How to Appraise Vinyl Records
Most people know there is a market for vintage vinyl, but determining the value of a particular record—much less an entire collection—can be challenging. In this post, we’ll give you some insight on how The Record People appraise vinyl, and hopefully this information can help you make a more informed decision about what do with your own collection.
If I had to name the most important rule in the appraisal process, it’s this one: get as much reliable information as you can. The most common mistake we see people make when appraising records is basing their valuation on too little data or unreliable data. It’s easy to look on eBay, find the highest price you can, and convince yourself your record is worth that much. However, an accurate appraisal relies on data from multiple reliable sources and a clear understanding of the item’s value to potential buyers.
So, with that in mind, let’s split the appraisal process into three steps:
Determine what you have.
Find as many recorded sales of comparable items as you can.
Determine how your item stacks up against the recorded sales you found.
Part 1: Determine what you have
To determine a record’s value, it’s imperative that you know as much factual information about the record as possible. Besides the artist and title of the record, the most important things to understand are:
Where, when, and how the record was made (or “pressed”)
The record’s condition
Researching Pressing Information
Discogs.com is the most important site on the internet for pressing information. While, like Wikipedia, volunteers compile Discogs’ database, the information you find there is usually reliable, though it can be tricky to navigate and understand.
Every album should have a master release page on Discogs that has basic information about the album including its cover art, track listing, year of release, etc. This information is useful for music fans, but what’s useful in the appraisal process is the section called Versions. This section lists different versions of the album, including versions made in different countries, on different formats (LP, 8-track, cassette, CD, etc.), in different years, or on different colors of vinyl.
Discogs currently lists almost 1,000 different versions of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.
The differences between these versions are extremely important to vinyl collectors and can have an enormous effect on the record’s value, so it’s important to understand precisely which version you have. If you’re wondering why some versions are more valuable than others, we’ve written an entire blog post explaining just that.
As you navigate the different versions of a record (and there can be many! Popular titles like Led Zeppelin’s first album or the Beatles’ white album have hundreds of different versions), use the information in the Images, Notes, and Barcode and Other Identifiers sections to determine if your version is a match.
Images
When you click on the album cover on a release page, you’ll usually see additional images of the record’s back cover, center labels, and any inserts or other materials that came with the record. Your version should match what you see in the images exactly. The center labels are usually the most important thing to look at. Does your copy have the same center label design as the one pictured? Does all the type look exactly the same, including typeface, type size, and placement? Sometimes a small detail like the address of the record company or having a piece of text to the left side of the center hole rather than the right can make a big difference, as crazy as that seems.
Notes
The notes section will often include information about how to identify this version of the record by examining details about the record’s jacket, center labels, matrix etchings, or other details. . Again, it’s important to make sure your record matches the information in this section exactly.
An example of a matrix etching. These appear just outside the record’s center label.
Barcode and Other Identifiers
Like the Notes section, this section highlights details that help you identify whether you have this version. For vinyl, the most important information is about the record’s matrix etchings (sometimes referred to as “Runout grooves”). Ideally your record’s matrix etchings will match the information here exactly, but I find the information in this section is often missing, confusing, and/or incomplete on the Discogs site.
Determining a Record’s Condition
If you thought determining which version of a record you have is difficult, I have news for you: determining the condition can be even more difficult. Grading a record’s condition should be straightforward, but in practice it is subjective and often controversial.
You’ll often see the term “Goldmine Standard” in relation to grading the condition of records. Goldmine is a magazine about record collecting that established this rubric, and it’s since become the standard rubric for grading record Discogs has a good explanation of the Goldmine Standard written in plain, easy to understand English, but here’s a more succinct version:
MINT (M): This grade is only used for an item that is factory sealed or can otherwise proven never to have been played.
NEAR MINT (NM): Like-new condition with little to no evidence of wear, handling, etc.
VERY GOOD PLUS (VG+): A well cared for record. It may show evidence of handling, but otherwise looks close to brand new.
VERY GOOD (VG): A record that shows clear signs of wear, but has not been abused or damaged. You should be able to listen to a VG record without your enjoyment being seriously impacted.
