Here’s a couple of questions I have been pondering for a while- Have we reached peak vinyl? And is now the time to cash in the chips? Let me explain. Most of my vinly I cherish and play and, to be honest, it has memories and stories attached to it that I would never want to part with. However, I have a few records that, it turns out, might be worth a few quid. Some of these records I have not put on the turntable in at least four house moves, and with the possibility of another house move coming up next year I am starting to de-clutter and move things forward. I happened to keep buying records in the 90’s whilst most other sensible people moved on to CD’s (or got a better hobby) and it turns out that what I thought would have been common items go for a bit. Quite a bit. One particular record is on Discogs for between £100 to £500 (it’s on ebay for £400). Now, I know that just because it says it costs that much on a website it doesn’t mean I’ll get that much, but I’m pretty sure I’ll get more than the £15 I paid for it back in 1994, and if I haven’t listened to it since 1994 then surely it’s just taking up space. My only reservation (aside from the hassle of selling things online) is this- What if my daughter asks me in 10 years time if I have such and such on vinly, only for me to tell her that I flogged it years ago?
So, do I flog the records now (that are worth a bit but haven’t been listened to and aren’t likely to be played again) or do I keep them ‘just in case’ my daughter shows an interest. Alternatively do I hold on for a few more years ‘just in case’ we haven’t reached peak vinyl yet and they go up in price by 50%? As an additional question- Are there any records (or other collectibles) that you don’t listen to but wouldn’t sell?
I hadn’t listened to ‘Weld’ for donkey’s years. Sold it a couple of weeks ago for eighty quid and bought ‘Down In The Rust Bucket’ on the proceeds. On the other hand, I’d never part with ‘Tonight’s The Night’. As I said to a chum when he was thinking of getting one – “You’ll never listen to it, but you must have it”.
Never listen to Tonight’s the Night? Why not? It’s awesome!
Massive Neil Young fan here, maybe not that massive, I weigh around 90K, but `Tonight`s The Night` is my least played N.Y. LP/CD reflecting my fondness for the album.
Don`t get me wrong I probably know every song word for word but it is low down in my ranking. However I would never sell the LP or CD.
Tonight’s The Night is top 5, maybe top 3. I know that even though I don’t really listen to him anymore. I love the loose, ragged feel. I find it quite a feel good experience with the wry lyrics and melody. It’s right up there.
This. Tonight’s the Night is my number one NY album (sometimes alternating with On the Beach) – I still play it regularly, certainly far more than anything he’s recorded in the last 35 or 40 years.
It’s absolutely magnificent. Not an easy listen, but totally essential
It can’t be worse than Landing on Water?
People (including myself) have been calling Peak Vinyl for quite a few years now, only to see it gathering in strength. Truth is, nobody knows.
But with a certain exceptions, the older the artist, the sooner the market will be flooded with their stuff as the fans die off and aren’t replaced in the same numbers (see Elvis), so don’t leave it too long…
We’ve passed peak Elvis, haven’t we?
It took a fair few years though but…
We have.
Blimey. (Not Elvis, Mini.) Good evening.
minibreakfast, it turns out, has not left the building.
I suspect that an original of some of those early 45s have gone down in price, but original Suns are not bought by someone on minimum wage, and a first pressing of Heartbreak Hotel isn’t going to leave you much spending money for the rest of the summer.
Elvis also has the best set of reissues of any major artist (on the Follow That Dream label) and there is a buoyant market (one that I don’t participate in – too expensive) in stupendously well researched and illustrated books, especially on his early career. If you don’t buy early, you will miss out on the purchase.
His demise as a collectable artist has been grossly exaggerated.
I’d prefer to have a shelf full of his early 45s as an investment than, say, U2.
Flog them, though I’d take any prices online or in the RC Guide with a massive pinch of salt.
I’m offloading a significant amount myself (mainly later pressings of 60s albums) though I will be keeping the originals. I’ll just be taking them to the charity shops, and any rawwwkkk stuff will go to my rawwwkkk mate.
Funnily enough, once all this new space is created I’m toying with the idea of actually acquiring vinly… specifically Rock ‘n’ Roll.
Here’s the thing, soon I’ll be talking to a lot of men aged mid-60s to their mid-80s – i.e. the group who might have bought Rock ‘n’ Roll records in the 50s and, if they still have them, the chances of them having a working record player to play them on is the same as the chances of Tottenham winning the league. Their kids, and their kids, and their kids, won’t have a Scoody Doo, so I might ask if they simply want me to offload them.
