New Plymouth's Vinyl Countdown sees hundreds of people come through the door on international Record Store Day.

Every international Record Store Day, Mark Thomas orders in vinyl that are exclusively released for that mid-April date, but he doesn't listen to them himself.

Instead, the owner of Vinyl Countdown in New Plymouth watches hundreds of people come through his doors on the day and buy from his biggest collection – his store.

"We've been doing it every year since I opened in 2011," Thomas said. "This is the biggest one yet."

GRANT MATTHEW/STUFF One of the New Plymouth vinyl lovers was councillor John McLeod. He even played DJ for a bit.

This year Thomas bought in four crates of exclusive Record Store Day vinyl that range from David Bowie to Neil Young.

READ MORE: World Record Store Day highlights the diversity of music-lovers and the romance of the record

He watched people queue outside the doors at 9am to get their hands on them.

GRANT MATTHEW/STUFF Vinyl Countdown owner Mark Thomas said this is the busiest day of the year, and this year's Record Store Day was the busiest he's seen.

"There would have been at least 20 people," Thomas said. "There's people I see regularly, once a week or twice a week, and there are people who have travelled in from out of town."

When asked if he had bought an exclusive vinyl on this year's internationally celebrated day Thomas said no.

"I haven't this year," he laughed. "I really need to sell them.

"If you look out in the shop I have a large collection, but I'm selling them all."

Thomas has had a full week of early mornings, late nights and money-based thoughts in preparation for the day.

"I pay for stock in advance," he said. "You see this pile of invoices with stock you're buying and think 'man, I hope people buy these'."

Despite this, Thomas said the day – which also has a celebratory store-wide sale, free sausage sizzle and tunes to listen to – is worth it.

The tunes, which could be heard along the main street of New Plymouth, were played by members of the local vinyl club. One of the DJs was New Plymouth District Council councillor, John McLeod.

"I'm a vinyl junkie," McLeod said with a smile. "I have a collection – heavy metal, jazz, blues, country and western, and more."

The councillor said he usually visits Vinyl Countdown once a week and had bought about six vinyl on the day that he's had his eye on for a while.

McLeod plays his vinyl every week and has two record players in his house.

"I play more vinyl than CDs and any other form of music," he said. "I like it, it's got substance, and I think better sound quality."