Buying a whole collection

Werne1nm

Member
I have the opportunity to buy someone's whole collection. Roughly 500 records. Should I sit down and look through every single one or just buy them for a price of around 200$.

I would do this strictly to flip these and try and make a profit.

I'd figure even if there were 50 records in the collection that were "worth it" to sell at 5 dollars a piece I could make some money on the deal.

Anyone have experience doing this? Tips?
 
You are looking at 25 cents a piece if you purchase at that rate.

For a straight flip, it would be a complete gamble.

Putting eyes on the collection and briefly skimming should tell you pretty quickly if it's worth the plunge.

If you don't know what you are looking at pretty quickly, well, I have made worse $200 mistakes in my life.

Condition is king.
 
i would look through what he has before you pay or u could end up with 500 records no one really wants
 
I would normally say if you found 30 you wanted to keep it would be worth it, since each one you wanted to keep could be worth $5 in time and effort. But in looking for a pure flip, everything becomes important. Condition? Genre? Desirability? As so many recent threads have noted, the value of LPs is all over the place. If you buy for $200 you need to be able to sell for $250 if you do nothing, and a lot more if you need to put hours of effort into organzing, cleaning and pricing.

Beleive it or not, I have seem quite a few lots of LPs worth less than $ 0.50 each. And not just because they are polkas, Readers Digest, and records used as frisbees.
 
You are going to have to look through them anyways to sell them. Might as well start now before you buy them. You will be able to get a good idea of condition and desirability pretty quickly.
 
I buy complete collections of CDs and LPs. First thing I look for is any that I want to keep, and then make a call as to whether there are enough to make it worthwhile. My ballpark figure is that there have to be enough to make the keepers around $1 each.

I think your situation is somewhat different. You are seeking advice, wondering if you should buy at around 35 cents, while expecting to find buyers willing to spend $5. I'd put myself in the potential buyer's position and, to be honest, I'd walk away. Too much potential for making a loss or being stuck with a pile of junk that you don't want, and not a vast amount to be made.

Wanna buy 6 copies of Aerosmith's Big Ones and about the same Of Bon Jovi's Crossroads?
Just kidding. They're not for sale here, but I'm trying to make the point that some recordings are so ubiquitous as to make them worthless.
 
They're not for sale here, but I'm trying to make the point that some recordings are so ubiquitous as to make them worthless.
Like how I see umpteen copies of Rumours, High Infidelity and Eagles Greatest Hits in every dollar bin I've ever come across? :D

Usually after sampling maybe a dozen or so of the popular titles in a collection, it should be easy to tell if it's worth bothering with an offer. I've seen estate sales list vinyl for $2 each..."because vinyl." The records look like they saw the inside of the jacket maybe once a year at best. There was only one sale I spent an hour or more digging through the multitudes of boxes they had, and found condition all over the place. I skipped the tens of thousands of 45s (except for one title I took a wild gamble on...and I found a very clean copy!), and stuck to albums. Many were quite played out, and full of greasy fingerprints and/or scratches, but I found a few LPs that looked new and nearly unplayed. I have no idea what happened to the rest of that collection. They probably wholesaled those tens of thousands of singles off to a store somewhere. $1 each was way too steep. 25 cents each, and I would have gotten some "beater" records for the old Victrola 45.
 
I would scan the collection to see if they seemed to be reasonably desirable and spot check about fifteen for condition.

It helps to know the market. Some records won't even fetch a dollar in excellent condition. Even forty cents per can be too much if they are mostly dogs.
 
I would do this strictly to flip these and try and make a profit.

I'd figure even if there were 50 records in the collection that were "worth it" to sell at 5 dollars a piece I could make some money on the deal.

Anyone have experience doing this? Tips?

Do you have any experience in selling records? If not it can be a trying experience. Do you know how to grade them? What market would you be selling them in CL? the Bay? A lotta variables if your new to this.

