The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I'm thinking about taking my collection in a more curated direction, instead of just piling up antique records. Basically I think I might have been hoarding. But now I'd like to try thinning it out.

Any ideas whether it's a better idea to sell disc by disc, or sell in a box lot? Should I put some up locally or should I go straight to the Music Trader?

The records I'm getting rid of are a mix of very collectible (vocal blues from the '20s, some hillbilly stuff, etc.) and just average-condition 78s that I'm not certain any collectors would be interested in. Should I pick the pot through & put the good stuff here, and then sell the other locally or something?

I know we had some new collectors on here a month ago...Just thinking aloud here.

The topic of what to do with records we can no longer keep surfaces on a regular basis here. Unfortunately, I also have to thin down constantly, as I don't have too much space to dedicate to 78 RPMs at home, so every few months a bunch of records that have to go to make room to new stuff forms almost magically.

Every time, I figure that I'll be going to sell at least the few interesting ones on discogs or ebay, but then the idea of having to deal with records broken in the mail or customers complaining that it was rated VG+++ but it's only VG++ in their opinion puts me down to the point that I just pick up the stuff and carry it back to my favourite used records shop for free (the owner is a friend who, in return, usually sells to me 78s at bankrupt-low prices and also applies hard discounts on my shopping of LPs). Very recently I ended up lending an off-brand portable and the monthly bunch of records to a friend, telling him to keep both if he enjoys them on the long run.

If you really have the time to do it, of course advertising single records would be far more profitable.

Otherwise, I suggest you pile up small lots of records putting a pair of interesting titles in each, so that experienced collectors as well as beginners would be tempted to buy the lot, either to get the single title they were looking for along with some curios, or to start up with some funny records including a pair of nice titles that will be "keepers" even in the future. The times in which a beginner would buy a pile of rubbish just in order to have some random records to play on his HMV wannabe crap-o-phone are over, in my opinion.

10 years ago when we moved overseas I had to thin down my collection by a few thousand and it was very difficult as what I like to listen to does change over time .....so what to get rid of? I did manage to do it but there are some things I know I got rid of that I now regret and because in the end I had to rush things I know that one box of vinyl records I wanted to keep accidentally went to the charity shop and I still curse it to this day.

These days I only get rid of very few things. I just find more room for storage

I have been thinning my hoard this year, and have had some success selling lots of the same artist/band on ebay, such as "9 record lot of Benny Goodman 78s". I usually put a fairly low starting price of about $1 per record. If they don't sell after running for three 1-week listings, I put them aside to go to a local museum (for their hoard). I usually reduce the starting price a couple bucks with each relisting. Not the way to get rich, but I have been able to reduce the collection.