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Categories: Newspapers & Magazines, Comic Books, Music & DVD's, Bookstores [Edit]
98-023 Hekaha St
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For me, the novelty of living in Hawaii usually wears off after about 96 hours, 15 pounds of ahi or tako poke, a dozen plate lunches/huli huli chicken/visits to the Manapua Man/lau lau plates, or whatever comes first. When that time elapses, I'm then forced to deal with my life as it is - relegated to the happenings as they were growing up. For me, this no longer entails lots of shady dealings, thank goodness. Now, it's long hours spent reading, listening to records that I left behind (for good reason) and the occasional drink with pa.
For these long days with nothing else on the agenda, I can think of few places I'd rather spend them than Jelly's. Books, records, and people I somehow know from some place in time. Goodness indeed.
By no means is this big, honking spot concise in their acquisition of media, but MAN is there a lot of stuff - some good, some excellent, and some there surely to pay the bills.
I've known the people here for a long, long time, and they are good people. One of my bands even played here ages ago. Strange times indeed.
But what this place has that I find absolutely necessary when I'm back in the a'ina, is the presence of possibility, the chance that something will be found, unearthed, brought out into the light and held close for that long walk home, taken at a slower pace because the weather only permits such a gait. Such a sensation was necessary for survival long ago and it will continue to persist despite longitude; despite latitude.
I went to sell my books today only to find out that the used book buyer wouldn't be in until tomorrow. I've never been to a used book store where the buyer isn't always readily available. It turns out that she's not available on Mondays and her regular hours are 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. on the days that she is.
$0.25 for some of the brand new children's books I was selling. I took the five books to Book Off in Pearlridge instead.
$hit. I somehow just dropped another 100$ on a stack of records and a few books.
Damn you Jelly's, with your sweet, sweet stacks. You have everything I want/ need. In essence, you are going to a pop culture museum where everything is for sale and fantastically priced. While you're in the complex, drive around a little, there's alot of cool and un usual businesses there AND the water laps right up to the asphalt in a couple of places.
Just because it's 2'o clock, don't mean that we have to stop...
tho in the cuts, making the ride out to Aiea was well worth it to stave off my geekiness that is still pouring over from SDCC last weekend. you have a local kind of Amoeba Records, but defintely 2 to 3 scales down on the quality of vinyl, tapes, dvds and etc. this place feels like more of a consignment shop that would fit perfectly in the height.
i obviously spent most of my time cruising through the comics and was a bit disappointed to find a shop that did in fact have a great selection of back issues...but the kicker here is that being that they didn't board up the books...a good majority of rare, hard to find silver age books meant very little to me cos they were all in barely good condition.
what made up for this was their variety of misc items that i have never seen before like a book on DC action figures or a Batman exclusive from Wizard World 2008.
didn't pick up either cos price wasn't right but did find some great back issues at decent prices that they had behind the counter. if they were to invest in putting their inventory together a bit and change out some of the sleeves and board everything with some value...GOLD MINE!
You know that scene in Almost Famous (the only good movie that Kate Hudson was in) where Penny Lane was driving William Miller to a party and she bestowed upon this impressionable young man words of wisdom "go to the record store and visit all my friends." By this she meant records, by which she meant music.
I firmly believe Miss Lane was talking about going to a place like Jelly's, and no I don't think she was necessarily talking about visiting friends like that smelly guy that stocks the shelves.
Jelly's got everything that you need to get you through life, good music, good books, and good incense- also good geek paraphernalia if you're into that kind of thing.
I like the atmosphere I get from this place. What's more is its cheap, why go to Barnes and Nobles or Border's and get swindled with their high prices for books and Cd's; these places are just a copy of a copy of a copy there isn't anything original about it. Jelly's, now that's original. I go there just like Penny Lane suggested, to visit my friends. Record store's are slowly becoming a thing of the past.
I sell my old ancient CDs here when I need some cash.
They buy it back for a reasonable price.
They have a huge selection of DVDs, CDs, vinyl, books, comics and some musical instruments/equipment.
Support your local business!
Jelly's is dope!
I feel like there old location was there forever, but i like the wherehouse full of cds, vinyl, books and dvds, anime, music instruments, etc. Its like this organized used garage sale/music junkie/comic nerd/anime geek haven, i love it. You could probably go there and find out what the Watchmen is really all about and that conversation could go on for hours and hours.
By far the best and biggest independent media store in Hawaii.
