If you wanted to sell your record/CD collection, how would you do it?

Literally, Amazon?

Did you price, pack and list it, and they ship it?

 

Bury them.

 

Yes, you just list everything, send it to them, and sit back. The biggest problem was that they took a huge bite, so it wasn't very profitable, but when I was doing it all myself that wasn't super profitable either. Mind you, I did all this in 2013/2014 so the process may have changed since then.

 

I love CD Cellar as a buyer and frequent it more often than any other store (nearly weekly, in fact). I also find them great buyers for CDs, which is rare for brick and mortar music sellers these days. For vinyl…not so much. I understand that they need to make a profit, but I felt that the one time I sold them vinyl, they really underpaid. In fact, I was paid better for a stack of used CDs. I know it’s too late for you, but for others in the DC area looking to offload vinyl, I would highly recommend talking to Joint Custody first. They pay shockingly good prices for good used vinyl.

 

Just to add to the conversation, a couple of stores near me have told me that they no longer buy entire collections - too much waste.
Ever been in record store where you are tripping over those boxes of 99 cent records spilling into the aisles?

 

In my humble experience, nine times out of ten you won't really get what you think (hope!) you will and then the auction site, payment middle man, whatever, takes a mighty chunk too...
Then, one night when you're blinking in the darkness, you'll wonder if it was even worth it and whether discogs still have a copy of that green/pink/blue/clear/pizza splatter* vinyl edition of _____________* because you'd really love just to see and hold and hear it one more time...

*delete as applicable.
*your choice of album goes here.

 

When I worked in a record store 15 or 20 years ago, the owner regularly bought collections and threw away 30% or 40% of what he bought. It was painful to watch, but there was no need to stick another VG copy of an Al Hirt or Herb Alpert LP in the dollar bins forever.

Of course, this is why you’re never going to get top dollar trying to sell your collection as one big batch to a dealer. Unless you have the greatest record collection of all time, there is going to be some percentage of it that he can’t easily or quickly move, so he’s not going to pay you top dollar for the desirable 10% or 20% of your collection, because he’s going to be stuck with the rest of it, too.

Which is why people wanting to liquidate their collection ought to piece out the records that will bring $50 on eBay or Discogs, or $100, or whatever their personal cutoff point is for “fooling with the work of selling one record,” and dump the rest to the local shop for pennies on the dollar.

 

It all depends on what you’re selling, what your rep is on the auction site (Do you have 100% positive feedback and over 1,000 completed sales? If so, you’re going to get more bidders and a higher price than the guy who joins eBay with zero feedback to start piecing out his record collection.), etc.

I’ll gladly give eBay their 10% cut rather than settle for pennies on the dollar from the local record shop. If you have first press UK Beatles albums, mint tri-color Reprise Jimi Hendrix albums, a bunch of Music Matters 45 rpm jazz LPs, etc. etc. to sell, you would be a complete fool to sell them as a batch to a dealer or your local record shop. By definition, he can’t pay you “what they’re worth” and stay in business. He’s going to turn around and sell them for “what they’re worth,” but he also has the overhead of rent, insurance, employee salaries, advertising, etc. to pay for, and he is now assuming the risk that he can’t flip your collection overnight. The record he pays you $30 for to flip for $120 might not sell this week, this month, or this year.

The only way to truly get “what your most valuable records are worth” is to do the dealer’s job for a day and piece them out and sell them yourself. If you put the $120 book value record on eBay, you might only get $80 for it, but that’s still a hell of a lot more than the $30 the dealer is going to pay you for it. And there’s always the chance a bidding war on eBay will give you $150 for it. If you take it to the local shop, though, in the absolute best case you’re settling for 30% or 40% of “what it’s worth.”

 

ebay one or two at a time

 

If you're eBaying beware of 'Chargeback' if it's still a thing. A few years ago I got stung by it, no fun.
Sold an item, item was delivered, got positive feedback then two months later Paypal (acting on behalf of the customer) claimed the customer didn't actually buy the item it was his father ergo misuse of the customers credit card. So they refunded the customer with my funds. I lost the item and I lost the money; it wasn't hundreds of pounds but it soured my eBay experience.

 

"Carefully,
carefully,
careful L- Y!"

 

I think collections have evolved/devolved into a number of things: (1) archives where many things are scooped up with varying degrees of discernment and condition, (2) old school vinyl/cd collections that were built before the vinyl renaissance/ cd collapse they can have some serious collectibles along with bulk items, (3) and newer vinyl renaissance collections that are built from the relatively small vinyl runs of most pressings and become valuable and worthless sometimes very very quickly.

 

Sadly and frustratingly I have no one in my family who shares my passion for music & hi-fi. No one is interested in my collection of over 10000 CDs and Vinyl. They would give everything to charity. I'd rather personally make as much as I can from my collection to achieve the truest value and then donate to a charity of my own choice. I'd probably use DISCOGS to sell the best and then place the "worthless" in the local charity shop.

 

In the UK it is a good idea to make use of the 'gift aid' option, if you aren't paying tax yourself get a family member who is to fill the form in, it will add af urther 25p in the £1 to the sale value for the charity.

 

eBay on the great stuff. Record convention on the rest.

 

Excellent observation.I think my collection is probably 75% number 2 and 25% number 3.

 

Me too.I have a nephew who plays in a band and loves his music.He has quite recently got into vinyl in a small way,but he has small children and other commitments taking up his time.I really don't think he would thank me if he suddenly found himself in possession of 10000+ records!