Aunty Mavis feels just like that - it's as if you've stepped into your elderly aunt's house where…read moreeverything is a jumble of treasures waiting to be discovered. Everything in the shop gives you the feeling that it's been hand-picked especially to bring a smile to your face. The shop is filled with excellent vintage crockery that's old enough to be quaint, but not yet old enough (or rare enough) to be really pricey. Think the mid-century stuff, like the less-collectable Crown Lynn. There's also a range of delectable linen and books, clothes (mostly from the 1970s), and household bits and pieces.

Aunty Mavis is the home of antiques, retro and curios in St Kevin's Arcade. If you're a total…read moresucker for Crown Lynn crockery like me, Aunty Mavis is the place to go. Alongside Mavis' collection of crockery is a wide array of furniture, furnishings, collectables and the odd creepy doll staring at you, willing you to simultaneously wander in and stay the hell away. Ardent bargain bin diggers will probably hate the prices, but if you're in the market for something cute, retro and often New Zealand made, Mavis will have it... you just might have to pay a bit for it.

Here are some of the records I have bought from Alien Records:…read more - a Serbian '80s electro pop record - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will by Mogwai - a NZ country music compilation - a recording of Shostakovich's 9th Symphony When people ask "where are all the good record shops?" the answer is: in a warehouse down a driveway in New Lynn, close to the RSA. Alien Records is run by what I can only lovingly describe as music nerds, one of whom will never fail to ask you if you play an instrument. This is endearing the first time but less so after the fifth or sixth. It's full of oddities, hits, classic hits compilations, and lots of top quality new pressings. I'm always slightly amazed they're still in business as it's got to be the most hidden specialty shop in Auckland, but they do know their stuff and it's good fun to spend an hour or so rifling through the bins so unless your ears are made of stone you're bound to find something you want. They also sporadically hold gigs in the room next door.

Real Groovey is on my top 3 retail stores in Auckland. Absolutely love the merchandise available,…read moreI'm a big kid that loves Vinyl Figures and they have a range that's large enough to satisfy my inner child ! I now have a child of my own and they have such a good range of children's books, from the classic to the quirky ! The Vinyl collection is extensive enough to please any muso and I was super gutted when I heard it was closing down and am glad to hear it is not now !

Fantastic store!!! Lots of vinyls, cds, books, t shirts all music related. I bought 2 albums I'd…read morenever seen in the US. Service was great. Value great. Loved this shop

In this day and age of chain stores selling nothing much but top of the pops CDs and band t-shirts…read morewith singers on them who appear still to be foetal, Marbecks is welcome respite. Any music lover will adore Marbecks. You get that feeling of being in an actual place when you visit, rather than in just another cloned merchandising experience. You also get a real Alice down the rabbit hole feeling because of the wonderful range, and it's one place that actually makes me feel excited about buying music. The staff here are excellent and great at fielding all kinds of questions, and very accommodating to importing things especially for you and that kind of stuff. They also have a dangerously tempting range of books and a decent stock of vinyl, so there's a lot to keep you busy once you get there.

Love this little place. It has a modest pop selection, but lots of cool new albums, a good…read moreclassical section, jazz CDs, music related DVDs and even a few boxes of LPs to make you look either old or cool. You can tell the staff love it too. They'll let you listen before you buy music and they place labels with honest reviews and recommendations on the new releases. Hope they remain open forever!

Royal Oak Trading Co., or "that antique store by The Zookeeper", is a decent shop to get lost in…read morefor half an hour or so. Don't be put of by the rusting garden tools and junk in the entrance. Inside you will find just about everything excluding clothes and jewellery. It does ever so slightly feel like the dumping grounds for assets of an estate. Nothing is new in the store and you c an rummage through heaps of boxes and books and assorted paraphernalia. But you will find something that tickles for fancy at an affordable price, not necessarily cheap but better than most "Antique Stores". They also have an extensive library of old vinyls and books. Just try not to look shifty as the staff will follow you around the piles of furniture to keep an eye on you.

I was wondering the Cheltenham shops on Saturday arvo and this place was a pretty cool find…read more Cheltenham Curiosity Shop is a small local shop that sells a range of antiques from chandeliers, tables, couches, lamps to vinyl records, used postcards and other bits and bobs.

A cute little store with some interesting collectables​. If you like preserving a few memories from…read morepre-plastic​​ times, there are plenty on offer. We left with a few under our arms!

NZ's best on-line music magazine. All the latest news and reviews from local and international…read moretouring bands.

It's sortof embarssing to admit this, given how hipster-ish this sounds, but I just bought a…read moreukulele*. I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars on it, and wanted a concert size one, which is slightly larger than the standard uke. I looked around for a while and was very pleased to find one at Music Book Shop for about $20 cheaper than anywhere else. The owner was super friendly, and actually swapped the one I was going to get with another one as he was worried that one of the tuning pegs wasn't right. He also tuned it for me in the shop which I meant I could go home and start playing. They also have a big stock of sheet music, mostly for piano, guitar and strings, all at good prices, and music stands for $20, which again is very cheap. *I reckon this whole ukulele thing will crash and burn soon, whence it will go back to being something that only earnest primary school music teachers play. I'm looking forward to this day.

Very good price on a brand new Casio Px-350 today. Nice gentlemen. I knew what I was after so…read moredidn't expect service, just a sale. Still. Nice little shop with lots of music books.

This is a neat little op shop, I thought. While it doesn't really cater to guys as far as clothes…read morego (there was one little rack of shirts and an even smaller one of pants), it does better for women. As well as clothes it has a few children's toys, a few records, and books. The book selection was surprisingly good, I thought - quite a few new looking paperbacks, and an interesting mix of the usual thrillers and some more challenging fare. I asked the woman behind the counter how much the books were and she said they were all $2 except for the ones that said otherwise on front page. None of the ones I looked at said otherwise. The staff here are really friendly, chatty without being too in your face. They were happy just to let me browse through the books at my own pace, but available to answer questions when I had them.

This a pretty nice, although small, op shop on Sandringham Road. I had a bit of a browse and it…read moreseemed to have a good selection of women's clothes that fit into current fashions (i.e. many variations on hipster). I tried on some things (and they have changing rooms with curtains that close all the way, which I totally consider a major plus) which made me look bulky and fat so I didn't buy anything but the staff were nice and took the items off me so I wouldn't have to hang them up myself. The clothing prices were perhaps a bit dear for an op shop, especially considering some items were not in the newest of conditions. But the book prices were good (mostly $2) and they had a decent collection of novels I'd actually want to read and not heaps of Danielle Steele or cookbooks from the 80s.