Not unethical is it?
Companies charge for offloading unwanted items in London, I’d be doing the same thing with unplayed records for nothing… keeping the quality, giving stuff I think would sell to a charity shop, dumping the rest.
I think you’ll find the old original Rock ‘n’ Rollers are in their mid-’70s and upwards. Mid -’60s to mid-’70s are the original Mods and Rockers, Skins and Hippies.
I said mid-60s to mid-80s.
Believe me, I am aware of who is who and (most importantly) when!
Put it another way, the average age will be about 75… born around the mid-1940s… aged 13/14/15 in the late 50s.
Thinking about it, that age group would be more likely to have bought singles, but some must be sitting on Gene Vincent LPs which haven’t been played for the best part of 40 years.
I have a mint vinyl copy of this, one of my favourite Vertigo gems from the early seventies. I never play it because I have various CD re-issues of the same album, and they get spun fairly often (or rather, get copied for the car and then spun so that I can sing along at the top of my voice when driving):
https://youtu.be/Kj81tfIY1u8
It’s not for sale, and neither is their first album, which I also have. They reformed a couple of years back for one last hurrah tour – @Twang and I went to see them in Camden in some dingy basement club, and they were ace.
My collection is worth up to $30K according to Discogs. If somebody came to my house and offered me half that I would probably take it.
…he can spend the other half getting his axel repaired 😉
Axle, I mean. The Eddie Murphy character seems fine.
It’s not just vinly – Jack Trax 3 a completely bog standard house compilation CD I would have bought for no more than £1.99 in the bargain bin at HMV in 1993 is now worth north of £25.00. Is it on Spotify? Well if it ain’t then the only way of owning it legitimately is to buy a secondhand CD. Yes our vinly is also allegedly worth well into five figures so it’ll be part of the kids inheritance. Luckily most of our valuable stuff is seventies and eighties on – who’d have thought ‘Kiss Kiss Kiss’ with the free 12″ would be worth over £200 – so it’s good for a few decades yet.
Old House compos on CD are very collectable – largely because the original 12″s are monstrously expensive and they aren’t the kind of artists who have done “best of”s or, in many cases, any kind of albums at all. See the absolutely tremendous Mastercuts series.
The value of 80s Cure vinyl isn’t going anywhere but up any time soon. 40 years ago no-one would have predicted that they’d end up with truly global, multi-generational fandom along with Queen and Pink Floyd but here we are.
I’ve got the first four Cure albums on vinyl….i’ll have to get them out to check the condition.
Maybe it’s my hoarding tendency, but I say keep ’em.
For me, ownership is more important than value (although I do keep track of the going rate for many items).
If someone I know says they’re getting shot of their vinyl, my first response is “I’ll have it” often without much of a clue what’s in there.
I’ve done the same with people jettisoning their CDs in favour of streaming services.
Stamp collectors don’t get shot of their collection when they fill up an album, so why would I dump the vinyl and cd
that’s my argument with Mrs D, not that she accepts it
It’s only a hunch, but truly rare and collectible items in any form will tend to increase in value over time and I assume records are the same. Fashions come and go, and some artists can suddenly become desirable, but broadly speaking you will know in your heart of hearts what to keep – there is a hint in you OP whereby certain items have an emotional value above any resale price.
Ultimately the decision may come down to your personal financial position and/or space considerations of course.
I had a clear out of my CDs 10 years ago but kept many (many 100s).
I just recycled the jewel cases and put the discs and packaging into double case CD wallets. Certainly reduced the storage space!
But… I haven’t played a CD at home in the last 3 years and used to only play them in the car when I drove to work I have worked from home since March 2020 so that hasn’t happened either
I am not sure when I will next play a CD..
You’re less likely to come across (hur) them in that context. The spine of an album or CD (or cassette!) can catch your eye and within minutes you’re away on a whirligig of nostalgia and (oh do shut up)
I wonder whether CDs may have a resurrection- topical given it is Easter Sunday.
Vinyl valuations are a real challenge done here (Oz) due to the mailing costs to the international market.
