Culling the vinyl record collection

[sp4cetiger]

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?

[Hayden]

[Guest]

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.

[CubaZed]

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.

[RockyRaccoon]

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.
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[Kiki]

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

[Hayden]

[sp4cetiger]

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.

[Defago]

[meccalecca]