Best Ever Albums

Re: Culling the vinyl record collection

Anonymous — Fri, 4 Jul 2014 16:58:14 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 07/04/2014 20:58

Hayden wrote:

Oooooo 😁

The promo version of Blue would be sick. The rest don't personally interest me music wise, but great finds nevertheless.

Yeah, pretty much my feelings too. I feel like I'm straddling the boundary between collector and seller right now. I don't have a collection of my own, but I'm so tempted to play some of these albums.

Re: Culling the vinyl record collection

Hayden — Fri, 4 Jul 2014 16:56:01 GMT

Author: Hayden

Posted: 07/04/2014 20:56

Oooooo 😁

The promo version of Blue would be sick. The rest don't personally interest me music wise, but great finds nevertheless.

Re: Culling the vinyl record collection

Anonymous — Fri, 4 Jul 2014 16:53:05 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 07/04/2014 20:53

Here are a few classic records I found white-label promo versions of:

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Blue by Joni Mitchell

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Aqualung by Jethro Tull

Déjà Vu by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

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At Fillmore East by The Allman Brothers Band

All in good condition, seems like they could go for a few hundred each.

Re: Culling the vinyl record collection

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 16:02:28 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 06/11/2014 20:02

Okay, so I devoted a lot of time to this over the last month or so. I'll share my finds later, but here are some of the rules of thumb I've learned along the way. No rule is perfect, of course, but these guidelines might save you some time if you set out on a similar venture:

1) The value is governed by supply and demand, just like anything else. This may be an obvious point, but it helps to really think about the implications of it.

- The least valuable records are from artists who were really popular in their time (and thus sold a lot of copies, high supply), but who didn't stand the test of time (low demand). This is your Kingston Trios, Bobby Goldsboros, and Johnny Rivers'. You might still find an auctionable record from one of these artists, but only if it had very limited distribution for some reason.
- The most valuable records are rarities (low supply) from artists that remain extremely popular (high demand). For example, the rare "butcher cover" from the Beatles' Yesterday and Today. This means that if you have a record from a pop music legend, look at it very carefully. The etchings in the matrix run-out groove can be the difference between hundreds of dollars and five.
- There's a huge gray area in the middle. As lethal said, you might be able to get gobs of money for a record from a no-name. Collectors can have very idiosyncratic needs, so a rare record (low supply) from an obscure artist (low demand) can still fetch a lot of money.

2) Compilations are usually worthless. The only exception I found in our collection was a rare DJ-only compilation. You'll probably find some exceptions for really big-name artists if, again, the distribution was very limited.

3) Re-releases are usually worthless, but it can sometimes be really hard to tell when a record is a re-release because many vinyl records don't indicate a date. You have to look carefully at the matrix numbers and the details on the label and cover. A great resource for this is http://www.discogs.com.

4) If you have any promotional versions, look at them very carefully. I have a promotional copy of Joni Mitchell's Blue that I might be able to auction for $50 - $100, even though an ordinary version of this record is common enough to not be worth trying to sell. Promotional versions are often desirable both because of their rarity and because they tend to be early pressings with higher-than-average audio quality. It's tricky, though, because sometimes a record stamped as "promotional" on the cover but has the same labels as a store copy. These generally aren't worth much, since anybody can stamp an album cover -- look out for the all-white promotional labels on the disc itself.

5) Collectors are often on the lookout for early pressings of famous records because they're thought to have better audio quality. Unfortunately, this can be really hard to determine. It is encoded in the matrix number etched on the record, but the meaning of the code varies from one record company to the next and I wasn't able to find any fail-safe resources for decoding them.

6) An album is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it. Again, an obvious point, but still worth thinking about. The best place to find the value of common records is on the discogs site I posted above because it tends to have large samples of sales data. Ebay sales are not reliable or worth using for non-rarities because most people don't bother posting to ebay unless they think a record will fetch enough to cover the fees and shipping costs. For the rarities, old ebay sales can be useful, but bear in mind that when demand reaches the level of tens or hundreds of collectors, your success in selling a record is highly dependent on things that are out of your control. Maybe that handful of collectors already has the record in question or maybe they just aren't looking when your sale/auction is posted.

If I think of anything else, I'll add it here. Thanks everyone for your initial advice and let me know if you have any corrections or comments concerning what I've written here.

Re: Culling the vinyl record collection

Mdemauri — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 22:23:07 GMT

Author: Mdemauri

Posted: 04/16/2014 02:23

meccalecca wrote:

Mail them all to me. I'll send back the ones I don't want and the one's worth nothing. That way you'll know which ones were keepers. The bad news (for you, not me) is that i'll have them all.

😁

Re: Culling the vinyl record collection

samistake2ice — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 16:42:23 GMT

Author: samistake2ice

Posted: 04/15/2014 20:42

sp4cetiger wrote:

To start, can I assume that greatest hits compilations have little value?

No you can not. I learned this the hard way.

Re: Culling the vinyl record collection

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 09:20:20 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 04/14/2014 13:20

bongritsu wrote:

why would you ever want to get rid of it?