There is no such thing as ‘peak vinyl’. It is not a fashion fad it’s a very very long established collectors market which has heated up massively in the past 15 years or so albeit at the same time Vinyl is now filling up shelves in HMV and teenagers who like The 1975 or Taylor Swift want to own Vinyl when they don’t own a record player- that’s a different thing entirely and no idea how long that will sustain. The 2nd hand vinyl market is like the Antique market or the Art market so the value of your records depends on loads of shifting sands. Right now If you have Northern Soul 7″s or Elvis albums you should probably sell now – if you have a load of obscure Rockabilly, 60s Psych, Chicago House, Drum & Bass 12″s, rare Punk 7″s or Italian Disco records hang on to them as there is a growing market for those. If you enter your collection in Discogs it will tell you the average price each item would fetch if you sold it invidually. A dealer or record shop will pay a lot less on the basis that they need to make a profit and will cost them to store/stock your unsold items.
I was thinking peak after a trip to my local HMV a couple of years ago where they had 10 copies of ‘out of time’ on vinyl as well as some reissues of Bill Wyman solo albums. I guess there’s a market for everything. Meanwhile all of the records I would off-load are 90’s dance music (ambient, trip hop, dnb) or britpop. I’m not likely to listen to any of it again.
[Shameless plug alert] My son-in-law, whom God preserve, has taken his redundancy pittance from the gig promoter he worked for and in a couple of weeks is opening a record shop in London’s mysteriously trendy Leyton. He’ll be selling both new and pre-loved vinlys, and should anybody thereabouts be thinking of unloading any, he’ll be glad to hear from you I’m sure. PM for details.
Brave of him. We have a secondhand record shop here but I can’t work out how they keep going as they have almost no online presence and the one time I emailed them, they didn’t reply. Maybe they did record fairs pre Covid.
Well he’s expecting to do most of his business online, but yes, it seems risky. But he’s kicking off with a 6-month lease at a good price. And there will be coffee and cake…
Best of luck to him. Sounds as though he has a plan at least and an exit strategy via the short lease.
Get him to contact the guys on the We Buy Records podcast.
Good tip @fentonsteve, I’ll pass it on.
Good luck. Something I have considered myself.
There is a store here in Ottawa called “The Record Centre” that I think shows how it can be done.
In normal times he has live bands playing most weekends in the store. He also sells vintage stereo equipment that I think he refurbishes himself.
During Covid he has had a very strong online presence on Facebook and Instagram, posting videos every day of second hand records for sale. Everything seems to sell in a few minutes.
He will also drive all over the region to buy collections from willing sellers.
He’s thinking about live bands, but I’m not sure he has the space. Audio Gold in Crouch End are lending him some high-end kit to make the vinlys sound great.
He’s all over social media of course. Dreamhouse Records if anybody’s interested.
If he does host bands he should think about live streaming, even if it’s just a really basic set up from a phone to get him publicity.
Record Centre is pretty small. Band basically sets up in the window, normally only 2 or 3 people though, you would struggle to get the E St Band in there.
Son-in-law update: as of tonight he’s ditched the funky little shed on Leyton High Road – turns out he just had a one-month rolling lease – in favour of a corner shop with eminently gig-worthy basement in Francis Road, Leyton’s uber-hip traffic-free hangout a mere ten minutes from where they live. There’s even a hipster coffee shop next door called Strange Brew. So I’m feeling a lot better about his prospects…
I’m thinking of unloading at least half of my collection to a local dealer here where I know I’ll get top dollar. I have lost interest into holding on to my past. I haven’t spun some of those records in decades. My better half is aghast at the notion, but then again she’s a bit of a hoarder…
Sell it!
I think Marie Kondo probably has the right idea. That battered copy of Sladest you received as a birthday present from your girlfriend? Keep it. That vinyl copy of OK Computer that you haven’t played in a couple of decades? Sell it.
Especially the latter.
Oooh, mass-market 90s vinyl. Other glorified beermats are available.
A lot of mid-90s vinyl LP’s go for top dollar these days as the albums were pressed in very limited quantities. Stuff like Oasis, Pulp, Blur, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead.
If you bought OK Computer on vinyl in the peak CD years, you could sell that, buy the remaster/reissue and still clear a hundred quid.
I bought what I think was an original OK Computer for $20 about 10 years ago at a record show.
I’ve only ever got rid of duplicates (e.g. I bought Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, bought it again later for the free 12″ single, and sold the original).
My pal sold his whole vinyl collection in the early 90s. Almost every week I hear his tale of “I wish I’d kept that, I bought the CD but I’ve just spent 50 quid buying a replacement vinyl.”
