I don't know but it's A LOT for my records
Estimate how much money you have wrapped up in your music collection
- Thread starter biscuithead
- Start date
flyz51
dipolar since 1990
I've been collecting records for 50 years now and began adding CD's over 25 years ago. The amount spent is probably pushing the top end of the $20K-$50K option that I chose for the survey. This is probably 15X what I've spent on equipment over the decades. It is probably high time that I begin going through the piles upon piles of records and CD's and start thinning the herd before the children suddenly have to deal with it after I'm gone (or step in and make me do it before that happens).
Bourbon
Drinkin' and dreamin'
I've only been collecting albums for a few years. I don't have the large collections that you guys have...only about 550 total. Discogs says they're worth somewhere between $4,498 - and $17,588. Since I only buy for my own use (instead of flipping/selling), I typically buy only EX/NM albums. This leads me to believe that my collection is closer to the top of the Discogs range. Throw in about 135 CDs, and the figure becomes even more questionable.
rwartner
Super Member
I added up all the CDs I purchased from local record store for last year. They have records of online purchases on their website so I can look up every order. Most are used in very good condition. 129 CDs average cost $8.05. So approx. cost of my music library 23K CDs is $18.5K. No idea of what value is or what they could be sold for. Much less I am sure. Some day my estate will find out. Back up a truck.
Are we to believe that people pay 8 dollars for a used CD? I was getting so many CD's on the used market at a dollar a piece that between them and the records I was overrun. And I limit my CD's to only the best labels, Sony, Philips, DG, Decca, Telarc.
Eric Lloyd
Well-Known Member
I am a borderline music hoarder. My gear, while appealing, exists to play all of these LPs, CDs and tapes. Recently, it occurred to me that if I sat down and listened to one complete album (that I already own) each day it would take over seven years to go through them. If I continue acquiring as I go I will never start over. So, I am at the point where I simply can't listen to it all. When I think of all the times I listened to the same Boston or Pink Floyd record - what the hell was I doing wasting my time like that?!
bluesky
Lunatic Member
Albums: $10K+ over the years I guess. Water under the bridge. Music kept my sanity working overseas.
Bought 400+ CDs and 130 each - 24K golds, and 20 MFSL Aluminums at full price so that was a chunk of change.
I've found 75% of my LPs (been really lucky) and 50% of my CD collection at the GW, thrifts, garage sales, & just around - all dirt cheap really. ALL 'great titles' and all M- 'actual vinyl' and M- total CDs & cases. Like new.
Bought 500 cassettes back in the day, whatever that cost. Still have 250 of the 'special ones'. I could sell 30 fairly easily for $20 TO $25+ (very 'Rare' ones - Hendrix, Punk, etc. - Discogs). The 2 wooden NAPA wall-mount cassette racks sell 'for some coin' too but I'll probably keep both. My wife uses one & I use the other.
Also, have 2 'Sorice' solid Teak CD cabs & shelves - smoked glass doors. Nice! Still perfect, like new. But 'each one' only holds 300 CDs (total 600 CDs). Still - I love em, bought them new.
And then there's the music 'accessories', books, art, etc., the stereo itself, & 3ea 1960s Fender & Gibson guitars & 3ea 1960's Fender, Marshall, and Peavy bass amps, and associated guitar equipment- but that's all a whole other ballgame.
Bought 400+ CDs and 130 each - 24K golds, and 20 MFSL Aluminums at full price so that was a chunk of change.
I've found 75% of my LPs (been really lucky) and 50% of my CD collection at the GW, thrifts, garage sales, & just around - all dirt cheap really. ALL 'great titles' and all M- 'actual vinyl' and M- total CDs & cases. Like new.
Bought 500 cassettes back in the day, whatever that cost. Still have 250 of the 'special ones'. I could sell 30 fairly easily for $20 TO $25+ (very 'Rare' ones - Hendrix, Punk, etc. - Discogs). The 2 wooden NAPA wall-mount cassette racks sell 'for some coin' too but I'll probably keep both. My wife uses one & I use the other.
Also, have 2 'Sorice' solid Teak CD cabs & shelves - smoked glass doors. Nice! Still perfect, like new. But 'each one' only holds 300 CDs (total 600 CDs). Still - I love em, bought them new.