I went here looking for a new comic book shop so that's what I'm going to review it as: a comic shop. Frankly, it sucks. I went here the past three weeks and wasn't able to get my entire list of comics once. I went on Wednesday evenings and they were either sold out of what I wanted or didn't order them in the first place. No shop should sell out that quickly. I inquired about setting up a pull list and was told that I would have to give them my credit card info and they would automatically charge me each week for my pull. Totally not cool with writing down that kind of info on a sheet of paper. What if I couldn't get my comics one week but could the next? And their layout is completely confusing. For your weekly comic fix, I suggest hunting down Gecko's down in Honolulu. But I will give Jelly's credit as a used book/movie/music store. And they usually run weekly specials that can net you some free comics. So as a comic shop, I give them 2 stars. As a used entertainment store, 4. I average them out to be a 3-star store.
God, I love Jelly's. There are so many gems you can find here - whether you're looking for a specific CD or vinyl, books galore, or DVDs... Jelly's is always a weekly stop for me. The people there are super nice and friendly, and always helpful.
Plus you can have them call you when a wishlist item of yours comes in! I had them do that for me when someone sold them a copy of Animaniacs Vol. 1 & 2 - they called right away!
I tend to find better DVDs and DVD on TV at the Aiea location, but more books I want at the Honolulu location. Both DVDs and books are VERY reasonably priced, even new stuff that just came out - so Jelly's is definitely worth checking out!
Two years ago I would've want to give this place five stars. Now I want to give it six. I miss this place more since I've moved away from Hawai'i.
This Jelly's used to be located in Pearl Kai, but relocated to this new locale, Harbor-something. When you first drive in, look to the Ewa side of the warehouses. I liked the old location because it was so big, but I think I like this location better. I don't know, it just seems more conducive to its genre. Genre: new and used music, CDs and vinyl, guitars and instrument paraphernalia, new and used DVDs, new and used books, magazines, comics, anime, action figures, board games, D&D-type games and toys, and ... I think some porn. But don't quote me on that.
So this is like one one of my most favoritest places on Earth, one of my Disneyland's. I could spend hours and hours (dollars and dollars) in here if I were so equipt.
Today I picked up a Faint CD, a Mirwais CD, and a Tricky CD, all used. All $9 ea. Why would people sell these?? I also got a Chuck Palahniuk book and a book that I thought stores didn't sell anymore and can get you flagged by the Feds. I paid cash, Deepthroat.
They must have really discriminating buyers because they have a lot of neat books. My happy place is the anarchy and deviance section. Golden.
There are always squaters here. Kids reading the anime, in hopes of catching a glimpse of a cartoon tit, so the unsealed comics are all jacked. There's a music-listening station. So today there was some guy listening to music and dancing around. Dude, live entertainment. I wanted to drop him a dollar. Don't give that gold away for free, brother.
I think the store is pretty well-organized, considering the volume of treasures this cavern holds. Its a little tight, but its not like a hoarder's house or anything.
The only thing that kind of itches my anus is that when you cash out, they hand write out the items you purchase. I think because a lot of stuff is on consignment?
They always have deals. Today was -$2 from any CD over $12. Which didn't really help me. But I'm sure it helped someone. Somewhere.
There's always a lot of parking, even if its not super close. The parking lot is retard-designed, though. Its like all misshapen and hamajang.
Jelly's Is Da' Bomb! You can get oldies and the New Stuff Here!!!
You can also get Singer Ryan Pugal's first indie debut album titled " This Is Me the Demo Project " which released in June 2007 & made Ryan Pugal a indie success with cd sales and digital download sales of over 10,000... Last Check Jelly's Got 2 copies left.
Checkout More on this Artist at : www.RyanPugalOnline.Biz
To all the sad and apparently very bored that think THIS is even close to Amoeba - clearly you need to put down the crack pipe. Just because you are desperate here doesn't mean this place holds a candle to a dozen stores in California. Please.
Jelly's carries mostly used stuff; books, games, comics, toys, vinyl albums, & CDs. It looks more like a garage sale than a record store. It's a bit of a disorganized mess which I suppose could work to your advantage. I can tell that they don't know what's current these days either. If it's been out for 20 years you might get lucky here. I was able to find a couple of good deals in the very small reggae section. There is an equally small crappy electronic section. They mostly have a lot of 70's/80's Rock vinyl. If you are looking for that sort of thing you will be happy you came. For new stuff you are going to pretty much find it on CD at this place. Almost everything here is overpriced by about $5. Be prepared, you are going to pay the Aloha tax. I hear they have some cool used comics and books though. I don't know. That's not my thing. If you read the 5 stars reviews, that's what everyone is jizzing about. It's not the music section. Bottom line: If you are totally bored in Hawaii and have nothing else to do than go look through some thrift store quality stuff, you might want to check this place out. Reality: You really don't come to Hawaii for record shopping do you?
