selling my fucking records

I want to slim down by like 1/3, which means selling 1500?

the collection is in massive disarray as this process begins. I still have ~1500 of my dead friend's records in the basement, all I know is that when I bring them up it will be for good, I am not moving them a 3rd time (there used to be 4000 but I gave a ton away and sold a bunch after that, $ went to his brother who is the only surviving family member).

pulling stuff out to either sell, rip, or store in the (hypothetically empty) basement after I get rid of the friend's records.

I would love to rip everything but I am 57 and literally do not have the time, I want to keep my Complete Benny Goodman set of eight 2LPs on the Bluebird label, but no I am not gonna rip that shit, so I need to once again (for the second time) break out the collection into two groups - digitized and undigitized. so right now I am in the "K" section and the place is a mess, there are Killing Joke and Kid Creole albums everywhere.

I have two months before the next show to put together 16 crates (plus a couple for box sets, I can keep those behind the tables)

if anyone in the PNW wants to come buy stuff let me know.

I just finished ripping Front 242's Tyranny For You LP, now I think I need to do that Syd Barret 2LP that I never really got into.

purely a hunch, but I think peak vinyl is over

I wish I was in the PNW, I am sure you have a bunch of great stuff.

^^^

digitising is a huge pain but I am glad I've done all of mine now that I've done it. it's not too bad to keep up with new stuff because I don't buy that much at the moment, mostly because of the insane prices

I will definitely put up a set sale list here for y'all after the show <3

this Syd record is great, wtf was I thinking, back into the "hard filed" digitized LPs it goes

Are you near Seattle? I would enjoy the chance to help you out.

Eugene OR

good luck, sleeve. this sounds like fun work I would enjoy helping with, sometimes I want to tell my local record stores “hey I’ll just come hang out and grade records for free if you want, im that messed up”

will def give you a shout if I make it up to the PNW this year

<3

Maybe donate them to the ilx library

finished pulling, still gotta price a ton and move a bunch of shit around. and then maybe pull some more.

I think instead of putting the "non-digitized" LPs in the basement I will capitulate and keep the outer hallway shelf upstairs, I am pretty much done with moving records into or out of the basement.

sold a bunch today to a friend who knew I was doing this, he came over to peruse. nice to have a spare $150 after busting my ass for 4 days.

haha and one of the ones he bought was Tyranny For You, mentioned upthread, glad I ripped it.

Dr sleeve’s Needle Drops

totally random but I have been listening to a ton of Front 242 the last couple of weeks - before you even mentioned

it was because they announced they are retiring this year and doing a final tour.

I immediately went to buy tickets only to find it was sold out already

purely a hunch, but I think peak vinyl is over

yeah I hate it and everything’s beat up and shit

(re Bay Area used records)

prices are still a bit stupid here but I think it is on the way down.

honestly it's mostly the price of new records that I have a problem with. there's a record shop about 200m away from me that opened last year, but they are charging like £30-40 an LP and I'm like - fuck that shit tbh

I dunno, it's the "old albums" prices that sadden me. Just saw an original Joy Division "Closer" LP for £80. It's not because I want one, I don't. But some crate digging kid isn't gonna get inspired by finding that and taking it home. Just some old get (like me) playing 'catch up' and pretending he had it all along, I guess...

i get depressed when i see the price tags i have on some old records. Aron's in L.A. used to put a sticker on the inner label, which is kinda annoying but at the same time it's good to be reminded of the time i paid $2.99 for Crazy Rhythms by The Feelies, or $6.99 each for a trio of OG Galaxie 500 LPs, or speaking of Joy Division a first edition copy of Still for $8.99.

i do remember when i went to Amoeba in SF a couple years back, the used prices were absolutely horrible (vs the not-great but more reasonable prices of Amoeba Hollywood.) i was staying in Sausalito and drove over to do some digging and i gave up pretty quickly.

Well, that's just it: I got that Feelies album for £2 at a local charity shop, maybe 5 years ago.

haw ok yes I paid less than 3 dollars for a copy of Crazy Rhythms in like 2000. I went back to the same store almost 10 years later and I could see the owner looking stuff up on discogs 😭

Feels to me like prices for vintage records leapfrogged new prices — anecdotally it seems like wisdom among newer collectors who’ve progressed past the initial stage of collecting is “reissues are shit so get a vintage copy” so like your used 2014 Led Zep IV is a $15-20 record, you can buy a new one for $40, and a copy from 1985 is $60. It’s fuckin bonkers. Meanwhile everything that’s not in the top 50 (or, obv, actually rare and collectible) is basically a $5 record ($5 is the new $1)

Discogs prices are, for some reason, not impacted by supply and demand. If I’m looking for some bleep, new beat, goa trance, etc. record I’ll often see something like “100 people want this record,” “50 people are selling this record,” but “last sale was six months ago.” Yet the asking price of $60 doesn’t move. It’s so strange. The sellers appear to be more than happy to sit on their inventory.

everybody thinks they are worth more than they really are. I just got Mingus "Oh Yeah" original mono pressing via an eBay auction for $20+ less than Discogs median.

and if any of you ever want to sell your copy of Crazy Rhythms, please let me know ;)

I could see the owner looking stuff up on discogs

Price guides have been around forever, and the used stores I used to go to in the '70s and '80s would keep one around, but I don't think they were used very often. The ease of looking something up online--and the domino effect that created--is the biggest culprit in fantasy-land pricing.

A lot of old LPs have very little presence if you’re used to modern compression. The version of Harvest I used to have was barely alive

so many fucking dollar records, 2-3 crates?

I twisted my knee walking the dog on Thursday and am still limping a bit, gonna be a brutal day tomorrow (today, I'm up late). fortunately I have help.

Discogs prices are, for some reason, not impacted by supply and demand. If I’m looking for some bleep, new beat, goa trance, etc. record I’ll often see something like “100 people want this record,” “50 people are selling this record,” but “last sale was six months ago.” Yet the asking price of $60 doesn’t move. It’s so strange. The sellers appear to be more than happy to sit on their inventory.

Two things working in parallel:

Demand: Many people 'want' a record, so they click on the button to say so, but that doesn't mean they'll pay any price for it. They just want it, in other words they would like to have it.

Supply: A seller comes on and sees that someone else is selling the same record for a certain price, so they list it at the same price and wait for it to sell, which it may never do at that price.

You see the same thing on Amazon: pricing based simply on what other people are asking for something. When I've had a book to sell in the past, I've often not listed it on Amazon, because if I listed it there at a lower price, the price on the other copies would in many cases almost instantly go lower, because the sellers have software that monitors prices of the titles they are selling. Instead, I've listed it on eBay at a somewhat lower price than the Amazon price and usually got a sale fairly quickly. It's the old 'fifty per cent of something is better than a hundred per cent of nothing'.

one person gets drunk ten years ago and pays $300 at 3 AM for what is usually a $10 record on Discogs and people put up inflated prices for it for the next decade and never sell it. like the drunken flapping of a butterfly wing.

I sometimes imagine inflated discogs prices being driven by just like, bored children of rich ppl

totally

it was a good day, I emptied 3 crates!

nice!