Hollywood
Monday through Saturday, 10:30 a.m. - 11 p.m.
Sunday, 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Our used buying counter closes every night at 9 p.m..

San Francisco
Monday through Saturday, 10:30 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Sunday, 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Berkeley
Monday through Saturday, 10:30 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Sunday, 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Amoeba Hollywood is located at 6400 Sunset Blvd., between Cahuenga and Ivar. 
Hollywood Amoeba:  click here for MAP, we're the green arrow. Parking is beneath store and at the Arclight.

Amoeba San Francisco is located at 1855 Haight. St. at Stanyan, just east of Golden Gate Park. 
San Francisco Amoeba:  click here for MAP, validated parking at red A balloon, we're the green arrow!

Amoeba Berkeley is located at 2455 Telegraph Ave. at Haste.
Berkeley Amoeba:  click here for MAP, validated parking at red A balloon, we're the green arrow!

Hollywood
Metrolink: Take the Metro Rail Red Line to the Hollywood & Vine Station.  We are three blocks from there on foot, one block west to Ivar and two blocks south to Sunset.
Bus: The #2 Sunset bus stops directly in front of our store.
Click here for Los Angeles public transportation planner link.  You can input your starting location and your end destination (6400 Sunset) and this will tell you what buses to take, how long it will take and how much it will cost.

San Francisco
Bus:The #7 and the #71 Muni bus lines both go up Haight Street and stop directly in front of our store, while the N Judah train runs parallel to Haight Street and you can get off at Carl and Stanyan - just a short walk downhill to 1855 Haight at Stanyan. The N Judah is great for those taking bart! Call us for other bus routes, and we have bike parking!
Click here for San Francisco public transportation planner link.

Berkeley
BART: From the Downtown Berkeley BART stop at Shattuck, walk four blocks east on Haste street to Telegraph and you're there.
Bus: The #40 AC Transit line comes up Telegraph from Oakland and stops in front of our store.
Click here for Berkeley public transportation planner link.

Click here for driving directions to Amoeba Hollywood.
Click here for driving directions to Amoeba San Francisco.
Click here for driving directions to Amoeba Berkeley.

Amoeba Hollywood has free underground parking in a big lot underneath the store (entrance on Cahuenga St.).  We also have a smaller free parking lot behind the store with an entrance on Ivar (maximum parking time: 2 hours).  Yes, we validate!  There is a giant parking garage across Ivar for the Arclight movie theater complex -- we validate at the Arclight garage for one hour with purchase.   Be careful of the street parking in Los Angeles -- look for tow-away zones and times, like every night after 6 p.m. on Ivar.  And don't park at Jack In the Box!

There is street parking for our Bay Area Amoebas, and there is a parking lot for the SF Amoeba and a parking garage for the Berkeley Amoeba! All stores validate one hour free parking with purchase.

Sorry folks -- None of our Amoebas have public restrooms.  In Hollywood, the nearest ones are at the Arclight Cinemas (next door) and Groundworks coffee shop (on Cahuenga, kitty corner from Amoeba).  In the Bay Area, there are plenty of cafes that line the streets. All of these fine establishments in every town would like you to buy something while you are there.

Our return policy is printed on the bottom of every receipt.  We give NO CASH REFUNDS, STORE CREDIT ONLY.  All returns must be done within 7 DAYS of purchase.  If you buy something and it is defective, or it is still sealed and you want to make an exchange, we will give you FULL STORE CREDIT (for items over $1).  You can return anything (non-clearance, over $2) for any other reason and get 75% STORE CREDIT.  This is our "insurance policy", which allows you to take a chance on music you're not sure you'll like, and still get most of the value back in case you don't.  Keep your store receipt for all returns!

All exchanges and returns are done at the Buy Counter (located directly to your right when you first enter Hollywood and San Francisco. In Berkeley it’s directly inside the front door to your left. Remember, there are NO REFUNDS.  Only STORE CREDIT is available for exchanges and returns.  Keep your receipt if you need to return anything!

Amoeba buys CDs, DVDs, LPs, tapes, videos, 45s, 78s, collectible music posters and prints, box sets, music collectibles, laserdiscs and cassettes -- just about any format or anything music-related.  Occasionally there are genres or formats that we are overstocked on, which we will stop buying for a time, so call the buy counter and ask first if you are hoping to sell a lot of something that's pretty easy to come by (like cassettes).

Amoeba is always interested in carrying music by unsigned local artists.  Of course, we have very tight space constraints, and we usually have to start by just carrying 1 or 2 copies of a self-released title until we can see whether it sells strongly enough for us to carry more.  Titles with a strong proven sales record we can pay outright for.  Most titles we consign -- we carry them for three months and pay for the ones that sold at the end of that time.  Call and make an appointment with someone who does consignments, or just bring your CDs to the buy counter and we'll see what we can do!

You can -- we have a big flyer rack up front for all kinds of music and other event flyers, and there's usually a designated wall space to put up posters.  There's also a community bulletin board if you're looking for an apartment to rent or a bassist for your band.

Items brought to our buy counter are priced by our Used Buyers.  What they are worth depends on the artist, title, popularity, condition, and amount of stock we already have on each item.  You can opt for cash or get approximately 30% more in store credit.  Click here for Amoeba's General Buying Policies.  We cannot give price quotes for your stuff over the phone without actually seeing it.  It's always best to just come into the store and bring it to the buy counter.  The Hollywood buy counter closes every night at 9 p.m., the Bay Area buy counters close when the stores close.  You must have a current ID to sell! 

