my goal for 2010 is to make record-collecting a self-sustaining hobby for myself

im not trying to sell all the records i have now. instead, id sort of like to try and buy and re-sell enough records in 2010 to pay for the records i keep in 2010. given that ive been buying a lot, this could be tricky, but it feels like it could be fun.

what do you think? is this do-able? will i need a storage unit to keep the number of records ill need to hold in storage in order to strike this economic balance?

oh right, i am keeping my 9-5 job!

will that keep me from investing the requisite time?

are you following ebay trends, seeking out good records, and trying to turn a profit?

to a CERTAIN degree? ive developed an okay sense of what is nice, and what people are stoked about. im not profit-focused, beyond the reinvestment into records (so store-credit trades will be a nice situation). i have a lot more to learn, though, and i guess that's what im excited about. i guess i dont really think ill reach my actual goal...

ya, if this is a goal, u need to scour dollar bins and thrift stores to buy stuff you know is worth more. even if you already have or aren't into.

flea markets every weekend, map out yer route & start early. do ya'll have a car?

Selling is a pain in the ass, I did it for about two years. I realized I don't need to know everyone on the planet. I am digitizing stuff now so I am keeping everything.

Doing anything is a pain in the ass, tbh

truth bomb

buying and listening to records is not a pain in the ass, but trying to make money from it seems like it would just stress me out.

craigslist has made this a lot easier to do. as long as you have a big enough vehicle to haul off tons of records. and a way to dispose of the crud.

i passed up 10,000+ records for a hundred bucks not long ago, cuz i could only see myself salvaging maybe 1000 decent records out of the 10,000. i just didn't like the numbers. truck rental + back pain + dump fee + time spent cleaning a zillion marginally profitable records. but for someone who was willing to make the effort and be a glorified junk hauler there was a profit to be made. go to the dump with the crap and box up the rest to sell at flea market/sidewalk sale/record fair/ebay/etc. you just need some time and a strong back. it's kinda like having a part-time job on top of a full-time job though. unless you are surrounded by amazing thrift stores and junk shops filled with cool records or something.

plus, it does help if you have the skillz to pay the billz. just saying. i'm sure most people here do. but you should have a good eye for the profitable in lots of genres. MOST people, even people who collect records, don't.

i invested $100 at a SF record store last night as a test, trying to just cherry-pick a few things to re-sell. result: im keeping half of the stuff. spirit willing; flesh weak.

we do have regular use of a (@nnie's mom's) minivan, and my back is pretty strong. i know the next step for me is buying more than i want, hitting estate sales, craigslist, and flea markets. im not saying this will be an EASY goal, but itll be fun learning about genres and labels and stuff...

http://www.starpaper.co.za/images/good-attitude-award.jpg

It's nice when you first start, and pick up a bunch of 50 LPs, say, with around 10 that you really really want.

But after a while, doing that a few times, you do end up with a ton of stuff you really really do not want!

here we go!

not sure if speculative buying in stores is the best approach. although i guess it depends what you got.

i'd recommend hitting up all record fairs in your area. and with the flea markets, it's really not that important to hit them up on the regular and be first as much as getting to know the characters who accumulate and resell. here in the cold weather months when they're still buying but not selling you can visit their storage if you're on friendly terms, and have all the good shit to yourself as it comes in. and be good about getting phone numbers.

lastly be polite. there's a million and one assholes also doing this too and a lot of them are cranks. a little politeness and respect goes surprisingly far in this stupid game.

