Standing poised behind the trade-in counter at Amoeba Records, Geoffrey Steele, 36, of Eagle Rock is eager to begin his day by judging the bag of CD’s you’ve brought in to trade.

“I’ve been working the trade-in counter for almost 4 years now and nothing brings me more joy than rejecting the musical sensibilities of total strangers”, Geoffrey says, adjusting his over-sized non-prescription glasses. “I take my role at the trade-in counter seriously and I want to ensure that I make you feel judged no matter what your taste in music.”

Amoeba Records boasts thousands of rare and out of print albums for music lovers, offering cash or trade for used titles.

“I make piles of your CD’s while maintaining a thoughtful look on my face to make you think that I am genuinely considering offering you money for your sophomoric tastes in music and movies, but really I’m just categorizing them from awful to worse,” Geoffrey said with an air of disdain.

“Sometimes I’ll say with only a hint of sarcasm something like, ‘Man! I really want to buy this copy of Season 1 of My So-Called Life from you, but there is the tiniest scratch on the disk!’ Or, ‘Oh, we have been inundated with Phish albums recently’, but really I am just disgusted by their taste in music and their human existence.”

Melissa Lester made the trek from Manhattan Beach to the famed music superstore hoping to make some money for Coachella. “I figured they would at least take some of my vinyl, but he rejected everything I brought in,” she said disappointed. “He kept smirking at my cassette tapes. I tried to make polite small talk and ask him what he thought of the new Ratatat album, but he just laughed and said I wouldn’t understand.”

When asked about rejecting Melissa’s music, Geoffrey rolled his eyes. “I’m not sure what’s worse-someone who lets their CD’s get scratched up or someone who owns Greatest Hits albums,” he said as he motioned for the next customer. “No real fan owns Greatest Hits albums”.