Price of vinyl

PTO

Gonna have a rant..but first... Let me say... . I love vinyl. There is nothing better than getting a record, Placing the needle and listening to that warm sound while you read the sleeve notes. Recorded music the way it is meant to be heard. Bliss.

My problem though is the price... And not in shops. I understand that shops sell vinyl at a higher price than cds, they are more expensive to press etc etc. I'm cool with that. My gripe is with 2nd hand vinyl and adverts.ie. How come Irish vinyl sellers seem to feel that they are worth far more than any one else in Europe or the US?

Has anyone else noticed this? I used to buy vinyl on adverts but since I have discovered discogs.com, I always use that. Even stuff being shipped from the US or eastern Europe is cheaper with postage than the price being looked for in Ireland! It's mad. Just today I saw a record in adverts for 40euro and there were 24 mint versions of the same record on discogs cheaper! Mad!

Anyone any idea why there's such an inflation on 2nd hand record here?

Rant over. All is well with the world again. Currently listening to Rory Gallagher 'Stage Struck'. 8euro all the way from Germany. :-)

Custardpi

Not sure about other marketplaces but the situation on Adverts is because of the amount of lowballers. Put pretty much any price for an item, no matter how reasonable & the first few offers if any will often be for half or less than that. Consequently many sellers tend to put a higher price to start with. The guy selling that lp for €40 probably doesn't expect to get the full price for it but hopes to maybe get closer to the Discogs price. It's probably worth making him/her an offer.

NIMAN

They can price it as they like cos its a hipster thing now, and folk will pay whatever they are asked to for it.

PTO

Custardpi wrote: »

Not sure about other marketplaces but the situation on Adverts is because of the amount of lowballers. Put pretty much any price for an item, no matter how reasonable & the first few offers if any well often be for half or less than that. Consequently many sellers tend to put a higher price to start with. The guy selling that lp for €40 probably doesn't expect to get the full price for it but hopes to maybe get closer to the Discogs price. It's probably worth making him/her an offer.

Yea I get what you are saying about adverts alright. I've seen that a lot. Maybe I was wrong to just name the website. It's the same at record fairs and second hand record shops too from what I see. Just seems way over priced here!

PTO

Custardpi wrote: »

Not sure about other marketplaces but the situation on Adverts is because of the amount of lowballers. Put pretty much any price for an item, no matter how reasonable & the first few offers if any well often be for half or less than that. Consequently many sellers tend to put a higher price to start with. The guy selling that lp for €40 probably doesn't expect to get the full price for it but hopes to maybe get closer to the Discogs price. It's probably worth making him/her an offer.

Yea I get what you are saying about adverts alright. I've seen that a lot. Maybe I was wrong to just name the website. It's the same at record fairs and second hand record shops too from what I see. Just seems way over priced here!

Custardpi

The cost of doing business is often quite high in Ireland, particularly for stuff like rent & insurance. If second hand record shops are getting stock in from abroad the shipping costs have to also be considered. I doubt very much that anyone is getting rich from selling used vinyl here. Wrt record fairs always worth haggling a bit to try & get a better price. I've got a few deals that way myself. Sometimes they won't budge of course, but no harm in asking.

Anesthetize

NIMAN wrote: »

They can price it as they like cos its a hipster thing now, and folk will pay whatever they are asked to for it.

So vinyl has become more expensive due to the increase in popularity as a result of people who like to avoid everything that is popular. I'd expect the hipsters to be listening to 8-track or wax cylinder.

PTO

Yea good point... Don't get me wrong, I'm not begrudging anyone. Just an observation I made which has had me thinking!

PTO

Yea good point... Don't get me wrong, I'm not begrudging anyone. Just an observation I made which has had me thinking!

K.Flyer

I think everyone, retailers and private sellers are seriously taking advantage of the renewed interest in vinyl.
Late last year I bought the Division Bell box set in HMV and it cost 105 euro, even that was a bit rich I thought, in the weeks leading into X-mass they bumped it up to 150 euro and it's still at that price.
On the private side of things, my worry for buyers is how many believe that they are buying original items, when in fact they are buying re- issued re- issues, or sometimes blatant counterfeit items and paying high prices for them to boot.
Don't get me wrong, some reissue releases can be top quality if they are from a reputable manufacturer who is working with the original label and master tapes e.g. Rhino. But some other stuff out there is so bad you would be better off buying the c.d.

Sorry for the ramble.

Custardpi

Anesthetize wrote: »

So vinyl has become more expensive due to the increase in popularity as a result of people who like to avoid everything that is popular. I'd expect the hipsters to be listening to 8-track or wax cylinder.

Actually the latest thing is a return to cassettes (remember those things that kept getting entangled in your walkman?). There was a few cassette releases for Record Store Day this year, including one from Metallica.

Anesthetize

I'm just glad that CDs (my physical format of choice) are less expensive. I could pick up a few second-hand CDs for the price of a second-hand LP.

Also cassettes are just horrible. I grew up with them and I was over the moon when I got my first CD player.

noby

I have bought from both Adverts and Discogs.

Given the size of the marketplace on Discogs you probably get a truer reflection of the going rate.

You do get this on Adverts with sellers who only sell vinyl (perhaps at a slight premium compared to Discog).
The trouble starts when people are selling from their own collection. You tend to get a sentimental premium placed on the price. I was looking at a couple of 12"s on adverts, priced around €75, from a private collection. Bought them from Discog for a tenner each. Their true Irish market rate would definitely be less than €20, but if I bid €20 on a €75 item on adverts I get accused of low-balling.

Custardpi

Yeah you do sometimes get sellers who have a vastly inflated idea of what an item is worth alright. I've mostly been happy with the prices I've paid for records on Adverts however.

noby

Well, so have I, because I just wouldn't offer crazy money.

I'm not an ultra-rare collector, but do enjoy picking up older albums. If the price is crazy on Adverts (a website I do like to support) I just go elsewhere.

RoadhouseBlues

Hey PTO. I used to buy my albums from an English fella who was supplying one of the people who ran the record fairs. It was 4 for €20 and a fifth for free. It was brilliant. And he had them all cleaned and in perfect condition. He moved back to England though. It was a real shame. I got in touch then with the person running the record fair, and he was selling them between €30 and €50. Disgraceful. And he tried to tell me he was only running the record fair, because he wanted to encourage people to listen to vinyl:-(. The fecker.

PTO

Haha, that's exactly what I'm on about. I'd imagine I have the same record fair in mind that you are talking about. Been there a few times and have never actually bought anything funnily enough!!
I can understand people paying big money for a rare pressing or something like that if that's what they're into but I don't see why every vinyl gets priced as though it's the holy grail!

K.Flyer

That's another good point as well, a lot of people seem to be under the illusion that just because it's old, it's worth a fortune and if it's the Beatles then you have hit the jackpot, simply not the case.
At the end of the day it comes down to what anyone is willing to pay for it, unfortunately some are paying way too much. But with a bit of research on the net, you can quickly see if what you are interested in is worth the money.