Tips for Selling my Great-Grandmothers Vintage Record Collection

[Mayflower2020]

When my grandfather passed away a few years ago I was offered his record collection. I didn't have interest in the music he had stored away so I left it to anyone else in the family who may have wanted it. All of his children passed on it, as well as my cousins. When I was offered it a second time, my son had just been born. So I declined to either take it or to sell it in my ebay store as my wife and I were slowing down our sales with our new, more enjoyable hobby of caring for our infant son.  So it was up to my mother to sell them. I helped her search a few of the titles and they didn't seem to me to be worth all that much. So she listed them on craigslist and the facebook marketplace about two weeks ago and got a message from a local collector who asked if he and his wife could come look through them. They went over to my parents that afternoon and spent an hour flipping through the records, staring at the collection. Their eyes were wide and they kept handing records back and forth saying "Look at this one, ooh look at this one." Finally the man told my mother that she needed to take down her posts and find a reputable record dealer to assess the collection. He told her that he couldn't offer her money for any of the records in good conscious and that she clearly didn't know what she had. He declined to buy any of them and added that some of the records were ones that he could only dream of owning.

Most of the records belonged to my great grandmother (1899-1991) , and when my grandfather inherited them he just kept them sealed as she had left them. Some look as though they have never been played, while some look like they were well used in the 30s and 40s.

So here we are. The collection has come back to me for a third time because of my passion for selling and researching coins and vintage baseball cards. I have about 500 records in my basement from 1902-1969. I started sorting them by artist, time period, speed, etc. I have also started importing them onto my new discogs account so that I start a database of what I have and use the site for some sales.

 

I have been doing a ton of research on labels to look for, artists, condition, re-releases, mono vs stereo, etc. But I must admit that in the past 4 days I have realized I am way way over my head.  I am open to any tips for record dealers, or auction houses that you recommend, or that I should avoid. What are common mistakes that I might make when storing, shipping, selling, or assessing value?

My goal is to clear out all 500 (rough count) in less than 6 months so that I can have my office back and I can give my grandmother the money for the records. (A bit ambitious I am sure, but I have been working on it non stop).

Edited July 5, 2019 by Mayflower2020

[zdkaiser]

What genres, artists, record label, etc?

 

Do you have any jazz LPs on Blue Note, Prestige, or the Impulse labels? 

 

Can you share the discos list?

[Mayflower2020]

I haven't even finished sorting or uploading them all into discogs. There are Shellac 10 inch LP's from 1902-1940. Some are in Swedish, and some in English. Fox Trot, Piano, Orchestra, Etc.

Then there are about 175+ LP's from the 50s. (207 Vinyl and Shellac Records without sleeves) A lot of Arthur Fiedler Boston Pops, Jackie Gleason, Hollywood Bowl Symphony, and about 75 random names I am not familiar with.  The LP's from the 50' look like most of them have never been played and were just taken out of their sleeves for the first time this week. I have enver seen anything like it. They are all archived in green paper folders with labels on them and have been stored perfectly for the past 60+ years. Most are Near Mint to Mint.

There are also the "Collectible" Box Sets that are in great shape but don't have much value outside of Nostalgia.

And finally about over 200 Records with Sleaves from the 1950-1975 (ish) that I haven't begun to sort through these ones yet as I assume they are the least valuable (but I am not an expert and honestly have no idea what could be in those boxes.)

I haven't found any of those Jazz Labels yet.  These are the Labels I have cataloged so far.

20th Fox

A&M

Abbott

ABC Paramount

Audio Fidelity

Basic Library of the Worlds Greatest Music?

Capitol

Capitol

Columbia

Decca

Dot

Epic

Imperial

Juilee

KAPP

London

MAM

Mercury

MGM

National Music Lovers Inc. New York

Pathe

RCA

RCA Camden

RCA Victor

Scandanavia

Tiffany Records

Victor

Victrola

Vik

Warner Brothers

 

[Dunc]

Where are you located? It's really not that hard to figure out the prices, just very time consuming. You really aren't giving a whole lot of info here but I am guessing if you want to hold out for top dollar it's going to take some time to unload them. Maybe you can just find a reputable dealer in your area and sell the lot as a whole? 

[SeeMoreGlass]

I've had some pretty limited experience with the 78s which are fun to research but the majority of them aren't worth much. From what I understand, there are a few different labels that are very rare and are worth a ton, like the Paramount blues records. They are rare because there wasn't many of them pressed, but most of the white people dance music isn't rare because it was pressed for the masses. Your best bet is to look up individual titles, probably the ones from the labels you don't recognize will be worth more. Just know that typically the people who collect those kinds of records are looking for condition and rarity and often times are pretty intense about them. 

 

My advice, if you want to unload them is to get in touch with that dude and his wife and have them make you an offer. It sounds like they are interested and will give them all a listen which is ultimately the point of collecting...to enjoy the music. 

 

My best advice, is just because it is old, doesn't mean it is worth anything and that these records are only worth what other people are willing to pay. From what you have described it doesn't sound like there is anything really rare or hard to find but it is really hard to know without actually looking at them. You could also look them up on discogs.com. You aren't going to find a ton of the 78s on there probably but the LPs you should be able to look up. 

 

Best of luck!

[Mayflower2020]

Thank you so much. I have been going through them and adding them to the discogs database, but its been time consuming because more than half of the 78s weren't in the database at all and I have to find other sources to add information.  The ones that I can find, don't seem be rare. $2-10 range. I assume with the condition that these would be in upper half of that range, but I also don't want to sit on them for years holding out for an extra few hundred dollars. I just don't want to miss any glaring errors.

The guy who came to look at them said that he wasn't in a position financially to make an offer on them as a whole but I will look into other dealers to see. The 78s look loved, but most of the LP's look like they have never been played. I wish there was a way I could add images here.

I will update the discogs list once I have it complete (probably next week at some point, the way my week is).

I know that most of the rare albums are Blues, Jazz, early Rock n Roll. I don't think any of that is here. But the condition of the records is what is blowing my mind.

 

 

 

[jerseypride]

Depending on your location, Princeton Record Exchange in NJ buys large collections and they make house local house calls from what I understand. One thing that might be helpful is to take some video of the collection (highlighting some samples). Emailing the video to dealers will be helpful to them if the condition is at the higher end.

[Surrural]

Or, bring the couple into the fold for a small cut to help you identify and catalog the LP's & 78's that 'he could only dream of owning.' Kinda reminded me of the cut 'Sex Pistols' single 7" scene from High Fidelity.