old vinyl records

[Mel]

Does anyone know of someone who could give me some advice about old vinyl LP's please? Thanks.

[Matt40]

What are you trying to doing? Convert them to digital, sell them, etc?

[Mel]

sell them, if possible if they are worth anything. I don't want to donate them to a charity shop until I know how much they are worth. Can you convert them to a cd then?

[mb1]

You can buy a turntable with software that pugs into a computer and converts the music to MP3 or WAV. There are lots of online places that will buy vinyl albums.

[Mel]

thanks, I will look around

[Matt40]

May I ask what's in your record collection generally? Aren't any of them downloadable? That's a chunk of expense and time to digitize them yourself if the likes of Apple have already done it. As above, plenty of websites around to tell you if you have anything of value.

[RichardH]

If you're looking to sell them, then generally speaking condition is king. If it's stuff that loads of people bought then it really needs to be a first pressing to have a chance of value. However, vinyl from the early 90's onwards can be suprisingly valuable - depending what it is. For instance, I sold a copy of Sigur Rós's "Takk" for £100 a couple of years ago, and I note that Oasis albums go for decent money. I think this is partly because most people had started buying CDs by then.

One quick way to check is search for the albums on eBay - tick the "completed listings" box in the left hand sidebar to see what things sold (or didn't sell) for. No point in looking at listings for what people think they can sell stuff for - it's what it actually fetches that is more important! Here's an example of a search for completed listings for an Oasis album, for instance..

[Mel]

I've got Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys and a number of Beatles albums. Most of them are 'well loved' is the phrase so they may not be worth anything but I'd rather find out before giving them away! All from the 60's.

[Mel]

I don't want to digitise them really as I'm deaf and won't be able to hear them anyway! I've looked on Ebay and was quite stunned at some of the prices! Condition is king though of course.

[Shrimper]

Condition and pressing serial numbers are vital.

I know a chap in Ware called Nigel (a friend and a fellow football dad) who is a dealer who buys and sells on eBay. He buys examples with tatty covers but good condition vinyl and then buys one with a nice cover to make a near perfect set.