[Closed] The price of vinyl

Don't know why I'm defending the record industry, but lower demand, better quality (80s vinyl was shockingly badly pressed) and fewer pressing plants, did I read somewhere just one left in the UK? The prices are admittedly high but you can't compare then and now.

I don't buy any other format. Youtube, pirate downloads, then if I like something I'll buy it on vinyl if it's available. Currently looking for a tape deck to play all those old mixtapes!

this one comes round a lot, but i think it's more down to how much cheaper everything has got! The 'i would pay for music but it's just so expensive these days' brigade always wind me up.

Using an online inflation calculator, here's what I've spent on music in the past:

12" single, £6 in 1998 = about £9.50 now
CD album, £13.99 in 1995 = about £25 now
tape album, £9 in 1991 = about £18.50 now

and i believe a vinyl album in 1970 was about £2 - or about £28 now

we're just spoiled now!

But also yeah there's a lot of demand for limited runs, people love having 'rarities' they might later be able to flog for twice the price. Many of these runs are so limited you can't get any kind of economy of scale, and there are so few pressing plants that production is unbelievably slow now too...

Currently looking for a tape deck to play all those old mixtapes!

I've got a mint condition Yamaha KX-W321 I'd probably part with for £50.

Tw*t Tax, innit!

See also Apple and Starbucks.

come to think of it I spent £28 on Wormhole by Ed Rush and Optical (a 5 disc release) back in 1998 - when my rent was £35 a week....

Think I paid £8 to £13 for most of my vinyl albums in the 1990s.

So £20 doesn't seem ridiculous TBH.

Ahem.

My father advises Oxfam on the value of their LP's.

The reason they're sometimes somewhat pricey is because that's what their worth! If you don't pay that then someone else will, and it's a charity, so...

Often records are bought and resold for profit, why should Oxfam sell a record worth 20, 50, 100 for one pound, when they can sell it at a more appropriate price and raise more money for the charity?

Sorry dude, with the rise of beards and turntables comes higher prices.

[i]Led Zeppelin IV from a branch of Oxfam was £4, I saw the same record on their online shop for 20, second hand.[/i]

gofasterstripes - you read this as a complaint about [i]Oxfam's[/i] prices?

Myself, same with most things, if I consider something to be too expensive, I don't buy it. Vinyl has plenty of competition, format wise.
Most of my new vinyl is from Bandcamp or direct from label's websites, where it isn't overpriced.

Yeah I read the above line as: it's 20 quid on Oxfam's online store.

Is that not correct? If it's not then, well it doesn't matter 🙂

New vinyl is expensive by design, it'd be less popular if it was cheap.

I think the Courtney Barnett album cost me £10 or £12 on vinyl and included a download code.

Yeah I read the above line as: it's 20 quid on Oxfam's online store.

You didn't read that wrong, but it wasn't a dig at Oxfam trying to make a buck for charity. I suppose you could say that the 4 quid they were making a few years ago from exactly the same record was pure profit as it had been donated to them.

I was trying to make the correlation between prices just before the vinyl record ressurgance and now.

I can get Led Zeppelin IV online, 180 gram re-issue, gatefold sleeve for £11.75 sealed, brand new, but when the little guy you're trying to support.......a charity as well, starts taking the michael with their prices, then maybe you need to have a word with your dad

Hmmm. I [and he] disagree.

If people are willing to pay 20 for an older pressing, then that's what Oxfam should/do charge. If you know you can buy it elsewhere for less, then go for it, but that's no reason to reduce the prices in the stores.

Tw*t Tax, innit!
See also Apple and Starbucks.

Is it time for an Apple equivalent of Godwins Law? As soon as anyone mentions Apple or Starbucks or whatever we close the thread.

I am feeling increasingly happy I didn't offload my 350+ albums 10 years ago. Then there's the singles and quite a few picture discs 🙂

I can get Led Zeppelin IV online, 180 gram re-issue, gatefold sleeve for £11.75 sealed, brand new, but when the little guy you're trying to support.......a charity as well, starts taking the michael with their prices, then maybe you need to have a word with your dad

you can get a new table for £100 in Ikea. It doesn't mean the antiques shop selling tables for £1000 are taking the p, it just means there's a separate market for old/original/collectors items.