I sold my A Factory Sample (for £25) and Radiohead’s Drill EP (for £125) to clear postgrad debt. I wish I’d kept both now.
If you have the space to store it, keep it.
Since I bought a lot of my vinyl in the eighties I have moved about 15 times including living in 3 other countries. Really not sure I want to do it again!
Mentioned this before, but I remember thinking 25/30 years ago that if you bought Nirvana, Oasis, Radiohead, U2, REM albums on vinly, when everyone was buying CD or, don’t forget, cassette, they’d be bound to accrue a value.
Obvious. One in a hundred sales of Zooropa on vinly, a format in which their early collectables came on = thin on the ground compared to CD/cassette versions.
The problem was (a) I didn’t like those acts and didn’t want to give them money, and (b) you’d have to store said numerous records and cart them around in the decades it took to accrue that added value.
Also, in real terms, £15 in 1995, say, bought you an Arsenal ticket and a programme… £100 in 2019 bought you, erm, an Arsenal ticket and a programme.
Might just as well have gone to the Arsenal!
I do have a first press copy of Nevermind but I’m not exactly going to retire on it. There are some copies on Discogs for about £30. The £7 it cost me in 1991 would be worth £17.50 today, according to the Bank of England inflation calculator.
Fair enough, but firstly, I wouldn’t have opened it or played it, and secondly, I would have bought a whole load of other releases that would have made a bigger gain, like the Radiohead record (again unopened) you mentioned.
I’d have stored them not played them.
This is all idle (there’s no football!!!) speculation, what else have I got to do!
Does the football restart next weekend? There was a home match here yesterday (no spectators allowed). My lad’s team have a match (sometimes two back-to-back) every Saturday until mid-June. I’ve only driven 30 miles since Christmas, 20 of those for my jab, all that is about to change shortly.
I was fortunate that my son’s brief interest* in football only lasted a few months.
*Not so much an interest as feeling that he should like it. He was cured of of residual feelings by a) boredom b) the bullying of his peers when it became apparent that he had no talent for the so called “beautiful game”.
I view it as time out of the house for me and time away from PC gaming for him. My lad is usually on the subs bench and plays half a match at best. I often don’t know what the final score is, having been distracted by a Kestrel or Sparrow Hawk, or some other bird*
At a recent match, the team manager handed me a flag and asked “can you run the line?”. I replied “But I don’t know anything about football!” I’m not sure he believed me.
Annoyingly the lad chose to continue football and stop the drum lessons at Grade 6. He’s a brilliant drummer. I kept the kit, perhaps he’ll get back into it one day.
(*) Morning, Moosey.
My son’s Roland kit is under a cover in the dining room while he’s at Uni and also more interested in guitar at the moment. Not sure how much more he’ll play it, despite being pretty good. I suspect the lack of portability will be a factor now he’s at Uni and is unlikely to live here full time any more as once he’s finished his degree, there won’t be many suitable opportunities for him close to “home”.
Way off topic!
My understanding is that a parent is allowed to watch a junior match, but spectators are not permitted to see a non-league match until after 15th April (a Thursday), so maybe Saturday 17th will be the date.
The local cricketers are playing that day so I’m hopeful of being at some sporting event… what it will be I couldn’t tell you right now.
Yep. One socially-distanced parent per player, no other spectators.
My lad went to watch the village adult team’s home match on Saturday and wasn’t allowed to spectate from the edge of the pitch, so he sat on a nearby bench instead. “They were rubbish and swore a lot” was his post-match report.
Ah a good time for this thread, only just seen it. I’ve been thinking the same, 11 years left on mortgage and wanting to start overpaying and see some value sat in my collection. I’m curious.
Most prized possession (value wise) would be 2 copies of Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie 3LP, never played including 1 still sealed with a low number on the cover and a £10.49 Tower Records sticker on the front (my god i remember buying it and wish id bought more.) Also a whole bunch of pre Mellon Collie Pumpkins vinyl and their debut 1000 copy only single. Adore still sealed on vinyl too, apparently mono.
And 2 copies of George Michaels Symphonica which also goes for a tidy price. One still sealed. And a signed copy of (the lyric sheet, not the front cover) Metallicas debut album signed by Lars and the late Cliff Burton (picked up in a charity shop for £3.)
