Jump to content
aberdeen-music

Advice on selling a record collection


ca_gere

Recommended Posts

Hi all,

For the last 20 plus years a vast record and memerobilia collection belonging to an uncle has sat untouched and hermetically sealed in the loft of my Granny's house. My uncle has lived overseas for all this time and has never allowed anyone to touch or even go near his prized collection.

I am led to believe that it contains some valuable rarities from the punk/new wave era (a poster that he has recently went on ebay for 700 quid for example). Apparently my uncle was the type of guy who would do anything to get his hands on the latest releases, bootlegs etc, (Waiting outside hotels for band member signatures and even once paying for my granny to go all the way down to Manchester to make an under-the-counter transaction for one single 7").

The exact details of what the collection contains I do not know yet, I have asked him to compile a list for me just out of interest and am waiting for it to arrive. I'm not a vinyl expert or anything (nor do I know if this is significant or rare) but I do know he has every single release from Stiff records, bought literally as soon as printed (pressed?, cut?, I know its not 'burned' when talking about vinyl) amongst tons of other stuff.

Anyway... current circumstances have forced him to either ship it all overseas or try get rid of it. Valuations have ranged from 10,000 to in excess of 20,000. However, he cannot stay in the country for the length of time it would take to get a worthy buyer/good offer for the lot yet he does not want to make a quick sale for it to turn out that the buyer goes on to make a mint after. It's probably the case that my family who stay in Scotland will have to oversee the whole thing.

He has even talked about just chucking it all out!!!!!!!!!!!!! (seems like madness to me but I can kinda see where he's coming from....the sentimental attachment, the punk anti-money grabbing attitude, etc).

My question(s) is/are the following:

Anyone had experience with selling a collection?

ebay?

individually as opposed to the whole lot?

how best to go about it?

Any thoughts on the matter are welcome

cheers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Tam o' Shantie

it all depends if you can be bothered fishing out the rarest stuff, my opinion would be to either do the whole lot on ebay and point out the rarities or list the rare ones seperately and then do the other records as a job lot

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Giles Walker

Do/does you/anyone you know have the time to stick it on Musicstack/Gemm/discogs?

I reckon that might be your best bet, although certain records always go for more on ebay at certain times if a certain dj is playing them.

You could make lots of money if someone is willing to put the time in.

I would maybe make a list on your computer and then slowly check the values on Discogs, if it is quite high then the chances are you might get more from sticking them on ebay, if not that high (20 pounds or so) then stick them on Discogs.

If you stick a list up i might take a squad of it off your hands and if you give me a good deal i'll give you a hand by telling you which ones i know are worth good money.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do/does you/anyone you know have the time to stick it on Musicstack/Gemm/discogs?

I reckon that might be your best bet, although certain records always go for more on ebay at certain times if a certain dj is playing them.

You could make lots of money if someone is willing to put the time in.

I would maybe make a list on your computer and then slowly check the values on Discogs, if it is quite high then the chances are you might get more from sticking them on ebay, if not that high (20 pounds or so) then stick them on Discogs.

If you stick a list up i might take a squad of it off your hands and if you give me a good deal i'll give you a hand by telling you which ones i know are worth good money.

This is exactly the type of response I was looking for.

I, and other members of my family are well prepared to take the time, put the effort in and are keen to do his collection justice. I will look into the sites you mention (all new to me). And, get back to you when I have a list.

many thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Giles Walker
Please do. I'm gonna speak to him tonight and at least get an idea of what kind of stuff he has.

He is gonna be bummed at how little a lot of them are worth, the market ain't great right now and you are gonna have to be brutal with your grading of the records.

(NM is really only used if it has never been touched and G will have some surface noise, if you fuck up doing this you are gonna damage your ability to sell future records)

But i am willing to bet a lot of that memorabilia will go for some good money.

I'll get a list together and try to take a week off boozing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

a triple markup isn't sensible, because people buying fugazi records know how much they're meant to be paying for them, and won't buy them. dischord releases in this country shouldn't be marked over a tenner in shops really. dischord isn't JUST a website it's a record label and it has fucking LOADS of overheads compared to the cavern, what with it having physical shops, producing records, recording records, pressing records, paying bands, funding gigs, and having a website.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...