What's Worth More on the Open Market - Your Records or Your Audio Gear

This thread has been an awakening for me. I was preparing responses late afternoon yesterday to the first 8 or 9 posters, then subsequent posts seem to capture what I wanted to say. 8^0
Definitely a two path direction here in regards to the Records and their value. Are there any Records Dealers posting or lurking on this thread looking for buck a record deals ? Hmmm.....

roberwisconsin
What’s your personal ratio?
Software/Hardware= 2+
Estimated via Discogs, using actual median sale prices of contemporary transactions, my 2000 (half vinyl) piece media collection has a value of $12K.

Thank you for answering the question Rob . And for your first Agon post. Chris

@lewm
A friend just sold his LP collection, around 2000 LPs, for $20,000. I was flabbergasted that the selling price was so high. However, his system easily cost more than $100K. Assuming he can re-sell his gear for ~$60K (60% of retail), the system is nevertheless worth more than the LPs.

thanks for that info Lewm. Was the collection multiple genres ?

larry5729

I think streaming music using Tidal sounds better because there is no noise and you would have to pay a fortune to buy the number of records or CD’s they offer in their library. I can sit on the sofa using my Bluesound Node 2i and select songs and album using my iPhone. The days of using vinyl and CD’s in my opinion is over. Who wants to pull out a record, wash the record and then pay a lot of money for an expensive turntable these days when digital streaming is available.

Larry
I don’t want this to be a Digital versus Vinyl discussion. The OP was intended to be a Records Value versus Gear Value ratio discussion in ones own collection. With that I feel compelled to respond to you since the last few weeks I have using Tidal HiFi but in a different way.

I hosted a number of my kids friends 25 - 29 year olds. They came in. They hooked up their devices to my system. Listened to their music. Then we selected albums which I knew I had in vinyl. Once they heard the vinyl in direct comparison with digital - CD’s, Hard Drive Files, Tidal Hi Fi they were a little taken back. We enjoyed ourselves greatly. I will not deny how cool it was/is to instantly switch between re-masters of albums and listen to the differences. The vast library of music at your fingerprints.

The differences in music reproduction in my space between I Phones, Android devices, and when they logged into my dedicated Lenovo Laptop running the desktop Tidal app was quite large. This is a situation where vinyl, if allowed to breathe, excels. JMO. With that I am part of the Tidal Hi Fi Family plan. I listen to Tidal when I exercise, when I stream through the house, when I am in my car. And if some music is discovered that truly stirs me, I will buy it on vinyl.

The days of using vinyl and CD’s in my opinion is over. Who wants to pull out a record, wash the record and then pay a lot of money for an expensive turntable these days when digital streaming is available.

I get a sense of "disillusionment" whenever I read words like this. For many of us the music reproduction is part of an Audio Hobby as well. Hobbies are made up rituals and tasks that to the hobbyist, are just a means to get to the Hobby goal. In this case extracting music from black plastic. The rituals and tasks are not considered an inconvenience and extra work. When this happens it is no longer a hobby. Time to get another hobby.

@geoffkait

eBay sales don’t get as much as people think. And eBay is a fair representation of the value of records in general. Also, a lot of records you see for hundreds of dollars on eBay are there because they have not (rpt not) sold.

GK -
So Ebay has been around since 1995.
Assuming a record is in very good condition not special but popular. What is your opinion on an average selling price not including shipping. Many sellers lower price items, and just jack up the shipping costs. thank you.

^^^^
the 25 movie soundtracks I sold won’t look like much in a rack. But displayed like this

https://retrorenovation.com/2013/04/01/record-album-cover-art/

in a Home Theater Room.

****************************

@bdp24
If the house were burning down, and I had to choose which to save, no contest. The eq can be easily replaced, the music not.

So Eric ...if you were given just one opportunity to go in and grab an arm load - say 100 records - one cube of an Ikea Expedit.

