Valuing your collection

Subject: Valuing your collection
From: irishenglish
Date: 28 May 09 - 08:07 AM

I had a quick glance around at amazon and ebay recently (actually while searching for cover art for itunes) and found a few listings for rarity cd's which I own, and was very surprised to see how much they had shot up in value. I was astonished to see something like a $60 price for Anne Brigg's The Time Has COme CD reissue from the 90's! So even though I'm not looking to sell, does anyone have a preferred site for seeing the value of their collection? Any tips in the cd age for how cd's may depreciate in value to a collector ( I remember vinyl collecting well, and much like comic books, that prized album that looked pristine on the outside, but had a big scratch between 3 songs would quickly make it lose value)? And what's the most amazing rarity you own?

Subject: RE: Valuing your collection
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 28 May 09 - 09:15 AM

Can't help you with CD prices unfortunately. I did however recently buy an LP on the hard to come by, and consequently expensive 77 Label, from a north London 2nd hand record shop; Ken Colyer and the Original Crane River Jazz Band. I paid £3-00 for it. It's listed in the 2006 Rare Record Price Guide at ten times that much.

Subject: RE: Valuing your collection
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 28 May 09 - 09:22 AM

a $60 price for Anne Brigg's The Time Has COme CD reissue from the 90's!

I'm sure you can still get it in the digipak edition for £5 from action Records in Preston. I wonder though - will CDs ever be valuable / collectable in themselves? Something you can't roll a spliff on and the writing's too small to read, which isn't good for all those old folkies with failing eyesight who need clear type and decent spliff...

Subject: RE: Valuing your collection
From: irishenglish
Date: 28 May 09 - 09:59 AM

I think CD's will be valuable-in part because while a source like itunes has a lot of music, including folk music, there will be rarities that will never surface on there. Which means that if you really are searching for a rarity to play in the digital medium, its going to have to come from cd. And it was just a short time ago-3 years or so when I worked in a record store that people were quite happy tracking down an import routinely priced at $60 for French rapper MC Solar. We would get one in, and it would be sold right away. That's more a question of what's hot I think, but if someone really wants something, they will pay.

Subject: RE: Valuing your collection
From: M.Ted
Date: 28 May 09 - 10:15 AM

The Amazon prices are simply what the independent dealers that list on Amazon are asking-they fluctuate wildly, sometimes from day to day-

Last year, I lost my DVD of "Yellow Submarine", which I'd purchased new at Border's for $13, and blithely went to Amazon, where I figured I could pick up another for a similar sum--Big Surprise! It had gone out of print, and, since demand was high (or so I assume), the only copy available was $450! A few days later, some other dealers were offering copies for considerably less ($30-70), but I waited, an it's been re-released, and I got it for $12--

The short story is that those prices don't mean much--

Subject: RE: Valuing your collection
From: irishenglish
Date: 28 May 09 - 10:28 AM

Yes, that's what I figured regarding amazon at least. Is ebay a more realistic test of something being really hard to find? The Anne Briggs I alluded to was apparantly a small run reissue, which may have spiked its value (why I don't know), although as Suibhne points out, its still available now.

Subject: RE: Valuing your collection
From: SINSULL
Date: 28 May 09 - 11:34 AM

The asking price on auction sites has no meaning unless someone is willing to pay it.

Subject: RE: Valuing your collection
From: GUEST,Kendall
Date: 28 May 09 - 11:58 AM

The Death of Floyd Collins by Vernon Dalhart
Rockaby Your Baby (with a dixie melody)by Vernon Dalhart

An LP vinal titled Lights Along The Shore. still in the shrink wrap.

Subject: RE: Valuing your collection
From: Geoff Wallis
Date: 28 May 09 - 12:41 PM

Have a look at Music Stack - http://www.musicstack.com - which gives an idea how much moolah various dealers registered with the site are currently looking for.

Subject: RE: Valuing your collection
From: Songbob
Date: 28 May 09 - 03:35 PM

I thought you meant my instruments, and was starting to mentally tabulate them, but no!

You know, I have a hard time thinking of CDs as something increasing in value. I thought that was why I was keeping all those old LPs!

Bob Clayton

Subject: RE: Valuing your collection
From: M.Ted
Date: 28 May 09 - 05:07 PM

"The Death of Floyd Collins"! Kendall, you are the best!

Subject: RE: Valuing your collection
From: Folkiedave
Date: 28 May 09 - 05:16 PM

Try GEMM.

Subject: RE: Valuing your collection
From: GUEST,Graham Bradshaw
Date: 29 May 09 - 06:54 AM

I recently decided to sell a collection of some 4000 LPs, and firstly researched eBay. Not a happy story, I'm afraid. Pages and pages of similar items to mine, all listed with starting bids of £0.99 and NO BIDS. Quite a few "Buy it Nows" with asking prices, but obviously not sold. So, I concluded it could be a very long process getting rid, and I may end up with very low prices. (There were a few exceptions where very rare collectables were getting high bids).

So, I gave up and sold them to a dealer, and got what was less than their perceived worth, but a fair price for considerably less hassle.

Job done.