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Vinyl records making a comeback with collectors

Wigwam Jones

Wigwam Jones

Caesar non supra grammati
http://journaltimes.com/news/local/...cle_a87c5854-a5c2-11e2-a10f-0019bb2963f4.html

Vinyl records making a comeback with collectors
BUYING MUSIC THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY
April 15, 2013 6:50 am • MICHAEL BURKE mburke@journaltimes.com(0) Comments
RACINE — That relic of an earlier time in music, the vinyl record, just stubbornly refuses to go away.

Digital music on CD at one time seemingly was destined to park the vinyl record album alongside the horse and buggy. But it turns out that legions of people are discovering or rediscovering the joys of the record album.

And it is young adults leading the way, say area retailers such as Ray Sanin, owner of CopyCat Music, 3205 Washington Ave.

The music store’s 2,000-square-foot second floor looks and feels like a 1970s record shop. It’s filled with bin after bin of old vinyl LPs, vintage posters on the walls and a turntable and headphones for previewing purchases.

“On weekends, it looks like an old-school record store,” Sanin said.

Some collectors will spend all day picking through the albums for treasures, he said. Some will start at one end and look through every record — in case someone has squirreled away a Krokus album in the Glenn Miller section for later purchase, for example.
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One of the things I have noticed recently is that when I go out to look for records in thrift stores, there are other people looking for them also. That wasn't the case a year ago. And some thrift shops which did not have vinyl records at all now have them.

I have spoken to more than one thrift store employee who has volunteered the information that a year ago, they were on the verge of throwing away their vinyl records, because no one was buying them and they were taking up space. Now they fly out of the thrift stores.

It may make it harder for me personally to find deals and the records I like, but I'm still glad the popularity of used records is coming back. Hope it lasts.

My tastes are so weird that most of the 'other' record buyers leave the stuff I like alone anyway.
 
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meggy said:
Double edge sword, isn't it?
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Yes and no. I hope it also means more people who have old records laying around that they no longer want will see them as something valuable to be sold or at least donated to charity rather than thrown away. Trying to look at the bright side!
 
This article is partly about Record Store Day, but mostly about resurgent record sales.

“For us, there really are two main demographics,” says Euclid’s Schwab. “There are the people from college age up to 30. Then there are the people who are older -- in there 50s and up -- who are audiophiles and collectors. We really don’t see a lot of people in their 30s and 40s who are into vinyl. And as far as the new releases, it’s primarily buyers in their 20s.”
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https://www.stlbeacon.org/#!/content/30307/record_store_day_041113?coverpage=3080
 
btlefn1 said:
This article is partly about Record Store Day, but mostly about resurgent record sales.

“There are the people from college age up to 30. Then there are the people who are older -- in there 50s and up -- who are audiophiles and collectors. We really don’t see a lot of people in their 30s and 40s who are into vinyl."
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https://www.stlbeacon.org/#!/content/30307/record_store_day_041113?coverpage=3080
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Reminds me of the inner cover of Jethro Tull's "Too Old to Rock and Roll, Too Young to Die" LP.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb370/WhiskeyMikeOnline/196949399-M_jpg1_zps6e1e2a94.jpg

The Chequered Flag falls once again.
 
The problem I see alot with new "collectors" is they expect rare and very hard to get vinyl to be the same price as thier recent thrift store "score". Im sorry but a sealed record pressed 50 years ago with only 100 copies pressed might just cost a bit more then that copy of Billy Joels 52nd Street you just found at Goodwill. It is a trend I see alot of lately. All vinyl is not created equally.
 
krisjay said:
The problem I see alot with new "collectors" is they expect rare and very hard to get vinyl to be the same price as thier recent thrift store "score". Im sorry but a sealed record pressed 50 years ago with only 100 copies pressed might just cost a bit more then that copy of Billy Joels 52nd Street you just found at Goodwill. It is a trend I see alot of lately. All vinyl is not created equally.
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Well, they can expect all they want, but the market sets the prices. Some things sell for more and some for less. Supply and demand. Everybody 'wants' to pay less, but if the price is higher than they hoped for, they will either pony up or do without. If no one pays the higher prices, then the price will come down.

That isn't really new, IMHO. We see threads on AK all the time, complaining about the guys who offer stuff for 'too much money', or on the other hand, complaining about the horrible nasty 'lowballers'. LOL. Whatever. People will pay or not pay, based on how badly they want something. There is nothing wrong with a seller trying to get whatever they feel is the right price for something; it either sells or it does not, no one has their arms twisted or is forced to buy. By the same token, there is nothing wrong with lowballers; sellers either take their lowball offer or don't, as they choose. This is also not an arm-twisting event. Nothing wrong with either one.
 