Do you know which you would Grab? Anyone ?

or does one get so confused in a situation like this - too many choices - and you end up just grabbing your hopped up , tricked out preamp - phono stage....? I can't lift my turntable kit by myself.  8^(

^^^^
makes sense.
Last year I started giving thoughts to culling records I know now I have no interest in. The handful of local transactions (to avoid shipping) groups of 10 -25 lps are not worth mentioning. What I think is worth mentioning however, is the interest I found from buyers in the record jacket itself, with little regard to the condition of the LP. These jackets to be used for Wall Art in the persons space somewhere.    

bdp24
Don’t think I haven’t considered that scenario Chris! The top left cube contains (amongst others) The Animals, The Band, Count Basie, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Chuck Berry, The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, T Bone Burnett, The Byrds, Johnny and Rosanne Cash, Carlene Carter, Patsy Cline, Ry Cooder albums. The one under it Rodney Crowell, Dylan, Dave Edmunds, The Everly Brothers, The Flamin’ Groovies, Fleetwood Mac, Aretha Franklin, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Dan Hicks, Chris Hillman.
Cube 1 or 2 is like choosing between your two kids!

Damn.... very impressive Eric.
Well, as someone whose business career involved disaster recovery, business continuity; I am embarrassed to admit, that I am ill prepared "in mind" of what to grab. As of right now.

Do you see Larry5729.....Do you see what all that damn music streaming does to one’s mind ?

In this type of event - I am probably trying to catch our Savannah Cat - good luck to me with that unless she’s asleep. She does like it hot though and sleeps on the satellite receiver.

I am trying to picture Slaw frantically wheeling out those Per Madsen massive record storage columns on wheels.... onto the street. He must have a walk out.

Glupson
I do keep absolutely every record and CD I have ever had, but what is the point of it, I truly do not know.

Glupson
To understand me, is to understand that if I own something and "I know for sure" I will not use it again - it gets culled. It's gone. The problem is..... how long does it take to come to this personal realization. But once there ...the realization.....the material item is disposed of.

For me, my gear is but a means to get to the record's contents. I am emotional about the record. I have no emotion for the gear. Although I admit on these forums we (I) can get emotional about good gear that extracts record information well for us.

I also have three other serious "hobbies" pulling at my now deflated purse, (thank you kids) and there is just too much stuff. As an IT guy with a background in disaster recovery - I am very leery about the "the Cloud" do not trust it. So if one has transitioned to full online streaming and disposed of their records and cd's..........

********************************

Now reality check vs disillusionment.

Reality check wise. I think there is a short road left for old school audiophiles. I refer to the serious 2 channel audiophile. Being in my late 50's now I represent IMO the tail end of old school audiophiles - meaning - I am old enough to have seen it all unfold in front of me be part of it; but young enough to be experiencing first hand what my - fraternal 25 year old twins - experience. My IT background helps me with all the new technologies. I am seeing what the future holds.

Disillusionment in regards to records.

True story - bear with me.

Years ago I had this spare Technics SL1200 turntable with a basic Grado cart on it, in a spare system upstairs. One day I lent it out to a friend to try out vinyl. That Technics ended up going to multiple families within a 15 year ? time span. When the Technics SL1200 came back and stayed with me, a couple years later I sold it on local market to a young lady - she came over with her dad to buy it. I played an album for them and then went home happy.

Now - If I played an Album on that Technics/Grado TT, and CD in that spare system which I categorize as a good vintage system. One could say the LP sounded ok. About the same as the CD. Pros and Cons for each, but I could see how people would just use the CD over time. The record comes with more overhead. But put that same LP in my main rig, people back then could not believe what they were hearing. Is that the same LP? Better than the CD in the same rig. The possibilities with LP - I know I have not reached. But I am content where I stopped. 
  

Disillusionment
a feeling of disappointment resulting from the discovery that something is not as good as one believed it to be.

