Along El Camino Real in Redwood City sits a record store that generations of Peninsula music collectors simply call by its own name: The Record Man, founded in 1988 by Gary Saxon and built over decades into one of the largest independent vinyl inventories in the Bay Area. The shop itself has long advertised more than a million records, tapes, CDs, LPs, 45s, and 78s under one roof, an inventory size that lets serious collectors search for obscure pressings and rare genres that a typical new release record store would never stock. Saxon, who friends and customers describe as the heart and soul of the operation, passed away on May 6, 2026, at the age of 82, and his death was covered by the San Francisco Chronicle and local television news as the loss of a genuine Bay Area institution rather than just a business closing its doors. Rather than disappearing overnight, the store and its community have kept The Record Man’s doors open and its annual traditions alive, including the parking lot sale that has become a late summer ritual for regulars, drawing collectors who show up specifically to dig through crates set out on the pavement outside the shop. That continuity, even after the loss of its founder, is itself part of the story customers now tell about the place: a record store that has meant enough to its neighborhood that the people around it have worked to keep its doors open and its traditions running rather than letting decades of inventory and history simply close out. Inside, the shop retains the dense, floor to ceiling browsing experience longtime vinyl hunters expect, with bins organized by genre and format spanning rock, soul, jazz, country, and far more obscure corners of recorded music history, plus video games and other media that have crept into the inventory over the years. The store has historically kept regular weekday and Saturday hours through the afternoon and evening, giving commuters along the El Camino Real corridor a place to stop after work as easily as collectors making a dedicated weekend trip from across the Peninsula or down from San Francisco. For anyone who grew up buying music on physical formats, or younger collectors newly drawn to vinyl, The Record Man offers the kind of deep, unpredictable inventory that only accumulates over decades of buying, trading, and taking in local collections, something no algorithm driven online marketplace fully replicates. The shop’s own community has framed its ongoing operation as a tribute to Saxon’s decades of work sharing music with the neighborhood, and the steady stream of customers documenting fresh finds on social media suggests that legacy is continuing rather than fading. The Record Man in Redwood City is a longtime independent record store with more than a million records, tapes, and CDs in stock, founded by the late Gary Saxon in 1988 and kept running today as a living tribute to the collector culture he built along El Camino Real.
The Record Man
By therecordman
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Along El Camino Real in Redwood City sits a record store that generations of Peninsula music collectors simply call by its own name: The Record Man, founded in 1988 by Gary Saxon and built over decades into one of the largest independent vinyl inventories in the Bay Area. The shop itself has long advertised more than a million records, tapes, CDs, LPs, 45s, and 78s under one roof, an inventory size that lets serious collectors search for obscure pressings and rare genres that a typical new release record store would never stock. Saxon, who friends and customers describe as the heart and soul of the operation, passed away on May 6, 2026, at the age of 82, and his death was covered by the San Francisco Chronicle and local television news as the loss of a genuine Bay Area institution rather than just a business closing its doors. Rather than disappearing overnight, the store and its community have kept The Record Man’s doors open and its annual traditions alive, including the parking lot sale that has become a late summer ritual for regulars, drawing collectors who show up specifically to dig through crates set out on the pavement outside the shop. That continuity, even after the loss of its founder, is itself part of the story customers now tell about the place: a record store that has meant enough to its neighborhood that the people around it have worked to keep its doors open and its traditions running rather than letting decades of inventory and history simply close out. Inside, the shop retains the dense, floor to ceiling browsing experience longtime vinyl hunters expect, with bins organized by genre and format spanning rock, soul, jazz, country, and far more obscure corners of recorded music history, plus video games and other media that have crept into the inventory over the years. The store has historically kept regular weekday and Saturday hours through the afternoon and evening, giving commuters along the El Camino Real corridor a place to stop after work as easily as collectors making a dedicated weekend trip from across the Peninsula or down from San Francisco. For anyone who grew up buying music on physical formats, or younger collectors newly drawn to vinyl, The Record Man offers the kind of deep, unpredictable inventory that only accumulates over decades of buying, trading, and taking in local collections, something no algorithm driven online marketplace fully replicates. The shop’s own community has framed its ongoing operation as a tribute to Saxon’s decades of work sharing music with the neighborhood, and the steady stream of customers documenting fresh finds on social media suggests that legacy is continuing rather than fading. The Record Man in Redwood City is a longtime independent record store with more than a million records, tapes, and CDs in stock, founded by the late Gary Saxon in 1988 and kept running today as a living tribute to the collector culture he built along El Camino Real.
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