempt to get there, most people do (I've provided detailed directions to ET Land below). But once you’ve made it to your destination you’ll find that any frustration that you had experienced on your journey was well worth it.

ET Land is packed full of goodies for electronics nerds. Inside there are stalls selling everything from computer parts to professional audio and video equipment. You could spend hours browsing each floor of the building. But if records are what you are looking for, you’ll want to go to the second floor where the audio department is located.

It may take a few minutes before you come to the record stores, but there should be no doubt that you are in the right place when you start to see high-end audio shops. These shops are impossible to miss due to their selection of custom turntables and speakers. Keep walking and you’ll start to see the records.

There are two types of records shops in ET Land: Organized shops and unorganized shops.

The organized record shops cater to serious record collectors. They have the LPs separated by genres and will be alphabetical order. These shops typically have a good selection of classic rock, new wave, and jazz. The prices at the organized record shops can get expensive. Be prepared to spend 20,000 upwards for a rock or jazz record. Most records are in the 20,000-40,000 won price range with a few rare records reaching up to 80,000! That being said, the conditions of the LPs are superb. Each record comes in a plastic sleeve and proprietors will allow you to inspect the vinyl before you buy it.  

The unorganized record shops cater to the crate digger. The records are in boxes and shelves and are usually in no particular order (a few of the unorganized shops that I visited had the records separated by genre). You’ll have to do a lot more searching to find a great record, but if you grew up on digging for records at secondhand stores you’ll feel right at home. Most of the records in the unorganized shops are in fair to good condition. LPs sell for about 10,000 won and 45s are priced around 5,000 won, however, you can find better deals if you shop from the discounted bins. One vendor was selling LPs 3 for 10,000 won. If you are looking for electronic music, punk, and hip-hop, these discount bins are the best place to look.      

Also, the majority of the shops in ET Land have listening stations where you can sample your selections before you make a purchase. And for you music lovers who don’t have a record player, there is a large selection of new and used C.D.s too (Come on! Vinyl still sounds best!).  

Make sure that you give yourself plenty of time to explore ET Land, there is a lot worth seeing besides the record shops. There are restaurants, a movie theater (which occasionally shows anime movies), hobby shops, video games, a shop that sells imported Blue-ray disks, and I even saw a place that specializes in gun replicas (Perhaps airsoft guns). If you are anything like me, you could easily spend half a day there and leave with bag loads of treasures. Hopefully, you’ll come home with that elusive LP that you’ve been looking for. Happy hunting!

-Matt

Directions to ET Land:

From Yongsan Station take exit 3 towards iPark Mall. When you exit the doors turn right. Go to the end of the walk way and look out across the construction site. You should see ET Land from there (the sign is red and green on grey). Look over to your right you'll see an enclosed bridge (it’s blue and impossible to miss). Take this enclosed bridge to the first building (inside you’ll see people selling videogames, PCs, and cameras). Turn left and walk until you come to a staircase (on your left). Go up one floor and turn right. Exit the door that leads to another enclosed bridge (this one is green). Follow the path till you come to a parking garage. Go through the garage till you are outside. You should see a crosswalk at the end of the street. Turn left at the signal (do not cross the street). Walk one block and cross the next crosswalk you come to. Walk past the Woori Bank and the entrance for ET Land is on the left. Go to the second floor and look around. I promise you you'll find records.  

If you have any questions related to record collecting in Korea or know of any other places to buy records that you would like to share, leave a comment below or tweet me on twitter: @unitablist