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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by rain_king, Jun 22, 2022.

  1. pbuzby

    pbuzby Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, US
    I saw where one local store tried to sell John Denver records for $3-$5, then marked them down to the usual $1. If you see Moodies records over $5 my guess is that if you wait that will happen.
     
  2. Collapsed Lung

    Collapsed Lung Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York, NY
    I'll probably sell it for $30 or so on Discogs and put it towards a down payment on a vinyl copy...
     
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  3. Leepal

    Leepal Forum Resident

    Location:
    Swindon, UK
    IWS was the one that seemed to shoot up in value not all that long after it was released. Some of the others are catching it up though.
     
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  4. violarules

    violarules Senior Member

    Location:
    Baltimore, MD
    Good grief. I never would have thought... I got my copy about 10 years ago for $2.99...
     
  5. Spencer R

    Spencer R Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oxford, MS
    Why exactly is it surprising that Who’s Next, one of the greatest rock albums ever recorded, would be in high demand today? Not really a shock that Rumours, Who’s Next, or Zep IV, to name a few all-time classics, are sought after today.
     
  6. Spencer R

    Spencer R Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oxford, MS
    Those albums came out in the late 80s as vinyl was being supplanted by CD. And I’d wager that both of those records sold 80% or more of their units sold on cassette. Vinyl copies of both are relatively scarce compared the number of copies of, say, Rumours or Who’s Next out there.
     
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  7. Spencer R

    Spencer R Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oxford, MS
    I’ve noticed this for decades. When I worked in a used record store in the late 90s/early 2000s, we could move copies of Yes or ELP albums, but all of the Moody Blues albums just sat in the bins forever, no matter what the condition or how low we priced them. For whatever reason, their appeal has not translated to subsequent generations the way that of many other prog artists has.
     
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  8. Spencer R

    Spencer R Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oxford, MS
    New Order’s Substance has never been a “dollar bin” record.
     
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  9. pbuzby

    pbuzby Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, US
    They are great albums. They were also great albums in the 80's and 90's but they were going for $1 then.
     
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  10. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    There was a time that these LPs flooded used record stores and thrift stores. I had Hold an Old Friend's Hand on vinyl and unfortunately got rid of it and replaced it with CD, I still have Debbie's Out of the Blue and Electric Youth on vinyl. If I come across lower priced copies of the Tiffany albums on vinyl, I will replace those.
     
  11. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    Martika on vinyl has risen in price as well.
     
  12. Spencer R

    Spencer R Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oxford, MS
    Not sure I’ve ever seen clean Decca label copies of Who’s Next in the dollar bin.

    But, as we’ve discussed a million zillion times before, in the 90s, you could get almost any major 70s classic rock title for what now seems like a ridiculously cheap price, because the entire world had just got through trading in all of their vinyl collections for pennies on the dollar, CD ruled, and only freaks and die-hards like us were still buying records. Aside from records I bought as a kid and a teenager, the backbone of my vinyl collection is made up of records I snapped up in the 90s or 2000s for next to nothing.

    Nowadays, despite the fact that there were millions of copies of Who’s Next pressed and sold in the 70s, clean original Decca label copies are relatively scarce, as most of the good ones were snapped up by people like me back in the 90s. I have two copies of Who’s Next, three copies of Electric Ladyland, four or five copies of all the mono Byrds albums, etc. - that I picked up for $5 or less when records were dirt cheap.

    And, as with real estate in Manhattan, however, they’re not making any more copies of these records. With each passing year, the number of clean copies of these album in circulation shrinks, yet new fans still want to own and hear copies of Who’s Next and Rumours. It’s hardly surprising that the prices are going up.
     
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2022
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  13. NettleBed

    NettleBed Forum Transient

    Location:
    new york city
    Agreed that the prices are getting crazy for common stuff, but it's also true that local markets can differ. As has been mentioned, sometimes you can get more cheaply in person at a brick-and-mortar store than ebay/disocgs, but there's also stores that price certain things higher than Discogs and do sell them.

    For a good many titles, Discogs is a great place to buy VG+ and high VG records (once you find sellers who grade things accurately). Record stores can often be bad places to buy these (for desirable titles) because many can slap a high price on a high-profile title that's kind of trashed, but there may well be a clueless someone who will walk in pay the crazy amount just because they want an original pressing of the title.

    My recent experiences are that brick and mortar stores are better places to buy the VG++ - to - NM stuff than discogs, because on discogs these are the items that everyone is pricing to set new records for sale prices - and lots of the time, they are overgraded anyway. Most stores can't price their stuff this way, and they also know that many of their buyers aren't going to closely inspect something all that closely to determine condition. They may also have stock that hasn't been updated on the prices as new trends emerged.
     
