# Regarding the near-future worth of rare records



## The Deacon (Jan 14, 2018)

Please note that this argument hinges on the supposition that rare records are not likely to be found out in the wild since the majority are not in circulation due to being locked-up in private collections.

......

My collector-friend recently proposed this (or may have stated it as fact - I don't recall), that....

.... regards 60s/70s lps (specifically psych & prog in our case), the price of rare records will FALL due to the fact that the collectros that started in their teens are now approaching retirement age and ,within, the next decade - of not already - will/are dying-off.

Post-mortem records are being dumped on the market ; whether seriously (to make profit using active web sites) or willy-nilly simply for widows,etc to "clear-out".
In the next decade its gonna get progressively worse (or better, depending on your angle.)

Deacon Beaker must admit that, despite thinking things over, I is sitting on the fence on this one.


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## Annied (Apr 27, 2017)

I'm not sure about that. Most of the folk I know threw out their old vinyl years ago. The ones like me who didn't have very well played copies. Don't the collectors of today look for copies in mint, never been played condition? I doubt there'll ever be too many of them around.

I do have to thank you however as your post made me do a little research. I now know how to identify a first pressing and have discovered that despite having been very well played and not in mint condition, my first pressing of "Please, Please Me" is still worth upwards of £200 and "Rolling Stones" in similar condition around £150. I had no idea they were worth anything at all!


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Of course, a glance at the website Discogs tells you that there are folks out there who still care about vinyl records (and CDs, for that matter!) and are willing to still buy them.

I remain one of those vinyl record "collectors" in that I have well over a thousand LPs, mostly classical (which are actually more problematical to sell than jazz/pop) but also including hundreds of jazz and pop, including quite a few Beatles albums, Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stones, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, and other such "treasures". The large majority of my stock is from the "old days"; I have since purchased some of the recent "new stock" vinyl albums currently being repressed and marketed at prices often ten times and more what the "old days" originals sold for, but they are not always better sounding than the originals.

Most of my original purchase albums remain in pristine, like-new condition, and when stored properly, cleaned properly, and played on high-quality equipment, which includes top-end cartridges which treat the vinyl like a baby while still extracting every utterance, cry, silence and shout, they stay in good condition. If there _are_ ticks and pops and scratches, it's likely they were there on day one right out of the package.

But I and many other so-called "collectors" did not approach this hobby in order to amass a financial nest-egg for retirement purposes. We did so simply because we love music and remain curious about hearing new and different sounds. Remember that it wasn't always possible to link to the internet and download anything you can type into the search box in order to explore something new. Since most radio stations were programming only hits and music by "conventional" musicians, the only way to really explore new sounds in those "old days" was to purchase records and/or tapes. Which explains why I have so many off-the-common-path discs filled with experimental music and uncommon sounds. It was a way to travel and see (hear) the world.

And we _listened_ to our discs. I don't have many "sealed" LPs bought forty or fifty years ago. (I do recall there is a 1987 Whitesnake album in my collection that is still unopened!) But we treated them with respect and so can continue, even today, some forty, fifty, and even sixty years later continue to enjoy them. Because we are primarily music lovers.

I will tell you … I've heard many a CD over the years, but I've never experienced the same "wow" factor I have from listening to vinyl. Not all vinyl, to be sure. But _nothing_ in my several thousand CDs has ever struck me with the same slam and you-are-there live presence I've experienced from a vinyl record every now and then. Sometimes it's a brass outburst in a symphony, sometimes it's a vocal, sometimes the string quartet just seems to be sitting in your listening room -- and those moments of "awe" make the listening experience of vinyl LPs so worth it!

So, what is a "valuable record"? Is it one you've set off on a shelf to pay for retirement expenses, or is it one that gives you that experience of "wow!"

I'm glad vinyl has made a resurgence, and I don't much care if it lasts or not. I shall go on as long as possible enjoying my turntable rig and my vinyl records, and what happens to them beyond my time doesn't quite concern me. Though I do hope they will continue to be a pleasure for someone else. Which is why I enjoy my visits to Discogs, and to this website, where I can commune with persons who enjoy music. Because that's what it's really all about.

Final observation: As an audiophile (one who loves to seek out high quality recorded sound) I have hopes that digital music and digital music players (or whatever is the next big new thing) will improve to a point where readily accessible music will be heard in as full a glory as the live performance is for those who are there at the moment of the recording. (Keep in mind, too, that not all recordings are made from a single "live" performance but are rather patched together in an artificial manner so that no live rendition was ever to be heard!) If a time comes when tapes, and discs, and vinyl records become totally unnecessary, that will be good. I look forward to those times. Still, I suspect that even if I am around during that era, I will continue to spin my records and silver discs, as long as my equipment holds out. There's just something humanly interactive to that experience of sharing music with the ones who created it via hard copy discs. So, count me in till the end.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

I don't think this will happen to records = old cars yes as there are so many in old peoples garages who are now falling off the perch, starting to this in Oz with cars but not records. As previouls posters have said a lot of people threw out records when CD's came around but no me I have a vast Zappa Vinyl collection he he even got original Lumpy Gravy (not the Capital version thru - if anyone got that on vinyl me know- now that would be my ultimate piece but is unobtainium)- as I don't think there ever was a vinyl of this :lol


> _*Lumpy Gravy*_ is the debut solo album by Frank Zappa, written by Zappa and performed by a group of session players he dubbed the Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra. Zappa conductedthe orchestra but did not perform on the album. It is his third album overall: his previous releases had been under the name of his group, the Mothers of Invention.
> *It was commissioned and briefly released, on August 7, 1967, by Capitol Records in the 4-track Stereo-Pak** format only *and then withdrawn due to a lawsuit from MGM Records. MGM claimed that the album violated Zappa's contract with their subsidiary, Verve Records. In 1968 it was reedited and reissued by MGM's Verve Records on May 13, 1968. The reissue consisted of two musique concrètepieces that combined elements from the original orchestral performance with elements of surf musicand the spoken word. It was praised for its music and editing.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

Nah, if you watch YouTube videos of good Prog, many of the comments are by teens or people in early 20s. Psych also has a young audience although it may not be as valuable. Classic rock LPs sometimes can have rare pressings and may retain value.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Generally, stored records by people ignorant of them being valuable also tend to have poor surfaces and to be poorly kept. 

Not that there are exceptions, of course.


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