Only this week i picked these items out from my vinyl collection and put in a metal vinyl container – my “grab these in case of fire” case as its the most valuable stuff. Probably some others in the collection but these would probably get me some cash.
I too wonder if its time. I love my collection and will never sell it “but” if theres items of value, is it worth considering offloading those ones???
If you were run over by a bus tomorrow, would your nearest and/or dearest have any idea of their value?
I have to take exception to the Bus anology here. What if you were by the tide and a tooth tigered shark munched it’s way through your torso when you were checking up upon the latest results from lords?
My wife will now that i’ve pulled out the valuable ones and put in a separate metal vinyl hard case. The rest, not sure, there will be some value there, probably a decent amount but the ones i know are worth something she we know about and could sell.
There are 70 million people in this country, I reckon about 10,000 know that turquoise lettering on a record made 52 years ago is worth a grand!
Obviously conjecture, but surely a significant number, probably he majority, of collectable records in the UK reside in the houses of people who aren’t record collectors.
I live in a village of 600 inhabitants. I know about 100. One definitely owns Bowie’s most valuable record (Liza Jane – I’ve seen it), two are directly connected to Fleetwood Mac and Queen respectively, and I suspect those Queen records are mostly signed. Another lady was born two months after John Lennon and in the same city as John Lennon.
I wouldn’t be surprised if between the 600 of us we didn’t have every rare Beatles UK release. Xmas flexis and 1970 album, definitely; Let It Be box set, definitely; All You Need I Love rarer 45, definitely; Penny Lane and Let It Be picture sleeves, well I’ve got them; Yellow Submarine mono, possibly though less likely; stereo old label Please Please Me, I wouldn’t be remotely surprised if someone in the village didn’t have one.
The trick is not to deal with people who collect records, it’s to deal with people who don’t collect records. That’s where the gold is.
Sounding quite devious, aren’t I!
The problem with keeping all the valuable stuff separate from the rest is that, after your untimely demise after that lawnmower accident, your other half may find it difficult to get takers who’d pay for the rest of the collection. Even if there are some in there that are worth a few quid, the time and effort of sorting through it all might not be worth a dealer’s while.
It must be a nightmare sifting through 25,000 records, added to the fact that someone who has 25,000 records will definitely know the monetary value of those 25,000 records. “I’ll take this off your hands, if you like,” “Please do, that’s £3,000.”
I’d no more trade with one of those guys profiled each month in Record Collector than buy an Arsenal season ticket.
The kind of people who I reckon must be sitting on stereo Please Please Me and their like will invariably have no more than about 200 records, they will not know that a stereo Please Please Me is more desirable in 2021 than Mrs. Mills, and I think that there are millions of those people.
People who bought popular records when in their teens but didn’t follow on from that once at college or they got married and had kids.
African records are valuable as are reggae. Hard core collectors of that stuff.
I’m not sure I’d sell any of my vinyl but this thread made me look up a few things on discogs and I was generally a bit disappointed that my albums aren’t worth much but a couple of singles caught my eye and (for my collection at least) they seem to be where the money is. The top one I’ve found so far has “1 For Sale from £850.00”. I wonder how long the seller has been trying to sell it for!
Hmm, yeah, how many people during a pandemic have £850 to spend on a 45?
I find record prices largely ridiculous, most over-priced, some under-priced.
If I saw the Sonny Fisher compilation on Ace, and I had a working record player, I’d give a guy £20 for it. Maybe £25.
Is it in the RC Record Guide? Not the last one I saw.
On ethics:
What would you do if you did take over someone’s record collection, doing them a favour as I suggested above, and you came across a record worth a lot of money like, say, the turquoise Led Zeppelin cover?
Do you tell him, do you give it to someone who you know likes Led Zeppelin (my best mate), do you charity shop it, or do you cash in and spend the rest of the summer swigging chilled ales listening to the Test Matches courtesy of Jimmy Page?
It’s a dilemma… what would you do?
Lots of people kept working at their jobs with no interruption, with the bonus of not paying for travel costs and lunch, coffee etc. Add to that no holidays, reduced motoring costs such as servicing and some people have done very nicely out of the last year. I wouldn’t spend that on a record myself but I have spent a lot more than that on other things which others consider non essential. For example, I had a conversation with a colleague where I told him how much I paid for a vintage cinema poster. He said I was mad yet at the time, he was hoarding guitars under the floor so his wife wouldn’t know he had bought them. To each their own.