And then there's the music 'accessories', books, art, etc., the stereo itself, & 3ea 1960s Fender & Gibson guitars & 3ea 1960's Fender, Marshall, and Peavy bass amps, and associated guitar equipment- but that's all a whole other ballgame.
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Bill Ferris
Lunatic Member
After I physically and safely wasn`t able to deal with handling my LPs to play them in late Nov. of 81, I had to wait for CDs and their player to start being readily available a few yrs. later.
And after I won my Medical Malpractice suite in 1985, and finally had money again to purchase CDs, I basically went nuts not only replacing the 100 or so albums that I had collected since 1967, but also a lot of new to me bands, artists, & genres, both new and used CDs.
And even used CDs, SACDs were very pricy, so through the rest of the eighties and nineties I spent a large chunk of money on optical media, and that also includes laser disc player in 1987, and a bunch (~150) of laser discs afterwards.
Now currently I`ve done the same with DVD/BRs since I bought my first BR/DVD/USB Universal player in 2009.
All CDs that I own I`ve WAV. ripped and stored to multiple computers, large capacity flash drives, and external USB SSDs. so I can listen to and enjoy them all day long, every day, as I sit here perusing A/K`s new posts.
I would not chose any other music/video delivery mode external to my house since I lost my highly desirable and very enjoyable multi-channel all genre zero compressed DMX sat delivered digital music in 2010 when all big dish programing went black due to the little dishes increasing popularity.
And after I won my Medical Malpractice suite in 1985, and finally had money again to purchase CDs, I basically went nuts not only replacing the 100 or so albums that I had collected since 1967, but also a lot of new to me bands, artists, & genres, both new and used CDs.
And even used CDs, SACDs were very pricy, so through the rest of the eighties and nineties I spent a large chunk of money on optical media, and that also includes laser disc player in 1987, and a bunch (~150) of laser discs afterwards.
Now currently I`ve done the same with DVD/BRs since I bought my first BR/DVD/USB Universal player in 2009.
All CDs that I own I`ve WAV. ripped and stored to multiple computers, large capacity flash drives, and external USB SSDs. so I can listen to and enjoy them all day long, every day, as I sit here perusing A/K`s new posts.
I would not chose any other music/video delivery mode external to my house since I lost my highly desirable and very enjoyable multi-channel all genre zero compressed DMX sat delivered digital music in 2010 when all big dish programing went black due to the little dishes increasing popularity.
Not sure how accurate an estimate I could make, as I have around 6~7,000 recordings in one format or another, of which about two thirds were purchased used. If I had to make a rough guess, I'd say I'm in the middle to upper end of the $20-50K option.
I am certain of two things though: I've spent more on my music collection than I have on my system, and I will probably never get around to enjoying all the music I have and will acquire.
I am certain of two things though: I've spent more on my music collection than I have on my system, and I will probably never get around to enjoying all the music I have and will acquire.
toodletunes
Well-Known Member
Hmmmmmm........................as I still have music I purchased over 55 years ago, and I've continued to do so since, I'd be hard pressed to come up with an actual value in dollars. Or yen. Or rubles. Cause the only value that matters to me is the satisfaction it brings with the listening.
BilboBaggins
Addicted Member
I went about it similarly to @Dazaa over the same period of time. However I have much less in value. As I value it, if I had to sell, and did it individually at a component level, as well as my ~2000 records in smaller lots. It takes patience, but that is when you find out how worth it it really was. Discogs considers my record collection to have a median value of $27 000 CAD. Of course, that is not what I would get. More likely between $5 - 10 000 CAD. I wonder what my gear is worth compared to my records? I would guess at least double the value of the records, although it is hard to guess now. I have seen a huge change in what sells and what doesn't, and I need to review how I do my value estimates. It is a different climate now.
SmileyFaceEQ
Super Member
Funny, I do not consider the value of records. I do consider value of gear.
Records are valuable to many, but I just can't bring myself to care. Dicogs says my collection is worth 17K. It would take me a lifetime to piece them out. Therefore, I see the true value as a bulk sale...maybe 3K to a record shop.
Now my gear on the other hand would sell fast for top dollar.
Records are valuable to many, but I just can't bring myself to care. Dicogs says my collection is worth 17K. It would take me a lifetime to piece them out. Therefore, I see the true value as a bulk sale...maybe 3K to a record shop.
