Post by cooksferry on Jun 22, 2021 15:53:02 GMT 12
I'm sure i'm not the only forum member who has thought from time to time what to do with their collection when the time comes to down size. Certainly something that has occupied my thoughts over the last two years.
I retired in January 2020 and after spending too much time over the preceding couple of years chasing speakers, amps, cartridges etc, though I'd be set to fill in any free time.
The one thing I did manage was to finally complete my Discogs listing.
However despite lock downs I arrived near the end of last year having only visited my music room three times in nine months, not a great use of the collection. I was still playing cds most nights on my bedroom system but lps never made it to the TT.
After talking it over with my family and having no real desire to dribble things out on TM etc I decided to approach a shop with the object of them buying all the vinyl, just over 1300 items.
This was in November and they seemed interested, checking my Discogs list to see what I had.
I had set up a separate list with all the for sale records which they couldn't view so I downloaded it in PDF format and sent them a USB stick with all the info plus a load of photos.
We talked pricing and I gave them one that was a few thousand less than the Discogs minimum . I figured if it was too much we could haggle and probably 75% of the records had been purchased new, many had never been played, or at best a couple of times so condition was pretty good.
Got back in touch in January this year and they said they were happy to go ahead at my price. We spent at least an hour on the phone going over payment and delivery options. End of call and I was mentally figuring out listing TT etc on TM when the buyer called back to say it was a no go. Excuse given was they had looked at one Deep Purple (9lp) box set and saw some for sale on Discogs for the same price they'd be paying me. To say I was a bit taken back would be an under statement.
After the call I did check the Deep Purple listing and frankly his excuse was a load of shit. The prices he quoted were in US dollars against my prices in NZ currency with no allowance for condition or shipping. The best I could see for that DP set to NZ was more than double what he quoted as my selling price.
After much thought on this I'm still bemused that they didn't offer a lower price if they thought mine was too high. I'm almost of the opinion they were just winding me up in the end.
A couple of months later got in contact with another large record shop that was advertising for stock, collections wanted etc. Talked to their head man by phone, again took him through my collection on Discogs. This time I never gave any pricing and said I'd leave it in their court to see what they could offer. They returned a few days later saying they couldn't pay me anything like the worth of the collection and I'd be better selling the records individually. I was well aware of that but was disappointed that they hadn't at least made an offer.
On to shop three and this time I was there in person. Approached the owner, told him how many records I had for sale and was he interested in having a look and making an offer. Well, no, he wasn't interested in looking, could give me $7 a record. I wasn't interested in that, especially when there are a lot of lps that sell in the hundreds of dollars, not to mention some rare and expensive box sets.
Just before I left the shop he upped the offer to $13,000 for the complete collection . No.
I realise that I am probably a bit naive here, it's been about 30 years since I last had a major collection sellout (50c per lp) but am still stumped why the first two shops, two of the biggest in the country, weren't at least willing to make some sort of offer as a starting point. The third shop I found strange that they had no interest in looking at the goods for sale.
All three shops advertise for records to buy.
After all this I've decided to hang onto things for now and possibly start dribbling some of the double ups and unplayed items out later in the year.
There are options with Trade Me and Discogs, although I'm definitely not looking at any international shipping . I have a couple of local enthusiasts who are keen on any metal or punk stuff I want to sell and of course there is this forum and a couple of You Tube vinyl forums as well.
My son has let it be known that he's quite happy to take the lot from my hands and dribble it out on TM, to his financial advantage of course.
After all this I'd be interested in hearing of others experiences and thoughts to the future of their collection. If or when we downsize our home I'm sure I could still hang onto most of my 2000 cd/sacd collection, it's just those lps that could be a problem.
I retired in January 2020 and after spending too much time over the preceding couple of years chasing speakers, amps, cartridges etc, though I'd be set to fill in any free time.
The one thing I did manage was to finally complete my Discogs listing.
However despite lock downs I arrived near the end of last year having only visited my music room three times in nine months, not a great use of the collection. I was still playing cds most nights on my bedroom system but lps never made it to the TT.
After talking it over with my family and having no real desire to dribble things out on TM etc I decided to approach a shop with the object of them buying all the vinyl, just over 1300 items.
This was in November and they seemed interested, checking my Discogs list to see what I had.
I had set up a separate list with all the for sale records which they couldn't view so I downloaded it in PDF format and sent them a USB stick with all the info plus a load of photos.
We talked pricing and I gave them one that was a few thousand less than the Discogs minimum . I figured if it was too much we could haggle and probably 75% of the records had been purchased new, many had never been played, or at best a couple of times so condition was pretty good.
Got back in touch in January this year and they said they were happy to go ahead at my price. We spent at least an hour on the phone going over payment and delivery options. End of call and I was mentally figuring out listing TT etc on TM when the buyer called back to say it was a no go. Excuse given was they had looked at one Deep Purple (9lp) box set and saw some for sale on Discogs for the same price they'd be paying me. To say I was a bit taken back would be an under statement.
After the call I did check the Deep Purple listing and frankly his excuse was a load of shit. The prices he quoted were in US dollars against my prices in NZ currency with no allowance for condition or shipping. The best I could see for that DP set to NZ was more than double what he quoted as my selling price.
After much thought on this I'm still bemused that they didn't offer a lower price if they thought mine was too high. I'm almost of the opinion they were just winding me up in the end.
A couple of months later got in contact with another large record shop that was advertising for stock, collections wanted etc. Talked to their head man by phone, again took him through my collection on Discogs. This time I never gave any pricing and said I'd leave it in their court to see what they could offer. They returned a few days later saying they couldn't pay me anything like the worth of the collection and I'd be better selling the records individually. I was well aware of that but was disappointed that they hadn't at least made an offer.
On to shop three and this time I was there in person. Approached the owner, told him how many records I had for sale and was he interested in having a look and making an offer. Well, no, he wasn't interested in looking, could give me $7 a record. I wasn't interested in that, especially when there are a lot of lps that sell in the hundreds of dollars, not to mention some rare and expensive box sets.
Just before I left the shop he upped the offer to $13,000 for the complete collection . No.
I realise that I am probably a bit naive here, it's been about 30 years since I last had a major collection sellout (50c per lp) but am still stumped why the first two shops, two of the biggest in the country, weren't at least willing to make some sort of offer as a starting point. The third shop I found strange that they had no interest in looking at the goods for sale.
All three shops advertise for records to buy.
After all this I've decided to hang onto things for now and possibly start dribbling some of the double ups and unplayed items out later in the year.
There are options with Trade Me and Discogs, although I'm definitely not looking at any international shipping . I have a couple of local enthusiasts who are keen on any metal or punk stuff I want to sell and of course there is this forum and a couple of You Tube vinyl forums as well.
My son has let it be known that he's quite happy to take the lot from my hands and dribble it out on TM, to his financial advantage of course.
After all this I'd be interested in hearing of others experiences and thoughts to the future of their collection. If or when we downsize our home I'm sure I could still hang onto most of my 2000 cd/sacd collection, it's just those lps that could be a problem.
On the plus side only one classical music lp and maybe five jazz. There are some genres that will be very difficult to unload at almost any price and classical, country music, MOR and show scores would rank up there. The 50 cent bin at your local OP shop .