Jelly's Review Take Two (I some how erased my first attempt...lame)
I like books, music, movies, comics, anime, board games, musical intstruments, and cool unique individuals.
Jelly's sells books, music, movies, comics, anime, board games, musical intstruments, and is populated with cool unique individuals.
Combine that with the fact that I work within 3 minutes of the shop (noooo, not the "video" store) and it doesn't take even half a team of monkeys working around the clock to figure out why I love this place so much.
It's well-organized, but still looks messy....takes more than a cursory glance to find the true values...it's well, a lot like me. It's such a great place to cruise after work, slowly perusing the masses of multi medias.
Don't leave without checking out a copy of "Snap, Crackle, Pop" a witty self reflective comic written and illustrated by Jelly's own Kit Fox. If your a book hunter you might want to enlist the assistance of book buyer Amber. If Jelly's has it she knows where it is and if not you'll want her to stash it aside for you if someone brings a copy in. Additionally her book of the week picks are legendary.
I've saved (and spent) a lot on used DVDs here, finding copies of BattleStar Galatica, Entourage, Planet Earth, Basquiat, and the entire series of Samurai Champloo to name a few.
To me there's no better place to shop, than this fly-under-the-radar, awesomely staffed, super chill place that sells pretty much everything I'm interested in (except food).
Plus they have an ATM and a bathroom. BONUS!
btw for the Losties out there http://www.virtualtour...
This place is amazing! They have comic books, used and new books, records, cd's, dvd's, music equipment, the kitchen sink...pretty much everything under the sun!
I looked in their cases and saw X-Men #1 for $1000. My jaw dropped through the floor.
I took pictures like a tourist, grabbed some new issues of Astonishing X-Men (Joss Whedon is a God), bought a kick-ass 3-CD set of Columbia's Women in Rock for $10, and nearly kissed the cashier.
What a find!
I freaking LOVE this place.
It's called "the original" 'cause a few years ago, there was a tif fthat I don't know all the details to, but essentially Jelly's went bye bye, and then another similar comic book/music/venue place started sportin the name "jelly's"
Well, the owner came back or something and opened up a jelly's (with the title "the original"), and after much legal disputing, the other "jelly's" were named "Cheapo books & music". (for people that just HAVE to know http://starbulletin.co...)
I've actually liked both of them, but walking into Jelly's just makes me happy. I bought indie & mainstream used CDs, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac comics, figurines, and even used Doc Marten boots here.
They're super friendly, and will let you listen to any CDs before you purchase them. They also have this thing going where you can buy a new or used CD and resell it back to them after 3 days for only 3 bucks less (essentially a 3-day rental fee), you know, so you can um...make backups and such.
I'm not 100% sure they still do that but the fact that they even advertised it on the radio makes 'em cool in my book.
They also sell guitars and amps and stuff, but the coolest thing is every now and then they even have lil punk shows (and other genres) on the second floor of their shop. They even sell some drinks and stuff.
One of my favorite places to waste time in the whole wide world.
Bar none my favorite place to go for obscure memorabilia and music, or when in the midst of "crappy chic" creation. Need a 40 lb. spell book in a couple days? Buy out their incomplete encyclopedia collection and then go next door for some spray on fabric. Need a customized action figure? Buy one of the lower priced or in poor condition collectables and customize it yourself. Got a friend that's obsessed with the Wheel of Time? Great place to buy those books to help fill in their collection. Or what about some obscure comp cds? They also have a great Jimmy Cliff collection!
Also, I LOVE used books. Who wants a new one? Books are so much more fun to read when you cant figure out what that sticky crap is that's attached pages 67 - 72.
Finally, they will allow you to return cds that are scratched and / or wont play.
Us being "tourists", my husband and I were tired of the same sh*t we saw in Waikiki and we wanted to venture out. Not only did we have a rental car, we had to rely on MAPS since our asses didn't bring a laptop from the mainland. So anyway, we were asking around where we could check out used cds and two people (one from our hotel and other person from the Int'l Market) mentioned to go to Jelly's in Aiea but they said, "It's kinda deep..you might get lost." Well, no sh*t sherlock -- we sure did get LOST. We finally found Jelly's after I took over the navigation while the hubby was on the wheel.
