Comments on: Updates

By: A New Adventure in Jazz Collecting, Part 3 | jazzcollector.com

A New Adventure in Jazz Collecting, Part 3 | jazzcollector.com — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 12:26:16 +0000

[…] Jazz Vinyl Countdown back to a post I wrote on Jazz Collector on July 28, 2022. It was simply called Updates. In this midst of writing about a bunch of records on eBay, I went off topic based on a comment […]

By: Tom Konar

Tom Konar — Thu, 04 Aug 2022 03:24:34 +0000

This is my first reply to this site, but I have been reading it for years. Thanks to Al and you all for sharing your insights.
I used to sort, grade and price Lp’s for the ALS Mammoth Music Mart in Skokie, IL (Chicago). When the Mart closed up shop about 20 years ago, they had about 24 pallets remaining of unsold Lp’s. Each pallet was loaded with Lp’s of all genres (about 3000 Lp’s per pallet) and I was mighty tempted to by one for the asking price of $150.
These were sight unseen and you had to take what they sold you. I got the eye from the wife (not in my garage!) and didn’t pull the trigger. After a little discussion I went back the next morning, got in line with about twenty other collectors only to get the disappointing news that a Parisian record store owner had purchased all 24 pallets.
I think that works out to about 5 cents a record!!
So close, yet so far…!

By: what_can_brown

what_can_brown — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 15:43:39 +0000

I can relate to some of these comments around both purchasing and selling records in bulk. I had the opportunity to buy a radio station collection including over 100 blue notes, 100 impulse, and other top labels. This was just prior to the pandemic – 900 pieces in all, with average per piece of about $25. I ended up selling half of the collection, which paid me back for the total purchase plus profit. It was a pretty big undertaking even just selling the 450 titles. Naturally without the overhead of a store, I could settle for a slimmer margin, where a store may have only been able to pay $10 per record.

More recently, I was culling my collection and picked out around 375 records to sell. I priced 360 of them at $4 each, and the other 15 records at essentially their fare market value, and sold all 375 to a single buyer. This was a much easier way to cull, than if I decided to list each on ebay, giving a $5 record the same time and attention to list/answer questions/ship as I would a $200 record.

By: DaveS

DaveS — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 14:02:57 +0000

Random Thoughts:

1) Al’s collection is definitely worth more than the $250K at today’s prices. There are people out there who could easily write that check. There are lots of high net worth individuals who wouldn’t think twice about dropping that much on a car or even a stereo system. Finding them if they are not on this site or known to an underground network that I am not privy to, is the challenge.
2) Unfortunately, it would be hard, though not impossible, to find a record store to buy them all. I don’t think Jazz Record Mart or Academy or Disk-Union has that much free cash flow to leverage for 1 transaction.
3) Having done it myself and with a partner, it is too hard for the lay-person to sell that much volume on eBay or Discogs. The listings, the responding to inquiries, the shipping, and customs, the returns, etc. is more than a full-time job to move that much weight. Reality is that anything that sells for less than $30 is a pain in the butt to recoup your time and hassle.
4) Best bet to liquidate would be to work with a Carolina Soul which has the reputation and labor machine behind them to make it feasible. My guess is that it would still take a couple of years to sell it all in order to maximize returns.

By: Joaquim

Joaquim — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 11:16:09 +0000

My jazz collection is medium, about 2000 records. I’ve sold another 3,000 records over the years: improving editions and removing what I didn’t like. I only have 2000 records but they would be hard to sell: very few are worth less than $100, apart from the holy grails…

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 23:56:14 +0000

In this day and age, there’s not much reason to sell a large collection at a ‘wholesale’ or discounted price.

By: Clifford Allen

Clifford Allen — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 20:50:14 +0000

yeah, that’s well put. And he probably does. I don’t have as many records as Al — 6,000 give or take — but a lot of ’em are pretty nice and could fetch decently prices individually. Were I in a position of liquidation I’d parcel out all the heavies, consign them, and sell the rest for whatever to whomever.

By: Japhy

Japhy — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 20:16:13 +0000

What if we frame it this way: What if there were a collector (we’ll call him “Al”) who had 8,000 records to sell and wanted to get $250K for all of them. That’s a pretty big undertaking, both logistically and in terms of finding a single buyer. But what if instead “Al” had 250 records that he could sell for $1,000 each to a handful of buyers? Or 500 records that he could sell for $500 each? Would “Al” do that, take his $250K to the bank, and just find a good home for the remaining 7000 or so records?

By: Clifford Allen

Clifford Allen — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 17:59:52 +0000

I’ve heard of a number of stores paying $100k for a good collection but yeah, $250K is a lot. I think if records are still worth something when I go, my wife should be consigning them rather than taking a one shot payout. But time will tell.

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 17:01:13 +0000

The first word the Miles Davis Cover evokes in me is “stark”. Perhaps “brutal”. I like the black, white, and red (moon). Jazz can be stark…abrupt…bare. Re: a dealer paying $250,000 for a jazz collection, the collection would have to have a book/retail value of $1,000,000 – which I guess is possible.