Discogs collection values

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by Steve0, Aug 26, 2019.

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  1. Steve0

    Steve0 Audio Banana Thread Starter

    Location:
    australia
    What is the general consensus on the values discogs places on ones collection if cataloged properly?

    I am wondering what value I need to use for insurance and my collection, according to the site is at a low is 14k, mid of 27k and high of 49k (AUD).

    Most are NM or M and quite a few are very hard to come by highly collectible albums.

    What number is the right one to insure it against?
     
  2. R. Totale

    R. Totale The Voice of Reason

    Show your insurance agent those figures, and ask him what would be a proper value for replacement cost.
     
    uzn007 likes this.
  3. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Well you don't want to under insure yourself and if i had the choice between under insuring or over insuring I'd go with over insured as long as I could afford the premium.

    The problem with Discogs values is that as absolutes they aren't that helpful. You have to dig into the data to see if there are any weird anomalies. For example a record might have sold for $200 but every other one sold for $50 or less. So you can replace at $50.

    I would look at what you realistically think you can get for your collection at replacement value. Which can be a pain if you have a lot of records. I basically went with my higher end total as there was little different in premium.

    By the way, if you haven't already done so, make sure you ask them how the collection will be treated e.g. as works of art/collectibles or as just contents, etc. In addition ask what is covered e.g. with my insurance if there is a theft I'm limited to my claim vs house blows up.
     
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2019
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  4. mpayan

    mpayan A Tad Rolled Off

    I think discogs collection value is a novelty and not much more.
     
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  5. R. Totale

    R. Totale The Voice of Reason

    Actually their Low/Mid/High records are much better than trying to derive a valuation from items offered for sale on eBay or whatever, because they are based on actual prior sales, which is the gold standard for valuation in areas like antique auctions. Sotheby's won't even try to sell something unless it's been sold before and they can see auction records for it. Yes, there can be outliers high or low but it's a solid foundation for what SteveO is trying to do.
     
  6. Steve0

    Steve0 Audio Banana Thread Starter

    Location:
    australia
    thanks for the feedback. I figured it was worth something in the middle of around 25K AUD if sold as a bulk lot. To replace it would probably cost a lot more though so I will insure for the upper end value given to DD.
     
  7. GentleSenator

    GentleSenator what if

    Location:
    Aloha, OR
    just be careful when considering value of items in your collection that have no sales history, if there are any.
     
  8. Sane Man

    Sane Man Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bethlehem, PA
    I have a small collection compared to some here (about 500 records), but have them all entered in the discogs database. I'm assuming their median is the sum of all median values per record. Personally, I think for my collection, the median is likely the high and somewhere between the low and median total (closer to median) is probably close to the actual value if parted out and sold. For insurance purposes, I would feel very comfortable at the median value. The high and low totals are going to consist of too many outliers in sales prices to be reliable.

    Edit: Most of my records are likely in the VG+ grade range.
     
  9. Michael Chavez

    Michael Chavez Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    the answer that will give you best service will be specific to Australia
    you need to search specifically Australian law or ask an agent there
    here in the U.S.A. it will differ - even from state to state - so not much plausible help there either
    and to convolute matters more it will differ from policy to policy as well as underwriters
    here is a decent but brief article to give you some ideas maybe
    Valuation Clause
    you may need a rider - most do here for "collectibles" - but again don't know anything about how insurance works in Australia
    Should You Insure Your Collectibles?
     
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2019
  10. joachim.ritter

    joachim.ritter Senior Member

    Because of the nice condition your items seem to be in the sum of prices if buying or selling them all individually might be 40k. But if you are selling them as a lot you might get much less than 25k, probably more like 10k or 15 k.
     
  11. CraigVC

    CraigVC Senior Member

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    I'm working on adding my entire collection to Discogs, mainly for valuation purposes. Secondarily, for convenience should I ever choose to sell items from my collection on Discogs.

    It's frustrating that they withhold the valuation information from the data they allow to be exported out to a spreadsheet. So I have to rely on screenshots / PDF printouts, to get just the overall totals for each category I've created. Once I've got my entire collection entered (I guess around 7,000-8,000 unique pieces in my collection), I will share my data with my insurance agent.