As stereofanboy mentioned check for condition, condition is key even if it's a rare or hard to find copy.
 
i'd buy it at asking price. In the bay area, you can "scroe" bargains like yours and discover
there's one or more hidden gems that returns more than your purchase price.

however, you'll have to research each and every album - including looking inside to
find whether it's content appropriate (album cover matches inner vinyl LP),
has different LP worth thousands, banknotes, autographs from dead people, pictures
notes, etc

I once paid $100 bucks for 600 classical (filled my car and pointed headlights up at aliens)
and found a Rock LP that sold for $125. the other gems were more impressive...

after the prelims, you can find better versions of LPs you already have that may be scratched
or look bad to people who buy on looks versus sound quality. then upgrade your
album cover or vinyl LP.

then build sets - base it on looks first - remember most people buy on looks hence
the grading on the album cover (which has NOTHING to do with the LP sound quality)
and sell the sets. gotta Love Elton John, rolling stones, Beatles, with their dozens.

then if you have even more time, look at the dead wax. not just for dead people. people
go ape over certain scratches in the runout area.

Next, build a level with graduated vertical markings and run the LPs and measure the
warp and sell them with warp levels - not just to StarTrek fans. novel marketing.

clean them before selling. 99.999999% of folks include the accumulated dust, dirt,
fingerprints, markings, dried body fluids, and groove fillers since the LPs were stamped
and packaged and while 99% of buyers don't know nor care, there are folks who pride themselves
on cleaning their offerings, and they make the HIGH $$$$ that you might think yours
will also sell for. see discogs, goldmine, for great examples of high value LPs.

when I can't sell some rock stuff like Pink Freud, Eaglets, Eldon Jon, Genifer Waners,
I bundle them with a turntable and folks line up around the block. do the
fancy marketing - 100 rock Lps with free turntable, or turntable with free 100 rock LPs.

BTW call the seller, if he has a british accent, he will have parlophone and mono versions
of the Beatles worth BIG $$$. and they will be in great condition since the UK doesn't
have many pickup trucks.

there's a few more tricks but this is most of it.
 
Everyone had really good tips...I would look through the records to come up with those "50" that may be worth "$5" or more before you hand over your dough. The time to research each one, and try to find a buyer, just aren't worth what you may be able to flip them for. Keep track of the time you spend, to see how many dollars you end up making per hour...and you won't touch another collection again, unless the collection is not cherry picked.

Actually - you may first want to talk to the seller to see if you can figure out if someone has done the cherry picking previously.
 
There is a reason that record dealers pay 10% of retail for records - the cost of selling them eats up another 80%, leaving a 10% profit!

If you don't know what you are doing, you will not make much money, for the amount of work that is required.

I might buy such a collection, but I have fair knowledge of the market and know whether I could make some real money or not. For most ordinary collections, the answer is no.
 
Next, build a level with graduated vertical markings and run the LPs and measure the
warp and sell them with warp levels.

BTW call the seller, if he has a british accent, he will have parlophone and mono versions
of the Beatles worth BIG $$$. and they will be in great condition since the UK doesn't
have many pickup trucks.

Seriously??
 
It doesn't seem like the OP is too serious about this. He created the thread yesterday and still hasn't replied yet he's marked a reply (#10) with a "Like" and was browsing the thread about an hour ago.
 
I am absolutely serious. the Seller, British, moved here with his collection back in the day -
he was probably a teenager in the 60's, retiring now, and moving back to the UK. didn't
think he could get any $$$ for his collection. I left the Jazz stuff behind.

I cherry picked his classical - you know, EMI ASDs, Decca (not London), and some tulip
DGs. the Beatles were gravy and more than paid for the small amount he was asking for,
and I gave him a few bucks more.

one man's junk is another man's treasure.

notes - if you find Chinese LPs, Teresa Teng is worth $$$ - check out ebay if you don't believe
me and some of the Japanese composers in LP or CD or SACD is also worth BIG $$$
(like Takemitsu LPs)

However, I'm not in this LP stuff for profit, or making a living, simply for the music.
I have given away hundreds of LPs that have music I don't like.

If I find something I do like I always give the person a bit more. Not like FreddyFlipper
or WallyWidowCheater who leads with lowball offers.

do you believe in karma? I do.
 
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