TRIUMPH OF THE SPIRIT. I haven't heard a single note of that one before buying it yeeaars ago. Can't remember how expensive it was, probably just regular price so not sure if that really counts... but even after many years it's still one of my TOP 5.
Personal tastes are different, so I prefer to hear a score in a movie before I buy. However, based upon rave reviews at FSM, I bought Richard Stone's SUNDOWN for a few dollars. Great find. Wonderful themes reminiscent of Morricone and Bernstein. Later this CD became much more expensive.
I have a habit of blind-buying any soundtrack that has in the track listings the word "heist". This had "The Big Heist", but also some other really intriguing track titles. "Adventures in a Big Cow" "Death by Lava Lamp"
According to the liner notes, Thrussell's influences were Morricone, Barry & the Beastie Boys. Like Joan mentioned in regards to Stone's "Sundown", this scores price has moved in and out of the 2 dollar bins over the years, much like Christophe Beck's "Confidence", another score that I love.
I got Pino Donaggio's NERO VENEZIANO for around a fiver on eBay and I love it. CATACOMBS as well.
I'd say the vast majority of my Donaggio collection were blind buys.
Donaggio is a fairly safe blind buy because most of his stuff is similar. And for him, that is a good thing! I have listening to some of his stuff lately. One of the most underrated composers, IMO.
When I started in my current job about 4 years ago, there is a shop across the road called Cash Converters (one of those used/trade-in shops). Over the course of about 4 weeks, every time I went in, they had a stack of soundtracks for £1 each (they were all in mint condition so I must assume either a collector had passed on/sold-up or been burgled!!). One of them was the La La Land Dark Crystal CD (I had the LP previously but had never bothered with the expanded editions). Another was series 1-5 of Doctor Who by Murray Gold. I still adore that Amy Pond music from series 5 and the 'running around' Dr theme.
When I started in my current job about 4 years ago, there is a shop across the road called Cash Converters (one of those used/trade-in shops).
I once found THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN for 2 quid in an Oxfam, but I've never found anything else score-related in a second hand shop (just thousands and thousands of copies of THE MATRIX album and CITY OF ANGELS).
When MVC shut down, I picked up a whole bunch of stuff for between £2-6, all of which were blind buys. A lot of them were one time listens, but John Murphy's MILLIONS and Lalo Schifrin's AMITYVILLE HORROR get a fair amount of airtime.
The last one I can remember was picking up a cut-out copy of Michael Small's MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON for very little money. I had never seen the film ( I have since) and was completely blown away by the score. Since then I have gotten many more Small scores and it remains my choice for his 2nd finest score (after COMES A HORSEMAN, which is one the finest scores by anyone).
Little Man Tate by Mark Isham. Found it in a dollar store. Was really taken by it. Even used the main theme in a show I directed at HB Studios in NYC last year.
Picked up what are today two of my favorite horror scores, Richard Band's MUTANT and Daniel Licht's BAD MOON for, I think, two or three bucks each back when I started "seriously" collecting in High School. Wonderful thematic horror/action orchestral scores from two composers who have had far too-few opportunities to write such music.
Also got Talgorn's ROBOTJOX off Amazing for a few bucks a number of years ago, another knock-out effort.