Need advice on sellling vinyl LPs. A lot of them.

[Swish]

Well, the advice isn't for me actually. A close friend is going to start selling a ton...somewhere in the range of 25,000...on e-bay. A good friend of his was a disc jockey a number of years ago and has since become a Catholic priest. He has them in storage and decided that it's time to get rid of them, but he can't be doing that sort of thing from a church address, so my pal is going to help him. According to him, many are unopened and still in the original wrappers, so they're basically in mint condition, and I would assume some will likely qualify as 'rare'. He came to me for advice for selling them on e-bay, which I can help him with of course, at least the technical aspects since I've been using e-bay for years. What I can't help him with is figuring out what these things are worth so he can set a reasonable reserve price.

Anyway, if anyone can suggest pricing guides or possibly a website that might provide that kind of information, it would be greatly appreciated. He's not in a great rush to sell them, and I'll be sure to let you vinyl freaks know what he has if you're interested.

Thanks,
Swish

[Jim Clark]

Well, the advice isn't for me actually. A close friend is going to start selling a ton...somewhere in the range of 25,000...on e-bay. A good friend of his was a disc jockey a number of years ago and has since become a Catholic priest. He has them in storage and decided that it's time to get rid of them, but he can't be doing that sort of thing from a church address, so my pal is going to help him. According to him, many are unopened and still in the original wrappers, so they're basically in mint condition, and I would assume some will likely qualify as 'rare'. He came to me for advice for selling them on e-bay, which I can help him with of course, at least the technical aspects since I've been using e-bay for years. What I can't help him with is figuring out what these things are worth so he can set a reasonable reserve price.

Anyway, if anyone can suggest pricing guides or possibly a website that might provide that kind of information, it would be greatly appreciated. He's not in a great rush to sell them, and I'll be sure to let you vinyl freaks know what he has if you're interested.

Thanks,
Swish

All of the good punk and new wave albums should probably be priced about a buck a piece and I should get them : )

Of course I'd love to know what's buried in that treasure pile.

Oh, pricing can be tough since even unopened albums can easily be warped. For starters, Gemm.com can be a good source for vinyl pricing.

jc

[johnny p]

I'm picturing 25,000 LPs in my head..... WHOA ( said in a Keanu Reeves super cheesy manner for added effect)

[Swish]

All of the good punk and new wave albums should probably be priced about a buck a piece and I should get them : )

Of course I'd love to know what's buried in that treasure pile.

Oh, pricing can be tough since even unopened albums can easily be warped. For starters, Gemm.com can be a good source for vinyl pricing.

jc

I have no idea what he has in there, but he apparently stored them properly to prevent damaging them, so I'm hoping warping is minimal. I understand he has some early Elvis Presley and Beatles stuff, but I'm going to suggest to my friend that he get this info on a spreadsheet/database of some sort so it can be sorted and reviewed to see what's there. I'll check out Gemm.com for sure.

Swish

[MindGoneHaywire]

A reliable pricing guide is helpful, but the numbers can be unrealistic as something's obviously only worth what someone's willing to pay even if 'book value' shows the decimal place in a different zip code. Gemm is good, but I would recommend checking eBay--not just what's currently up, but, most importantly, also have a tab for Completed Items, so if the same exact item has sold recently, well, that's the most accurate idea on price. Also, if he's willing to deal with the paperwork, selling internationally will probably provide a significant advantage, especially since there are collectors in Europe and Japan who will pay more for just about anything.

[Swish]

A reliable pricing guide is helpful, but the numbers can be unrealistic as something's obviously only worth what someone's willing to pay even if 'book value' shows the decimal place in a different zip code. Gemm is good, but I would recommend checking eBay--not just what's currently up, but, most importantly, also have a tab for Completed Items, so if the same exact item has sold recently, well, that's the most accurate idea on price. Also, if he's willing to deal with the paperwork, selling internationally will probably provide a significant advantage, especially since there are collectors in Europe and Japan who will pay more for just about anything.

I know you do quite a bit of selling of cds on e-bay and I appreciate your comments. This guy isn't looking to get top dollar, just a fair price on the vinyl without the appearance of 'unloading' the stuff. The pricing guide will give them an idea of a reserve price, so if something is valued around $50, he may set the reserve at $30 or something. Maybe not, but that would be my suggestion to him.

I like the international suggestion to, but I'm going to leave that choice up to him. Packaging vinyl for shipping would seem like a pain in the rump, so adding more to the process would make we want to put a hatchet through the freekin' door.

Regards,
Swish

[tentoze]

http://www.jerryosborne.com/rr.htm

This price guide is pretty good, and if dude has 25k ablums to sell, the price of the guide itself shouldn't be an obstacle. Also, as far as packing there are online sources for lp mailers.

[Swish]

http://www.jerryosborne.com/rr.htm

This price guide is pretty good, and if dude has 25k ablums to sell, the price of the guide itself shouldn't be an obstacle. Also, as far as packing there are online sources for lp mailers.

And for about $35, it should be well worth it to him.

Appreciate it dude,
Swish

[nobody]

25,000 albums is an awful lot to sell on Ebay as individual auctions. Between taking photos ('cause the auctions without photos rarely sell at a decent price at all), listing, packing and mailing; that's a full time job for a while. A printed price guide may be easier, but like suggested earlier, checking completed auctions on Ebay is about as accurate as to what you can actually expect to get as you'll find.

He could look through them and pull out the ones he expects are worth some real money to sell individually and just sell the rest in bulk to a dealer. The time and labor involved in selling each album individually would be a giant pain in the ass.

Or, hell, he's a priest, maybe he should just donate the collection. No, not to me, but maybe a charity shop who would then handle the selling and do some good with the profits or someplace that serves the public and would have use for them. I mean, if it's something he feels shouldn't be done from a church address, maybe it's not something a priest should be doing in the first place.

[Swish]

25,000 albums is an awful lot to sell on Ebay as individual auctions. Between taking photos ('cause the auctions without photos rarely sell at a decent price at all), listing, packing and mailing; that's a full time job for a while. A printed price guide may be easier, but like suggested earlier, checking completed auctions on Ebay is about as accurate as to what you can actually expect to get as you'll find.

He could look through them and pull out the ones he expects are worth some real money to sell individually and just sell the rest in bulk to a dealer. The time and labor involved in selling each album individually would be a giant pain in the ass.

Or, hell, he's a priest, maybe he should just donate the collection. No, not to me, but maybe a charity shop who would then handle the selling and do some good with the profits or someplace that serves the public and would have use for them. I mean, if it's something he feels shouldn't be done from a church address, maybe it's not something a priest should be doing in the first place.

...just cherry picking and going from there. The guy did sell a few hundred in bulk a few years back and will probably do the same. I suggested they document everything on a data base so it would be easier to show serious collectors what was involved so they could decide if they're interested or not.

Thanks for the comments.

Swish

[Davey]

Goldmine recently reported on the huge find that Acoustic Sounds (audiophile software mail order dealer based in Kansas) came across. Gonna be some seriously over-inflated prices asked for this stuff once they get it all cataloged :)

Kind of a crapshoot buying sealed records - never know what you might get. Usually warped after that long, unless they were in loose wrap and stored well.

http://www.goldminemag.com/Default.aspx?tabid=825&articleid=8741&articlemid=4972