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  14. Spencer R

    Spencer R Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oxford, MS
    I bought Out of the Blue on CD way back when. Electric Youth came out in 1989? By that point vinyl was on the verge of being totally supplanted by CD, I don’t really remember seeing that record on vinyl in the stores when it came out. That record must be fairly scarce on vinyl: again, it probably sold an overwhelming percentage of its units on CD and cassette. However, let’s be real, Electric Youth is not viewed today as a classic in the same way that Rumours or even the Tracy Chapman record is, so demand for those relatively few units of vintage vinyl is likely rather low.
     
  15. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    While Heart In Motion by Amy Grant (from 1991) is still widely revered and even her old catalog is still perennial selling. Heart In Motion has been reissued on vinyl as they realized original copies are scarce for obvious reasons and even the reissue hasn't lowered the demand for original pressings.
     
  16. Chee

    Chee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver
    I hope this posting forum doesn't fade away....it is amazing what people are paying for common common records. Chapman, Joel..... If The Moody Blues go up I'll be amazed. Madonna is way low for an icon....glad I got 20 mint copies of her first album.
     
  17. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    Tracy Chapman sold the highest numbers on CD and cassette.
     
  18. NettleBed

    NettleBed Forum Transient

    Location:
    new york city
    I've been making this point in these threads, too. IMO, original pressings of "vinyl-era" records in good shape are probably going to just keep going up, over the longer term (things like recessions are obviously going to have short-term impacts on how people can spend their disposable income). There are only so many in circulation and while the supply continues to diminish, the demand is growing. Even if demand growth was to go flat or even decrease, the supply keeps decreasing. The people who are buying these to play will also increasingly have competition from people who just want them as historical artifacts. It's not that hard to imagine a world 50 or more years from now where people just think it's really damn cool to own 100 year-old original albums that once captivated the world (presuming people still care about the music).

    This is not to rule out similar things happening to post-vinyl-era records (some titles from the late '80s and 1990s remain very hot), but IMO this is more a result of there just being so very few made of these titles compared to the level of demand for the music in general.
     
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2022
  19. jimod99

    jimod99 Daddy or chips?

    Location:
    Ottawa, ON
    [​IMG]
     
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  20. Spencer R

    Spencer R Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oxford, MS
    This point cannot be overstated for late-80 records. If a record in 1988 or 1989 went platinum, there are maybe 100,000 copies of it on vinyl out there, probably less. By that point, well over half the copies of any album sold would have been on cassette, and CD was coming on strong.
     
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  21. Spencer R

    Spencer R Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oxford, MS
    Agreed. We already see this “fetish object” aspect of collecting with the cream of the crop of old blues 78s, for example. While many 78 collectors doubtless actually play their 78s, there is an aura around an original Robert Johnson 78 that is simply damn cool, as you put it. We see original Blue Note jazz LPs now commanding thousands of dollars, even in relatively poor condition, because, as you note, the people buying them to listen to are increasingly competing against people buying them because they appreciate the cover artwork or just because they’re a cool fetish object.

    Again, the other thing reducing the number of copies of desirable records in circulation is that hardcore collectors have multiple copies of desirable titles locked up: as I stated above I have three collector quality copies of Electric Ladyland - two original Reprise pressings, one UK, and seven or eight collector quality copies of the White Album - original US, original UK, Mobile Fidelity reissue, etc.

    Maybe when the Boomers or older Gen-X-ers like me do die off en masse, those copies of those records will be pried loose and circulate and drive down prices to some degree, but that day of reckoning is still ten to twenty years away. In the meantime, prices of the cream of the crop of classic rock titles are only going to go up.
     
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  22. Pavol Stromcek

    Pavol Stromcek Senior Member

    Location:
    SF Bay Area
    I know there are countless examples, but Steely Dan for me is one of the more surprising ones given how ubiquitous their records used to be in the dollar bins. In my local shops these days, any Steely Dan record priced less than $20 is in rough shape, and any under $10 is basically trashed. Twenty years ago, you probably could have picked up all of the first seven records for $10, and in decent shape too.

    I've also been a bit surprised to see The Nightfly going for $20-$25 these days.
     
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  23. pauluz

    pauluz Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    Taylor Swift.
     
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  24. Leepal

    Leepal Forum Resident

    Location:
    Swindon, UK
    Same thing in England, when I used to go out record hunting (not so much recently) I would usually see Moody Blues albums in charity shops and bargain bins.
     
    Spencer R likes this.
  25. Stone Turntable

    Stone Turntable Independent Head

    Location:
    New Mexico USA
    I’ve become fascinated by the uneven and arbitrary and occasionally irrational impact and geographic distribution of used vinyl inflation. The pain (or profit) of high prices draws most of the attention, like with this thread, but the excellent albums and artists you can still get for next to nothing is also striking and the reasons are sometimes obscure.

    I own maybe 600 LPs and recently added most of the valuable and semi-valuable ones to my Discogs account, but I don’t bother listing a bunch. U2, Marshall Crenshaw, The English Beat, Randy Newman, Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon, Springsteen, X, Los Lobos, tons of jazz and classical — all examples of records you can still get for peanuts it seems.
     
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