What to do with vinyl

Go onto Discogs and you can quicky check prices. Lots of stuff isn't worth a great deal, but punk/psych/metal etc can fetch good prices.

Lots of us on here collect, so if you make a list I'm sure you could shift some here.

Am I going to have to sit here and go through everything manually, cross-referencing against… idk, something? to find what it’s all worth?

You could catalogue all of them on https://www.discogs.com/ which would give you some sort of idea. You'll need a fair bit of time if it's a large collection though.

Check on discogs, sell a bit at a time.

Makes a nice additional revenue stream.

That's what I did with the bits of my collection I wasn't fussed about keeping.

Gonna have another purge in the new year.

Discogs will give you a good idea but it's only going to be worth thousands of your parents were into some niche stuff and it's in fantastic condition.  I've got a friend who has thousands of records on discogs, many of which have never been played, and even then he only rarely makes a sale that is a few hundred.  You should be able to go through, take a sample of stuff that is in good nick and stick that into discogs to see if it is worth the effort and hassle of dealing with people

Edit:he does as cha****ng and only adds them when he has time and only as a bit of additional income rather than an effort to clear things out

I’m less of a fan from an audio quality perspective and it’s not something I’m actually ever going to use when I have a Spotify subscription

I find Spotify sound quality to be very poor. Fine when travelling but really flat and dull when on a "proper" hifi.

As above Discogs

If your parents were into mid 90s Ragga Jungle, you can just send it to me

My hifi gear and record player is in a sideboard in the living room with doors.

I'd suggest organising your hi fi kit so you can just open the door when you want to listen.

This involved a lot of muttering, drilling holes and measuring to buy a sideboard that was big enough to open the record player and get a record in.

Is it worth listening to it all once on vinyl to find out what it's worth keeping before you start shifting it on?

I've got a load of magic cards that might be worth loads on eBay. Some people have them listed for loads. By the time I've listed, wrapped them, packaged them, left work early and gone to the post office it's about an hour. I'm reluctant to go the faff for low value stuff.

I've no idea how much non collectable vinyl goes for. Would it be worth finding the valuable ones and then taking the rest to a shop?

but punk/psych/metal etc can fetch good prices.

Here's hoping for Cougar that his folks were big on Hawkwind & Blue Öyster Cult.

Old blues and jazz can sometimes be worth a bit but only in good nick. Old classical, folk and mainstream can’t be given away. My old man gave me his lps and there was a mint unplayed still in its wrapper copy of Abbey Rd which I thought would be worth a fortune but maybe 75 quid on a good day. However a Sparks (who??) album was worth double that…

Hmmmm Spotify is rarely mentioned as the last word in sound quality (tidal and qobuzz maybe) and in fact is by far the worst of the streaming services as it’s the only one without a hifi tier yet people will very often spend 100k on a turntable soooo…

Check it on Discogs as above then stick what’s left on here?

Having just resurrected my hifi separates and dug out my modest vinyl collection, I have to say I am absolutely loving it. I've plenty of albums that haven't been played for 30 years and they sound lovely, as they are finally in a house with space and no neighbours. A few albums were my dads - benny goodman, glenn miller, haydn, mozart. Not music I would ever have chosen when I was younger but somehow it all sounds fabulous as I have got older. I enjoy the whole vinyl thing too but at the end of the day it's just another format.
But I am very glad I kept hold of them all those years
Obviously you'll want some decent speaker cables too, proper stuff like. No cheap rubbish

However a Sparks (who??) album was worth double that…

That's fighting talk; this thread ain't big enough for the both of us.

That’s fighting talk; this thread ain’t big enough for the both of us.<br /><br />

👏🏻👌🏻

Sparks (who??)

Deary, deary me! Rollseyes.

By the time I’ve listed, wrapped them, packaged them, left work early and gone to the post office it’s about an hour. I’m reluctant to go the faff for low value stuff.

I have sold little cheap stuff successfully faff free on eBay by packing as I list (with a note on the outside obvs). Stating clearly I post on a particular day on the week and I can't match the 3day postage time.