I used to be an Oxfam “music expert” (their description, not mine) and a turquoise Led Zeppelin 1 was donated. The manageress knew the person who donated it, but as far as she was concerned a donation is a donation. It sold at auction for £1,100 of which Oxfam got about £800 after 25% commission and a listing fee was deducted. A few months later a copy sold on Ebay for over £7k.
Was it worth £1k or £7k? It is of course worth what you can get for it. If you sell your records, my advice would be never again look to see what they worth .
A turquoise record is absolutely bloody worthless as far as I’m concerned.
I am sure that some 50s, 50s and 70s classics/ first press copies will retain their value for some time to come. But I think the OP specifically mentioned 90s stuff. Some of these have been expensive because they were only released in small quantities as CD took over. The question is whether they retain said value if and when they are reissued. It will be informative, for example to look and see what happens to, say, the market for PJ Harvey stuff now it’s all being reissued. Particularly as many 90s vinyl albums were never that great in terms of quality/ manufacturing at the time. Another interesting example will be My Bloody Valentine. I gather some of the just announced reissues will be from ‘fully analogue’ sources, which is probably more than can be said for the original.
A couple of years ago I sat next to a chap at a record fair in London. While the rest off us struggled loading up our stalls with hefty boxes of vinyl he turned up with a suitcase from which he produced a table cloth, some small stands and about 30 albums which he then arranged neatly on his table. They were all very rare – Wil Malone(£3k?), Led Zeppelin 1 with turquoise lettering and a clutch of Vertigo albums – all in immaculate condition and nothing priced under a grand.
He had a “look don’t touch” policy for the hoi polloi until his invited customers arrived who were then given a detailed tour of each record prior to purchase. He sold three – pocketing four grand plus – to a couple of well-heeled gents who were interested in “investment grade” vinyl to salt away in a vault somewhere, never to be “played.”
He didn’t do deals – the price you see is the price you pay – because he believed prices of rare proggy/70s rock stuff would only ever increase. In his view, as “investors” moved in, the scarcity of minty items would only increase – as with any collectable – and so, in a roundabout way, I would suggest hanging onto rare stuff for the time being.
For sure, it was all a little clinical but probably underlines how vinyl has gone the way of rare books, photography and art. His tip at the time was to buy 90s vinyl as the next big “investment” and he’d been busy over the preceding few years squirrelling away piles of stuff that no doubt he’s now seeing a handsome return on.
If anyone is seriously considering selling rarer stuff, there are specialist music auctions that a couple of dealer friends have used and been pleased with how much they’ve made.
https://www.specialauctionservices.com/Auction-Calendar/2021/Music-Entertainment-(1)
I also keep a vague eye on local auctions and have been surprised how much people are willing to pay for random boxes of crap with a knackered couple of Beatles records tucked in the front. The piles of unsellable stuff I’m digging out of my hoarder’s garage will be going that way in the coming months – but also pleased to find one or two gems, including a copy of George Michael’s “Older”, in a crate of random 12s the other day.
That Wil Malone one’s interesting. Will that still hold it’s value in 20/30 years?
If we say that Billy Nicholls ’ withdrawn 1968 album is worth £2,000 and a particular Queen record is worth £2,000, if I was buying as an investment I would buy the brand I thought would still have clout in 2045, and that would be Queen.
To listen to and have in my record collection, I would choose the Billy Nicholls ’ LP.
The time to buy 90s vinyl was in the 90s I think. A lot of it is now being reissued so they are more likely to go down in price than go up, e.g. I had Dylan’s Time Out of Mind on vinyl and that was worth a few hundred dollars, still worth a reasonable amount but probably less than 5 years ago as it has been relatively recently reissued.
Also if you buy it now it might be pressed on vinyl instead of rice paper, as it largely was then.
It’ll more than likely be coloured, though.
Great story, Morrison.
This thread makes me think of Andrew Cartmel’s excellent Vinyl Detective novels that Mini introduced us to a while back. Five of them now!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Cartmel
Some stuff (Elvis Sun 45s, the 69 Space Oddity p\s, original “Freewheelin’” with different tracks) you’ll be very unlikely to find in a house clearance. Items 1 and 3 were American releases for a start.
The turquoise LZ, I’m not so sure. You’d be more likely to find an orange, or a reissue, obviously, but in the original run there must have been a few of them. In the thousands, maybe? Danny Baker says he used to see a quite a few in the record shop he worked in before they became “collectables.”
