Selling LPs?
Vinyl records make (another) comeback!
Considering selling your LP collection? Because All That Music & Video is the most important seller and buyer of new and used vinyl records in the region, you will want to bring them to us first!
- As a public service, ATMV is happy to offer sellers free appraisals of their LP collections. We will grade, sort, and appraise your LP’s as our time permits.
- LPs have recently made another comeback at All That Music & Video and are now more accessible to our customers! We have allocated more space to offer you thousands of collectible records by many of the most in-demand music artists.
- See our frequently renewed supply of specially priced pre-owned LPs by sorted by Pop-Rock, Various Artists, Jazz, Country, Vocal-Nostalgia and 12” classics. For many years and because of low demand, LPs were removed from the sales floor due to space limitations. We now invite you to join-in the latest comeback of LPs by selling and buying LPs at ATMV!
In the 1980’s, when CD technology replaced LPs as the primary format for recorded music, it was predicted that vinyl records would quickly become obsolete. They mostly became obsolete for a time. But before long, LPs made somewhat of a comeback thanks to their use by Club DJS; rock bands that insisted on releasing their music on vinyl as well as CD; young and old collectors of LPs who never really went away; and a few audiophiles that insisted that their favorite music sounded better recorded in analogue on LP than on CD or other digital formats.
There are some things you should know about selling your LPs. ATMV will give you the best price possible for LPs that have some value. However, we ask our customers to be realistic about the value of their record collections. Typically there are more copies of the same records available for sale, and not enough buyers. The law of “supply and demand” dictates that an overabundant supply and little or no demand, equals little or no value. Also consider the fact that we are presently warehousing over 20,000 records in storage. Many of those records are multiples of the same records you may be selling. We accumulate so many used records that periodically we throw out the duplicate copies and keep only the better ones. We see perhaps an estimated 500 to 1-thousand records weekly, not all of which are we prepared to purchase. However, we still seek-out quality-collectible LPs that may turn up, as we offer our library of LP recordings to record-hounds and collectors at fair prices.
As a rule, an average collection of 100 records may contain less than 20% of items that may have any commercial appeal, provided that the general condition of the LP and cover are not seriously diminished. The rest, while at one-time perhaps bonafide best sellers, are now no longer in demand. Buyers simply are not seeking these artists or titles. If they are, they’re purchasing the CD version to replace their original LP. Generally speaking, with decades of time, more records are worth less – fewer are worth more.
Record value in part can be correlated to stamp & coin collecting standards. That is, the better the condition the better odds the item will have any value. But just because the LP is in good condition, doesn’t necessarily mean it has any value or collectability. Quite the contrary, if the LP was never or rarely played, it was probably of little interest to its original owner, so would anybody be interested in it now? If your LP’s were played and enjoyed frequently, chances are the album has suffered from moderate to serious groove wear. Not to mention broken seams, tattered covers, writing-on the record cover or vinyl, scratches, scuffs, etc. On the other hand, if the LP is a historic critically acclaimed item, and has been meticulously cared for with minimal play, then there is a chance it could be worth something. That is, of course, if it is not a common recording. See the list below to see examples of recordings that are of little or no value and examples of collectible artists and recordings that may hold some value, pending condition.
Hope you’ve gotten a better understanding of our appraisal process. Don’t be disappointed with our bid. Be realistic. We’ve spent the last 30 years learning what’s-in and what’s not, and use that knowledge to buy and sell fairly and strategically.
We recommend that you keep any records that have emotional or sentimental value, because generally speaking, 80% of the LP’s in any collection are common and have little or no value. For those, we may only pay-out pennies, nickels, and dimes at best. The other 20% may have a value of 25 cents to $1.00 dollar or more. True collectibles may command $5 to $25 dollars at the wholesale level. Good Luck!
LP Demand – “Studs & Duds”
“Studs” (Sought-After Artists on LP)
The artists below are only a sampling of many LP’s that are in demand.
Generally speaking, any Rock ‘n Roll, Psycaldelic, Punk, R&B, or Chicano Rock LP from the (50’s-80’s) era, are high in-demand. The edgier, more obscure, or rarer – the better.
- Animals
- Beatles (original Vee-Jay & Apple)
- Beatles solo albums by Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, or Starr
- Berry, Chuck (early Chess)
- Bowie, David (early)
- Brown, James (early king and Federal)
- Clark Dave Five
- Cooke, Sam (early Keen and RCA)
- Creedence Clearwater Revival
- Crystals, The (on Phillies)
- Domino, Fats (early Imperial)
- Doors & Jim Morrison
- Dylan, Bob (early Columbia)
- Gaye Marvin (early Tamla)
- Hendrix, Jimi
- Jives
- Led Zeppelin
- Little Joe and the Latinaries
- Malo
- Pickett, Wilson
- Pink Floyd
- Presley, Elvis (early RCA)
- Price Lloyd (early ABC Paramount)
- Rolling Stones (early London)
- Ronettes, The (on Phillies)
- Sunny and the Sunglows (Sun liners) on Sunglow or Teardrop
- Turner, Joe (early Atlantic)
- Wells, Mary
- Zappa Frank (early Verve)
“Duds” (Least Sought-After Artists on LP)
The artists below are only a sampling of many LP’s that are not in demand. Often many of these types of records are routinely abandoned or donated. We cannot pay cash on many of the artists on this list.
Generally speaking, any Classical, string, house orchestra, instrumental, or no-name budget LPs from the 60s-70s also fall into this category.
- Alpert, Herb or Tijuana Brass
- Ames, Nancy
- Campbell Glen
- Conniff, Ray
- Crosby, Bill
- Denver, John
- Diamond, Neil
- Enoch Light
- Faith, Percy
- Ferrante and Teicher
- Four Freshmen
- Grateful Dead
- Hall and Oates
- Hirt, Al
- Joel, Billy
- John, Elton (on MCA)
- Kaempfert, Bert
- Kingston Trio
- Lettermen
- Living Strings
- Guy Lombardo
- Longines Symphony
- Mancini, Henry
- Manilow, Barry
- Mantovani
- Martin, Dean
- Miller, Mitch
- Moody Blues
- Newton-John, Olivia
- Readers-Digest recordings
- Rogers, Kenny
- Simon, Carly
- Streisand, Barbra
- Warwick, Dionne
- Welk, Lawrence
- Williams, Roger
- Wilson, Nancy
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