Recent used vinyl price increases: what are the most surprising titles?

I don't think the dude's an idiot...it's just crazy to me that some of these titles are going for this amount of money.

 

I've not seen the self titled for a while, if I do - they are usually worn copies. I used to see Tusk, but not lately anymore. Rumours I see used for $25, but I can go to Walmart and get a new clear vinyl copy for about that price or $30. Whether it's worth it is beyond my intent. I have the deluxe cd editions of FM from the self titled to the live remaster. I was looking at a used tape of Tango for $3. Tapes of classic rock like Kiss, Zep, Van Halen go for $10 or $12 now used - like cds. Tapes used to be deemed unworthy for sale...

 

Sage advice Showtime...I will hopefully finish my collection this summer.

 

That’s still an $8 record all day long. Your record store owner is bonkers.

wow, even $13 is too high a price. But Clapton’s 461 Ocean Boulevard is E13,- at a store I visited while on vacation. So, I guess as long as it sells…

 

Last year I sold a couple of her albums (Folklore, Red) that had pressing issues (and I had replaced them in my collection with better sounding versions.) Both were limited editions. In both cases I mentioned the pressing issues in my for sale listings. Both still sold for well over $100 each.

 

A bit off topic:

My wife is concerned that if something happens to me, she has to somehow dispose of my collection. I've told her that my collection is very desirable and she should get bids from the dealers in the area. Get a bids on the albums, 45s, and cd collections separately. They will happily haul it away and throw in a few bucks as well.

I've also told my unemployed stepson and his unemployed wife that they can sell my collection and keep the proceeds, but they have to make an effort to research (discogs, etc.) and not just unload it at a local store for next to nothing. Sort of an early inheritance. They could easily make enough to live on for years while working from home but, alas, they are not interested. Our obsession is not for most folks, but I thought making fairly easy money was more popular.

 

Not to brag, I but I also recently picked up a VG+ OG Canadian "The River" - for free, also at a yard sale. Now I should add that they wanted $5, and couldn't break my $20, so they said "just take it".

FYI, I went by that house yesterday and gave them $10

 

This is true; just about all of these albums which were new or recent at the time by popular and semi-popular bands - e.g., the Smiths, Depeche Mode, The Cure, U2, the Bunnymen, New Order, REM, B52s, etc. - were generally widely and readily available on vinyl in chain stores through '89 (and even into the very early 90s).

But yes, I still remember in 1988 when Rasputin's in Berkeley (really the best record store in the East Bay at the time) moved all of its used vinyl to a shop directly across the street from where it was located at that time to make more space in the main shop for CDs. That was as early instance when it became evident to me that CDs were poised to take over.

 

I guess it's the "abundance" that's getting in the way of agreement. There are a bunch that are going to be noisy regardless of what on one might do to clean them up. But one can usually identify both the most likely to be noisy and most likely to play well. When one does that it becomes somewhat less of a crap shoot. Taking the ones most likely to succeed, cleaning them using proven methods and often the records will play very nicely. If they don't then it is most likely groove damage or a poor pressing. As Bad Co. records were new in the mid/late 70s when a much higher number were played on fairly good turntables rather than old suitcase players and consoles that you might find on, say a Dave Clark Five record that came out a decade or so earlier, the likelihood of groove damage is reduced.

Near Mint is one heck of a bar to clear for a used records pressed back in the heyday of vinyl. Heck VG+ is as well, if you apply the correct definition to it. But if we are defining nice playing records as those that only have minor/infrequent noise and generally provides an enjoyable listening experience, then there are plenty of those out there in the wild. It is certainly not what an audiophile vinyl collector would want. But for a music lover that appreciates vinyl records these records are just fine.

 

I'm glad to hear that they are becoming aware of Joni. Maybe this will result in interest in many of the other great singer songwriters of the period. I would love to see the day when Steve Goodman albums were in greater demand than Black Sabbath.

 

While it’s hard to read exact numbers from this chart, by 1989, it looks like CD and cassette were responsible for about 95% of recorded music sales in the USA. If Substance or Louder than Bombs sold 500,000 copies in the USA on their initial release, they likely sold somewhere between 25,000 and 75,000 copies on vinyl. These records are certainly not out there in the millions on vinyl the way 70s rock LPs are.

Recorded Music Sales by Format from 1973-2015, and What That Might Tell Us About the Limitations of GDP Accounting | American Enterprise Institute - AEI

 

Hyperbole at it's finest.

 

Around here, hipsters are just boogeymen.

 

Exactly my experience which is why I have turned back to CD. In the past few years I have bought very little vinyl. It's just too outta control. Heck, everybody keeps talking about .50-$1 CD's and yeah, I see them out there too, but they're mostly crap-ola titles. Even with CDs, everything I want want is at least $10 or more, but compared to vinyl, it's still a bargain.

 

Fair enough. It certainly is an advantage for me to visually inspect records. I have identified many used records just as you describe. When one has to purchase used records via the internet that is where it really gets difficult. When I get a noisy record, then I have to deal with the buyer, ending up wasting time, money and energy returning the record

You're old enough to remember the 70's. Maybe you were hanging out with a higher income crowd than I was at the time. Most people had dodgy TT setups. I did have friends with nice TT's but the handling of records left a lot to be desired, and we did play the crap out of our records.

I get your gist and don't necessarily disagree. My definition of an enjoyable record is NM. I won't buy a used record sight unseen unless it is at least NM. Most of my collection is NM. VG+ is a joke on ebay or discogs.

 

An update on the elusive Smiths, I came across the How Soon is Now? 12" at Half Price Books for $35! I thought that was nuts until I looked it up on Discogs and that was the exact price of the cheapest one for sale. Heck with that.

 

Just checked the same record store site where I listed prices of the David Crosby album and yikes, they are selling original pressings in VG/NM of Joni's albums through the mid 70's for high prices now. I imagine that doesn't hold true everywhere though.

For comparison, the same price hike doesn't seem to have happened with Cat Stevens, James Taylor or Carly Simon LPs.

 

Or difference of opinion?
I tend to agree with our host who has sung the praises of original Cars vinyl on this forum before.
The Cars on vinyl sounds good to me

I will say that the MoFi of the Cars S/T is much loved around here. I might be one of those weird folks where MF's sonic signature doesn't really work for me. ANYWAY. Even at $30, the STERLING first press is a much cheaper option than the MoFi now, and that's unlikely to change.

 

A lot of sellers seem to get caught in a pricing stand-off and you end up with dozens of listings with similar inflated prices that clearly aren't selling. One item on my wantlist has been for sale by the same 4 people for $75-150 for almost a year now, no one has budged and no one is taking best offers. I can wait them out.

 

I remember putting $15 on the s/t still in shrink. This was maybe two years ago. Some would call it NM all around. It felt weird but I knew it had to be done. Personally, I think 30 would be a little high myself now. There aren't that many people who care about RL. However, the guys that have money and want to buy the same friggin' record over and over are the ones who sort of ruin the pricing game in a store. If I know Dr. Lawyer Guy will probably buy that Beatles album despite bragging he has ten copies (and doesn't know diddly about pressings), it's going up. Part of me wants to give anyone under the age of 30 a discount. Sorry... began to rant!

 

Ok, fair enough. I have the OG The Cars, and it is a good sounding record. It's just when people use words like destroys or trounces etc. That makes the hyperbole alarm go off for me.

 

I think it's a good idea to email the seller before purchasing a high dollar record online. You can then ask about their grading and get them to play grade if they haven't already and take a second listen if they have. Then you are more likely to get something to the affect of, "it's NM but there are a few pops on side one and some surface noise in the quiet part of side 2 track 3." Which means that it's really a VG record and you can walk away. But even when buying a a brick and mortar you really don't know for sure, unless you have the shop owner to put it on the turntable for a listen.

Regarding turntables I definitely mean in comparison to records played a decade earlier. It's all relative. My setup until I was about 16 was a suitcase player and Mom and Dad's console. Those records are in bad shape today. But saving my money from working at the service station during high school I bought my first "stereo", when a guy a few years older sold me his Magnavox (Receiver, Turntable, Speakers all Magnavox) when he upgraded. From that not so glamorous system I gradually upgraded components over the years. I replaced the Magnavox turntable with a consumer grade Technics (can't remember the model) that I kept for twenty plus years. Both of those turntables were miles better than a suitcase or console. They didn't grind the groove wall, even if they were basically entry level or slightly better. I still have those records. You can distinguish the pre-Magnavox records for those after I got it. The early ones are trashed. The newer ones, including some Bad Co. records play very nicely nearly 50 years later. I think that makes a big difference. A lot of young people back then, at least the ones that had a record collect that gradually reached triple digits, spend money on home audio equipment. The one's that didn't were as likely to buy 8-tracks / cassettes as vinyl and invest in their car stereo.

 

Not on Discogs you didnt. Unless you were ok with some crackle.

 

I certainly wasn't trying to suggest that Smiths and New Order records were being pressed or sold at similar quantities to the popular "70s rock LPs," and they obviously weren't being repressed much, if at all, but it would be interesting to see how much they were selling at the time.

 

That sounds about right for a Smiths 12" these days, and those prices go up for some of the more elusive 12"s, like "Headmaster Ritual." I was lucky and scooped up most of their 12"s when they could still be had for $12–$20 in strong VG+ or NM condition in the shops.