I feel most regular people (non-audiophiles), based on my own experiences just do not know how good vinyl can be. For now it floats my boat. 

glupson
"...and will have no idea why anyone would possess thousands of pounds of discs that take up so much space."

I am already wondering, and I do own some.

^^^^^
There are those "disillusionment" words again. Now if you don’t own a working turntable, then I am wondering too. Unless one is in the business of buying and selling online records.

otherwise.

I am reminded of this guy I know that has a farmers field. This guy doesn’t grow anything, but he has amassed a large number of boats on it. All kinds.....small, large, aluminum tinnies to larger boats with stoves and beds.

People ask him why he has so many boats. He will never be able to use all of the them. He says, "because each one floats, and is able to take me to a special place".

Larryi
If I value LPs and CDs at $5 per item (probably optimistic), I come up with $35,000. That is a little bit more than the value of the midrange drivers in my speakers, so I am way into the gear side.

@larryi

Larry
I’m not touching the midrange driver comment, except to say blessed is the audiophile that finds their audio nirvana on a budget 8^0. but ... re your price for LP and CD. I think the CD estimate is high. Here’s why.

First an observation.

My wife’s car did not come with a CD player. Wasn’t even an option. The expectation is people are now using their phones with Android Auto / Apple Carplay, Sirius, Radio, or a USB stick containing MP3, flac, etc...files.

So CD is/has, become obsolete and in the same boat as LP and cassettes for cars. And I have seen old advertisements for turntable players in cars.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/555840/highway-hi-fi-chrysler-car-record-player

This reduces the CD value.

*********************************

My local Good Will stores have many CD’s and LP’s for sale, each priced same ratio like your estimate, but at $1.99 each. But there is a big difference between these CD’s and LP’s that are selling at Goodwill.

One finds a wide selection of popular music on CD. A first visit for someone looking for CD, one can come home with an armload. The same is not true of LP.

The LP search is more akin to a treasure hunt, lucky to find one album you are remotely interested in, and then the condition of the record especially if it was popular, probably makes it an option for only Record Jacket Wall Art. IMO.

CD’s are more durable with use. Scratched CD’s files may be able to be saved with computer and a CD re-burned .... if you can find blank cd’s 8^0.

With proper use the LP lasts a long time. But once damaged from even one mishandling - its game over - to the audiophile. We have all had an LP slip when being handled, and our fingernail, or worse the ground did the damage. This makes that LP finds more precious - imo.

For this reason, and excluding special and rare music CD’s, I would value popular everyday CD ’s lower than popular LP’s which are in good playable condition.

^^^

lewm - I would bet there was no junk in his collection, because if he perceived that something was junk he got rid of it.

Lewm - for the benefit of those reading the thread with record collections, can you define better what you mean by junk. thanks.

Eric
I hang onto the cd’s for back up / archival purposes. I moved the frequent listens to hard drive long ago but since using Tidal HiFi...well.
Here’s one example. A picture is worth a thousand words.

You mentioned Roseanne Cash as one of your top left cube artists earlier. I like Roseanne Cash but I only have a couple albums, and only on CD.

This is what my Tidal Hi Fi digital choices looks like for Roseanne Cash.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/BTXZtkcd8akNvmQB7

New music options opened up.

Now if I owned Roseanne Cash on vinyl ...

^^^^
sometimes....

these "dealers" come in unrecognizable form.... 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5YcfH3rxw1iXZ1287

^^^^^
25,000 records Fleschler ....

So how many records did the average record store used to hold ?

********************
Here is a cool way to show your records if someone was selling.  

https://preview.redd.it/dlvrapzn2la41.gif?width=640&format=mp4&s=959a02a7fe2bdbf17998cab27db...

The above GIF link gives you a glimpse into someone's record collection, presented in a way I have not seen before. Sure beats having to zoom into the labels.  

*********************

An article I came across from Forbes that shows more recent data on used sales which were never calculated before.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/billrosenblatt/2018/09/18/vinyl-is-bigger-than-we-thought-much-bigger/#....