What should I look for when purchasing a quality album?

grislybutter and thecarpathian are willing to buy LPs in bunches at low per issue cost and apparently are prepared to find many of such LPs to be utterly unplayable. That’s another valid approach, I guess. I once spent an entire afternoon looking at LPs in a Goodwill. Some had no inner sleeve (a very bad sign because the cardboard cover will itself damage the playing surface), many more had outright gouges in the playing surface, gross dirt, etc. I guess those guys have more patience than I but I would rather pay $5 (for mono) to $15 for a single LP that passes the eye test and contains music I know I want to hear than to pay the same amount of money for several miscellaneous LPs among which I will be lucky to find a single gem. I don’t do estate sales unless I know the guy who died to have been a fastidious collector. Nor do I do eBay unless I have confidence in the seller. Thrift stores like Goodwill.... Stay away. But that is just my opinion. We have one son who lives in Tokyo. Tokyo has superb used LP stores, and the Japanese apparently take amazing care of their LPs. Funnily also, the prices are highest on US pressed originals, compared to Japanese reissues of say Verve, Polydor, etc. Yet the Japanese reissues are often superior to the originals or at least as good. The store I go to once a year rates each LP on an A, B, C scale. Even the B-rated LPs are in superb condition. I don’t even bother to inspect their A rated used LPs, because I know they will be perfect. They also dramatically devalue mono LPs, many of which I find to sound wonderful.

I usually end up keeping 1 out of 5 those albums. I clean them, with a VPI vacuum cleaner, put them in a new sleeve, etc. But, overall, am I a slob? Yes. Do I have $30+ for an album? No.

I absolutely love to find these gems, with notes on the album, sometimes a signature, receipt from 1972. This is why I stick to vinyl, I want to listen to music made in 1972 on a medium from 1972.

One good source for used LP’s are vintage malls, where there are multiple vendor booths under one roof. People from all over the U.S.A. have made YouTube videos showing the mall at which they have found LP’s, with wildly-varying prices. I have one ten minutes from my house that has a permanent vendor who specializes in music, and his VG+ and M- LP’s are priced for the most part between $5 and $10.

If your taste runs to 1970’s Rock, the Warner Brothers group of labels (WB, Reprise, Asylum) are some of the best for both music and sound.

Wow. Thanks guys. So much good information to use (and I will). I am grateful. Happy Listening.

@lewm ,

Hey, lewm.

Myself, I don’t use the buy in bulk method. I anally inspect records like a jeweler inspects a diamond. Don’t want to see the slightest evidence of a scratch. Lucky to also have a terrific record store next town over in Mystic CT. Guy named Dan has been there for 40+ years. Was a session musician for some famous bands. Cool guy. Note to self: Next time don't bring wife with me. By the time she was done grabbing stuff my bill was higher than what I paid for my tt.