Best way to sell your music collection?

I'm thinking about getting rid of a lot of my music collection, I find that I just don't listen to it much anymore.

About 600 records and 1000+ CDs. (About 150 records and 200 CDs are "keepers" that aren't included in this number.)

Think *maybe* 25-50 of those are worth $10 or more, with the rest being closer to $2-$3.

What's the best way to sell it? Selling here, or on eBay would require a careful cataloguing of it - I don't think that the time to do that, and then the time spent shipping/handling it would be worth it in sheer man-hours. (And grading it all accurately would consume even more time since a lot of the titles I bought a $3 - $5 and were playable but not pretty.)

Have people sold at a record show? ( I see in Southern California we have a few that happen each month.)
Sell it as a lot on eBay and just charge the seller actual shipping?
The swap meet?
Put a partial listing on Craigslist and had people come over and buy individual titles?
Sell it to Amoeba or another record store?
Sell the "valuable" ones on the net, and dump the rest to charity?

Anyone have strategies to use?

 

I'm selling a few things this summer at flea markets. I find it takes to long to sell online. I prefer flea markets and record fairs. It's the fastest way to unload your stuff.

 

Sometimes the record store can give you just as much as you'd get trying to sell them here or online elsewhere. That's for the 2-3 dollars records. If you have anything like The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, etc., people ask you a lot of questions that if you're trying to sell it cheap and not take the hour to figure out matrix numbers, take photos, etc., then you may just be better off with the record store for those too. The store around my parts is fair and I've been a long time purchaser. I think they treat me better than they would most others.

Certainly trying to sell them at a decent bigger sized and well promoted yard sale would give you most bang for your buck. You'd probably still go home with a lot of records and wonder if it's worth doing it again. This is also dependent how much it costs to sell at a yard sale/swap meet.

 

If it were me I would probably try setting up at a Record Show (if the table cost wasn't too prohibitive) or Craigslist. In the mid 90's I set up at Record shows for a while. I had fun doing it so I would probably go that route if I were to sell my collection. Selling online just seems like such a headache!

 

I would never take them to a record store, not in my neck of the woods. I lost to much money over the years with trades and selling to stores. Not long ago I sold a few records to a store here in the NYC area. Some Clash & Talking Heads a few others. They gave me very little, most under 5 or 6 bucks for a record. These were good solid records, mostly punk stuff. The next week I go back and my London Calling is selling for $20...never aginn.

 

Craigslist may be your best bet.

 

Rockaway records in Silverlake, Los Angeles is a great shop and pay fair prices for collections. I think they may even come out to you if you describe what you have. They buy vinyl and CDs. I used to work there a a long time ago and the owners are good guys that deal in a lot of high end memorabilia (E.g.,s Beatles, rare records, etc.). PM and I'll give you some further details.

 

In my experience with record stores, the more you try to sell them at once, the less you'll get. Give it to them bit by bit if you go that route.

 

If you have the patience, post them on Discogs and sell them one at a time. You will make the most money that way. I did one record fair and you can make money quickly but it's a big hassle, the other sellers were jerks/flippers, people just pawed through my records and treated them like crap. One guy wanted to check for defects by holding the record up to the sun! To each their own, but Discogs is just easier and even with the fees, it's more likely that you will get a higher price. I've sold off a significant chunk of my collection and have done real well. Just be sure to invest in some good mailers for shipping.

 

I've had pretty good luck with asking sellers at record shows if they can let me borrow a record and take it home and try it out on my table/cart, and then bring it back to the next show if I'm not happy.

I'm always happy.

 

Tried to sell a few to a store in Brookfield, CT
Owner said he didn't by "individual" records - only collections from Estate Sales a "a few persons."
He wouldn't tell me anything about how he found collections at Estate Sales before they opened to the public.

They certainly do have a pretty good collection of recently added classic rock whenever I visit.
Found a Zep II RL in NM for less than you would guess.

If you tried to sell him a copy, he'd probably turn it down!

 

i do various things. i take every cd/dvd i'm trying to get rid of to FYE and get a gift card for myself. usually i get $1.25 store credit per item. whatever the FYE systems says they can't take i then take to a local store. whatever they don't take that i know will sell i list it on ebay. anything i have that i know isn't worth anything i just give to goodwill

 

Yes, same experience for me. Also works in reverse, in which you read the opinions on threads here (as I did for my entire current Genesis CD collection, which are now all 1990s UK Nimbus or Sanyo pressings), then go to Discogs to buy them. Even better, the proceeds from selling no-longer-wanted CDs have also gone to restoring the Dual 1219 I got at a garage sale, and now I almost have enough for the Ortofon 2M Blue to go with it. So Discogs is a great place to transmutate your total recorded music dollar.

 

The best way to stop is don't start.

 

Ya gotta get in to get out.

 

I imagine they contact the guy, not the other way around. Why have the hassle of selling records to the public, when you can offload them in one go to a store.

 

To be fair, store markups are generally 100% (they have overheads). They would probably offer you more in store credit, but unless those records are disappearing as soon as they appear on the shelves, don't feel too hard done by.

 

I would sell the more valuable items individually (although it may take some time). The rest - separate them into job lots, i.e., artist lots, and put them on ebay/craiglist, etc. Some CDs may have to go to goodwill. You could also try having a yard sale for the low value items.

 

Discogs is a good idea. Amazon makes it really easy to list items, no sale no fee, but fees are high if you do sell and you are competing with everyone, not so good for collectibles.

It's a trade-off, reward vs time and effort (no surprise). Take 'em all to a dealer, little effort, low reward.

Tim

 

Amazon has the option of listing items as collectible. You can also upload up to 6 (I think) pictures.

 

Sure, you can list them as such, but it's not so good for selling them, because of limited options for including detailed information and pics. Also, all sorts of junk is listed as "collectible" - well, same everywhere, but combined with lack of details it is more of a problem.

Tim

 

There should be enough space for a catalog/matrix info. The pics can be quite big.

Sure, but as a buyer, I usually skip those ones.

 

If you got 5-6 bucks cash for a record that they selling for 20,that's pretty reasonable.

 

Fixed that for you. No used record store could survive paying 50% of what they intend to sell for, except possibly on occasion for a super choice item. 20% (a dollar on a record that $5 on the shelf) would probably be a generous payout. 5% (50 cents on a $10 shelf record) would be more common.

 

The OP's real problem is not how to sell his music collection.