I have never sold records of any real value on eBay or wherever, only the odd CD worth a few quid where I have duplicates or have replaced a version, so I am a bit wary of anything with serious worth.
My sister recently moved nearby and has had boxes of LPs in storage or under the stairs for donkey’s years. The move has prompted her to have a look through them and, of course, I joined in the crate digging. First one I see is Pink Moon by Nick Drake – first pressing, excellent near mint condition – and other treasures followed (including his first two LPs). Now, these and some others are apparently worth serious dosh, and she has decided to sell some that have no sentimental value (she doesn’t even remember owning the Nick Drakes), but I would really like some advice on where and how to sell. What if, for instance, the buyer substitutes a crappy copy for ours and claims we sent it? Is there anything else I need to be careful about?
Any advice greatfully received!
Are you on FB or Bluesky? There’s a group called We Buy Records (related to the podcast of the same name).
Lots of lovely, helpful, people on there. And me.
Take pics of everything you sell, sleeves, inners both sides of the LP. Time consuming yes but if they are valuable it’s worth it. Keep the pics until the buyer has had the item for 28 days after that if they’ve not complained you are clear of sellers responsibility.
Interesting. Where does the 28 days come from? Not heard that before.
30 days sorry
“ When buying a used item privately, you have no automatic right to a refund if you simply change your mind; your rights only apply if the item is faulty or not as described. If the item is faulty and you discover the fault within 30 days of purchase, you can reject the item and demand a refund, repair, or replacement. After 30 days and up to six months, you can still request a repair or replacement, but it becomes harder to prove the fault existed at the time of sale.” These are the rules adhered to by eBay/Discogs
We found a local buyer from a card in our local onestop who came to the house, looked at the ones we had itemised for purchase, decided which ones he wanted lusted over the Beatles White Album low number copy (a keeper of course) etc. and gave us cash and took them away.
Gets round all the issues relating to post if you can find a friendly local dealer. You maybe won’t get as much as selling it yourself, but 100% less worry.
Use Discogs to check the current market value. Take a note of the real details – you will need to for Discogs is pretty clinical about matrix numbers (usually stamped or scribed in minute lettering into the centre of the disc where the run-out groove is), cover and label variations, country of issue and such like.
I’ve bought loads of second-hand CDs on Discogs, and had very few problems – a few tardy dispatches, a couple of late cancellations when a title advertised turns out to be ”out of stock’, that sort of thing, but no lost money
You can sell on Discogs too – they take a cut – but be wary as the the first time I tried that I got immediate interest from what turned out to be a dodgy Discogs account. The website intervened in the sale, and closed the spurious account, but it was a warning that thieving bastards are out there watching for new sellers!
PS would love to know what other gems you’ve unearthed!
Yes I will @Vulpes-Vulpes !
Nigel bear in mind an album is only worth what a buyer is prepared to pay
Because something is listed on Discogs at say £250 it doesn’t mean it’ll sell for that although it could sell for more, confusing? You bet
The bottom line is if you are happy with the price offered sell it
I’ve sold/sell lots on Discogs and I sell on there because I don’t want the LP/CD/Box Set any longer so I sell the item at a lower price than anyone else. Same on eBay also depending on the price I may allow offers, I very rarely use the auction option but have done and quite recently for an high valued item that worked out fine
eBay at present don’t charge a fee for selling, Discogs take 9% and the robbing b@st@rdss also take 9% of the shipping fee so I prefer eBay
I’m not always selling on average I probably buy more on both sites
At present I’m having the largest cull I’ve ever had on mainly my vinyl but it is a pain selling such a large amount individually (packaging/taking pics) so I’m going to sell at a record fair* on maybe more than one occasion I’ve picked up a lot of tips on line and from our very own @Gardener
Good luck
Use Discogs for research for an idea of the value. It’s not always easy determining exactly which pressing you have. Even if you narrow it down by format, label, country and identifiers such as the run out codes, you may still have 12 different pressings to choose from.