We called for cross streets and the lady at Jelly's said they never really get tourists wanting to come and check out their place of business. I guess we are the FIRST ones!
They sold everything from used and new cds to books, musical instruments, amps, sheet music, comic books! Damn! We must've spent a good hour searching on what we could buy.
I left the store with 3 (USED and in very good condition) Sam Choy cookbooks while Ken jumped for joy for a CD he's been searching for FOR YEARS was in the CD section: The New Generation: Love Songs for You (which happened to be out of print since 1994).
Jelly's a great place for people to kill time, gettin' lost in the multi-aisles, and gander at never-ending titles. So glad we went!
This place has got some of the coolest old school Comics i've ever seen...well the one's i've only ever seen ahaha. i bought Kamikaze girls here for $10 new. While i was searching through the manga my dad made me haul ass outta there so i will come again!
I don't think Jelly's is a place for starving what you call it's that have no money (as statedin some other review) I just think its CHEAP for those of us who like a good deal. Do you have to be poor tolik cheap stuff?
Anyways, Jelly's is a great place to go especially for the cds's and dvds. They have good comics, and cheap books. Depending on hat genre you like, they pretty much have everything. Yeha, its a bit grungy and dirty looking but the place is aaaactually very organized. :)
5 isn't enough stars to express how utterly fabulous Jelly's is!
I'm a huge fan of used bookstores, but I've never been in one like Jelly's. Books, music, instruments, videos ... everything and anything is for sale here. Every corner holds a hidden treasure, and searching it out is half the fun. Rifling through the boxes under the shelves has yielded me so many books I would never have picked up otherwise.
Plus, Jelly's has everything priced so well! I've been to used bookstores that are barely cheaper than new! I picked up 3 books for only $0.95 here! I ended up purchasing a grand total of 10 books for $35 -- a major bargain.
After experiencing Jelly's once, I want to go back again and again. I can't get enough!
A great place for used books HOWEVER be prepared to search the shelves and boxes underneath. It is best to go in there when you dont have a firm title in mind, and an open mind. My husband and I love going in together because he can look at the boardgames and comic books, I can look at the books, and then there are always the used dvds to puruse. Definitely the best bookstore I have found on the island thus far.
Wouldn't have found it if I wasn't taken there, great little find though. The craziest and widest selection of books, comics, manga (and manga memorabilia) some CD's and DVD's too, and they are ripping themselves off.
Awesome comic book store. I went there when I was a kid and they had all my favorite stuff and then some. After I went to this store I wanted to move to Oahu.
Jellys is alot like Amoeba's in SF, but smaller. I miss Radio Free Hawaii, I wish it would come back. Hell I even donated money years ago to bring it back. This latest locatoin is alot harder to find, I remember when it was on Piikoi Strret. Then on Keeamoku. Then on University. Now Pearl City. Great place for books, games, cd's, dvd's, etc.
Ginormous selection of books, comics, CDs, vinyl, DVDs with unbelievably low prices. Hidden in a warehouse district but well worth the find. They also buy your used goodies.
Anybody rember "Radio Free Hawaii"? I do. Norm is the shit for keeping Jelly's alive. Jellys is to Oahu what Amoeba is to San Francisco. Long live "The Original"!
Previous reviews don't lie...this place is great. They used to be near ala moana in a tiny little store, now they have a HUGE store out in Aiea. They have a ton of old vinyl, it's fun to go down and rummage around, there's not many places like that around anymore. Comics, old books, dvds, all kinds of stuff here. Like previous reviewers said, the best thing is this place is NOT corporate, just a great music store. The owner seems really cool and I hope Jelly's stays around for a long long time.
im glad that there is still one place left that sells good records. plus, its close by where i live. how convienent!
What would I be without Jelly's? I used to work at Radio Free Hawaii and loved it. I have a wide range of music that I listen to and there is only one place to go if you just love music. Jelly's. Can't find it there? Just ask and someone will order it for you. Not a chain store where everything for sale is something that the industry wants to push on to the consumer, but a store that just cares about the music.
Honolulu, HI
Category: Comic Books
Honolulu, HI
Category: Books, Mags, Music and Video
Honolulu, HI
Category: Comic Books
Honolulu, HI
Category: Used, Vintage & Consignment
Honolulu, HI
Category: Cinema
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