Any ideas for sorting wheat from chaff in a big (100s) vinyl collection?

[Andrew_McP]

My Dad was a vinyl hoarder; mainly country & western. We couldn't cremate it with him, which would have solved the problem, and he was always adamant that a few of them are worth a decent amount of money, not just fit for ashtrays, or whatever it is folk do with worthless vinyl these days.

Painstakingly going through each album and researching is going to be a nightmare, and chances are my Dad was ripped off on any he paid good money for. He was always... well, a little naïve. But he specifically talks about the collection in his will, so we feel obliged not to waste his efforts. It's not about finding the needle in the haystack which might be worth hundreds instead of nothing, it's about avoiding destroying something that was precious to him and maybe others.

It may well come to finding a random dealer, or wait until car boots start up again and look around for someone who might take a bulk donation.

 

[Dup]

You could document them on Discogs which I believe gives you an idea of market value. Your father may have done so already if you have access to his computer.

My parents dumped all their Vinyl in the mid 90s when it was deemed worthless. Oops.

 

[Andrew_McP]

Discogs wasn't something I knew about, so that's a start. Dad was, bless him, a little brain damaged after a childhood operation went wrong, so anything as complicated as a VCR was almost beyond him, so any cataloguing is in his tiny scrawling handwriting ie. a total lost cause!

My mother dumped most of my vinyl in the late 80s when she got tired or me storing it in her cellar. Mind you, the damp had got to the sleeves, but my collection of Yes albums and their amazing album covers is still sorely missed!

 

[Flaevius]

Discogs is my suggestion too. You'll be able to find a wealth of information on there and historical sale prices for pretty much any pressing of any LP. It's worth putting the effort in to know what you own and what it could retail for. If you have anything of reasonable value, that's a great starting place to sell - used as standard by your average music aficionado.

 

[potatolord]

I sold my vinyl a couple of years back.

I used the "sold" search on eBay to see how much/ often records sold for, before listing them.

I used discogs to check anything that was regularly selling for over £10.

If you are selling a lot of vinyl, you should look into buying cardboard mailing packs. It saves a lot of time packaging.

 

[Martynt74]

Check out Pink Fish Media

There's a good following on there and if you detail them all you may get someone to buy in bulk and be fair. The main issue is around grading. Collectors can be very picky and there's a big difference between the grades which impacts their worth.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

My mother dumped most of my vinyl in the late 80s when she got tired or me storing it in her cellar.

Around 1989 I had accumulated around 3000 albums and a 1000 singles, over the years I gave them away to mates who collect and I know virtually where they all are.
There are some I wish I never got rid of or gave to someone more deserving, for instance the first 5 Rush albums were sent to me by Rush.

I just don't get this revival, it's the Emperors New Clothes to me, why the hell would you want to get a record out of a sleeve and play one side that lasts around 20 minutes but you might want to skip a couple of duff tracks?
Uncompressed FLACs with a proper DAP into quality in-ears every time.

 

[Andrew_McP]

I used the "sold" search on eBay

Sorry for not spotting your reply earlier. I'll bear that in mind, thanks. The issue with Dad is sorting the wheat from the chaff. Lots and lots and lots of chaff. Maybe a few diamonds!

Check out Pink Fish Media

Thanks.

I just don't get this revival

I'm kind of with you. But the whole 'vinyl as a tactile experience' thing was always a great loss. And there is something vaguely miraculous about that wiggly spiral turning into pretty impressive noise... crackles and all. And I'm also persuaded by the fact that putting on a record requires so much effort (relative to Spotify) that it encourages folk to actually listen to a whole side.

Of course, do that for very long and you remember why you stopped buying whole albums... the vast majority of all recorded music is sink-without-a-trace filler. So I have no plans to buy any more. I do have about ten albums left from my youth though and I'm hoping nobody else wants my Dad's Richer Sounds hi-fi setup. I'm not going to buy a record deck, but if I can have his it'll be nice to go through the old motions again, just for old time's sake. It's the difference between a Japanese tea ceremony and Spotify's tea bag.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

I'm kind of with you. But the whole 'vinyl as a tactile experience' thing was always a great loss. And there is something vaguely miraculous about that wiggly spiral turning into pretty impressive noise... crackles and all. And I'm also persuaded by the fact that putting on a record requires so much effort (relative to Spotify) that it encourages folk to actually listen to a whole side.