Wigwam Jones said:
Yes and no. I hope it also means more people who have old records laying around that they no longer want will see them as something valuable to be sold or at least donated to charity rather than thrown away. Trying to look at the bright side!
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That's a good way of looking at it. And there are still plenty of amazing finds in the $1 bins. Which pretty much come from record stores buying collections of the exact type of people you describe, bringing them in thinking they'll get big bucks. So the Floyd's and Beatles get overpriced and the Traffic & Velvet Underground Monos with beat covers that RCM to NM get hidden down below.

So all is good. As it should be.
 
I now recycle every vinyl I find by gifting it to new vinyl converts and fellow audiophiles. I used to scratch them at DJ sets or just throw them away.

Noticeable trends these days among audiophiles are going back to vinyl and tubes, yet going forward with DACs. One could say everything that kills the duo CD+SS is hip right now.
 
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meggy said:
That's a good way of looking at it. And there are still plenty of amazing finds in the $1 bins. Which pretty much come from record stores buying collections of the exact type of people you describe, bringing them in thinking they'll get big bucks. So the Floyd's and Beatles get overpriced and the Traffic & Velvet Underground Monos with beat covers that RCM to NM get hidden down below.

So all is good. As it should be.
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I've never been a huge fan of modern jazz (although my tastes continue to evolve), but I have noticed that if it's not Thelonius Monk or Miles Davis or some other really famous (in the non-Jazz sense) jazz musician or group, sometimes they get overlooked in the stacks at the thrift stores. I don't know all the names by a longshot, but I keep my eyes open for phrases like 'quintet' and so on. I've found a couple really rare Jazz LPs in good condition that way. I'm not a flipper, and not really a proper collector; more an enthusiast who likes to listen to music. But it's nice to pick up an album you got for less than a buck and realize it's currently going on eBay for a pile of money. Makes me appreciate it a bit more, I guess.

Of course, a lot of my 'taste' in music just isn't going to be touched by the kids and wrinklies currently scouring thrift shops; I've become a big fan of mid-century Easy Listening music. From Space-Age, Bachelor Pad, Exotica, to your basic Ray Conniff LPs covering various pop hits, I love it.

I just listened to Ray Conniff playing "Live and Let Die," the other night. I mean, come on. That's just awesome.
 
I thought they were always popular with collectors. But I do notice a lot more people looking through the record bins at the thrifts.
 
I don't know anyone who is collecting for the future value years down the road. I know resellers and I know listeners but anyone collecting for future value is IMO throwing money away. We all know the bubble is going to burst eventually and prices for all but the ultra rare will tank again. So unless you have ultra rare records you are collecting the stuff isn't going to be worth any more then than it is today.

From what I have seen in my two stints in the hobby so far. 2001-2004 and the last 6 months is record stores are charging the same for the same records. My favorite local store has had the same pricing structure since the mid 90s.

Granted I've seen prices go up in Goldmine books but I have yet to come across anyone selling for those prices (unless you are looking at ultra rare albums). Although I own a Goldmine book I think it is the most overrated price guide in all the hobby industries. I use mine more to establish popularity/rarity than value.
 
krisjay said:
The problem I see alot with new "collectors" is they expect rare and very hard to get vinyl to be the same price as thier recent thrift store "score". Im sorry but a sealed record pressed 50 years ago with only 100 copies pressed might just cost a bit more then that copy of Billy Joels 52nd Street you just found at Goodwill. It is a trend I see alot of lately. All vinyl is not created equally.
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My problem when I got back into vinyl a couple years ago is expecting the albums I owned in college during the late 90's to be readily available. For folks my age, "limited edition" was always just a phrase intended to add cache to something, there was never actually a thought that a particular product would stop being produced as long as there were potential customers for it. I had to shell out some non-trivial cash on Discogs and ebay to get some indie albums I couldn't do without.

I wish there were something like kickstarter campaigns to get labels to reissue a particular album -- a way for people to confirm it would definitely be worth the label's cost investment to press more.

:banana:
 
ra7c7er said:
I don't know anyone who is collecting for the future value years down the road. I know resellers and I know listeners but anyone collecting for future value is IMO throwing money away. We all know the bubble is going to burst eventually and prices for all but the ultra rare will tank again. So unless you have ultra rare records you are collecting the stuff isn't going to be worth any more then than it is today.

From what I have seen in my two stints in the hobby so far. 2001-2004 and the last 6 months is record stores are charging the same for the same records. My favorite local store has had the same pricing structure since the mid 90s.

Granted I've seen prices go up in Goldmine books but I have yet to come across anyone selling for those prices (unless you are looking at ultra rare albums). Although I own a Goldmine book I think it is the most overrated price guide in all the hobby industries. I use mine more to establish popularity/rarity than value.
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Even if I were a collector in the classic sense, it would not be for future value that I would be purchasing. I think you may be thinking instead of 'investors'. And I agree with you, used LP records are not an investment vehicle.

