Vinyl Records Cost Too Much . . . Or Do They?

[1KW]

I buy a lot of pre owned vinyl at record stores near me which when cleaned up sound terrific. Many can be found for under $5.00 . My wife told me she would buy a record before CD's, make a cassette tape copy and never play the record again. Some of the records I have been buying fit that MO . I have new vinyl as well, some of the new 180 gm vinyl sounds great but some have been a big disappointment. Some of the better new Lp's have been: Eric Clapton-unplugged, Pink Floyd-the wall, Ray Brown-Soular Energy, Patricia Barber-cafe blue etc.

[Allan W.]

Originally Posted by 1KW

I buy a lot of pre owned vinyl at record stores near me which when cleaned up sound terrific. Many can be found for under $5.00 . My wife told me she would buy a record before CD's, make a cassette tape copy and never play the record again. Some of the records I have been buying fit that MO . I have new vinyl as well, some of the new 180 gm vinyl sounds great but some have been a big disappointment. Some of the better new Lp's have been: Eric Clapton-unplugged, Pink Floyd-the wall, Ray Brown-Soular Energy, Patricia Barber-cafe blue etc.

You've just described my vinyl buying habits and feelings regarding new vinyl pressings. When out of town, we always visit thrift stores and used vinyl outlets. We've found some gems in the most unlikely places.

[AudioNut]

Originally Posted by Allan W.

You've just described my vinyl buying habits and feelings regarding new vinyl pressings. When out of town, we always visit thrift stores and used vinyl outlets. We've found some gems in the most unlikely places.

And , as I have reported several times previously in forums here on AA, I have bought thousands of records from the sources named . . and have gotten thousands more from folks who had "given up on vinyl" - most of them for free or at a very low price - say $100 bucks for 400 mostly mint records. They want them out of the house and are happy to get even a tiny sum of money for them.

Add to the list, garage sales, flea markets, estate sales, listings in the classified ads in Craigslist or in your local newspaper.

I've also bought a lot of records from radio stations when they were "getting rid of all that vinyl junk".

This year, I got about 650 records free from a local college library who had them hidden in a closet because they didn't use them anymore and needed the space.

Good Will, Salvation Army, local thrift stores, etc. Fortunately for me, most of the classical records in those places have never been played or are in mint condition, but rock, etc. may be in "marginal to awful" shape. Pull every record you're interested in out of its sleeve and look at the condition.

The good news here is that most of these sources sell records cheap - like a dollar each, or 100 records for $25.00 or $50.00.

[Josquin des Prez]

Originally Posted by MyPal

Josquin.... I found this original vintage 1964 MINT Blue Note Japanese pressing recently. Unopened & shrink wrap intact. Would it be worth a premium?

It cannot be an original release if it is Japanese. The recording is from 1964 but this reissue will be from much later. I would look on eBay to see what Japanese reissues go for. Japanese reissues are desirable because of the quality of the vinyl and pressings.

OTOH: they are almost always done from copies and not the original tapes. More recent reissues will be digitally sourced. I typically avoid Japanese reissues for those reasons.

When I say original Blue Note recording go for thousands, I really should have been more careful with my words to say original Blue Note releases, i.e. first pressings out of a batch of say 500. I have a mono first pressing of Hank Mobley's "Dippin'." That's probably worth $400-500 or so.

[Down Under]

Originally Posted by Vesuvius

Vinyl is outrageously expensive, especially for limited pressings or out of print items. A friend just purchased Hell Freezes Over for a tad over $600 - and that is cheap.

IN-SAN-I-TY.

A copy of Hell Freezes Over recently sold on E Bay for $2190.00 on the Simply Vinyl label.They must really like the Eagles.....

[edkoz]

I too have an issue paying big $s for LPs. One area I have successful in getting a "good deal" has been estate auctions, you do have to be lucky though. Last fall the wife and I went to an auction and bid on a collection of LPs (about 150+ of them, some never opened!). I guess there were no music lovers there because we got the entire collection for $3:00 . Not a bad deal I must say.
Ed

[Marco1]

I think part of the fun of vinyl is finding good records cheap. Our local Humane Society sells every record for $1.00. I normally buy 20-30 at a time, keep the ones I like and (re)donate the ones I don't so they can sell them again. Keeps us in tunes and our furry friends fed.

Regards, Mark

[jimtranr]

I'd suggest that the answer to the original question depends on one's priorities and the availability in any given format of the music and the performances one seeks.

I just took delivery this afternoon of the four used LP's shown below for a total of $45 plus shipping. Listening as well as visual checks indicate that the advertised grade of M- is on target for all four. That and the sonics evident in each (one's a 1966 White Dog, one's a 1975 Two-Eye, and the two Angels are blue-label mid-1960's issue) justify the cost IMO.



A $30-to-$35 quality reissue of something I want but don't have is equally worthwhile IMO when compared to an original-release used LP that the reflecting-the-vinyl-resurgence market has pegged at anywhere from twice to three or even more times that price. And it's not that far off adjusted-for-inflation-wise when I recall paying anywhere from $4.98 to $6.98 in the Bay Area for major-label classical stereo releases during the 1970's.