Selling In Bulk

Hello everyone, my grandpa is looking to sell his vinyl collection which is made up of 11,049 LPs and 42, 728 45's, and he wants to sell it in bulk. The majority of them are not cataloged and they all have been sitting in a storage facility since 1984. I'm going to be handling the sell for him, but I have no idea where to start. Any advice or tips you folks can provide would be much appreciated, thank you so much.

 

I do not have any personal experience selling such a large amount in bulk but I guess you would need to shop around. Since you are in Hawaii, Amoeba might be one of the places to start? Good Luck with the sale and I hope he gets a fair price on them.

 

It would help knowing what genres are covered, 42,000 pop singles will have little value, 42,000 soul singles have the potential to make him wealthy, it's similar with LPs, 11,000 pop not so good, 11,000 fifties and sixties jazz LPs with complete runs of Blue Note, Prestige and Impulse jackpot!

Apart from what you have condition is of paramount importance, unplayed and near mint carry a premium, wrecked records are close to worthless, however you proceed you will need to learn how to accurately grade records.

That being said try these sites for finished eBay results, knowledge is important when selling: popsike.com - vinyl records price guide

Similar to above, but totally free: Roots Vinyl Guide

Then there is Discogs: Discogs - Music Database and Marketplace

Once you have an idea of genres and condition ask again and somebody will be able to give you more specific advice.

 

Is your grandpa on Hawaii, too? It'd cost a mint to get those records back to the mainland.

 

If the records are in Hawaii then I hope it's a climate controlled storage facility.

 

I have no idea what the store or collecting scene is like in Hawaii, but I'm sure there will be interested parties.

Easiest approach is to list it locally or call some stores (do some research online and call the ones with the best reputation). Most likely they will want to know some basic stuff like genres. So I would do a quick flip through these (unless your grandpa knows already) and have that info ready if possible. Not a deal breaker but stores might be more eager to come knowing it's something they can sell vs it's a mystery.

Be honest with the stores and tell them you are inviting bids and will go with the highest one so they know where they sit and can come out of the gate swinging hard right from the start. No point in wasting time. Ask for their top price.

It would be worth doing a bit of work on your end first though. I'd have a look through, see if there's anything particularly rare and if the records are in decent condition. This info will help when you are negotiating with buyers. If you know what you have is decent, it gives them less opportunity to bs you or pretend otherwise. Also, it lets them know that you have an idea of what you have and what it might be worth (even if you don't!)

A store owner once told me he got a call from a jazz collector with a Blue Note collection to sell. The seller wouldn't let him look at the collection unless he answered some questions about Blue Note pressings first. The seller wanted to make sure the people he was calling over to have a look and make an offer knew the value of what he was selling. You don't have to go that far of course, but worth having an idea as to what you have. Unless of course you just want them gone, then make a few calls, get a few bids and take the highest one and be done with it.

 

You might consider talking to a couple of small time local auction houses, too.

 

More info is needed to even start to answer.

How was this accumulation/collection put together? Promos? Remnants of a radio station? Stuff bought in bulk at garage sales? Or...?

What?

 

How the heck has he acquired so many albums without even so much as a basic cataloging system for them. How does he even find a record when he wants to play it?

If he wants good money for them now is the time do what he should have done with the collection yonks ago - fully reference catalog it.

 

I disagree, the number of people who decide to sell collections and meticulously list them all spending countless hours are just wasting their time, dealers and shops want to see the collection, other than giving a general idea of what's there lists are pointless as they don't show condition or which pressing things are, both of which are of the upmost importance. Even people who take the time to list condition and which pressing it is invariably get it wrong, anybody interested in buying a large collection will want to see it first, an idea of genes and some decent photos to give a flavour will be of much more use and take just a few minutes, listing 50,000+ items is throwing time/money away.

The OP is AWOL, but if the collection does happen to be Soul, Jazz or certain other genres and the right labels/condition then there are specialist dealers who will take it on consignment and give a much better return, though it's more than likely the collection is very mainstream pop in which case if it's anything like the UK he'll struggle to get pennies per item on the singles and the LPs may not be worth much more, without any clues it's all speculation and very difficult to give appropriate advice.

 

Big surprise.

 

Stuck in Hawaii with 50,000 records. Poor guy.

 

Probably Hawaiian music. Could be boxes of duplicates?

 

There are a couple of record stores in Hawaii

Hungry Ear Records - Downtown - Honolulu, HI

 

@segue

 

These guys might be worth a call:

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Your best bet is try to get three bids.