I would never individually sell music, I plan on keeping everything i have and then opening a record shop as a retirement job when im like 50 or whatever

I worry that if I told my wife that my retirement plan included selling old copies of The Doobie Brothers Greatest Hits, a judge might consider that sufficient grounds for divorce.

Re: Culling the vinyl record collection

bigeyedfish — Sun, 13 Apr 2014 22:45:15 GMT

Author: bigeyedfish

Posted: 04/14/2014 02:45

One shortcut, almost anything in bad condition has bad value. Only the rarest albums fetch more than a couple bucks in really poor shape. Of course, anything rare will be desirable even in normally passable condition.

Re: Culling the vinyl record collection

bongritsu — Sun, 13 Apr 2014 22:37:06 GMT

Author: bongritsu

Posted: 04/14/2014 02:37

why would you ever want to get rid of it?

I would never individually sell music, I plan on keeping everything i have and then opening a record shop as a retirement job when im like 50 or whatever

Re: Culling the vinyl record collection

meccalecca — Sun, 13 Apr 2014 17:55:56 GMT

Author: meccalecca

Posted: 04/13/2014 21:55

sp4cetiger wrote:

Does anybody have any ideas for shortcuts?

Mail them all to me. I'll send back the ones I don't want and the one's worth nothing. That way you'll know which ones were keepers. The bad news (for you, not me) is that i'll have them all.

Re: Culling the vinyl record collection

Defago — Sun, 13 Apr 2014 17:53:24 GMT

Author: Defago

Posted: 04/13/2014 21:53

sp4cetiger wrote:

Thanks for the help, all, I guess I'll take the plunge and do individual searches. At least it gives me something to do while listening to music. Also, thanks for the website suggestions, they both look like great resources.

If you find anything you don't want that you think I might I could be interested in making business.

Re: Culling the vinyl record collection

Anonymous — Sun, 13 Apr 2014 16:54:49 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 04/13/2014 20:54

Thanks for the help, all, I guess I'll take the plunge and do individual searches. At least it gives me something to do while listening to music. Also, thanks for the website suggestions, they both look like great resources.

Re: Culling the vinyl record collection

Hayden — Sun, 13 Apr 2014 16:22:13 GMT

Author: Hayden

Posted: 04/13/2014 20:22

lethalnezzle wrote:

It's pretty fun anyway, gives you the chance to listen to some stuff you'd otherwise never have bothered with.

That too. Just find something random in the collection, put it on, and just listen to that while you research.

Tell us if you find anything interesting too 😄

Re: Culling the vinyl record collection

Anonymous — Sun, 13 Apr 2014 15:48:41 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 04/13/2014 19:48

Pick up the records two at a time. Check the title of the 6th track. The one which starts with the letter earliest in the English alphabet goes into Pile 1 and the other goes into Pile 2. If they begin with the same letter do the previous instruction with the second letter. If an album has less than 6 tracks use the final track. When you are finished throw away everything in Pile 1 and keep Pile 2. If you have an album spare keep it for good luck.

This will effectively half the amount of albums you have to go through 😄

Re: Culling the vinyl record collection

RockyRaccoon — Sun, 13 Apr 2014 15:39:08 GMT

Author: RockyRaccoon

Posted: 04/13/2014 19:39

I've always used Popsike to gauge the worth of my albums. It checks finished eBay auctions, it's a cool site. I've collected albums for awhile now, always loved doing it.

Re: Culling the vinyl record collection

Anonymous — Sun, 13 Apr 2014 15:35:21 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 04/13/2014 19:35

Here's a good site to crosscheck the worth. Sorry I can't be much help but this was a great source when I was selling my Grandad's old records.

Re: Culling the vinyl record collection

Anonymous — Sun, 13 Apr 2014 15:32:35 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 04/13/2014 19:32

My dad sells records online for a living, through sites like eBay and Discogs. It's time consuming stuff. I'll ask him if there are any shortcuts, but I fear the answer will probably be that there aren't. Some of the stuff you see that looks worthless is often worth silly amounts of money; similarly, things that looks like they might be of value often aren't worth more than a few pennies. As Hayden said, the best thing to do is just get a few friends together and start sorting through everything, bit by bit. It's pretty fun anyway, gives you the chance to listen to some stuff you'd otherwise never have bothered with.

Re: Culling the vinyl record collection

Hayden — Sun, 13 Apr 2014 15:29:03 GMT

Author: Hayden

Posted: 04/13/2014 19:29

sp4cetiger wrote:

I can do individual searches for each record, but that will take forever.

I know it'll probably take forever, but you might be best off getting 2-3 friends to help you out and you just plow through googling them individually.

Culling the vinyl record collection

Anonymous — Sun, 13 Apr 2014 13:57:48 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 04/13/2014 17:57

So it's spring cleaning time and I've been tasked with going through my father-in-law's vinyl record collection. He was a radio DJ in the '60s and '70s and had thousands of records from that time period. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2001 and we're trying to clear up space, so we don't want to keep the whole thing.

The difficult part, of course, is that I want to make sure not to throw away anything valuable. Obviously, I'm going to keep any records that I want to listen to, but there may be some valuable rarities that I'm not familiar with. I can do individual searches for each record, but that will take forever. Does anybody have any ideas for shortcuts? To start, can I assume that greatest hits compilations have little value?