Now my gear on the other hand would sell fast for top dollar.
I spent a lot more than what it is Worth now. Considering cds cost $16 a piece when they were new and basically are worth $2 each, the financial loss is significant. I am not saying I paid that for every cd, but even if I average them out to $10 each it is still quite a hickey. Throw in a few hundred LPs and it gets even worse.
That being said the enjoyment I have received and continue to get from my collection far exceeds the monetary value.
That being said the enjoyment I have received and continue to get from my collection far exceeds the monetary value.
RunOutGroove
Addicted Member
I can't really say with any accuracy, but though I own +/- 1600 LPs and maybe just a few less than that in CDs, the majority of all of it was bought used and then the vast majority of that was bought for very cheap, like $5 or less (many $1-2) and a fair number were found for free (especially lately with CDs). I'm the type of collector who's always looking through bargain bins and gambling on cheap records that I'm not sure about (and admittedly many of those are duds!) and checking out things like flea markets, garage and estate sales. Particularly when I was working at a record store in the early 90s and the value of old LPs had dropped super low (we sold mostly CDs), I was able to pick up some really valuable records for very cheap. Anyway, the total that I've spent on my music collection is surely very low considering the amount of music I own. Even so, I'm sure that I spent only a fraction of what I did on my music collection on my audio gear...
I like my music collection and am OK that a fair percentage of it is the kind of stuff that I got mostly because it was cheap and not necessarily my favorites... because I pull out that stuff and enjoy it too, if not as much as the real favorites. Still, if given the hypothetical choice to trade my x-number of records for that same amount of records that I could choose from any, I would have a much different collection!
Also, as far as listening to all of the stuff that I have, a subject that I see some folks here addressing, I have to admit that though I keep acquiring more stuff, I don't really end up listening nearly enough to cycle through my collection. As much music as I own, I'm still not the type of person who likes to have music on all the time. If I have the stereo on, more often than not it's to listen to news on NPR and then when I want to hear music, it's usually at times where I'm really going to focus on it and that doesn't end up being too many hours in a typical day. I hate to admit it to myself, but I often feel that I like shopping for records more than I like listening to them!
I like my music collection and am OK that a fair percentage of it is the kind of stuff that I got mostly because it was cheap and not necessarily my favorites... because I pull out that stuff and enjoy it too, if not as much as the real favorites. Still, if given the hypothetical choice to trade my x-number of records for that same amount of records that I could choose from any, I would have a much different collection!
Also, as far as listening to all of the stuff that I have, a subject that I see some folks here addressing, I have to admit that though I keep acquiring more stuff, I don't really end up listening nearly enough to cycle through my collection. As much music as I own, I'm still not the type of person who likes to have music on all the time. If I have the stereo on, more often than not it's to listen to news on NPR and then when I want to hear music, it's usually at times where I'm really going to focus on it and that doesn't end up being too many hours in a typical day. I hate to admit it to myself, but I often feel that I like shopping for records more than I like listening to them!
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I'm hovering just around $10,000. This is drastically going to change now as I've pretty much have all the gear pieces that I've been on the hunt for in the last decade. That cash is now being diverted to media & restorations of gear.
Mart Mccall
Well-Known Member
I was still buying new releases on vinyl well into the 1990s so some of those are a few hundred each.
Also bought a lot of s/h vinyl very cheap before the resurgence, mostly 1970s rock, original releases. Maybe $15K there if I sold them individually. Can't see that happening even though I don't use them anymore. There's maybe 600 LPs total.
CDs I lost count a while back, I guess around 400 - maybe there's a thousand dollars there. They aren't worth much, there's only a handful of rare ones.
I predict a CD resurgence will happen at some point though.
Never been a collector, I only buy albums I will hopefully listen to many times.
I've spent way more on equipment than music. I'm a bad person.
Also bought a lot of s/h vinyl very cheap before the resurgence, mostly 1970s rock, original releases. Maybe $15K there if I sold them individually. Can't see that happening even though I don't use them anymore. There's maybe 600 LPs total.
CDs I lost count a while back, I guess around 400 - maybe there's a thousand dollars there. They aren't worth much, there's only a handful of rare ones.
I predict a CD resurgence will happen at some point though.
Never been a collector, I only buy albums I will hopefully listen to many times.
I've spent way more on equipment than music. I'm a bad person.