....a charity as well

yeah they should put all their prices down. who is this charity supposed to benefit anyway?

Apologies to gofasterstripes! I was on my way out and didn't read the post I'd quoted properly myself 😳

Funny, would people object to paying £20 for an original vinyl in a record shop, but in Oxfam you expect to find bargains.

Funny, would people object to paying £20 for an original vinyl in a record shop, but in Oxfam you expect to find bargains.

Charity shops are in a bit of a cleft stick - on the one hand they're trying to maximise the benefit to the charity but they're dependent on donors giving them stock for free. Some donors see both the shop and the buyer as equal beneficiaries of their donation - they want the charity to earn some money and the envisage the buyer as someone less well off than themselves - thats why they've given the item away rather than sold it themselves.

So seeing goods commercially priced in charity shop rankles a lot of people - buyers are discouraged as it defeats the sense of bargain hunting and donors can be quite upset at seeing things they've given for free sold at a high ticket price - or will be discouraged from donating if they think the stuff they though was pretty worthless is actually worth the bother to sell themselves.

Counter to that - a lot of charities are aware that their shops get scoured by dealers who will then sell stuff on at full value. So they're getting better at checking the labels on things, then google them, clearly identify the valuable stock and price it accordinging....and it sits in the window unsold because dealers aren't going to buy at full price and neither are charity shoppers.

I'd expect in Oxfam's case - they've been specialising in records for quite a while and it looks like they centralise their donations and sort them a fair bit. I'd imagine they've got a lot of stock that was donated donkeys years ago that has appreciated, as vinyl was almost unsellable at any price for quite a while.

Can't argue with any of that!

Also with second hand prices on Discogs getting stupid for sought after records it's fairly easy to check when you've got your hands on a banger.

I've got white labels and limited releases that I bought for £8 - which at the time was expensive - a few years back, which are now in the hundreds on discogs.

I'll never sell them though. That's not what it's about.

Bob (or anyone else) I'm just having a clearout and found an aiwa adf450 in the loft.
You can have it for cost of delivery, but I dont have time to muck about, i'll just take it to the PO and send it parcel post. Or you can collect if in the right area (highlands)
I cant remember for sure but I cant see me keeping it in the loft if it didn't work.

Trouble with buying 2nd hand vinyl is you don't know what sort of a sh1t cartridge/styles the previous owner had used.

Not sureI can see the logic at all, just buy a high res digital copy and then put it through filters to add all the distortion and compression that makes you think that vinyl sounds better.

Last bit of 2nd hand vinyl I bought from a tiny record shop, took it out the sleeve, ooh pristine! Got my record cleaner brush and put a lovely scratch across the record with the corner of the cleaner. "Pop pop" Authentic 😥

I'll never sell them though. That's not what it's about.

Until you're short of work, then it's a bloody godsend.

Luckily I've only really needed to sell stuff I wasn't that mad on anyway.

Back in '96 I would often buy vinyl singles for £20+. I still have them all and wouldn't sell any of them, the problem is most of them are screwed from being over played/over cue'd. 🙄

The one problem with vinyl is the degradation from worn needles, not being stacked correctly and poorly handled & cue'd.

I wouldn't buy vinyl without listening and looking at the vinyl first.

There were some 2nd hand vinyl shops in Manchester, I would spend hours in there listening to all the 10p & 20p vinyls... I have some proper classics from back then!

Might have to dust off the 1's n 2's tonight!

The one problem with vinyl is the degradation from worn needles

think it degrades from playing with any sort of needle, not just worn ones. Somethig about melting and reforming behind the needle, and needle profiles affect how successful this might be, and obviousy the better profiles are the expensive ones that not many people will have.

2nd Hand Led Zepplin vinyl is expensive these days as there is a high demand for it from collectors

The fact you buy a reissue for less is neither here nor there - 1st pressings are more valuable because collectors like having them - for similar reasons as book collectors like 1st edition hardbacks better than a cheap paperback
If you just want a record to listen to OP just get the reissue copy.

The problem with Oxfam starting to charge "2nd hand record shop" prices for old vinyl is the people that volunteer there don't seem to take the condition of the vinyl and the sleeve into account. They are charging A+/ A+ prices for non mint vinyl