I catalogued a collection that a mate inherited from his late father last year, just under 8000 albums and singles. There was a huge amount of Beatles stuff, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin and Hendrix but also a lot of crap stuff with little to no value. 

Used discogs to get a rough idea of value and then he decided to bundle the lot off to an auction house somewhere on Merseyside. He had a few “mates” who offered to take it all off his hands for small cash values but I don’t know what the final outcome of the auctions was.  

 I don’t know what the final outcome of the auctions was.  

Well drop him a line and tell him that STW demands to know.

For science 😉

Finding something worth significant ££ is highly unlikely. If they were a vinyl collector then they would know about the item and keep it accordingly not just with their other every day music.

Popular bands sell millions of records and everyone knows where all the Abbey Road test presses or misprinted Elvis singles are.

everyone knows where all the Abbey Road test presses or misprinted Elvis singles are.

That's for the huge money, but people seem to be willing to pay a couple of hundred for something in good condition from their youth that is no longer being pressed.  The condition is the important bit though

Another vote for Discogs. I amassed a collection of around 1,000 hard house, trance, techno etc records from my college / university days and when it came time to sell them all, I made a few thousand selling the rarer stuff on there.

somehow it all sounds fabulous as I have got older.

That's because your hearing gets worse. 😁

If they were a vinyl collector then they would know about the item and keep it accordingly not just with their other every day music.

It's nothing like that. Just, I assume, a pair of teenagers' record collections from half a century ago. I doubt there's anything in there I'm going to retire on, I just don't like the idea of being taken advantage of.

The condition is the important bit though

I assume they've been looked after. My dad was anal about his hifi, there was a DMZ around it which would have ended in a castration if I'd crossed. Of course, what's happened to them in 10-15 years since he died I don't know.

Although I am fairly au fait with my parents' musical tastes, I kind of think that I would like to spend some time going through and listening to their record collection for sentimental reasons before I went about ridding myself of it. Obviously if the collection is huge then space and time are a factor.

Just, I assume, a pair of teenagers’ record collections from half a century ago.

Could be perfect then really.   It's the memories from music as much as the music itself that will open wallets.  Find a couple in good condition and take a look

I amassed a collection of around 1,000 hard house, trance, techno etc records from my college / university days and when it came time to sell them all, I made a few thousand selling the rarer stuff on there.

Even after you'd paid people to take the hard house off your hands?

😉

I don't particularly care for my dad's taste in music, beyond a few outliers. Truth be told, I never much cared for my dad. And I expect the bulk of it will be his, my mum's more likely to have had a box of singles.

I do intend to play something on it though. The last I knew it'd all been taken apart and stored in a cupboard in a spare room. I'm quite keen to see if I can get it all working, all bouncy-needle VU meters and buttons with strange settings like "wow" and "flutter" which made no sense to prepubescent me. There's a record deck with radio, and a separate cassette deck. I don't recall an amp, maybe it all went through the record player.

My dad never had any money, but when he did he liked to spend it (which is probably why he never had any money). I don't know but I suspect it was quite expensive at the time, "the time" being 50 years ago.

Really, there's a lot of speculation going on here. I need to have a proper stocktake of what's there. I've recruited a mate of a similar bent to myself (not because I need assistance but because I thought he'd get a kick out of it), we're going to both go over there in the new year.

Even after you’d paid people to take the hard house off your hands?

😉

@chakaping you're not far off the mark. Some of the techno stuff sold for a small fortune but I had to sell the hard house stuff (600 records) as a job lot for a pound a record.

...all bouncy-needle VU meters and buttons with strange settings like “wow” and “flutter”...

Any excuse to link to this:

Any excuse to link to this:

The gold vinyl of Transient Random Noise Bursts... is one of my more valuable bits of vinyl  🙂

you’re not far off the mark. Some of the techno stuff sold for a small fortune but I had to sell the hard house stuff (600 records) as a job lot for a pound a record.

Haha, maybe its time is still to come?

What were your biggest earners?

When it comes to audio, this place is really not the place to ask because there is iften some really duff advice here.  All this talk of disogs. and auctions being a prime example.

and my proper AV gear is in a cupboard due to OH disapproval.

