The Rare Record Price Guide 2024

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On the other hand, records by artists that are not of interest to collectors will have little value, regardless of age. There are many records in the easy listening genre from the 1950s, such as those by Ray Conniff or Percy Faith, that are now some 60 years old, but they still sell for only a couple of dollars in most used records stores, provided they bother to offer them for sale at all. Boot of car full of record boxes 8. Myths around selling your record collection Q. I have old records they are worth money. What will you pay?

This factor is pretty straightforward when it comes to vinyl records value; records that sold well and are quite common are going to be less valuable than records that sold poorly or are hard to find. A lot of albums sold in the 1970s and early 1980s sold millions of copies when new, and as such, it isn’t difficult to find copies in nice, playable condition. Listed below are a few examples of record albums which were withdrawn from the market shortly before or shortly after being released to stores. Finding a copy of any record that is more than 20 years old in such condition is quite difficult, and the value of a record can vary widely depending on its condition. In the case of many records from the late 1950s and early 1960s, finding worn and nearly-unplayable copies of a particular record might be relatively easy, while finding one in mint condition may be nearly impossible. Autographed records with provenance, such as a photograph of the artist signing the record, tend to bring the highest prices of all.

Collectors often become interested in records that have gone out of print, and the prices for these no longer available titles can get quite high, depending on the artist and title. In these cases, collectors are usually paying high prices simply to hear the music. Record companies do pay attention to such market trends, and today, it’s quite common to see newly-pressed reissues of albums for sale that haven’t been available on the market in decades. What the “common vs. scarce” factor means is that the most valuable record by a particular artist may not be their best-known title, but rather one that was disregarded by the public and/or critics when originally released, making it relatively scarce today. A good example of this would be Music from the Elder by Kiss, released in 1981. Released after a string of best-selling albums, Music from the Elder had a different sound from their previous releases and offered no hit songs and no songs that regularly received airplay. As a result, the album sold poorly and soon went out of print. Limited edition pressings by most any artist will have some value above the original selling price, as record companies are unlikely to issue limited edition pressings if there is no established market for them. The difference in price can range from modest to quite significant, depending on the artist and title. A sealed copy of a relatively recent release may carry a small premium over an opened copy, but older and/or more desirable titles may exhibit a substantially larger premium. Sealed copies of older albums by the Beatles might sell for as much as ten times the price of an opened example, for instance. The exception to this would be records from companies that do not ordinarily release records, such as the Franklin Mint. Over the years, the Franklin Mint has released a number of recordings as limited edition sets, usually spanning many volumes. Most of these recordings were also pressed on colored vinyl and the sets were marketed in mass media to consumers who were not record collectors. These recordings have little value unless they are offered in complete sets, some of which came with as many as 100 records.

This is a really major factor in valuing your vinyl records and will catch so many people out believing they have very valuable records when actually the condition will drop the price so far they can sometimes be unsellable! In the UK most record dealers work with the Record Collector Grading system which has 7 tiers. Ranging from Mint through to Bad. In most cases the top 3 levels are what sells, once you get down to a Good grading prices drop dramatically. It’s important to note here that although the condition of the vinyl is very important so is the sleeve and any of it’s inserts. damage to sleeves will also have an impact on the value of your collection. Prices for foreign (non-U.S.) records can vary widely, depending on age, condition, and all of the other factors mentioned in this article. In general, collectors in the United States will always be interested, to some degree, in any foreign record by artists whose records they collect. This is one of the factors that pretty much has no exceptions; a record with a picture sleeve is always more valuable than the same record without one. As acetates are cut one at a time, they are understandably rare, and command a high value in the market place as they are both rare and unusual. Those people out there who have severely damaged records by way of one or two very deep scratches, rendering the quality ‘poor’, might still consider selling them because some of us only want the covers and in some cases the inner sleeves where these cannot be replaced by generic inner sleeves!

