I have a small collection of albums but it's all good ones from jazz to pop to hip hop, it's not how many albums you have but it the quality of the albums you have
Malcolm Sanders very true, quality over quantity for sure. But, I love picking up big collections and seeing all different types of music. But I would rather pick up 200 quality records than 5,000 so-so records for sure
@@noblerecords Great information, thanks. I got the contents of a local Radio station that was going digital and wanted them gone . A conservative estimate was about 40K a couple crates at a time. all was well, until she came into the man cave ! My best find was at the curb. Someone was tearing down an old barn and had stacked many boxes of LP's an 78's by the curb. My honda civic could hold only as many as I could stuff into it, so I took all the 78's.
I recently found your channel and I gotta say it's my favorite as vinyls go. I appreciate the straight talk without all the bells and whistles and monster truck rally introductions. There are a lot of good vinyl record channels and yours in among the best, or at least the easiest to follow. Thanks for sharing all the great info!
Great advice Dillon. A side note. I look for albums at tag sales. If I don't see any, I always ask"Do you have any albums?" You'd be surprised how many times they have them and don't put them out. They either forget about them, or think that people don't play albums anymore. I got my best score ever that way. 13 original Pink Floyd albums, many of them imports, just like new. If you ask , they can either say no, or yeah but I don't want to sell them. That's fine, I'm not offended either way.
I'll add to that. Often tag sales are Friday and Saturday and prices drop by half on Saturday. Of course if you go on a Friday and see Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Beatles, John Cotrane, Miles Davis, Muddy Waters you might want to just pay full price. But if you are looking at more common rock, country, jazz or blues albums patience is a virtue. Come back on Saturday and unless you are in a very active area for collectors or flippers they'll still be there. Also these estate sales companies usually have a deal where someone comes in and takes everything that didn't sell by the end to the last day in bulk. They are paying rock bottom prices. So if the sale ends at 2 pm a 1 pm low ball offer often works. I got 130 excellently cared for 60s and 70s country albums for $100 doing this.
What works for me is mowing the neighbors lawn. It took a while but eventually he retired, moved to California and gave me his small (~500ish) but hardly touched collection. Okay, so it took about 10 years, still worth it! Thanks for all the tips. I'm thinking of expanding my new-to-me collection so your advice is well taken.
Every record collector should have Whipped Cream in their collection. They shouldn't pay more than $1 for it but they should have it. And it is actually very good music!
I have never bought a big collection and I'm not sure I will but this was a fascinating video. So many of the tips you gave are helpful for just purchasing records in general. Great video Dillon. It was an interesting look into your career.
I've been selling stuff from my collection for many years now and everything you say rings true in my experience as well. Top advice from an expert. Great video.
What a nice guy for taking the time to explain your methods. I do believe that a records value is only what someone is willing to pay for it. Rarity and condition being the most important.
Willing to pay is pretty recent since the market changed with the trillions of reissues that have been released. Rarity and Condition I agree are important.
“Pay well, treat people right, be honest” Yes! To all of this, just in general the world can be a better place if we all did this, but especially in the vinyl community
Another source I use for valuing records is Gripsweat - easy to use and offers a relatively large data base. On Popsike I have noticed that a lower-price transaction (for the same condition grade) will be ignored by them - they just don't list the lower dollar amount sales and so lead you to over-value some records. But you can adjust for that, and Popsike is very quick and easy. I like Ebay sold listings because Ebay has a quick easy-to-use format and they will have both sophisticated and beginner collectors buying their stuff, so you get a good cross-section sample of what buyers were willing to pay. Discogs is very complete, but more difficult to use and just takes longer.
It’s a pure hustle and I used to do it for a few years. I had a booth in an antique mall where I would unload the bulk of my collections. Really nice stuff would go on eBay, the very best stuff I would keep. I had the most success with Craigslist, but you have to always be checking and be the first one there. That means dropping everything at any moment to go look at records.
I’ve always found the dichotomy between someone like me who is very selective and only buys onesies and twosies vs someone like you who moves high quantities of records to be interesting. We’re both looking for essentially the same thing, but in a completely different fashion. I have no interest in dealing, but I still found this video entertaining and insightful. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks man, I used to be someone who just bought one here and two there but I ended up going all in, it’s cool being able to do it as a job. I’ve been enjoying your videos, keep up the good work!
I frequent a local " Savers" thrift store . Its literally a 8 minute walk from my house . Almost everyday I stop in after work to try my luck on $2.99 vinyl. Today I scored . 3 Doors albums 2 late 60's Rolling stones albums 1 Led Zeppelin 4 2 Ted Nugent albums , his first two. 1 First Blondie album 2 motorhead first two albums . 2 Police albums . 3 Hendrix albums 1 cheech n Chong album . 1 first ZZ top album. 2 genesis albums . All are first pressings and in great shape for $2.99 each . Someone's father or grandfather died and got donated . Most people still think vinyl is junk lol. There were a few more good artists but not my type of music , I don't buy vinyl as an investment I buy to.listen so I left them for the next lucky soul.
Great info thanks! My problem is I keep buying but then don't want to part with them. Trying to convince wife we need to move to a larger retirement home, so far shes not falling for that line.
Thanks for sharing. great info. And I need to stop procrastinating and make it to one of your pop ups. 2 hours isn't a big deal to drive to meet you and get some vinyl. plus who needs an excuse to go to Charlotte. Thanks again.
You really set it straight, Dillon. Everyone thinks what you do is so easy. It takes a lot of research, hard work and persistence. I agree with what you said about Discogs. People often forget to look at condition of past sales and I’ve noticed quite a few fake sales get through and bring value down or it skyrockets. I notice Popsike sales are more expensive than Discogs. I try to stay in the middle. Informative video.
Love your videos and love your honest advice. Our shop in Virginia lives by some of your advice and you are correct. Treat em fair , drive to get it, and pay for what you see. Alot of dishonest sellers out there, be cautious. Great stuff!
Hey man thank you for making this video! I am 24 and been a police officer for about 2 years now dont really make the best money being a cop in my area so i thought i would pursue the dream that i have had with my bestfriend woody and thats to open a record store! woody and i have dreamed about this since we were about 15-16 and started collecting around that time. We are big 80s metal and trash metal guys but also love 70s-90s rock as well and just about anything 80s lol. we just started getting serious a month back on doing this and wont even be ready for atleast another 2 years if we are lucky but this video definitely helped with us starting out! ps also know my 70s/80s/90s rock very well and know whats worth money and not worth money and lastly i know that is the biggest genre that people want so I think ill be good in that department lol
Watched this video countless times before but never commented. One comment I would make is in response to where Dylan mentions about buying what you know, in particular when he says about when you’re at someone’s house looking at their records to pick out the ones you definitively want to buy. From my experiences this can be a bad move as some people claiming to be sellers are actually just looking for someone to do the work for them with regards picking out the good records from a collection which they can then go on and sell online themselves. Happened to me various times over the years where I’ve done that and gone to them with a price and they turn me down but then I see them quickly grabbing the records I was looking at and putting them to the side. A lot of people even if big music fans don’t know the intricacies of valuing records and even if they do know about sites like discogs and eBay (most will know about eBay I guess) in a large number of cases they don’t know how to use the information correctly (eg. not even knowing how to bring up completed sold listings). A little information in the wrong hands can be dangerous!
I am very small-time at buying and selling, but I would just expand a little on some things you said. If you have friends who seriously collect or buy and sell, then you have many conversations about record sales or collections that have been bought or examined, and you know how those conversations go. If you are on the phone with someone who wants to sell, and you have to travel, get them to talk about it, and even if they say they have a big jazz collection, you want to make sure they talk about this stuff the way all your friends would talk about it if they were trying to sell it. If someone is selling his own collection, but does not start enthusiastically throwing out titles and artists, I will not travel. If he can't tell you the gems in his collection, he probably has none.
Fantastic information! I knew I wasn't the only one asking you some of those questions. Lol. Really useful information and I really appreciate you sharing with us. I've learned alot from you and a few others already.
Some people don't realise that resellers are dealers. I used to run a record shop and still dabble online. I love vinyl but I also sell as well :) I don't mind paying out for stuff. Some stuff is worth way less because of the condition. One Beatles record isn't worth as much because it sounds like a chip pan :) Vinyl is condition, condition, condition. I agree entirely with what you said :) Knowledge of what you know is vital. eBay and Discogs go on price sold average not value
You should make a video on how every copy of Streisand and Herb Albert records are magically and or magnetically drawn to Goodwills and Salvation Army!?
@@noblerecords also, not to go negative but I’d love to see a video all about the worst experiences you’ve had with customers. Whether it’s eccentric, neurotic, hyper vigilant hagglers, gnarly online buyers. Spill the beans. All the bad stuff in the business we never get to hear about!
I wish these tips were true for og pressings of extreme metal stuff. Nobody seems to sell those records, I've checked out quite a few collections for sale and no one has any death, black, doom, sludge etc records in them. And the people I know who have stuff like that just will not sell them, literally when they purge they'll purge everything except for the metal, very frustrating.
favorite video yet! My question is (for a follow up video?) is what is the best way to SELL records. Discogs page? eBay? Set up a table at an expo twice a year? Out of my hatchback? Flea market parking lot? Cash is king and no shipping and/or tax is wonderful. I have hundreds of records to sell from somewhat-below-average to holy-smokes-rare-pricey-stuff and I'm not sure exactly where to begin - and, no, for anyone reading this, I'm not trying to unload all of them for cheap. I've got plenty of time to sell them one at a time for decent $. :^) I know about a half dozen guys at work (who know a few other vinyl enthusiasts) who I'll let come by my apartment to go through my crates. No strangers are coming over to look at my place for valuables. I've learned a lot over the last few years from videos like this (thank you) and constantly on the search. But, funny enough, I get straight up lucky sometimes. Ever find an original Townes Van Zandt s/t on Poppy for a dollar at your local thrift shop - I have, it is a little rough VG- wax, NM- inner, VG(+) cover. Anyone ever come across a white Dark Side of the Moon (1978 Holland pressing) for less than $3 - yeah, it's NM/M-. How about an original Charles Manson from 1970? - also less than $3 - now I'm just showing off. Thanks again for this great video.
Appreciate the tip on Popsike, good to know. Good point about Discogs, which only reflects their own sales and another side of that is that if the release doesn't happen to have a sales history within Discogs you get no info at all. It's a stab in the dark. It's also the most counterintuitive site I know to try entering data into. I'd almost rather do my income taxes than enter something on Discogs. Almost.
I have to deal with my late brother's collection. Not near 3,000 but at a couple hundred from 60's, 70's and a few 80's. Where would you suggest I start in trying to get it appraised and begin selling them? I live near Waterloo Records in Austin, Texas. Would that be a good place to start? Thanks for what you do, it helps so much.
Appreciate these insights. I collect mostly for myself, but love finding big lots - most of the times because there'll be a few obscure rock titles mixed in. But one of the best grabs I had was a CL post I saw that was only 14 minutes old - "35 records for $35." All of them weird psych like Advancement, Influence, all in all averaging $800 (value to me is more interesting then practical, more like stuff I wouldn't own otherwise.) Was a tense 1 hour drive, knowing all someone had to do was message them and offer more (there were photos) But yeah, always fun going to record stores and seeing stuff you've come across. And knowing what types of music is on what labels (Polydor is usually pretty decent stuff.) I need to do more for getting my name out there locally, I appreciate these tips!
The most important without a doubt is just, know your shit. As far as thrift stores go, i've made thousands off cds. And it's so funny, my biggest scores were found right after someone got through scanning with thier phone. Rare editions, low press indie label stuff, and promo only shit. I sold one track singles for half a grand. KNOW YOUR SHIT.
We had a lady bring some albums in the antique shop there was about 30 albums and she wanted $2,500 for them 😃. And these were in pretty beat shape...lol
I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that this will be one of your most popular videos. Great information that makes a lot of sense. I've always said you are the hardest working record digger there is. And that is the biggest tip and takeaway from this video. Hardwork. I love what you said that it's not just hard work now it's the hard work that you've put into it in the past. And I truly love the fact that all of your hard work is paying off.
The price on Popsike is always higher than anything else because the popular records are in most cases subject for a bidding war, and that is seldom the case in a recordstore. So most sellers go by popsike, because the price is artificially high, and most buyers go by discogs because it's considerably lower than popsike in most cases. So if you sell records and don't really want to sell them by all means use popsike to price your records. If i'm buying records an comes across a seller who use it, we're are usually to far apart so i swiftly move along...That said, you can't go by the discogs price if only two vg records etc. have been sold, you have to apply logic.
My advice would be to NOT buy from private sellers in the Las Vegas area (where I live). I saw someone asking...get this...$40 for a 2009 pressing of Abbey Road. I paid about $22 (including tax) at my local Best Buy for the SAME pressing when I bought it for my son. Saw another person asking $125 for a 1987 pressing of Dark Side of The Moon trying to say it was a 1st press even though there's a freaking bar code on the back cover (those didn't start popping up until around 1980 or so) and the catalog number within the barcode was near identical to my CD first released in 1987 save for the "-1" instead of "-2". One last example was someone selling a used copy of Rubber Soul they literally picked from Goodwill (left the dang sticker on the front jacket indicating they did this) and... wanted $250 for it. I could see if it was sealed...original 1st press and so on... This was beat to hell tho. As you can see, serious price gouging going on out here. And it's strangely only in Vegas. I can go to California, Arizona or Utah and the prices are fair and relevant to the condition. There's literally three shops I typically trust when shopping for records here. Now, I'm only trying to help my son build his collection (he's 13..begged me for a decent turntable and has similar tastes in music as myself...he's my mini me)...so he has stuff to listen to & enjoy right now. But it's tough. Anyhow, great tips, informative as always. Keep it up dude!
I know a guy with a record shop he does the same thing he buys whole collections because people want them all gone but he only pays for what he can sell and he throughs away a lot of ruined are unsellable records.
Great job Dillon. I might add that sometimes I might have to clean the records and then put them in plastic sleeves. You don't want angry customers. Cleaning makes them look and sound better. The plastic sleeves make them look better and you can put a price sticker on the bag which won't hurt the jacket of the record. And be careful. There are bad people out there. Bill
I understand. One time I went into the bad part of Saginaw to look at some records. Great selection but many were beat. I ask it I could pick out a big stack and the girl said yes. So I'm looking through these boxes in the kitchen. A lot of black guys were walking around and they kept saying "who this white man in our kitchen" I was getting nervous. Then about 3 guys walked up to me and asked if I had any money on me. Then they said give us all my money. Then the girl came running in and started yelling at them to leave me alone. I had a big stack so I paid her and she walked me out to my car. That was scary.
Hey dude, great video, really fantastic info and delivered in such a friendly honest way, thank you! Heads up, the link for your store on your youtube profile directs to a brokenish page, you get a 404 error on the body
Great information. I missed out on a 300 record collection recently but ended up buying a set of speakers from the guy. He had posted a video on Craig's list and there were some nice albums in there but a lot of it was common or obscure 2nd tier artists. I was prepared to offer (if the records were in good shape) $300 for the lot and go as high as $400 if I had to. My figuring was that there were probably 20 records worth $10-15 each, 100 worth $3-5, and 80 worth $1-2 and 100 that weren't worth much of anything. Basically my view was that there were about $600-800 of value there. I don't know if this guy was blowing smoke or not but he claimed he sold it for $1,100. I told him he made a great deal. And I thought to myself, if he's not lying, that someone grossly overpaid for those records.
So you are like the American Pickers of Vinyl. I am waiting for your TV show. To your point if you really want to do this you must commit. It is a leap of faith. It would be fun but I would not take the leap. Lord knows I work the hours but I want my guaranteed check. I really appreciate what you do and your dedication. Too many people think it is easy and just want to flip. I figure someday I’ll get some of their records lol. Nice video, I’ll just continue to be the guy that buys them from you. Steve
Hi Thanks for the tips! How do you decide when you buy big collections and dont how the time to go through everything? Do you go through just 10% or more and trust the sellers word for the rest of it?
Great tips! I've bought a lot of records on offerup PRO TIP if the selling proile name is recordflipper or something along those lines he probably is trying to sell off his junk records in bulk always check the person's profile
A very important point in this information is when you tell what you did for a living as a young buck (at 15:30). I suspect this is where you learned the lion's share of your craft. What you say here is very interesting, but for me it all gets uncomfortable very quickly. I tried selling some records at a record fair with my VC friend Martin Parrott. It felt to me like selling children. It was an emotional wrench to part with each one of them even though they were duplicates of what I already had. My heart is too much in the collecting I guess. I know you are very busy, but if you get chance take a look at my video called The Vinyl Misadventure. What you said in your video about how it can go wrong reminded me of my own experience. And look out for the punch line near the end. Cheers
I will watch it John, yes at first it was really hard for me to sell my records but the one thing that eased the pain and turned it into joy was being able to help people find the records that made them happy. Now I know I can find the records that I sell again, it’s fun to sell them when I see a kid asking for a Bob Dylan Record, if brings me great joy to sell him a copy. Some people like it, and some don’t. Thanks for your comment, I will check your video out
I used to buy CD and book collections from people homes. Man, they thought they were selling gold bricks. I guess for them, they just thought about how much they paid for something and how much they enjoyed it, not the market value. I had one guy state that he would accept nothing less than $4.00/CD since there was "A pawn shop up north that pays $5.00 per CD" I called his bluff and said, "Oh, cool. I'm headed that way tomorrow and have some CDs I need to get rid of. What's the name of the place?" He started mubling, sweating, stammering and then grabbed his collection and kicked me out of his house. I had other transactions where, after I got home I would get some e-mails where they would MF me for not giving them a good price. Needless to say, I stopped doing that and stuck to garage sales, rummage sales, pawn shops and thrift stores and did just as well.
Big props to you, Dillon. GREAT video. Now you have a video to point people to when they keep asking that question. Very rarely is finding a valuable record for an incredible price “luck.” Even folks that are just collectors are digging all the time, everywhere when they find that crazy $1 bin find they tell their grandkids about. Obviously, you work harder, and most of us knew that already. But you get my point. 👍🏻✌🏻
Honestly, the #1 tip on buying collections: You don't have to be rich, you just have to be FIRST!
The 1st person better be point on because I’m seeing a lot of so called music experts leaving stuff. My chime is always always look at the 45s.
You’re awesome for sharing this information with folks. Most people wouldn’t! You deserve all your success man!
My dad's favorite quote was, "The harder you work, the luckier you get." Sounds like that applies. Great info here.
I'd go gay for him. Will do.
I have a small collection of albums but it's all good ones from jazz to pop to hip hop, it's not how many albums you have but it the quality of the albums you have
Malcolm Sanders very true, quality over quantity for sure. But, I love picking up big collections and seeing all different types of music. But I would rather pick up 200 quality records than 5,000 so-so records for sure
Do I want to know this information? YES!
Does my wife want me to know this Information? NO!
Hahah you should have seen the time I bought 40,000 records 🤯
@@noblerecords Great information, thanks. I got the contents of a local Radio station that was going digital and wanted them gone . A conservative estimate was about 40K a couple crates at a time. all was well, until she came into the man cave ! My best find was at the curb. Someone was tearing down an old barn and had stacked many boxes of LP's an 78's by the curb. My honda civic could hold only as many as I could stuff into it, so I took all the 78's.
I completely understand this haha . My Wife is always giving me crap. But these records are just as much hers as mine.
Do you then need to find a new wife? YES!!!!
Value Vinyl
Nailed it!
I recently found your channel and I gotta say it's my favorite as vinyls go. I appreciate the straight talk without all the bells and whistles and monster truck rally introductions. There are a lot of good vinyl record channels and yours in among the best, or at least the easiest to follow. Thanks for sharing all the great info!
Thank you!!!
Great advice Dillon. A side note. I look for albums at tag sales. If I don't see any, I always ask"Do you have any albums?" You'd be surprised how many times they have them and don't put them out. They either forget about them, or think that people don't play albums anymore. I got my best score ever that way. 13 original Pink Floyd albums, many of them imports, just like new. If you ask , they can either say no, or yeah but I don't want to sell them. That's fine, I'm not offended either way.
I'll add to that. Often tag sales are Friday and Saturday and prices drop by half on Saturday. Of course if you go on a Friday and see Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Beatles, John Cotrane, Miles Davis, Muddy Waters you might want to just pay full price. But if you are looking at more common rock, country, jazz or blues albums patience is a virtue. Come back on Saturday and unless you are in a very active area for collectors or flippers they'll still be there. Also these estate sales companies usually have a deal where someone comes in and takes everything that didn't sell by the end to the last day in bulk. They are paying rock bottom prices. So if the sale ends at 2 pm a 1 pm low ball offer often works. I got 130 excellently cared for 60s and 70s country albums for $100 doing this.
What works for me is mowing the neighbors lawn. It took a while but eventually he retired, moved to California and gave me his small (~500ish) but hardly touched collection. Okay, so it took about 10 years, still worth it! Thanks for all the tips. I'm thinking of expanding my new-to-me collection so your advice is well taken.
Awesome! Thanks for watching!
Hey, I like Herb Albert😊
I have 12 copies of Whipped Cream and Other Delights and will buy more. I'm gonna do a whole wall.
Every record collector should have Whipped Cream in their collection. They shouldn't pay more than $1 for it but they should have it. And it is actually very good music!
Very well engineered recordings. Herb Albert albums will bring out the best in an audiophile system.
I have never bought a big collection and I'm not sure I will but this was a fascinating video. So many of the tips you gave are helpful for just purchasing records in general. Great video Dillon. It was an interesting look into your career.
Thank you! There’s a lot of people trying to do it now, so I hope this helps! Thanks for watching!
I've been selling stuff from my collection for many years now and everything you say rings true in my experience as well. Top advice from an expert. Great video.
What a nice guy for taking the time to explain your methods. I do believe that a records value is only what someone is willing to pay for it. Rarity and condition being the most important.
Willing to pay is pretty recent since the market changed with the trillions of reissues that have been released. Rarity and Condition I agree are important.
TH-cam algorithm because I love the work Dylan does
“Pay well, treat people right, be honest”
Yes! To all of this, just in general the world can be a better place if we all did this, but especially in the vinyl community
Another source I use for valuing records is Gripsweat - easy to use and offers a relatively large data base. On Popsike I have noticed that a lower-price transaction (for the same condition grade) will be ignored by them - they just don't list the lower dollar amount sales and so lead you to over-value some records. But you can adjust for that, and Popsike is very quick and easy. I like Ebay sold listings because Ebay has a quick easy-to-use format and they will have both sophisticated and beginner collectors buying their stuff, so you get a good cross-section sample of what buyers were willing to pay. Discogs is very complete, but more difficult to use and just takes longer.
It’s a pure hustle and I used to do it for a few years. I had a booth in an antique mall where I would unload the bulk of my collections. Really nice stuff would go on eBay, the very best stuff I would keep. I had the most success with Craigslist, but you have to always be checking and be the first one there. That means dropping everything at any moment to go look at records.
I’ve always found the dichotomy between someone like me who is very selective and only buys onesies and twosies vs someone like you who moves high quantities of records to be interesting. We’re both looking for essentially the same thing, but in a completely different fashion. I have no interest in dealing, but I still found this video entertaining and insightful. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks man, I used to be someone who just bought one here and two there but I ended up going all in, it’s cool being able to do it as a job. I’ve been enjoying your videos, keep up the good work!
I frequent a local " Savers" thrift store . Its literally a 8 minute walk from my house . Almost everyday I stop in after work to try my luck on $2.99 vinyl.
Today I scored .
3 Doors albums
2 late 60's Rolling stones albums
1 Led Zeppelin 4
2 Ted Nugent albums , his first two.
1 First Blondie album
2 motorhead first two albums .
2 Police albums .
3 Hendrix albums
1 cheech n Chong album .
1 first ZZ top album.
2 genesis albums .
All are first pressings and in great shape for $2.99 each . Someone's father or grandfather died and got donated . Most people still think vinyl is junk lol. There were a few more good artists but not my type of music , I don't buy vinyl as an investment I buy to.listen so I left them for the next lucky soul.
Very very nice!
You rock man! Thanks for sharing your wisdom. Godspeed!
La chance :
C'est quand la préparation rencontre l'opportunité.
Nice video and cool advices, thanx
Great video! Never expected to hear MAP records! That’s my friend Vini’s record label!
Great info thanks! My problem is I keep buying but then don't want to part with them.
Trying to convince wife we need to move to a larger retirement home, so far shes not falling for that line.
I just subscribed. I love your channel because you help us learn various areas in records and music equipment.
Great advice in so many areas and ways!
Thanks for sharing. great info. And I need to stop procrastinating and make it to one of your pop ups. 2 hours isn't a big deal to drive to meet you and get some vinyl. plus who needs an excuse to go to Charlotte. Thanks again.
Yes man!!! I’d love that!
You really set it straight, Dillon. Everyone thinks what you do is so easy. It takes a lot of research, hard work and persistence. I agree with what you said about Discogs. People often forget to look at condition of past sales and I’ve noticed quite a few fake sales get through and bring value down or it skyrockets. I notice Popsike sales are more expensive than Discogs. I try to stay in the middle.
Informative video.
DallasPezz thanks man! Yeah it can be tricky with Popsike too. Best rule of thumb is to use common sense I guess 🤣
Would you advise to start selling new records before buying old collections? Do you have a video on that topic?
No I would definitely recommend old first
Love your videos and love your honest advice. Our shop in Virginia lives by some of your advice and you are correct. Treat em fair , drive to get it, and pay for what you see. Alot of dishonest sellers out there, be cautious. Great stuff!
Hey man thank you for making this video! I am 24 and been a police officer for about 2 years now dont really make the best money being a cop in my area so i thought i would pursue the dream that i have had with my bestfriend woody and thats to open a record store! woody and i have dreamed about this since we were about 15-16 and started collecting around that time. We are big 80s metal and trash metal guys but also love 70s-90s rock as well and just about anything 80s lol. we just started getting serious a month back on doing this and wont even be ready for atleast another 2 years if we are lucky but this video definitely helped with us starting out! ps also know my 70s/80s/90s rock very well and know whats worth money and not worth money and lastly i know that is the biggest genre that people want so I think ill be good in that department lol
Nice one man for the tips.Great video Noble Records👍
Thank you so much for doing this video. I've gotten into buying small collections and I really needed some guidance doing this .
From Columbia, SC. Looking forward to paying a visit to your upcoming shop sometime,
Watched this video countless times before but never commented. One comment I would make is in response to where Dylan mentions about buying what you know, in particular when he says about when you’re at someone’s house looking at their records to pick out the ones you definitively want to buy. From my experiences this can be a bad move as some people claiming to be sellers are actually just looking for someone to do the work for them with regards picking out the good records from a collection which they can then go on and sell online themselves. Happened to me various times over the years where I’ve done that and gone to them with a price and they turn me down but then I see them quickly grabbing the records I was looking at and putting them to the side. A lot of people even if big music fans don’t know the intricacies of valuing records and even if they do know about sites like discogs and eBay (most will know about eBay I guess) in a large number of cases they don’t know how to use the information correctly (eg. not even knowing how to bring up completed sold listings). A little information in the wrong hands can be dangerous!
I am very small-time at buying and selling, but I would just expand a little on some things you said. If you have friends who seriously collect or buy and sell, then you have many conversations about record sales or collections that have been bought or examined, and you know how those conversations go. If you are on the phone with someone who wants to sell, and you have to travel, get them to talk about it, and even if they say they have a big jazz collection, you want to make sure they talk about this stuff the way all your friends would talk about it if they were trying to sell it. If someone is selling his own collection, but does not start enthusiastically throwing out titles and artists, I will not travel. If he can't tell you the gems in his collection, he probably has none.
I have a collection of records, 8-10bins with at least 50 records per bin. I inherited it from my dad
I’ll buy them
@@seannymacc I live in Canada
@@juliethompson1370 that’s fine. I’ll figure it out
@@seannymacc ok then👍
I'm totally loving your channel! Very informative stuff.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences.
Great informaton in this one, thanks.
Fantastic information! I knew I wasn't the only one asking you some of those questions. Lol. Really useful information and I really appreciate you sharing with us. I've learned alot from you and a few others already.
Thankyou so mutch and your record collection is very awesome
You are an awesome guy!!! Good info man, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for watching!
Think you shared a lot of this on one of your live broadcasts. Thanks for sharing again!
Some people don't realise that resellers are dealers. I used to run a record shop and still dabble online. I love vinyl but I also sell as well :) I don't mind paying out for stuff. Some stuff is worth way less because of the condition. One Beatles record isn't worth as much because it sounds like a chip pan :) Vinyl is condition, condition, condition. I agree entirely with what you said :) Knowledge of what you know is vital. eBay and Discogs go on price sold average not value
You should make a video on how every copy of Streisand and Herb Albert records are magically and or magnetically drawn to Goodwills and Salvation Army!?
Hahahahhaa noted.
@@noblerecords also, not to go negative but I’d love to see a video all about the worst experiences you’ve had with customers. Whether it’s eccentric, neurotic, hyper vigilant hagglers, gnarly online buyers. Spill the beans. All the bad stuff in the business we never get to hear about!
I wish these tips were true for og pressings of extreme metal stuff. Nobody seems to sell those records, I've checked out quite a few collections for sale and no one has any death, black, doom, sludge etc records in them. And the people I know who have stuff like that just will not sell them, literally when they purge they'll purge everything except for the metal, very frustrating.
I bought an original Bathory under the sign for $20 in great shape at the record show in Roanoke, VA
Jonathan Dale I mean ya I’ll get lucky and find something every once in while like that, but it’s a pretty rare occasion
Yes it is. Just have to always be on the lookout!
I have been given a couple of record collections but have yet not pulled the trigger on purchasing one. These are good tips. Thanks for the info.
Got a big collection
favorite video yet!
My question is (for a follow up video?) is what is the best way to SELL records. Discogs page? eBay? Set up a table at an expo twice a year? Out of my hatchback? Flea market parking lot? Cash is king and no shipping and/or tax is wonderful.
I have hundreds of records to sell from somewhat-below-average to holy-smokes-rare-pricey-stuff and I'm not sure exactly where to begin - and, no, for anyone reading this, I'm not trying to unload all of them for cheap. I've got plenty of time to sell them one at a time for decent $. :^)
I know about a half dozen guys at work (who know a few other vinyl enthusiasts) who I'll let come by my apartment to go through my crates. No strangers are coming over to look at my place for valuables.
I've learned a lot over the last few years from videos like this (thank you) and constantly on the search. But, funny enough, I get straight up lucky sometimes. Ever find an original Townes Van Zandt s/t on Poppy for a dollar at your local thrift shop - I have, it is a little rough VG- wax, NM- inner, VG(+) cover. Anyone ever come across a white Dark Side of the Moon (1978 Holland pressing) for less than $3 - yeah, it's NM/M-. How about an original Charles Manson from 1970? - also less than $3 - now I'm just showing off.
Thanks again for this great video.
Appreciate the tip on Popsike, good to know. Good point about Discogs, which only reflects their own sales and another side of that is that if the release doesn't happen to have a sales history within Discogs you get no info at all. It's a stab in the dark. It's also the most counterintuitive site I know to try entering data into. I'd almost rather do my income taxes than enter something on Discogs. Almost.
I’m from Lebanon and I always watch your videos
Awesome, thanks for watching!
Did you have a specific amount of $$ set aside when you were starting out for just buying collections?
I have to deal with my late brother's collection. Not near 3,000 but at a couple hundred from 60's, 70's and a few 80's. Where would you suggest I start in trying to get it appraised and begin selling them? I live near Waterloo Records in Austin, Texas. Would that be a good place to start? Thanks for what you do, it helps so much.
Thanks for your help from New Zealand 🇳🇿
Appreciate these insights. I collect mostly for myself, but love finding big lots - most of the times because there'll be a few obscure rock titles mixed in. But one of the best grabs I had was a CL post I saw that was only 14 minutes old - "35 records for $35." All of them weird psych like Advancement, Influence, all in all averaging $800 (value to me is more interesting then practical, more like stuff I wouldn't own otherwise.) Was a tense 1 hour drive, knowing all someone had to do was message them and offer more (there were photos)
But yeah, always fun going to record stores and seeing stuff you've come across. And knowing what types of music is on what labels (Polydor is usually pretty decent stuff.) I need to do more for getting my name out there locally, I appreciate these tips!
The most important without a doubt is just, know your shit. As far as thrift stores go, i've made thousands off cds. And it's so funny, my biggest scores were found right after someone got through scanning with thier phone. Rare editions, low press indie label stuff, and promo only shit. I sold one track singles for half a grand. KNOW YOUR SHIT.
Thank you so much for this video! I've been waiting for one like this. I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge and experience.
Doug Texel thanks for watching! Hope it helps!
Does your strategy change any if you come upon records that you want to add to your personal collection? Great video, good advice!
As I have always made clear to anyone asking me if I will buy their collection...”condition is everything”!
My problem is, I dont know how much records are worth. Is there a "blue book" for used records?
Check out the website discogs.com it’s the blue book
We had a lady bring some albums in the antique shop there was about 30 albums and she wanted $2,500 for them 😃. And these were in pretty beat shape...lol
I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that this will be one of your most popular videos. Great information that makes a lot of sense. I've always said you are the hardest working record digger there is. And that is the biggest tip and takeaway from this video. Hardwork. I love what you said that it's not just hard work now it's the hard work that you've put into it in the past. And I truly love the fact that all of your hard work is paying off.
Thank you man! Thanks for the kind words as always! It is hard work but it’s a lot of fun. I really love what I do!
Great info, thanks buddy
The price on Popsike is always higher than anything else because the popular records are in most cases subject for a bidding war, and that is seldom the case in a recordstore. So most sellers go by popsike, because the price is artificially high, and most buyers go by discogs because it's considerably lower than popsike in most cases. So if you sell records and don't really want to sell them by all means use popsike to price your records. If i'm buying records an comes across a seller who use it, we're are usually to far apart so i swiftly move along...That said, you can't go by the discogs price if only two vg records etc. have been sold, you have to apply logic.
Very informative video Dillion. Wishing you the very best and still hoping to hit one of your pop-ups in the near future. Enjoyed! Andre’
glad you mentioned Popsike , hundreds of records on there are ones I sold on ebay, good video
My advice would be to NOT buy from private sellers in the Las Vegas area (where I live). I saw someone asking...get this...$40 for a 2009 pressing of Abbey Road. I paid about $22 (including tax) at my local Best Buy for the SAME pressing when I bought it for my son. Saw another person asking $125 for a 1987 pressing of Dark Side of The Moon trying to say it was a 1st press even though there's a freaking bar code on the back cover (those didn't start popping up until around 1980 or so) and the catalog number within the barcode was near identical to my CD first released in 1987 save for the "-1" instead of "-2". One last example was someone selling a used copy of Rubber Soul they literally picked from Goodwill (left the dang sticker on the front jacket indicating they did this) and... wanted $250 for it. I could see if it was sealed...original 1st press and so on...
This was beat to hell tho. As you can see, serious price gouging going on out here. And it's strangely only in Vegas. I can go to California, Arizona or Utah and the prices are fair and relevant to the condition. There's literally three shops I typically trust when shopping for records here. Now, I'm only trying to help my son build his collection (he's 13..begged me for a decent turntable and has similar tastes in music as myself...he's my mini me)...so he has stuff to listen to & enjoy right now. But it's tough. Anyhow, great tips, informative as always. Keep it up dude!
I know a guy with a record shop he does the same thing he buys whole collections because people want them all gone but he only pays for what he can sell and he throughs away a lot of ruined are unsellable records.
Finally a video about this!
Thanks for watching!
Anberlin!
Great video / advice. Stay safe... From a music lover in the UK
Great job Dillon. I might add that sometimes I might have to clean the records and then put them in plastic sleeves. You don't want angry customers. Cleaning makes them look and sound better. The plastic sleeves make them look better and you can put a price sticker on the bag which won't hurt the jacket of the record. And be careful. There are bad people out there. Bill
Yeah I always put them in sleeves, this video was more about buying than selling. Thanks for watching!
I understand. One time I went into the bad part of Saginaw to look at some records. Great selection but many were beat. I ask it I could pick out a big stack and the girl said yes. So I'm looking through these boxes in the kitchen. A lot of black guys were walking around and they kept saying "who this white man in our kitchen" I was getting nervous. Then about 3 guys walked up to me and asked if I had any money on me. Then they said give us all my money. Then the girl came running in and started yelling at them to leave me alone.
