Are these LPs worth buying and how to ship them?

Jimbo18

A friend back in Penna. (I am near Charlotte) has over 100 LPs that are in near mint-to-mint condition. He hasn't played them in many years, all were bought new and he's very fussy with his "stuff". He wants to sell them all and will give me a good price.

That's the good news, the bad news is that many of them probably aren't desirable. I know the Beatles stuff is good, but a lot of the other stuff is either instrumental, soft pop, or 60's "oldies".

Supremes, Simon and Garfunkel, Carpenters, Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, Herb Alpert, Ferrante and Teicher, The Ventures, Bread, Dawn, Carpenters, Neil Sedaka, Paul Anka, Grass Roots, The Association, Lettermen, Little Anthony, Bobby Vee, Frankie Avalon, Herman's Hermits, Chubby Checker, Dion, Gary Lewis, Roy Orbison, Gary Puckett, Abba, etc.

Most of them are Greatest Hits, so very playable, but probably not very collectable.

So, I guess my question is, are they marketable, and if so, how expensive is it normally to package them correctly? I watched a couple videos and it looks like there are boxes that I could order to fit them.

msg

Nice, Jim. Do you plan to keep any of these for yourself, or just looking to turn around?

I don't know how to go about shipping a collection of that size, but if in bulk, I'd say to find a record storage box, and pack them relatively tightly, with medium density foam on all sides and to take up the slop. Then double box, mark fragile and insure. Mark with "This Side Up", etc. Temperature shouldn't be an issue this time of year.

Is that what the videos you saw show? Using record storage boxes or something like that?
https://www.sleevecityusa.com/ultimate-lp-storage-box-p/3strlpbox.htm


Might be some other stuff out there on the web, but I'd start there off the top of my head without more research.

After you receive them, you'll have a bit of work on your end in determining what's what. You can go to Discogs to get started on determining what you have, and how to go about grading them. It's pretty easy to start a Collection there. And then you can list any valuable ones for sale if that's the route you want to go.

You may need a modest turntable to play some of the more valuable ones to make sure they play clean so you don't have any return hassles.

Or you could just turn around the entire lot for a sum. I've seen some ads on the markets with people doing just that. Some of them are pretty ballsy too, and they say things like, "All or nothing" or "No looking", etc. lol

dromunds

If only a small percentage are albums you will listen to, then you have to determine whether it'll be worth the hassle of getting those 100 LPs and then grading them, shipping them, putting up with the hassle of some a-holes wanting their money back or a big discount claiming they aren't the grade you claimed or they're scratched, warped or whatever. If the percentage you will listen to is fairly high, then it'll maybe be worth the trouble. Maybe. I don't think I'd trust shipping 100 LPs if that's your question. I don't know how far away you are but I'd drive a ways before I'd trust those shipping monkeys. Or maybe you go his way occasionally and can just wait to pick up? If your question is how expensive is it to ship individual or small quantities of albums to people, you can purchase individual LP mailers, but its more your labor and time sorting, grading, and going to the post office to mail media mail. And then putting up with the BS from the buyers griping to try to shave off more money with baseless complaints that will be more hassle than its worth so you may end up just giving them a further discount. Some of that stuff you said wasn't desirable I would listen to, and maybe you'll like some of it once you listen to it, but this will likely end up being quite a bit of work and hassle so you better be getting a pretty sweet deal for the lot. If it were me, I'd take a real good inventory of the albums I would actually want and then price them out to see what it would cost to go to a quality album store that grades their LPs or discogs or whatever and see what it would cost you to simply purchase those albums at near mint condition. Some stuff especially Beatles albums have gone way up in recent years but lots of stuff hasn't all that much and the Carpenters and such would require just the right buyer.

jdjohn

You could take the leftovers to a used record store for cash or store credit. I know there's Lunchbox Records in Charlotte. Whatever they don't want, you could just take to Goodwill.

I'm going to have this issue very soon with my dad's collection of records. There's probably not a rock/pop (or even country) record in the bunch. Lots of big band, swing, easy listening box sets, and lots of comedy records from the 60s. Probably a couple thousand records in total.

bruss

there are some pretty killer facebook vinyl auction groups. its about 3.33 to send a few records in an LP Mailer anywhere in the US via Media Mail. I have seen others send bulk ie 25 LP's without issue and with extreme packaging.

Jimbo18

Thanks for the input, guys. Still not sure what I am going to do. I checked out @jdjohn 's suggestion, Lunchbox Records. Based on their list, the stuff I wouldn't be interested it, they won't have much interest in either.

This was actually meant to be a gift to my new son-in-law. He received a "record player" as a wedding gift, but has no records. My friend will take $300 for the whole collection, so just under $3 a record. In the condition that I know he would keep them, it seems like a shame not to take them, but there's probably only 20 or so that my son-in-law would like.

I don't have a turntable any more. There's a lot of his 60's stuff that I like, but I don't want to go down that rabbit hole.

DaveHo

Unless you can verify the value of what might be collectable, $3 per is way too much for a bulk purchase. Crap music in good shape is still crap music.

pelhamplace

I think the biggest hassle would be grading each disc and album cover.