To get the most money, sell them on Ebay.
Next, give them to an auction house which has a specialist vinyl department. Wessex Auctions is one, there are others.
To get rid of all of them, go to a dealer. You will likely get 25% of the sale price.
I would recommend contacting Joel at https://www.brighterdayvinyl.com/, he bought my entire collection a few years ago at a good price, cash transferred into my bank account on the spot, and he’s a nice guy, too. He cheerfully admitted he’d double his money, but also that I could too, if I could be bothered spending a year or so on Discogs, EBay etc. and all the grief that goes with it.
Thanks for rhe replies so far! I have dug out what I think are likely to be of value and used Discogs to get an idea of that value and to identify precisely the version she has.
She doesn’t intend to sell the whole lot at the moment, but just stuff that has no sentimental value or where the value is just too tempting not to. The Nick Drakes are a prime example – she knew nothing about him and has no recollection of where they came from! Knowing her history, it would have been a boyfriend from her past…oh the stories I could tell….
The Goldmine protocol for grading records is widely accepted. You can google it or find it on Discogs site.
This is all very handy. A friend got left a neighbour’s record collection (“You like music, don’t you..?”) wherein he found a fairly unplayed first pressing of LED Zeppelin 1.
I have sold records on eBay and Discogs without serious problems. I sold Pink Moon on eBay for about £260 and it wasn’t even in fabulous condition and replaced with the CD. I sold a record to someone in Chile via Discogs. All the above advice looks good. If you’re in no hurry I’d avoid selling to a dealer; they just don’t give you anything like you’d get yourself. If you use eBay, don’t set a low auction value as that seriously risks selling for less than the record is worth. Set a price maybe a bit above what you’d like to get and put it in a “buy it now” sale and allow offers. When you post the record out, ensure you take the record and inner sleeve out of the outer sleeve and use a proper mailer that has cardboard between record and sleeve.
Hoffman forum. No fees, but be very careful about stated condition and packaging
@nigelt Are you anywhere near that London’s mysteriously trendy Leyton? My son-in-law will gladly come and take a look if so. He has a new/old record shop, and I’ve never seen any evidence that he’s hooky.
Sadly not @mikethep – oddly though I did grow up in nearby Wanstead so know/knew it pretty well! I’m in untrendy Devon these days.
I know I’ve been away from London a long, long time, but like @NigelT I grew up nearby too and the idea that Leyton would one day come to be described as trendy is almost beyond comprehension.
I agree @yorkio. My parents both lived and grew up in the same street in Leytonstone until shortly after the war, and one of my grandmothers lived there until she died in 1984. Quite recently my cousin was doing some digging around and by chance found her old end terrace house was up for sale. It had been totally remodelled, extended and so on, but it was going for 7 figures. Bonkers.
It was a similar story when I spotted a friend’s old childhood home for sale in Ilford a few years back. Seven figures *and* someone had chopped down the beautiful old walnut tree in the back garden too.
I note that Hainault, my old neighbourhood, appears to have entirely resisted gentrification though. In fact, it appears to be a whole lot grimmer these days, which is quite an achievement.
As a slight tangent I use Music Magpie for selling cds (they don’t do vinyl) and find it very easy. Just use the app to scan the bar code then pack them in any old box and you get a free postage label. You get a pittance in reality but for about the same amount of effort as taking them to charity shop (who often don’t want them) you can earn a few quid. Also very handy for spotting potentially valuable items – anything where they offer more than a couple of quid I check out of eBay or discogs and then sell separately.
A pittance right enough, or maybe that’s my experience, where many of mine get valued at 10p or, even worse, “we are not currently buying this item”. There is also the site, “Sell your Books”, who will buy cds and dvds.
“Sell Your Books” was formerly Ziffit, the change in name tells you exactly where they think the money is… as already commented, expect a pittance, but for the same effort as a trip to the chazza you might just clear some space and make enough for a Friday night takeaway…