Also, my LZ mate loves them, but I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t know of the existence of this variation. And he’s a fan. He could be sitting on one and not even know it.
With a house move in a few months time, my ‘helpful’ wife has been looking up prices for the piles of NMEs in the loft. Ironically, it looks like they’re worth more than my records!
Ooo, old NMEs! Can I live in your loft?
Weren’t there people despairing a year or two back because no-one would take their old NMEs and such…?
(Unless johnw is being ironic)
Now all I need to hear is that old vauxhall conference match day programmes and cobwebs are worth something and I could literally be living underneath a gold mine!
No irony but it’s not a question of saying you have a pile of 10 NMEs for £10. You need to pick out the ones with Bowie or Sex Pistols one the cover…. better still, both!
The Kurt Cobain 1994 edition seems to go for quite a bit. Surprisingly the deck of NME cards from the year before also seems to be priced rather well- £55 on eBay for the whole pack, or selling individually for up to £5 a card!
No news on the Vauxhall Conference programmes however!
Score!
I did some serious thinning out on my CDs a few years ago, and was happy to see them go. It took several waves of clearout, as I struggled with letting them go. Then I realised “I bought all these Beatles CDs so the girls could hear them when we were driving around when they were wee. I don’t need to keep them all now. Abbey Road – OUT. With the Beatles – OUT …. etc “. That opened the floodgates. “I appear to have 3 different versions of ‘The Best of Fleetwood Mac’. That makes no sense. ” I cleared out about 500 CDs.
I picked the more valuable CDs and the box sets to sell on discogs – that is what the local experts advised , and I offered first pick to a couple of local record shops. Instead of taking cash, I took a credit note and bought vinyl with it. I was going to be buying records anyway, so there was no need to take cash out their till – I got about 25% more doing it that way. Anything the shops didn’t want went to Oxfam or Shelter.
I need to do another go round on that, as there are 4 boxes not touched.
I then found when going through the LPs that there were a few of them which were valuable, or which I didn’t like any more – and that I could sell them easily on discogs. I am trying to only keep records that I will play again at some point.
So my rule is “keep them if you will play them again”. I didn’t need to keep my copy of the Dreamboys single, even though I bought it from Peter Capaldi himself, at the Hellfire Club where all the bands rehearsed. 70p turned into £140 which I then spent on more records. The Bluebells / Del Amitri flexidisc ? £20 – KER-CHING!!
Since the clearout, I have set up the record collection and the stereo in the music room – no TV in that room. I listen to LPs as often as possible, and I really enjoy it.
I reckon the credit note idea might be a good one. Thanks.
I like the idea of going for the big guns first. I mean, once you’ve tied the noose around Abbey Road, how hard is it to harpoon Fleetwood Mac? Very easy, I’d have thought.
A whole load of books are ready for April 12th, the CDs I’m still pondering, but a month from now I plan to be the owner of 2 Who CDs (the debut LP without bonus tracks, and Rarities… is that still too many?) and… hmm… The Rolling Stones… still haven’t decided.
And I have to do to the “vinyls” what Norwich City did to Huddersfield Town last night.
I have cut down from about 2,300 CDs to less than half that, and the next time I go through the boxes I expect there to be several hundred that I can happily say “cheerio” to.
I had always kept my vinyl, even though I didn’t always have space to set a record player up so I have not had to go back and buy LPs for a second time. There were several iterations of the cull, but the one with Abbey Road was when the floodgates opened, and totalled about 500 that went off to find new homes. In the cycle after that, I then had more space to look through them all and say “When will I ever play this Fleshtones CD again? Or that one?”.
I enjoy playing records much more than I enjoyed listening to CDs – great as they are for convenience, and for playing in the car. That’s one of the main reasons for keeping hold of the ones I am keeping – “that’s great for a long drive”.
And once I had let some of them go, it was much easier to let the next wave go.
“I have to do to the “vinyls” what Norwich City did to Huddersfield Town last night”…
Play, maybe?
It was 7-0… a.k.a. dispatch without too much effort.
Getting rid of quite a lot at the moment (about 30 vinlys in 2022) but I’m keeping the original stuff for one of those old radiograms which might be coming my way soon.
Still haven’t given up on the idea of just asking people if they’ve got anything as this is the year I’m interviewing many in the local area.
