Selling off the vinyl

Most people are loath to part with sounds they love from the past, while not having played them for years, so copying to CD is the obvious move, at which point the old vinyl can be got rid of. There are collectors waiting to buy, and dealers who cater to the collector market. But anyone with ideas that their vinyl collection is worth a fortune should think again. There are few records that command really high prices; the rare, the originally restricted pressings, the limited edition laser discs etc., but most LPs are only worth a few pounds, possibly less than what they cost in some cases. With an increased supply of these records onto the market, there is likely to be a drop in value, rarity being the deciding factor in collectibles.

I have been selling my vinyl collection for a few years now, slowly. There isn't a huge demand, but occasionally someone happens by my site and discovers the LP they have been searching for and we have a trade. It's nothing to get excited about, however, and certainly nothing to provide a pension to a sixties survivor! I have no fixed prices, not being part of the second hand record industry, so I usually haggle, try to find out what the potential buyer thinks is a good price, or what they can afford, and take it from there.

When I make the occasional sale, I usually record the album onto hard disc before cleaning and posting it, just in case I want to hear the sound again that I haven't played for years, sometimes decades. We are all left with memories attached to our record collection; many a record has only to be played to transport us back to that time when we first purchased it, it's difficult to let it go entirely.

But so far I've not played any of them, and they reside on my hard disc awaiting burning to CD. I might get round to it some day.