What source do you use for pricing used vinyl?

I'm finally going to catalog my LP collection - mostly for an inventory to use for insurance purposes.

But, I'm also curious to know what it would fetch if I had to replace it and just to know the worth.

What on-line resource would you recommend for pricing out LPs?

Thanks!

 

That's a tough one to answer because of so many variables. I use a combo of eBay, Discogs, and the Goldmine print catalogs. If looking at online stuff, be sure you look at SOLD prices, not just asking prices. And the condition of the sold items too.

 

Popsike.

There's an app, too.

 

Mostly what I use is experience. For insurance purposes you might want to show your insurance agent some pages from Discogs.com (which does report actual past sales prices) and ask if the Median price seen there would be a good bet to base insurance on. Since this could change over time you'd probably want to print one page with the median price shown and file them in a notebook as proof and add another 10% or so to the summed value just for luck.

 

I would go with popsike and collectors frenzy. Popsike has a $25 floor for what it will add to its database, so it is not too useful for records that typically sell for less. That doesn't matter much for insurance purposes, though, since you would mainly be concerned about the cost of higher value items. If you have thousands of bog-standard LPs, I think it's reasonable to put a blanket price ($10 maybe) on them, rather than trying to divine the market price for each one.

 

Thanks...I think I'll have some fun and see if I have any 'special' items that may fetch more than 'bog-standard' based prices

I do have some unique imports and original issues from the good old early 70's...who knows....

 

Be very wary of Discogs sale values. There are so many inaccurate sales listings on that site. For example; reissues listed for sale under the listings of vintage pressings, colored vinyl counterfeits listed under legitimate album listings, etc. It can throw off their stats off because if something sells under that listing, it's counted no matter what was actually sold. Almost nobody that sells on Discogs knows exactly what they are selling or how to properly list it. I always ask for details when I'm interested in buying something, matrix numbers, etc. I see stuff like "new sealed reissue!" under listings for 30-40 year old records all the time. Discogs can be a great reference, but I take it with a grain of salt. They overstate the maximum value of my own collection by several thousand dollars, which would be great for insurance purposes I suppose!

I much prefer Popsike, since it aggregates past eBay auctions where you can see photos and read descriptions of the actual item that was sold. You can add wildcard characters to your searches to narrow them down. If you want to only find sales data for a particular pressing that is not sealed but is in NM condition, you type in "Album name and details NM -sealed " and it will filter out sales of sealed copies and narrow down to what you're looking for.

I've been curious about insuring my records as well. Are you doing this through homeowners insurance, or some other service?

 

For now, just homeowners insurance - but based on what I find out for any special valued items I'm going to ask I need a special rider for 'collectibles'....not sure yet.

 

Research, multiple sites, including Ebay, Discogs, but not limited to. Search around a bit, it isn't to difficult to get a general idea about the going price for an LP, specific pressing, what have you. No one site will give you an accurate price. I don't buy any used vinyl without a bit of research, I've overpaid before, not likely to happen again.

 

I use Popsike and Collector's Frenzy BUT, I always disregard the highest priced result, usually a fluke or scam, and I disregard all results where there was only one bid. Use the most recent results you can find. I also refer to Discogs, but they give no indication of condition of sold LPs. I look very closely at sold LPs condition and usually take the median of the results.

 

I'd love to hear what you find out. I've been meaning to get this happening myself.

 

I've been schooling myself on some of the sites recommended here - still have a way to go to get up to speed on what a given copy I have is worth as the prices are all over the place as pointed out.

 

I meant as far as insurance coverage. I started a thread about this a while ago and got a lot of different info. A lot of people seemed to think I should have the collection appraised, which I've never looked into.

 

I tally up the scratches.

Edit: And Discogs is great for estimating averages, but you have to account for crap that sold for too much affecting the numbers.

 

Ah...sorry - haven't figured that out. More later in the future, first step for me is an estimate of my overall collection.

 

Hey! This topic belongs in Marketplace Discussions.

 

I really think you will be better off with one of the Goldmine books. You can get one for under $20 and it has part numbers and estimated, approximate prices and I would think insurance would accept it as a standard. They don't have everything, but it does have a lot and it's standardized.

 

I'm guessing that 1/100 of my collection is listed in Goldmine.

 

Source ?
Bank balance.

 

Over here in the UK, postage is a big issue. Sellers normally charge £ 3.50 to £4 for an album (cost to buyer if returned). It costs £ 2.80 for the mail stamp before the cardboard mailer is added.

I picked up several albums from a yard sale on Sunday for £2 each which were all in decent nick for their age. Had I bought them online the cost for one would have been £ 5.50 to £ 6 and then probably an extra £ 1 postage and package for each extra LP, though this varies.

There's quite a difference between paying £ 2 for an album at a yard sale and £ 6 online for the same thing with the same "real" value, so I'm sure this is factored in by buyers and sellers here on e.g. eBay and Discogs. Just a point....

 

I use the essence of Popsike, Discogs and eBay.

 

My wallet.

 

For me online prices don't bear any resemblance to 'real' prices. I prefer to price my collection according to what my local record shops charge for LPs!

JG

 

Agreed. Similarly, I'm more inclined to pay a higher price for an LP that I've never seen before, or one that I haven't stumbled across in years and years.

 

I will pay a higher price (but not the prices some people will pay) for an LP I've been looking for, for a long time!

JG