Genre

It’s the box set of Queen albums “Queen – The Complete Works”. I bought this from a lady who was a massive fan and said she did not play the records as she did not want to spoil them. By looking at them I would say they are unplayed. This is the limited edition with a number of 014189. On close inspection I realised there were 2 of the white sleeves labelled with X. It appears there is no X1. The second X sleeve contains an error vinyl which has on one side Queen 2 (Ogre Battle/ Evermore etc) and the other side has one side of Live Killer ( Don’t stop me now/ Spread Your Wings etc). This appears to be an original factory error. It does mean there is no copy of Flash Gordon which should be the X1 record. This is another very overlooked factor when choosing to sell your record collection or even a single record. If you have a record collecting friend who is going to pay the top price for each record that you have then you might be able to realise every ounce of potential that your collection has. However this is rarely the case and many peoples motivation will be to clear some space from a loft or spare room. The list of qualities that can affect a vinyl record’s value is constantly changing, and the list shown below should not be considered to be definitive. As this post on vinyl records value is going to be fairly lengthy, we’ll divide it into sections. Vinyl Records Value Categories One factor that’s of vital importance in determining a vinyl record’s value is condition, which we’ll discuss at length later. Because the condition of a record is held to be important by collectors, the ideal example of a record to own, in the eyes of many collectors, would be one that has never been played at all. Because of this, collectors will often pay a huge premium for sealed, unopened examples of records they are seeking.

While there are many factors that go into determining vinyl records value, perhaps none is more important than the need for the record to be an original pressing and not a counterfeit pressing created at a later date to resemble the original issue. If an artist is not from the United States, collectors will often seek out records from the artist’s country of origin. While many American Beatles records are worth a lot of money, so are those from Great Britain, as the band released records there prior to releasing them in the U.S. People have tended to take better care of their records in recent decades, so it’s a lot easier to find a nice copy of a 1980s album by Bruce Springsteen than it is to find a near mint 1960s album by the Rolling Stones, for example. On rare occasions, acetates have been sent to radio stations as promotional items when regular pressings were not yet available. NOTE: Because there have been millions of records issued over the years, our guide seeks to list only the most valuble ones. Our staff is working diligently to expand our listings.Other artists may have had records with high values only during the time they were recording, with prices in the collector market dropping considerably after they finished their careers or when they passed away. Regardless of the reason for withdrawing the record from circulation, such releases will naturally be scarce, hard to find, and in demand among collectors. More often than not, withdrawn releases will also command substantial prices on the collector market. While some collectors are willing to accept “filler” copies of a rare record in poor to average condition until they find a better copy, most buyers prefer to buy only once, and will hold out for the best possible copy they can find. King Crimson – In the Court of the Crimson… A Japanese pressing of In the Court of the Crimson… (3,255)

Record collecting is a fascinating hobby, however, and the many factors that can go into determining vinyl records value are among the things that keep the hobby interesting to collectors.While all of the factors listed above are important when it comes to evaluating a vinyl record’s value, perhaps none is as important as the condition of the record. Most mass produced records sold over the past 60 years or so have been poorly cared for by their owners. They may have been played on low-quality equipment, stored outside of their covers, and handled by their playing surfaces, rather than their edges. Launched in 1987 and published bi-annually - the Rare Record Price Guide 2024 is the SEVENTEENTH edition of the World's most comprehensive guide to prices of UK releases from 1950 to the current day. One factor that can significantly affect a vinyl record’s value is the availability of reissues. In the 1950s through the mid-1970s, record companies kept close tabs on whether an album was selling well or poorly. Poor selling albums were usually removed from the catalog and existing copies were sold at a discount. Starting in the 1980s, record companies took a different approach, and reduced the prices of slow-selling records, keeping them in print but offering them for sale at a lower price point. whose price guide books have been the authority on collectibles values since 1985. TThe searchable database consists of On the other hand, if you have a rare record that is also in exceptionally nice condition, you’ll likely be able to sell it for a premium price.