If you have over 500 CDs or over 1000 LPs to sell, please call the store first and find out whether we can do the buy in the store and if so, when.  If you are interested in having us come out to your house to buy your collection, please click here to fill out our Collection Form.  We rarely do this except for large collections of excellent titles.  If you can't access our webform, please call our Information Desk at the store and leave a message with a brief description of your collection for our Head Buyer.

Those records we call WALL ITEMS, limited edition, rare, out-of-print, or original pressings.  They usually sell for over $20 (often much higher).  Ask any Amoeba floor staff if you want help with a wall item.

YES and YES.  All the posters that you see on the wall are for sale.  Most of them we sell new for $10 -- ask a cashier and they will get a copy of it for you from the back room, as long as it's in stock.  Some are small-run new posters or new prints that go for $15, $20 and up.  The ones in the plastic sleeves or framed are rare, old original editions that do sell for a lot of money in some cases.  Ask and we'll get them down for you.  We also have racks of less expensive used posters that you can flip through.  We have thousands of music posters, movie posters, limited-edition print posters, Fillmore posters and more!

Chances are, YES.  We have listening stations where you can scan the barcode of a CD, and if it's in the computer, you can preview it on headphones.  Not every title in the store is in our listening station catalogue, but a huge number of them are, and we're constantly adding more.  The more obscure a title is, the less likely it is to be in there, but it's definitely worth a try.

Items with WHITE price tags are NEW.  USED items will have a YELLOW, GREEN or RED price tag (in descending order by price).  Some items have white price tags with a BLUE LINE across the top.  These are in their original shrink-wrap but we bought them over the counter rather than ordering them from a distributor, so they are part of our USED inventory.  (Unplayed, but cheaper than new!)

We check the condition on all of our Used CDs and we rarely buy or sell any with serious scratches on them.  Most of them are in mint or near-mint condition and play perfectly.  CDs are very durable, and can sustain some light scratching or scuffing without any effect on how they play.  So, you will occasionally see Used CDs on the floor with little yellow notes on the cover saying that the disc has some visible scratches but it's guaranteed to play perfectly.  These are usually good bets to play just fine, and they are priced cheap too!  If you do have any problems with them, as with anything you buy here, they are returnable.

We can hold up to 6 items for you for 24 hours (generally speaking, until closing the next day).   You can call and have stuff held for you by the floor staff, or bring items in person to a cashier and they will put them in the hold bin with your name on them.  Held items that are not retrieved in time go back out onto the floor.  On weekdays, if needed, you can call and extend your hold (one time only) for one day.  We cannot hold wall item records! 

Only Amoeba Hollywood sells turntables, and we carry portable Nu-Mark and Vestax turntables.  Any cashier can help get you one.  We have a display model we can show you.

Click here to view our in-store calendar!

Please keep in mind that Amoeba is NOT a regular music venue.  We book at most a show or two a week, generally for well-known artists in conjunction with a new CD release.  If you are interested in playing an in-store at one of our stores, please mail a press kit and a CD to that store's booking agent (call for name and mailing address).  Click here for more information about our in-stores.

If we don't have an item and it is available for ordering, then you can request it over the phone or at the information counter.  Requests will be processed by our ordering department, which usually takes a few days, not counting the time it takes for the order to be filled by our distributors.  We are unable to order  items that are out of print, and we prefer not to order items that are easily available used.  We do not take "special orders", i.e. holding items when they come in and calling you.  We will try to order it for the store and give you some idea when it might come in -- you must call us back and have it held for you when it does come in.

We have lots of music and movies imported from abroad -- they're filed in with the domestic product, but usually have notes or stickers saying that they're imports.  We often get the British import version of a release long before the domestic one comes out.  (We usually stop restocking them just before the domestic release is about to come out.)  PAL DVDs are kept in their own separate section, since they don't play in American NTSC players (unless it's an all-region player).

There's a "now playing" CD at the Info Desk which lets you know which artist / album we are playing in the store.

If you’re asking this, you must be in Hollywood! Amoeba Hollywood’s second floor mezzanine is home to movie and music DVDs, videos, laser discs, children's CDs and LPs and 12 CD listening stations.  We have thousands of titles in every category of film and our friendly mezzanine staff can help you find them -- they have their own information counter in the back corner where you can ask for help.

YES!  We sell gift certificates in any amount.  They can be redeemed at all three Amoeba stores and they don't expire until they're used!  You can even buy them here on our website -- click here!

Yes.  Amoeba credit slips and gift certificates are good at all three stores.

YES.  Remember, all returns must be done within 7 days with your receipt, and are good for CREDIT not cash.  Call and make arrangements if you need to extend this time frame.  Read the rest of our return policy here.

We accept cash, debit cards, credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Discover), and traveler's checks in US Dollars. Credit cards must be accompanied by valid photo ID.  We do NOT accept American Express Cards or personal checks.

Not at this time, but we do offer a selection of new music available for sale online in our Buy Stuff section. We have Amoeba Exclusive titles (like the TV On The Radio Live at Amoeba EP and Brandi Shearer) as well as a rotating list of Music We Like CDs and our Homegrown choices. Keep checking back as these titles change on a regular basis. Don't see what you're looking for online? Visit any of our 3 stores to browse thousands more titles, both new and used.

You can purchase Amoeba t-shirts, canvas bags and other cool Amoeba swag online here.

You can also order gift certificates online here.