Don't get me wrong, there was nothing better than getting that album home and reading the cover/lyrics while it was playing.
In the early 70s we even walked round with albums under our arms in a clear plastic cover and it would start conversations : "What's that you got Pud?" - "The new Sabbath album, just going down Fozzers to play it".
I can distinctly remember the first proper CD I bought was Metallica by Metallica and I sat down with the CD cover trying to read the lyrics but it wasn't the same experience.

 

[potatolord]

Around 1989 I had accumulated around 3000 albums and a 1000 singles, over the years I gave them away to mates who collect and I know virtually where they all are.
There are some I wish I never got rid of or gave to someone more deserving, for instance the first 5 Rush albums were sent to me by Rush.

I just don't get this revival, it's the Emperors New Clothes to me, why the hell would you want to get a record out of a sleeve and play one side that lasts around 20 minutes but you might want to skip a couple of duff tracks?
Uncompressed FLACs with a proper DAP into quality in-ears every time.

A few years back, i picked up a lot of classical albums from charity shops. They were often £1 a time and classical records are generally immaculate mint, even second hand.

It was pretty enjoyable, having music as a focus, and going through the whole ritual of playing lps again. My old separates still sounded great after 20 years in a cellar.

I found the difficulty of the format weirdly affected my perceived value of the experience. But then I am weird and think like that.

I ebayed a few (some are highly collectable) which covered my costs and gave the rest to a mate.

Everyone's a winner.

 

[CircleFaust]

i think discogs will be your best bet for valuation. it's going to be laborious work just
you'll need to make sure you get the exact copy matched as many of them look the same
you might think you have a gem but it's actually a reissue from a year later and visa versa
selling on discogs used to be a breeze but they now make you setup shipping policies which are a nightmare for 'spare time' sellers like us
ebay will be second best place to sell
if you finally get to separate the wheat from the chaff i'd bulk sell the chaff or give it away on FB marketplace for a very speedy dispatch!

i have a small amount of vinyl i'd kind of like to sell but i'm torn about it. have had it since my teens. i've no record player though so it's gathering dust. it's a pain in the rear to sell also with record mailers, worry about it getting damaged in post etc
as mentioned loved getting a new record back in the day, big artwork, lyrics. but it was tinged with frustration as i only ever had crappy turntables and you could barely fart without it skipping. took a lot of looking after the vinyl. i moved to CDs for years and have just this year stopped buying physical, it's been in the pipeline for a long time but i'm happy with digital now. quite enjoying maintaining my own MP3 database

 

[SexyGreyFox]

A little story to add to CircleFaust above.
My Dad was absolutely certain he'd got a single that was worth a lot of money, it was Cliff Richard & The Drifters on the label (The Shadows former name).
He took it for a valuation thinking he'd be able to buy another guitar and the reply was it was a million seller so it was worth about 50p

 

[Andrew_McP]

I can distinctly remember the first proper CD I bought

My (much better off than me) mate bought a new fangled CD player and the compulsory mainstream CD to go with it: Brothers in Arms. Those little shiny disks were incredible... for about ten minutes. Then the CD case broke and the future was revealed to us!

I think the thing about analogue anything is that it tends to be human scale. With a record you can peer at the grooves and actually 'see' music.

A little story to add to CircleFaust above

I have no illusions about actual worth versus potential. My attitude all along has been that I'd ring a collector/dealer and give them the lot for nothing. They may find a gem to compensate them for their efforts, and Dad's efforts might not be wasted. But there are three of us and then two others beneficiaries from his other (non-executor, non-blood) family. So there are, as you'd imagine, differing opinions! My brother, who's having all the physical hassle of organising things, will probably put them all in a skip if folk keep having great ideas but not offering practical solutions! And you could argue that this way Dad would be doing the best for genuine collectors... making their stuff a little bit more rare.

 

[potatolord]

My (much better off than me) mate bought a new fangled CD player and the compulsory mainstream CD to go with it: Brothers in Arms. Those little shiny disks were incredible... for about ten minutes. Then the CD case broke and the future was revealed to us!

Back in around 1985 a mate's dad got a cd player. Mate one showed us a cd and said it was indestructible and couldn't be scratched. My mate Snoopy immediately seized it from him and bit it as hard as he could. Cue much shouting about dad related violence...

 

[PCDAVE2]

Put the collection for the ones you have on Discogs by 'adding to collection' - you can create your own folders for albums and singles. It maybe worth doing it seeing as things are closed at the moment. There are three price descriptions on there which are Min, Median and Max. Depending on the condition you will get a rough value of it. Look at Matrix numbers near the centre and handle by edges only. Note that Discogs is worldwide, so max prices are sometimes a much higher price when compared with eBay which some will not buy from.