• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

Buying a vinyl and tape collection

Llama50

Llama50

Super Member
I recently bought an old turntable and cassette deck from an old friend of mine that hadn't been used in 15 or 20 years (A dual 1214 and a Technics 631). Now he has unearthed his old record and tape collection and has asked me if I would like to buy all of those also. Approximately 200 titles on vinyl, (mostly 70's & early 80's rock, pop, folk, pretty much mainstream stuff).

All of them are in great to near mint condition as he recorded most of them to cassette when he purchased them and then listened to mostly tapes...

The tapes he has are approximately 60 pre-recorded and about 80 home recorded (mostly 90 minute tdk high bias with an album on each side). Mostly those are recordings of the vinyl collection he wants to sell me.

I'm at a complete loss as to what I might offer him for the lot. He has no way to play any of them anymore and he's not too keen on trying to sell them to a record store or online.

Any ideas or advice?

​
 
Register to hide this ad
I would value each LP at 5 bucks, am sure many of them are worth much more. The cassettes I would value lower.
 
you could look on Discogs and see what a good amount is per album for each and then come up with a number. Remember, he doesn't have to sell them individually, saving him time and hassle that should be reflected in a lower cost... not to mention selling to you, he probably doesn't have to worry about buyers complaining about a bit of lint on an album :)

For reference, I bought 8 boxes of classical albums (mostly in NM condition) for 70.00 recently, so I'm feeling really frugal right now!
 
Buanadha said:
you could look on Discogs and see what a good amount is per album for each and then come up with a number. Remember, he doesn't have to sell them individually, saving him time and hassle that should be reflected in a lower cost... not to mention selling to you, he probably doesn't have to worry about buyers complaining about a bit of lint on an album :)

For reference, I bought 8 boxes of classical albums (mostly in NM condition) for 70.00 recently, so I'm feeling really frugal right now!
Click to expand...

Any gems. I can go though a cart of classical lp's and find nothing. That is true with any genre. Haven't found any big money lp's in a while........

Yeah, it really depends on what's in there.
 
E2 said:
Any gems. I can go though a cart of classical lp's and find nothing. That is true with any genre. Haven't found any big money lp's in a while........

Yeah, it really depends on what's in there.
Click to expand...

A few things that are collectible (most of a set of Furtwangler's Beethoven and Wagner stuff, a lot of box sets that are in almost perfect condition - a couple that had sales over 100.00, but otherwise nothing extraordinarily expensive), but I wasn't looking to make money so much as get a really big pool of music I wanted to listen to.

For this I was just trying to think of a way to come up with a good number for him to offer a fair price
 
op, how much did you pay your friend for the turntable and cassette player? Maybe you can use that as a guide in coming up with an amount for the records and tapes that would not offend your friend. Such as if you paid market price for the tt and cassette player, your friend may be expecting market price for the records.

Also, why does your friend not want to take the records to the record store? Is it because he feels he can get more for them if he sells them himself?
 
I think it depends why he is thinking of selling to you, in particular, and what you intend to do with them.

If he is selling them to you, thinking that 'his' collection will stay with you, and stay together, he may be happy for a notional sum. For instance, a mate of mine gave me a bunch of vinyl and CDs when he moved to the US.

If you intend to sell them on, then a fair price, considering you are buying from a friend. What is a fair price will obviously depend on what is in the collection. Or maybe you could agree to split whatever you get from the sale (in whatever proportion you agree between you).

I know some will take the attitude that, once they're yours, they're yours, and you can do whatever you want with them. But things like this can easily cause ill feeling, and I'm sure you dont want that to happen, or to cause stress for either you or your friend, especially considering the recent heart surgery.
 
pyoung272 said:
op, how much did you pay your friend for the turntable and cassette player? Maybe you can use that as a guide in coming up with an amount for the records and tapes that would not offend your friend. Such as if you paid market price for the tt and cassette player, your friend may be expecting market price for the records.

Also, why does your friend not want to take the records to the record store? Is it because he feels he can get more for them if he sells them himself?
Click to expand...

I paid him $100 for the TT and the Cassette deck. The TT had a stripped out/broken start - stop lever that I managed to fix but it's still pretty much a low end unit. The Cassette player is in pretty good condition but needs belts which I can do when I get around to it. Also not a top dollar unit.
I didn't need either one, but I suffer from GAS and I didn't want him giving them to GW.

I doubt there's any highly collectable albums there but it seems like a good way to increase my collection somewhat. There's bound to be some duplicates from my present collection that I might try to sell off.
 
Llama50 said:
The Cassette player is in pretty good condition but needs belts which I can do when I get around to it. Also not a top dollar unit.
Click to expand...
Think you said an RS631us? That was my first out of college ca 1978. Not big resale now, but was a pretty good deck for me. Not quite up to a 3-head with Dolby C/S, HX Pro, fine bias etc. but I made a lot of good tapes on it. Think it would cover 30-17k with good tape (possibly what he has used … I used a lot of TDK SA and Maxell XL-II). Think you’ll enjoy.
 
I think your $300 price is fair.
Cost is about balancing your desire to have those records and his to be rid of them. If you're willing to pay $300, that's your number. You don't want to be saddled with a bunch of stuff you won't listen to.
 
Inscrutable said:
Think you said an RS631us? That was my first out of college ca 1978. Not big resale now, but was a pretty good deck for me. Not quite up to a 3-head with Dolby C/S, HX Pro, fine bias etc. but I made a lot of good tapes on it. Think it would cover 30-17k with good tape (possibly what he has used … I used a lot of TDK SA and Maxell XL-II). Think you’ll enjoy.
Click to expand...

It is a nice deck. I'm surprised that it's not worth more on the market today.
Not quite as nice as my Pioneer CTF 9191 but it's a looker!

Technics and Pioneer.jpg
 
Good looking decks. Regarding the record/cassette collection, I hate 'make offer' scenarios. If the seller has a price in mind, he should tell you. If making an offer, I would want the opportunity to peruse the records for sale to make sure there are a few desirable titles. Personally, I wouldn't value the cassettes too highly - you might be doing him a favor by taking them off his hands.
 
KiM3Ce said:
Mainstream stuff means sold by the millions. If you share his taste in music that's great, but you aren't going to make a profit off of his copy of Rumours.
Click to expand...
If he takes a buck a record you can make about 2000% profit (I think that's right, percentage isn't my strong suit). Point is, you can easily get $20 for a clean copy of Rumours. However, it seems the OP is looking to keep them, not flip.

OP, don't be afraid about low balling your friend. It sounds like he is looking to unload the stuff quickly. You can get top dollar or you can move things immediately. It's rare to be able to do both.
 
KiM3Ce said:
Mainstream stuff means sold by the millions. If you share his taste in music that's great, but you aren't going to make a profit off of his copy of Rumours.
Click to expand...

I can make money on Rumours. Depends on how much I pay for it. No more than a $1. I usually only buy it if perfect, and in a lot of other common rock that still sells.

The Beatles are Mainstream? I probably average 10 Beatles records to one Rolling Stones record. I can make money on those as well. I wouldn't pay more than $2, unless British pressings.

Most record flipping is about volume.........not the knob on folks overpriced Sansui Receiver.

No volume lately though :oops:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom