
Artists in the rock, blues, jazz, classical and soul categories tend to be more collectible than those in the easy listening, country, spoken word or comedy categories. Some artists are simply more popular as well as more collectible than others.

While tens of thousands of artists have released records since the invention of the medium, not all of them interest the public in equal measure.

This should be obvious, but the artist in question will be a big factor in determining the value of a record. “Old records” may have some value, but as a rule, it’s not because they’re old. 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. On the other hand, records by artists that are not of interest to collectors will have little value, regardless of age. While his first five records for the Memphis-based Sun label sold reasonably well for their day, their sales figures were minuscule compared to those of his later releases on RCA, making the Sun versions fairly valuable. A good example of this would be the recordings of Elvis Presley. Releases from early in the career of a famous artist may have more value than those from later in their careers, particularly if they didn’t become famous right away. While the age can have an effect on a vinyl record’s value, it’s one of the less important factors.

Many of the people we’ve spoken to about records over the years have the impression that “old records” must be worth more than new ones. (new window)Īge of the Record Are old records valuable? Add to cartĬlick here to visit our rare records store. shipping! An original 1969 Japanese pressing of The Soft Parade by the Doors, including the original "envelope" obi. Vinyl Records Value CategoriesĬlick any of the links below to jump to each category:įree U.S. As this post on vinyl records value is going to be fairly lengthy, we’ll divide it into sections. 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. It’s usually a combination of things that add to a vinyl record’s value, and other factors can sometimes turn a valuable record into one that isn’t worth all that much seemingly overnight. Keep in mind that there are many factors that need to be taken into consideration, and it’s quite rare for a record to be valuable based on one factor alone.

In this post, we’ll go over a number of factors that may determine the value of a particular record. People are aware that some records are valuable, but most people don’t know exactly which records people are looking for or why they’re looking for them.Įstablishing vinyl records value is an inexact science, and there are a number of factors that go into determining whether a given record is something that will bring a lot of money from a collector or something that would best be used as a place mat. What are my records worth? That’s a common question these days as record albums are making a comeback among both casual music fans and hard core collectors. Vinyl Records Value Are your records valuable?