Record collectors collect for lots of reasons, I suppose, but I tend to doubt that the notion of future sales is really their highest priority. I suspect most of them would be horrified with the notion of ever selling their collections.

That's just my guess; I have no special insight here.
 
Wigwam Jones said:
Of course, a lot of my 'taste' in music just isn't going to be touched by the kids and wrinklies currently scouring thrift shops; I've become a big fan of mid-century Easy Listening music. From Space-Age, Bachelor Pad, Exotica, to your basic Ray Conniff LPs covering various pop hits, I love it.

I just listened to Ray Conniff playing "Live and Let Die," the other night. I mean, come on. That's just awesome.
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Funny. I am attracted to the same easy-listening stuff, including Jackie Gleason. The greatest antidote to my parents music was Elvis Presley and all he begat. After decades of rock, blues, r&b, I've come to appreciate my parents' music. Relaxing and somehow comforting.

I just haven't partaken in thrift store Mantovani LPs yet. From what I've seen, he must have sold a billion albums. Or nobody else picks them up, either.
 
btlefn1 said:
This article is partly about Record Store Day, but mostly about resurgent record sales.

“For us, there really are two main demographics,” says Euclid’s Schwab. “There are the people from college age up to 30. Then there are the people who are older -- in there 50s and up -- who are audiophiles and collectors. We really don’t see a lot of people in their 30s and 40s who are into vinyl. And as far as the new releases, it’s primarily buyers in their 20s.”
Click to expand...

https://www.stlbeacon.org/#!/content/30307/record_store_day_041113?coverpage=3080
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That's weird. The record stores and shows I go to are dominated by 30-somethings.

Reptiled said:
What is really irritating is when you find out the goodwill employee's are cherry picking the "good stuff" before it gets moved to the shelves. This could just be me though as I am a vinyl junkie.
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Just try to remember that improving the livelihood of those folks is the primary purpose of Goodwill.
 
The market is mostly 20-35ish around here. Very little interest comparatively from older folks. Some classical/jazz guys mixed in. The Jazz Record Mart certainly has a different demographic than Reckless Records. Though oddly enough the same snooty attitude.
 
Alan G. said:
Funny. I am attracted to the same easy-listening stuff, including Jackie Gleason. The greatest antidote to my parents music was Elvis Presley and all he begat. After decades of rock, blues, r&b, I've come to appreciate my parents' music. Relaxing and somehow comforting.

I just haven't partaken in thrift store Mantovani LPs yet. From what I've seen, he must have sold a billion albums. Or nobody else picks them up, either.
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I am also enjoying Jackie Gleason albums. Funny, even he said that his music was 'pure vanilla'. I get it, but my wife and I still both enjoy his albums. Good musicianship, easy to relax to his music. Also a study in the tastes of the time, as many of them had relatively provocative album covers and titles like "Music to Forget Her By," and "Music to Make Her Change Her Mind." In other words, very much the "Mad Men" era of male dominance and accepted gender roles (not saying it was right, just noting it). Endlessly fascinating.

That was not the music of my parents, though, and I was too late (I'm 52) to really be into Elvis; he came before my time, I was more of a David Essex fan, that kind of thing. I started listening to 'my own era' music in say 1973 or so.

I have a bunch of Mantovani LPs that were aquired as parts of other groups of records that I did want. Haven't played the much. Might later, you know know, I might like them. But I've been resisting them; perhaps because of prejudices (yes, they're at every thrift store). Same reason I listen to Big Band music, but not Guy Lombardo. Funny how prejudice against the records your parents liked can poison the well. I can't defend it, just noting that it exists.

I seem to gravitate towards stuff that represented the 'last gasp' of some kinds of music, like when Big Bands went towards popular music in order to try to survive. Like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOPu0Q93H8U

I also get interested in various characters, such as Jack Fascinato. He wrote some 'American' sort of pseudo-classical music, but he was a band arranger for singers like Tennessee Ernie Ford and the television show "Kukla, Fran, and Ollie." Weird stuff!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8gugx2MFIs

And as some here know, I also tend to record, digitize, and upload some of my thrift shop finds to Youtube so others can enjoy them. Another hobby.
 
krisjay said:
The problem I see alot with new "collectors" is they expect rare and very hard to get vinyl to be the same price as thier recent thrift store "score". Im sorry but a sealed record pressed 50 years ago with only 100 copies pressed might just cost a bit more then that copy of Billy Joels 52nd Street you just found at Goodwill. It is a trend I see alot of lately. All vinyl is not created equally.
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It would really suck when that 50 year old unopened album turns out to be warped beyond playing! LOL.
 
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