Might as well ask.
“‘cuse me.”
“Yes?”
“You’re not a dodger.”
“No.”
“You got “Johnny Burnette and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Trio” on Coral?
“Yes.”
“When did you last play it?”
“1968.”
“Can I have it?”
Or…
“‘cuse me.”
“Yes?”
“You’re not a dodger.”
“What’s a dodger, sonny?”
“Never mind…”
A brief update on this- I put about 25 records on Discogs about three weeks ago (I used discogs because they charge 8% commission rather than nearly 13% on ebay). I’ve flogged enough LPs at a reasonable price to have been able to purchase a new record player, replace the records with CDs and have cash left over to buy about 15 new LPs (or a hell of a lot second hand ones). Pretty happy with this, all told, especially as these were records that I haven’t listened to in over 20 years (more in some cases). The only sticking point so far has been using paypal, which has been a monumental pain in the bum. Otherwise it feels a good move.
Peak vinyl? Surely not. I mean here’s Harry Styles on yellow vinyl for only thirty three quid.
https://thesoundofvinyl.com/*/*/Harry-s-House-Super-Limited-Translucent-Yellow-Vinyl-Strictly-1-Per-Customer/7DVX0000000
Strictly one per customer? This is worse than the Depression!!!
There are 19 different versions of McCartney III on vinyl if you are so interested. No? Oh well suit yourself.
I was thinking about this recently as well. I have no idea how much my music collection is worth. It’s not particularly massive, but I have the odd mildly interesting thing like a mono Sgt Pepper. If I put all the work in and sold them on discogs or whatever, I have no idea whether I would make £500? £1,000? £10,000??
But when I thought about it, the emotional value outweighs the monetary value. £10,000 (doubtful, but for argument’s sake) paid off the mortgage and some de-cluttering? Meh. Putting the needle down on a vinyl copy of Led Zep 2 with the amp turned up to 11 and hearing (no, FEELING) that crackle and pop and then the riff kicking in? Priceless.
Plus I think if I got rid of them I would even just miss the smell.
Well, I certainly won’t be selling anything that I actually still listen to, or have an emotional attachment to. But stuff I’m no longer all that bothered about (and it’s worth a fair few quid) no problem. And if it means I can go out and get the LP of LZ II then that’s even better.
I should add- it’s taken me about four years to actually getting around to do this, wherein some of the LPs have doubled in value.
Sod’s Law though: the records you think you don’t listen to are the ones you miss when you get rid of them! Nah, I say keep them all! At least for the moment. I’m thinking of even doing something like setting a deadline. Maybe when I reach 75? Sell off a load of “clutter” (“valuables”) and just keep a couple of guitars and 50 or so choice LPs?
This is exactly where I am at the moment – considering downsizing the house, so looking at too many guitars and LPs, trying to decide what I could sell and not “regret it all in the morning”…
Four months later, I’m going to backtrack 180 degrees on what I just said there. I am now looking at around 100 or so records I no longer play or have duplicates of and looking to sell them.
Just wondering what the advice is – I feel as if I want to go to my local second hand record shop and see what they will offer for the lot, but am I shooting myself in the foot doing it that way? Am I likely to make significantly more (potentially) through selling them individually on discogs?
I’ll be honest, I can’t be bothered with the hassle of discogs – writing up individual listings, dealing with individual buyers, having the sales trickle in rather than a one-off lump sum, people wanting to return stuff if I have misdescribed it or if it jumps on their record player, etc etc etc.
Hey @Arthur-Cowslip . I did use discogs in the end. PayPal was a faff, but everything else was easy enough to get through. A friend of mine has been selling off records via eBay and he reckoned it was easy (and reaches a bigger potential audience).
I found it quite exciting when the sales did trickle through, lots of trips to the post office. I set myself a target in terms of making enough to buy something I wanted (a really smart new turntable) and hit that target with a few big sales.
Alternatively, @mikethep ‘s son in law (I think) runs a record shop (in London) and I’m sure there are some good second hand places local to you too. I suspect you’ll get less for your stock, but it will move on quicker. Good luck, let us know how you get on.
Thanks for the tips. I’m in Glasgow so Missing Records is probably the best place to approach.
Might try selling online though first though, just to see what happens. I’m a bit confused about what to charge for postage though and who to use – any tips? Royal Mail or someone like DHL or something?