What you need is a new OH.

Oxfam  will take the lot, sort it, sell it and save you loads of time. If you didn’t listen to it you won’t miss it. (It’s what I did with my parents collection of vinyl.)

there is iften some really duff advice here. All this talk of disogs

If you can point me to a more comprehensive database than Discogs I'm all ears, I use it loads to catalogue my 1000+ records, and find it an invaluable source of info for pricing/versions etc...but always open to try better sites.

some really duff advice here.  All this talk of disogs. and auctions being a prime example.

So what's your issue with Discogs and what would you suggest as a better alternative?

I had this with my Step Dad’s records. In total there were around 350 albums plus a box of singles. I kept a few and then had some mates around for an evening of drinking beer and playing records after which people took a few they liked.

the rest sat around for a while and after fully cataloguing them (thinking of going via Discogs) I ended up taking them to the organisers of a national record fair and let them go for around £60. 

I reckon you’ve got t be really committed to sell a collection record by record but it is worth doing some research as I found one or two that were being sold by dealers for £000’s 

I’d also suggest taking Discogs pricing of more valuable records with a pinch of salt unless you’re comfortable with a very slow burn. 

I find discogs is OK for some things but the pricing can be waaay off and some people take it as gospel, I've seen things on there priced at £50 , and then I buy the same thing on ebay for less than a tenner. But in all anything is better than what a record shop would give you . If you  even £1 per record is considered good.

My son got given 500 jazz records by his mate.....took a while but sold the lot for £180 via gumtree...on ebay jazz records don't sell, you just got to find the right buyer.

Now if you have any dance, acid, techno,house,rave from 1988-1995...then tap me up

Im doing this right now. As i approach retirement in a few years i'm moving on my collection of mostly punk / hardcore / metal.

My approach...

Buy a large pack of record mailers and reenforcing inserts; Set up a discogs account; add records a few at a time (or as many as you can, but its quite dull); Price fair but low (be honest about how you rate the record and you will get positive feedback); once sold post straight away (means more positive feedback) use the royal mail app and get them to pick up directly from you.

Once you have a good feedback score and competitive pricing you will see them slowly shifting out the door. Ive sold about 18 albums and gained about £1k.

With Discogs, don't look at what people are selling records for...look at the average price they have actually sold for.

With Discogs, don’t look at what people are selling records for…look at the average price they have actually sold for.

Yep, it even gives low/median/high sold prices - so you can get a realistic expectation based on condition of yours.

What do you get out of cataloguing your collection on there BTW? Does it give you an estimated total for if you were to sell them all? 😀

Cataloguing it all is a pain, but I found it worth paying £25 for Record Scanner - it can recognise the cover art, the barcode, or the catalogue number, look it up in Discogs and add it to the collection, then you can export to CSV. I had about 450 vinyl LPs and 650 CDs to get through and it saved a lot of time. Failed to recognise just about 3 off-label items.

What do you get out of cataloguing your collection on there BTW? Does it give you an estimated total for if you were to sell them all?

As well as the low-median-max value of your collection (which could be good for insurance purposes?) It's more about the versions. It's the most comprehensive database out there. I collect a couple of bands/labels so there are often multiple versions of the same release - sometimes the difference will be a small sticker or misprint, different run out groove etc. Discogs will have these listed, and on the rare occasion they don't it's easy to add.

I also love the want list functions it will tell me if something has popped up on marketplace.

Finally, for those times I can't decide what to listen to I select something from the random pull function (although it might not be called that!)

I have about 60% of mine on there, lost interest in doing the rest! I doubt they're worth even the low value but as I'm not selling I don't really care.

Did most if my LPs, but not updated anything I've bought recently (should do that).

Not got round to doing 7"s yet - think I've got about 300, but probably not many that are worth much.

Mostly for insurance purposes for me. Though I have sold a few duplicates, etc. on there.

My estimated value is bumped up somewhat by some silly rare British jazz LPs - worth between £500-£1000 each

It funny on some rave sites, a few peeps have their collection of say 700 discogs say its worth £10k ...so as a "bargain " he will sell for £8k..   behave!!

.ffs