GOOD (G) / GOOD PLUS (G+): A record that shows heavy signs of use and/or minor damage. Some of these issues have a noticeable effect on sound quality or aesthetics.
FAIR (F): A record that can still be played, but has serious problems like skips, significant noise, etc.
POOR (P): A record that is warped, cracked, or otherwise cannot be played.
A few notes about grading:
The record and its jacket each get a separate grade. While the vinyl’s grade is more important to most collectors, the most valuable records have a jacket and vinyl (and any other parts of the records such as inserts or posters) in strong condition.
Record collectors are strict about grading. A small blemish that looks insignificant to you might substantially affect a record’s grade and, consequently, its value.
Anything that would qualify as “damage” to a record’s jacket (water damage, writing, any tearing, non-original stickers, etc.) will put the grade at VG or lower.
Any marks on the record that you can feel with your fingernail will put the grade at VG or lower.
Part 2: Find as many recorded sales of comparable items as you can
Once you’ve gathered as much information as you can about the record you have, the next step is to research how much the record has sold for in the past. There are many web sites that provide this information, but it’s important to understand each of these data sources.
The Marketplace and Statistics section on the right side of a Discogs release page offers a wealth of useful information about a record’s market value.
Besides providing reference information, Discogs has a marketplace for buying and selling music, and they make some of their data from these transactions available on their site. The page for each version of a record will have the lowest, highest, median, and average price for that record based on the last 10 copies sold on Discogs. The Discogs median value is the first number I check when appraising a record, and for common records this number alone should give you a good idea of what a copy in average condition should sell for.
Other data available on Discogs include the number of people who have the record listed cataloged in their collection, the number of people who have the record in their want list, and the number and asking price of copies currently for sale. These data can be useful for giving more context to the sales data. Records that have less than a few hundred “haves” and “wants” tend to be obscure records with a limited niche market. If there are several copies of a record for sale for less than its median value, that means that the value of that record is trending downward or the sales data has been skewed by some other factor. Conversely, if all the copies for sale are priced well above the median, the record may be in high demand.
Always make sure the Sold Items checkbox is ticked when using eBay to appraise your records (or anything else, for that matter!)
eBay is one of the world’s largest online marketplaces for selling used and vintage items, but it has some major limitations as a research tool. Here are a few things you should note about the listings on eBay:
Make sure you’re looking at sold items. Anyone can put an item up for sale on eBay for any price, so make sure you refine your search to show only sold items, as these transactions show what a buyer actually paid.
Unlike Discogs, eBay does not distinguish between different versions of a record, so you may see other versions of your record selling for prices that are much higher than you might expect to get.
eBay only shows items that have sold in the last 60 days. Thus, they might not have any data about a record that hasn’t sold recently.
There are specialty web sites such as popsike.com and gripsweat.com that archive information about older eBay transactions. These sites can be useful for determining market trends for extremely valuable records, but since their archives are not exhaustive and don’t include information about lower-priced records, they’re less useful for common records.
At The Record People we realize how valuable this data is, so we’ve been meticulous about keeping the data from the hundreds of thousands of records we’ve sold over the years. Looking at what we priced previous copies of a record at and how quickly those copies sold helps us to determine the best pricing strategy for the records we sell.
Part 3: Determine how your item stacks up against the recorded sales you found
Once you clearly understand the record and the market for it, you can put that information together and determine the record’s market value.
Discogs’ detailed sales history helps flesh out the information on the release page. As you can see here, a record in Near Mint condition fetches a substantially higher price than copies of the same version in lesser condition.
If we suspect a record’s Discogs median value doesn’t tell the complete story, we try to find sales records for copies of the same record in comparable condition. Discogs allows you to see the price, date, condition, and notes for the last 10 sales for any version in the marketplace. The eBay archive sites I mentioned above such as popsike.com can provide additional information. Remember, though, even a sale price for a copy in the same condition doesn’t guarantee that you can get the same price for your record; there are many factors that can affect a single transaction.
Remember, the more data you have corroborating your assessment, the more confidence you can have in your appraisal.
