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| vinyl 33rpm gramaphone records. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Over a year ago I put up a post where I pondered liquidating my collection of vinyl LP records. Then last fall I did another post about how I'd started putting some of the albums up for sale on Craigslist. At the time I was offering four sealed boxes of 50 albums for $100 per box. I kept reposting these to Craigslist and waited to see what would happen.
There were a few queries of interest and one young man even came to look through one of the boxes. He wanted to cherry-pick through the boxes to make his own box of 50. I told him I'd wait to see if anyone else would buy according to my terms.
Finally, after five months of listings on Craigslist, another young man expressed interest in buying the entire lot of records. When he came to my house he admitted that he was a dealer. I'd already corresponded with other dealers who were willing to pay anywhere from ten cents to less than a dollar per record--an offer I adamantly refused to even consider.
Anyway, this fellow came over and looked through all four of my record boxes. Though he didn't want to let on that he was overly interested, it was pretty clear that he saw several albums that caught his attention. He offered me $100 for the whole lot. I declined and he started to leave. Then with a deep sigh of resignation he came back and said he'd give me $200. It was half of what I'd been asking, but I wanted to be rid of those boxes that had been sitting on the floor in the middle of my office for the past five months.
I accepted the offer. I was rid of a little bit more of my stuff that has been taking up space. He seemed pleased to have more inventory to take to the record shows and put online. I'm sure he'll make a tidy profit. All in all it's okay by me.
Battle of the Bands Result
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The reason for my record update story was told not only to fill in those who wondered about the outcome of those earlier posts, but also mostly to provide some background information about my most recent Battle of the Bands selection as well as a few of the previous ones.
As I'd mentioned in that post of last October I've reconnected my turntable and I've been listening to some of the albums I've decided to hang onto for now. Each week day as I work on my computer I'll listen to anywhere from one to six albums. In doing so I'm being reminded of some wonderful cover versions of songs and I've been using some of those in Battle of the Bands posts. Some of my future Battle of the Bands match-ups will be also inspired by the albums I'm listening to of late.
Such is the case in my most recent Battle. The Sugar Shoppe is a group whose album I've enjoyed immensely since it was released in 1968. (You can read my story about this group on my blog Wrote By Rote.) So I'll admit that I'm partial to their version of the song Privilege. They are the first ones I heard do this song so it's the version I'm most accustomed to hearing.
Only recently while thinking about song covers did I discover the version of Privilege by Paul Jones. Since I knew that the song had come from a movie (it says so on the Sugar Shoppe album cover) I looked on YouTube and there it was. Paul Jones does an outstanding job with the song. I like the arrangement and the performance. I especially like the big orchestral production. I think Privilege is an excellent song and Jones does it very well.
But I'm biased toward the version with which I'm most accustomed to hearing. The arrangement and performance of the Sugar Shoppe is likewise polished with pleasant vocal harmonies. In context with the rest of the Sugar Shoppe album this song shows another facet of this group's talents. I might be so bold as to put Sugar Shoppe on a par with the Mamas and Papas. They were a good group that probably could have had a lot of lasting power if they'd been promoted better.
In this previous Battle my vote goes to the Sugar Shoppe which means that the contest is a tie.
Paul Jones 7 votes
Sugar Shoppe 7 votes
Not a bad contest!
Should I have held out on selling my vinyl to see if I could have gotten more for it? Do you ever listen to old records and recapture memories? What do you think of the outcome of the Paul Jones/Sugar Shoppe contest?
Pleased you managed to sell your records. I have all my favourites from way back on cds now . If you go to my latest post there is a poem that may interest you. I hope so,
ReplyDeleteI love Paul Jones but can't say I'm familiar with the other group.
25 DAYS to A to Z. HOW TIME FLIES.
Enjoy your week-end.
Yvonne.
Wow, a tie!
ReplyDeleteI think you got rid of those albums at the right price. It's hard to get anyone to take them, let alone give you cash for them.
After all the trouble I had trying to sell my mother's records, I'm not even going to try with my own. We have two crates full in the garage that will hit Goodwill next week. $200 was fair for your collection.
ReplyDeleteI would never part with my albums or 45s. My LPs are still boxed from my move but I do have access to the 45s. Vinyl sounds better, the album covers were suitable for framing and you got all kinds of good stuff inside. Lyrics, sometimes a poster, etc.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what happened to my vinyls. They must have gotten tossed by my parents when they moved out of my childhood home. Sad. (Reminder to self, don't toss kid's CDs).
ReplyDeleteGlad you sold your collection. Sorry you let them go though.
Elsie
AJ's wHooligan in the A-Z Challenge
On the records... I think you did pretty well. You got rid of what was now clutter to you for a tidy sum of $200. Value only exists insofar as what someone will pay for it. I am sure that you spent over $200 on those records if you totaled your spending. And you paid it because the value was worth it... at the time. Now there is greater value in having an organized office space. So, did you do the right thing? I would say you did.
ReplyDeleteBOTB... I really liked The Sugar Shoppe sound. And I really liked the Paul Jones version, so a tie seems like the best possible outcome.
I'm a vinyl junkie, so I would have held onto them. Sometimes getting rid of stuff can be freeing, though.
ReplyDeleteWe still have vinyl, some boxed, and there are several shops in the area which will sell them. We also have some record covers framed as JoJo mentioned. We have converted some LPs into CDs.
