I was just reading an article about vinyl which led me on to Discogs to see what sort of price it goes for now. A very quick look has suggested that some pretty standard releases (ie, not limited editions or first presses etc) are going for >£100 (I looked at Iron Maiden as I have loads of their stuff including about 15 picture disks). However looking on Ebay the same stuff is going for around £15 – so what is the realistic price for this stuff as I have around 350 LPs sat in storage boxes!

Yeah I recently went through this. Spent a weekend logging my vinyl on Discogs. At the end it told me my 378 records could be worth £8700!
The most highly valued being a copy of what’s the story morning glory which someone has paid €500 for. However when you look at the details this was a still sealed copy from the factory…
My mum’s copy of sergeant pepper could go for £250, my stone roses £150 if it was mint. Several early 90s albums by pj Harvey etc have apparently sold for over £100
I realised my vinyl collection may be worth than my bikes.
But, and I think it’s a big but, the high prices aren’t guaranteed and must be dependent on condition and timing of the sale. Quite a few of the highest prices seemed to have been around Christmas…
It’s a moot point though as I’ll never sell it. The kids have started to think about which ones they want to inherit though….😀

Yeah I do have some stuff that *should* be worth a bit (such as a pre-release Barclay James Harvest LP, original Sabbath stuff, banned cover GnR Appetite for Destruction etc) but the issue is – if something is worth £100 now, what might it be worth in another 30 years…

Depends on lots of variables but the main three are condition, rarity & demand. Discogs is good for checking what he mean price of a record is. It will also list all the variations of the record you might be investigating – was it a 1st/2nd/3rd pressing, country of origin, different track listings on the same release (an different b side and extra track).
Check the run out groove – it will have a catalogue number and then reference this to the version on Discogs.
If you go to vinyl collector you will see the condition grading of records ie mint condition in record buying world for a second hand release is ‘never been played’.
Sellers on Discogs will generally overprice the release also just because a record might be for sale at ££££ you then have to find the specific person to sell it to. The further up the ladder you go the more narrow the appeal is and when you go to serious money you are dealign with serious buyers – if you get my drift.
I used to buy & sell records for decades – mainly rare disco soul hip hop breaks house electronica.

The key word is ‘Mint’. Thats where the money is. I have a ton of old first edition Jazz records from the 50’s and 60’s (my dads). they’ve been sat idle in various attics and store rooms for 35 years. if they were mint they’d be worth hundreds each. As it is, they’d get so little they’re barely worth selling.

It’s not just the sleeve, it’s now they play as well.

I’ve also got a load of old jungle / DnB, gain, mint copies are worth daft money, same issue, mine are all well used!

Its a curious notion that you’d pay a sizeable premium for something that had never been played. You can see why you pay a premium for a toy that had never been played with, stamps that have never been licked – something that is in pristine visual / physical condition.

I mean there was a time when Id occasionally buy a spare copy of a record if I saw in in the bargain bin in case the one I was listening to got borked – by that was in an era when recordings could become rare (seeing it in the bargain bin was the prelude to not seeing it on the racks ever again) . So it was reassuring to have that good unplayed copy until I had a use for it

But… given that pristine audio equivalents of the song on pretty much any record are widely available, and will never become rare, why would you buy a record that has never been listened to?  Presumably you’d only ever intend to look at it.

Do you want to spend months selling and posting individual records or just want to convert them to cash it a good way to understand whether you want to Discog or dealer? Perhaps siphon off the cream and dump the rest on a dealer?

Check the run out groove – it will have a catalogue number and then reference this to the version on Discogs.

There might be a bit more to it than that – it’s worth checking the sleeve to see who mastered the album and where, then look at the run-out area, it should have a stamp showing the name of the mastering lab. If both match, then the disk is a first generation pressing from original metalwork, or stampers. What happens, though, is stampers wear, or get damaged, so new ones need to be made, but time constraints mean that a pressing plant in the U.K. wouldn’t be able to source new stampers from Masterdisk in the US, so replacements would be made from somewhere like Sterling Sound, not only that, but they would be mastered from a duplicate master tape copied from the original studio stereo master, basically a second generation tape, so quality is compromised. I’ve got vinyl with a Masterdisk stamp on both sides, Masterdisk on one side, and Sterling Sound on the other, and others with neither side from the original mastering lab, and you can hear a difference with good enough equipment.
If both sides match, then, provided the album has had little wear, and has been played on well set up quality equipment, then it’s worth decent money, but the problem with vinyl, is that it’s just so vulnerable to wear and damage from the very first time it’s played that sound quality is immediately compromised. Spending lots of money on a whizzy turntable, arm and cartridge is pointless if the cartridge and arm aren’t set up exactly so the stylus is mistracking, bearing in mind just how tiny the groove is on a 33rpm album, and the fact that an elliptical stylus is tracking at a slightly different angle at the start of the album compared to the end.
It’s why 12” 45rpm singles are vastly better for bass.
If my turntable was still working, I don’t think I’d ever buy secondhand vinyl, because I know exactly how poor it can sound even when new, especially if it was something pressed in the late 70’s, early to mid 80’s, when pressings were abysmal – it’s why I started buying CD’s, which always sound better anyway.

It sells for what it’s value is – people (myself included, in the past) list stuff on Discogs for what they hope they can get for it. It usually just sits there unsold, like forever.
Ebay, usually auctions are up for a limited time and the stuff gets sold. So that’s what it’s worth in reality. You can check the lowest and highest prices items sell for on discogs, could be a good guide… but maybe there was a prime selling time for a record, like a Nirvana album, when Kurt died, for example. So prices are still pot-luck. Depends if you want to sell in reality.

I started buying CD’s, which always sound better anyway.

Agreed. Well, I actually think it’s a FACT that they sound better. But they ain’t fashionable, so don’t fetch anywhere near as much cash 🙂

I’ve listened to cd’s on high quality equipment for years. I now prefer vinyl ; it sounds different,and to my ears , better.Each to their own .

 if something is worth £100 now, what might it be worth in another 30 years…

Probably less. We are possibly peak market for old vinyl as a lot stuff that is available is from our youth and we now have spare cash.  It’s a good combination for sellers

A few years back I read an article on how Elvis memorabilia was falling in price as his original fans aged.

I’d thought it was a longer and more detailed article than the one below, but it’s the only one I found after a (cursory!) search – and, let’s face it, is probably the one I read!

https://www.theguardian.com/music/shortcuts/2017/may/07/elvis-presley-memorabilia-plummeting-in-price

We are possibly peak market for old vinyl

Yeah, I was going to post the same.

I suspect 90s Retrobikes will go the same way soon too.

I had no qualms about offloading my valuable vinyl a few years ago, as above – I wasn’t sure that demand for obscure techno or 1990s indie would always be so bouyant.

Might have another cull actually, but I find grading the records quite stressful – especially as I don’t have a properly working turntable at the mo.

A lad i work with runs a Dubstep label and they put on events as well.
I know next to nothing about their scene, but it has astounded me the price that people are prepared to pay for their vinyl plates.
They are producing short runs, 300-500, and these are selling out in less than 15mins. at £10ish + p&p.
Copies are then appearing on Discogs for anywhere between £60-£80 over the next few days.

I suspect 90s Retrobikes will go the same way soon too.

yup, the same way as cigarette cards, dinky toys and pre war cars.