I had a big stack so I paid her and she walked me out to my car.
That was scary.
Great video.
Many thanks from the U.K.
U da man and Ik u grew that beard so all collectors remember the blue eyed, bearded, vinyl bandit!
how do you feel about GOLD MINE RECORD PRICE GUIDE.
Thanks for this video! Taking all these tips to heart!
Thanks for watching!
Hey dude, great video, really fantastic info and delivered in such a friendly honest way, thank you! Heads up, the link for your store on your youtube profile directs to a brokenish page, you get a 404 error on the body
One of the most useful vids on the VC ever! Thanks for sharing. So where do you sell? Can we buy from you online?
Wow thanks! I post things for sale on Facebook and Instagram sometimes but mainly sell locally through pop-ups!
Vinyl Rundown He’s “one of the boys.” He hangs out at Lunchbox Records sometimes. 😁😎
How much for the Dangerous toys, damn Yankees, and stryper ingod we trust lp??
Great information. I missed out on a 300 record collection recently but ended up buying a set of speakers from the guy. He had posted a video on Craig's list and there were some nice albums in there but a lot of it was common or obscure 2nd tier artists. I was prepared to offer (if the records were in good shape) $300 for the lot and go as high as $400 if I had to. My figuring was that there were probably 20 records worth $10-15 each, 100 worth $3-5, and 80 worth $1-2 and 100 that weren't worth much of anything. Basically my view was that there were about $600-800 of value there. I don't know if this guy was blowing smoke or not but he claimed he sold it for $1,100. I told him he made a great deal. And I thought to myself, if he's not lying, that someone grossly overpaid for those records.
Great tips thanks for the knowledge and advice
So you are like the American Pickers of Vinyl. I am waiting for your TV show. To your point if you really want to do this you must commit. It is a leap of faith. It would be fun but I would not take the leap. Lord knows I work the hours but I want my guaranteed check. I really appreciate what you do and your dedication. Too many people think it is easy and just want to flip. I figure someday I’ll get some of their records lol. Nice video, I’ll just continue to be the guy that buys them from you. Steve
Thanks for the insight! Golden nuggets!
Hi Thanks for the tips!
How do you decide when you buy big collections and dont how the time to go through everything? Do you go through just 10% or more and trust the sellers word for the rest of it?
Well made video dude. Won’t be buying any collections but cool to hear about your process and experiences.
Thanks man! Hopefully it’ll help someone 🤣
Noble Records I have no doubt
Great tips! I've bought a lot of records on offerup PRO TIP if the selling proile name is recordflipper or something along those lines he probably is trying to sell off his junk records in bulk always check the person's profile
Wow! This is great info.
Thanks! I hope it helps!
This is great, thanks so much for the info!
A very important point in this information is when you tell what you did for a living as a young buck (at 15:30). I suspect this is where you learned the lion's share of your craft. What you say here is very interesting, but for me it all gets uncomfortable very quickly. I tried selling some records at a record fair with my VC friend Martin Parrott. It felt to me like selling children. It was an emotional wrench to part with each one of them even though they were duplicates of what I already had. My heart is too much in the collecting I guess. I know you are very busy, but if you get chance take a look at my video called The Vinyl Misadventure. What you said in your video about how it can go wrong reminded me of my own experience. And look out for the punch line near the end. Cheers
The Vinyl Misadventure: th-cam.com/video/AF_vMZeXHvI/w-d-xo.html
I will watch it John, yes at first it was really hard for me to sell my records but the one thing that eased the pain and turned it into joy was being able to help people find the records that made them happy. Now I know I can find the records that I sell again, it’s fun to sell them when I see a kid asking for a Bob Dylan Record, if brings me great joy to sell him a copy. Some people like it, and some don’t. Thanks for your comment, I will check your video out
Right on. I found all this to be true 👍
Hey! Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass isn't that bad!
Dropping gems!
Hi I have some few collections of vinyl records I wanna know how much I could sell them
Thanks very helpful
Herb Albert is awesome ......
I used to buy CD and book collections from people homes. Man, they thought they were selling gold bricks. I guess for them, they just thought about how much they paid for something and how much they enjoyed it, not the market value.
I had one guy state that he would accept nothing less than $4.00/CD since there was "A pawn shop up north that pays $5.00 per CD"
I called his bluff and said, "Oh, cool. I'm headed that way tomorrow and have some CDs I need to get rid of. What's the name of the place?" He started mubling, sweating, stammering and then grabbed his collection and kicked me out of his house.
I had other transactions where, after I got home I would get some e-mails where they would MF me for not giving them a good price.
Needless to say, I stopped doing that and stuck to garage sales, rummage sales, pawn shops and thrift stores and did just as well.
Big props to you, Dillon. GREAT video. Now you have a video to point people to when they keep asking that question. Very rarely is finding a valuable record for an incredible price “luck.” Even folks that are just collectors are digging all the time, everywhere when they find that crazy $1 bin find they tell their grandkids about. Obviously, you work harder, and most of us knew that already. But you get my point. 👍🏻✌🏻
Hahah thanks man, yeah I get those crazy finds sometimes but if you do it enough, anyone would. Thanks for the kind words!
ok popsike is so useful. thank you for that.
Does anyone have Jimi Hendrix axis bold as love? I just want it for the music not the condition.
Did you get it?
Some very wise advice here.
I get it from EBAY! Its so easy!