    There are a lot of items in my collection that haven't yet sold even a single copy on Discogs. So I figure my collection's value is skewed at least somewhat above the median. (So far I've had to submit a number of items from my collection that weren't yet on Discogs -- nothing super-obscure, but I don't think as many classical music collectors are using Discogs yet because most of the ones I had to add were classical music SACDs (Sony single-layer SACDs, Pentatone, Linn Records, etc.).

    It's fun to see unexpectedly high valuations on items I've held for decades, that apparently have become rarer and more sought-after over the years. It's not fun to see unexpectedly low valuations on items I might have gone to a lot of effort and/or expense to acquire, only to see that now the bottom has dropped out on their values, or they never became sought-after as I expected they might. (Don't misunderstand; my collection is not speculative, it's for my personal enjoyment... But for the purposes of selling less-desirable items and reinvesting in new items for my collection that I want more, these changing market values are important to me.)
     
  12. uzn007

    uzn007 Watcher of the Skis

    Location:
    Raleigh, N.C.
    This is probably the best advice. Ask your advice.

    Generally speaking, Discogs values are pretty accurate, in that (as someone else mentioned) they represent actual sales, not listings. But as someone else pointed out, they can be skewed. I was looking at my collection and saw that the "max" value for Queen's first album was $500! Turns out that someone sold a copy that had been autographed by three of the band members for that figure, so obviously that doesn't apply to most copies.

    More problematic is that the sales history includes all copies of any condition, so trashed copies are mixed together with minty copies in terms of valuation. That said, I think the median value should be fairly accurate, but again, check with your insurance agent.
     
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  13. Steve0

    Steve0 Audio Banana Thread Starter

    Location:
    australia

    Yes this is something I am unsure of how to deal with as i have more than a few with 0 sales ever made and lines of 100's wanting the album so it makes it hard to value them.

    for the record, I ended up finding a good insurance under writer who agreed to the upper end valuation as well as covered everything else high end I own. I was made to get valuations on watches worth over 10K but other than that it was an easy process.

    If any AU members are reading this , the provider was/is GIO.

    thanks for all the feedback, most helpful insights.
     
    GentleSenator likes this.
  14. GentleSenator

    GentleSenator what if

    Location:
    Aloha, OR
    for insurance purposes i simply look at the most equivalent alternate release in the database with actual sales history.
     
  15. Dave S

    Dave S Forum Resident

    I don't think that's true. Sotherby's were intending to sell the Faberge eggs owned by Forbes, which hadn't been on the market for years and no one had an accurate valuation. In the end, they were sold directly to a private collector who has them on display in Russia. Now it's probably true that an insurance company might be reluctant to insure an item of unknown value.
     
  16. R. Totale

    R. Totale The Voice of Reason

    Those were obviously unique, I was speaking more of items where multiples exist, like books or records or art prints.
     
  17. justice0_14

    justice0_14 Active Member

    Location:
    timmins ontario
    Good site for you to inventory your collection but they are so far off on value,99% of my collection is all vintage sealed going back to the late 60's and up..vinyl cassettes and 8 tracks,i'd be on discogs for a year or 2 if i added my opened collection so thats not happening :)
     
  18. Raynie

    Raynie Hyperactive!

    Location:
    Snortland, Oregano
    500
    25
    20 <median
    10
    5
     
  19. uzn007

    uzn007 Watcher of the Skis

    Location:
    Raleigh, N.C.
    Exactly. That's why I said that the median is probably fairly accurate, even if there is an outlier.

    (Also, to state the obvious, when I typed "Ask your advice" a day or two ago, I meant to say "Ask your agent.")
     
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  20. Raynie

    Raynie Hyperactive!

    Location:
    Snortland, Oregano
    Yep, in theory it should be accurate. One thing however is that people disproportionately buy nicest copies available, so median value probably represents, for common records, in the top 10% best copies, versus a "median condition" of the average copy.
     
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2020
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