Over the past week or two, I have been uploading my music collection, both Vinyl and CD to Discogs, with the aim of selling some of it.
I am shocked as to what some of the stuff is actually selling for. I am about 15% of the way in, admittedly putting in the stuff I knew would be worth a bit first (I’m not selling that), but WTAF.
I have been using actual sold values across all conditions but still can’t believe it. How on earth can anyone afford to start a collection when the market is so crazy ?
Prices are jacked but being sustained by people doing exactly the same as you - Listing stuff, selling and re buying. Horse trading has always been part of collecting but I don’t remember a time quite like now. To some extent the market is up as the £ is shit (Say hello to customs forms)
A current external undermining force is the price of shipping. For higher end bits it’s not an issue but if you are paying roughly the same for shipping as the purchase price £20 LP and £24 shipping from the US, things get a lot less fun on weird try outs and flights of fancy.
I’m not talking what I thought was rare stuff or even US / EU listed stuff, I’m talking UK sales of what I would have thought to have bèen fairly mainstream stuff, read Sasha / Digweed and Paul Oakenfold CD,'s, Porcupine Tree and Imogen Heap LP’s all into the £100’s, that’s just far.
I have stick about 30% of my stuff into Discogs, and most of the prices which have really shocked me seem to be vinyl from the early to mid 90s, i can only assume it is due to lack of copies originally sold due to CD explosion
There are a few popular re ords i dont like apparently worth ££s which i am v tempted to move out
The whole record market is bonkers at the moment. I recently went to the record fair in Chesterfield the base price for poor quality used vinyl was £8 and they were in very poor condition. Anything worth buying was £25 and upwards. Tracy Chapman first album was £45+ on all the stalls. Market sellers were selling new records at same price as vinyl shops.
Utterly crazy.
I took a look in my local record shop and the majority of new vinyl is now £30+ with a good number at £40+ now.
As has already been said postage from Europe and USA is expensive and so virtually doubles the price of an album.
I’m going to be very selective about what I buy in the future.
If you look at the costs for pressing and distributing an LP it’s not difficult to see how £30 is the current standard price. If you look at the Av price of an LP in say 1966 accounting for inflation £30 is pretty close to where it should be today (Economy of scale is a factor - they used to move shit tons of records). My gripe is in 1966 records were pressed extremely well on the whole and produced in rather expensive studios (These things cost) today things are put together with far lower costs and seriously lower quality control.(at far lower runs which is an increased cost) in short the price is right but the quality isn’t.
Until fairly recently record fairs worked like this:
Condition a bit iffy for on-line = Sell it for cash at a fair (VG Cannon fodder). Hear the Japanese (and until recently Russian & polish) buyers are coming = Jack prices skyward. Trading with other dealers or collectors who are coming to see you = Hot box behind the stall. Got a load built up from picking the best bits of collections? (for yourself / internet) = Chud blast. Got a load of classic rock / pop etc = shart blast. 80% of the days trade at record fairs is conducted between dealers when setting up at 8 am before the public come in at 10. Antiques & book fairs are the same. If you want to see wild eyed middle aged men foaming at the mouth - check out the car park for the fair at about 7:30am, it’s a fairly safe way to observe coveting & compulsion = demented scene.
Currently due to the HMRC reporting for non business registered eBay sellers (80% were registered as a business anyway) and Discogs sellers - there has been an uptick in dealers who didn’t traditionally stall out and individuals wanting to move on reasonable sized collections for cash.
Think a lot of the stuff i have worth a few quid is stuff from 95-2010 when vinyl was on its arse and obviously not many were made.
Eg placebo,puressence,gay dad darkstar etc
I took the median value as my valuation for home contents insurance.
Having everything catalogued on discogs is all the evidence you need of a collection
This popped up again on streaming so I went to see how much a copy would set me back. Quickly decided against it. Likewise, the copy of Feeder’s Echo Park I sold as part of a tranche of records when I was unemployed.
Whats being described here is discovering value where people didn’t attribute it before - becoming aware of current demand. 20 years ago if you gave someone with a collection a copy of the record collector price guide the reaction was always the same, ‘Wow I’ve got that or I had this’.
I’ve been subject to this along with lots of others who placed little or no value on lots of 80’s / 90’s recordings you once couldn’t give away in £1 boxes but now have come to financial fruition as tastes cycle back and the ‘vinyl come back’ sends people ferreting back through time on a nostalgia kick or millennials ‘discovering’ the music anew (Demand is up, hence the prices are).
In addition, some fringe activities are now becoming normal. Speculation for example, people buying up first pressings / rare recordings / still sealed items / extremely limited pressings specifically with a view to profit. It’s always gone on with major artists to a point but it’s widespread now. Thanks to Popsike and Discogs, RSD and the ability to buy globally everyone is a dealer flipping things to re-buy / mint up / flip for profit / upscale collections etc - although always part of a collector scene the ‘grip & flip’ is vastly more prevalent these days (You can see it everywhere on Discogs or eBay after RSD) The internet in many ways changed the game but supply and demand will always inflate or deflate price.
Shirley the point is that marketing to collectors doesn’t really work. If it’s marketed as a collector’s edition it isn’t. Having said that I really must stop playing my vinyl Below the Bassline. Especially when enhanced, as the tech bros have it.
Band camp is a good example where artists have a tired offering system.
Trad black vinyl - Tier 1 price
Coloured Vinyl Tier 2 price
Test Pressings Tier 3 price
30 or so Lathe cuts Tier 4 price
There are any number of ‘deluxe variations’ on these themes but the premise is to create and manufacture something desirable and milk it in as many ways as possible.
… Fans are ‘fanatical’, speculators know this and prey on it. Just like ticket touts or any other manipulation / monopoly of the supply line.
Bloody internet. Artists I can forgive because streaming has cut them off at the knees. I should realise how lucky I am to have a decent stash of records I like (thank you Jumbo and others in Leeds), which I can add to via local Bangor shop Mudshark on a serendipitous basis. No doubt if I were more minted I could develop more of a collector’s mentality. Hmm, Delmark?