ReplyDeleteI think 200 was a fair price if you want to let them go. We had a harder time letting go of some of our books. . .
Most of my vinyl records melted in my house fire. Those 45's I saved I will save as they are memento's of a past that exists only in the ghosts of my memories.
ReplyDeleteI have a turn-table that does not work. I keep it in hopes I will find someone to fix it.
I hope you kept your prize vinyl records -- they have a sound that cannot be duplicated. :-)
I remember you saying you were thinking of selling the records....I wish you'd have let me know-I might have driven over to look at them (although I probably could not have gone much higher than what you got)
ReplyDeleteLC
Yvonne -- I can imagine a day when I might be selling off my CD's too.
ReplyDeleteAlex -- The LP market is out there but I don't have the time or patience to devote to finding it.
L.Diane -- I was please to have $200 in my pocket and especially some more open space in our house.
JoJo -- The vinyl does sound good. Many of the albums I've kept have the enclosed goodies.
Elsie -- I figure as I get older there's less stuff that I need to keep if my kids aren't interested in having it.
Robin -- If I had invested all the money I've spent on recordings of all types I'd have a tidy sum for retirement. But I did get years of enjoyment from my music. It was nearly a tie between Jones and the Sugar Shoppe in my mind so the vote seems reasonable.
Kelly-- Part of me is sad about the records leaving my possession, but it's more stuff that I don't have in my way.
DG -- $200 was definitely above yard sale pricing. I'm okay with what I got by moving the lot all at once. Eventually I imagine I'll liquidate some books, but from my investigation you don't get much for the books like we have in our house.
Lee
Roland -- It will probably be a while before I get rid of the records I still have if I ever do. Of late I've been getting a sentimental reattachment to them.
ReplyDeleteLarry-- It probably would have been fun watching you going through them and talking about the music. Oh well, they're gone now. But I still have a few hundred more that maybe someday I'll want to sell. I'll let you know first if I do.
Lee
Lee-
ReplyDeleteI don't know that I'll ever be able to bring myself to get rid of my vinyl (or CD's) unless it's forced on me.
LC
I have a hard time getting rid of anything in bulk, like that. People never want to pay what something is worth.
ReplyDeleteHey Lee,
ReplyDeleteThat was a close fought battle. The outcome was probably a good result for both sides.
I think you should of actually kept your vinyl for a bit longer. The popularity of vinyl is on the increase. I have about 250 vinyl records. Some of them most obscure as in obscure Canadian like, Chilliwack.
Have a good weekend, kind sir.
Gary
I waiver between thinking I should sell the 'vinyl' collection and not wanting to part with it for pennies on the dollar. Currently they reside a storage locker in Idaho that has to be moved by June of this year, I suppose that will be the deciding factor Another will be whether or not there is a working turntable in the locker also. There is a vinyl dealer in Reno, that I might contact, but I suppose that my contacting him will be an act of desperation and I won't get much of an offer. Oh well, I would be happy with the $200 you got for the entire lot I have (probably 150 - 300 LP's). Anyway...
ReplyDeleteWoo Hoo! A tie. In my opinion that's a good BATTLE, or maybe I think that because I had one too. It's nice to see people being unable to decide (if you remember, I've had a complete shut-out also I did like and vote for the Sugar Shoppe, but the Paul Jones was, IMO, not bad either.
Disc -- I used to feel the same way. Still do when it comes to my CD's and DVD's. But someday that may change. Stuff is my slavemaster.
ReplyDeleteAndrew -- Yeah, but moving stuff in bulk is so fast when it happens. Waiting to get what I think things are worth could take a very long time.
Gary -- I did keep some of the albums that mean the most to me, but I could still probably come up with another box of 50.
Faraway -- Dealers don't want to pay much for the vinyl they buy. After all they want the biggest profit they can get. I think the guy with whom I dealt gave me a pretty fair offer.
Lee
I copied all my vinyls onto CDs and then gave them to a friend. I did sell my turntable for a reasonable price though.
ReplyDeleteAt least you were able to make some money off those records and free some space. You have to look at the bright side.
ReplyDeleteOn one hand, I'd like to say I'd go to my grave with my vinyl. On the other hand, I don't have my vinyl anymore. Hmmmm...
ReplyDeleteJo-- I'm going to put one of our turntables up for sale. We have two.
ReplyDeleteSheena-Kay -- That's a bright side for sure.
CW-- You're free!!
Lee
I have roughly 2,000 albums, ranging from the 60's through the 2000's that I still listen to. I also have roughly 1200 45's as well.
ReplyDeleteI even converted a one piece stereo that I got for burning c.d.'s to a receiver of sorts when I bought a turntable for my computer. Decided it wasn't worth the aggravation of loading the software into my computer, so now I listen to it the old fashioned way.
My current pipe dream with my music is to burn it all onto c.d.'s.
Until then, I will keep chugging along with my music. I haven't acquired any new stuff in about two years or so, and even then, it's given to me for free.
GB-- I wish I'd kept the 45's I used to own. In a younger day I decided that they no longer were useful and gave them to a friend to use for target practice. There's so much music online that I would never run out of things to listen to if I got rid of everything I own. But keeping the remainder of LP's and CD's for now.
ReplyDeleteLee
Well done Arlee, sounds like a fair price to me. If of no practical functional use to you any longer, it's best to clear the space. Though hard to get rid of things once loved!
ReplyDelete