^^ definitely agreed that store-flipping isnt the best approach, but on the days between flea markets/estate sales, i can find some reasonably underpriced stuff in stores around here.

got a sealed CRIPPLE CLARENCE LOFTON yazoo LP up for sale now, along with a few more arhoolie records potentially underpriced at amoeba.

hey btw, someone asked me a question about the yazoo LP this morning, and im not sure i understand it -- he wanted to know the MAILING ADDRESS on the back cover of the LP. i told him, and then he bid on the record. did yazoo's address change? anyone have any idea what to look out for?

early pressings have different info on the back. dunno the particulars. but that's how you can tell early from later pressings.

wait til you sell some blue notes. oh the addresses and ears and rvgs and doohickeys you'll be asked about.
ps also never sell a beatles record. for the $15 you'll get you'll be asked 15-20 questions from separate people.

why did the 2 original 80s rayban sunglasses i get receive 4 questions from and only bids from thailand? don't they sell sunglasses there? in fact they do. and TONS of rayban knockoffs.

i guess the dollar is SUPER weak right now? ive sold 4-5 things the past couple weeks, ALL TO OUTSIDE THE COUNTRY.

ps also never sell a beatles record. for the $15 you'll get you'll be asked 15-20 questions from separate people.

― sanskrit, Tuesday, December 1, 2009 5:42 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark

some good advice there

I am currently applying this philosophy to my Vinyl On Demand subscriptions. The 2009 batch should arrive soon (I got one of the last 3 subs) and I will be selling maybe 8 of the 12 releases, hopefully getting the remaining ones (NWW, Konstruktivits, M Squared box, Crash Course In Science) for minimal investment after the rest are sold.

i would do this if i expected to really really dig any of the releases. industrial and, to a lesser degree, dance music are largely-unmined territory for me.

^^ maybe an exaggeration about dance music, but i have some friends who are real EXPERTS, and im still v v intimidated by a crate full of blank white jacketed 12"s :\

Honestly, I think I'm developing a bad case of vinyl bulimia.
In an inane effort to rid my already not that big nor incredibly impressive collection of any and all stinkers, record collecting feels kind of like a binge and purge experience, where trips to the record store are offset by postings on craigslist. Though I'll probably thank myself whenever I have to move, the obsessive compulsive fixation on keeping things to the essentials, and the anxiety that I feel when I think of the painful weight on my shelves feels like its might be getting kind of burdensome.

Doing anything is a pain in the ass, tbh

― MainoWriMo (Whiney G. Weingarten)

xoxoxoxo

Honestly, I think I'm developing a bad case of vinyl bulimia.
In an inane effort to rid my already not that big nor incredibly impressive collection of any and all stinkers, record collecting feels kind of like a binge and purge experience, where trips to the record store are offset by postings on craigslist. Though I'll probably thank myself whenever I have to move, the obsessive compulsive fixation on keeping things to the essentials, and the anxiety that I feel when I think of the painful weight on my shelves feels like its might be getting kind of burdensome.

― We jus' havin' fun, so don't act like you don't want my money, hon (EDB), Friday, March 5, 2010 12:53 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ugh.

by 2010, i meant 2011 btw

aw! i am with you for 2011.

I would love to take out the airstream trailer for a month of vacation of buying up records to resell/keep. I think that could be lucrative but need to convince my friend Nate and his amazing record brain to come along with me.

i think i'm moving toward this goal as well, but i don't have much experience sourcing records outside of stores/thrifts/fleas. for those of you finding collections through craigslist: how often do housecalls yield decent records as opposed to total junk? and are there still worthwhile records to be found in distro warehouses?

ian was it you or a coworker who locked up all that COUNTY deadstock?

that was me. i think he might still have some more stuff. i haven't talked to him in a year or more, maybe.

Soulstreamers: A Mobile Music Project to Keep Vinyl Record Culture Alive

granted i have been buying way less records than in past years, but i have sort of done this for this year. i primarily only allow myself to buy with paypal that i get from selling records on discogs. (luckily i have found a few brick and mortar stores that have let me pay with paypal, although they look a lil peeved by it)

definitely falling short this year, but i really am doing a lot to keep things freshwater in my collection!

we are going to sell the fuck out of those records this weekend!

Jaxon, why don't you get a PayPal debit card?? That's what I've used for years -- has the Visa logo and works just a card from a bank. you can even use it to cash at the ATM

wow somehow I dropped *two* words from that post ('just LIKE a card...'; 'to GET cash..' if that wasn't clear. sorry)