Hideous - Bangalore Vinyl Dealer Market

[Record Player]

Gents - Just a few minutes ago I was scouting for some records on Olx for a friend of mine who is just getting into Vinyl. I stumbled upon this AD where the seller mentioned he has good condition English and Hindi Vinyl.

So contacted this tyro and I asked specifically for English records and he named a few like James Last, Police, Lipps Inc, Abba, Boney M and said he has much more on the same lines. Then I asked for his quote and he quoted, I literally fell flat. He stated Rs. 10,000/- starting and above based on the title for each record. What the.......I said to him I am not interested as these prices are outta this world and nobody will buy. This cheeky bugger tells me that I don't know the market and this is how the market prices are. I was so close on loosing my cool. He said mint condition hindi LPs start from Rs. 3000/- and just then I broke out laughing. He then again said he recently Sold a Beatles Record for 1 Lakh..... . That's all I could take in and I abruptly said thanks and closed the conversation.

Isn't this just hideous!!!!

Most dealers in Bangalore work on the same lines with some crazy pricing. Only hope they don't have a solid market to cater otherwise we enthusiasts are nowhere.

Anyways, I have given up on used vinyl hereafter and will only acquire new vinyl unless I come across near mint condition vinyl that I am looking for and with acceptable prices.

"If the buying stops at such crazy prices, then the Selling will stop at such prices"

Lp's of hindi films in good condition! - Bangalore - CDs - DVDs - Kammana Halli

P.S: I missed this point. When he gave me those prices, I quickly said I have a lot of excellent condition hindi records and I am willing to give it to him at 1k each....LOL and I got no answer.

 

[Simon Wires]

As Jhonny cash sang...

Give him , one on the left and one on the right ..and to the one on the middle who's a Methodist !!!

 

[john_k_antony]

I have bought some records from New Gramophone House, Vinyl Records, LP Records, Bollywood Vinyl Records, Hindi Vinyl Records, Punjabi Vinyl Records, Indian Vinyl Records, LP Records, Bollywood Vinyl Records. They are pricey, but I am pretty much happy with the condition of the used records they sent. You have to thoroughly clean them before use though.

-John.

 

[jls001]

Bangalore's very own Lakhwant

 

[kuruvilajacob]

There are some crazy guys out there who know nothing about the vinyl market. They are mislead by crazier guys. Once, I visited a guy in Chennai who said he had mint records. I located his place and looked at the records. They were mint all the way. There were hundreds of them but all of them were unknown artists and bands. This whole lot was sold to him by a dealer in Bangalore who knew about records and had taken the best and given this poor guy all the leftovers and told him he can make a fortune. He quoted some unbelievable price and I told him I won't even buy if he offers the whole thing at Re 1 per record. He literally threw me out of his place.

 

[reubensm]

This is absolutely crazy!! I think we must spread awareness about how to detect and avoid these characters. I don't remember the name but I was once in touch with a dealer in Bangalore who wanted 3k for a burning train record. I had seen this on ebay.in

 

[kratu]

Some sellers confuse us with antique collectors; The whole business sounds like collecting stamps. Sometimes, I've to emphasise that I'm a music lover and not a collector.

 

[Saket]

Isn't this just hideous!!!!


"If the buying stops at such crazy prices, then the Selling will stop at such prices"

Absolutely hideous!

There are people who know about vinyl demand only superficially and think that digging some old vinyls from somewhere will make them millionaires! Absolutely crazy. These guys should know that such vinyls are available at Kolkata at less than Rs. 100/- per title, mostly. And the solution is absolutely what you stated - stop buying at these insane prices to stop sellers from selling at those insane prices.

T...a dealer in Bangalore who wanted 3k for a burning train record. I had seen this on ebay.in

This looks peanuts in front of the prices of the dealer that RP called up:lol:

 

[jmascreen]

I would say discogs is a better place I got some very good & famous LP's for 90 cents each

 

[alwayslogo]

I still buy old Bengali Hindi English lp records from Kabadiwallah in Kolkata for Rs 20 a piece. Thank God the vinyl market is still good in Kolkata

 

[reubensm]

Recently my good friend, FM Simon got me some vinyl from Kolkata. The records had usual signs of wear but when I cleaned them and gave them a run, I noticed that apart from the ticks and pops (these are a part of the vinyl listening experience and are welcome), I noticed that there was no groove distortion or groove damage. I would believe, the people of Kolkata (probably) who owned these records, played them on good or decent equipment and were careful with them.

 

[Simon Wires]

I still buy old Bengali Hindi English lp records from Kabadiwallah in Kolkata for Rs 20 a piece.

Just curious!! Where in Cal, this particular Kabbadiwallah shop is located?

 

[G401fan]

Not on Free School Street, for sure, where I was asked 3500 for a single LP.

 

[soulforged]

You know what? Let's pool our unwanted, dispensible LPs and sell them to this gent at 50% of what he is asking. With the money we make, let's go to Discogs and buy the lot...

BTW. Even Discogs prices seem to be going up...especially for the better known titles...
BTW. BTW. NGH/Anuj used to be my regular place for LPs but even they have jacked up the prices 3-4 fold...

 

[Saket]

Recently my good friend, FM Simon got me some vinyl from Kolkata. The records had usual signs of wear but when I cleaned them and gave them a run, I noticed that apart from the ticks and pops (these are a part of the vinyl listening experience and are welcome), I noticed that there was no groove distortion or groove damage. I would believe, the people of Kolkata (probably) who owned these records, played them on good or decent equipment and were careful with them.

With the risk of being thrown out from the forum, I have a feeling that normal ceramic cartridges were not so bad on disks as they are made out to be. With a properly set VTF even on the modest HMV Fiesta, I think records would not suffer any damage. If the VTF is too high, stereo records would suffer more damage when compared to mono records. Just to give an example, I have a lot of records of my dad who played it only on his Fiesta. Even after 50 years, they sound just fine.

Play any stereo record with high VTF, and it will be soon loose the fidelity as the mono cartridges do not allow for vertical movement from groves.
And this warning was printed on early Indian stereo records that they must be played with a light weight pick up when played on a monaural record player.

 

[reubensm]

Saket, you are not alone on this front. Both Mr. Kuruvila and I have experienced the beauty of music listened to with the humble ceramic cartridge. The rule is, with a light weight and decently calibrated tonearm, a decent stylus and a good ceramic phonostage, one can listen to some very enjoyable music. I would even go to the extent of saying that it would be difficult to tell the difference between a good ceramic cartridge setup and a low to middle end magnetic cartridge.

Yes, ceramic cartridges with sapphire stylii, themselves are not responsible for record wear. It is the VTF that is the key. From my experience, the EEI CS2000 cart can produce some amazing sounds.

 

[alwayslogo]

It is located in Kalighat Alipore in Kolkata. There are few Kabadiwallah shops who gets used LPs sometimes. I have to keep track and call them every 15 days to get them. Sometimes i get lucky and get the gems.

 

[G401fan]

Here's how it works in Bombay (or for that matter, most places):

The kabadiwallah is the first purchaser, directly from houses where they go to buy old newspapers. They also pick up bottles, plasticware, metal, etc, and also the pile of old LPs that one day comes out of the closet. They typically offer 50 paise or at most 1 rupee per LP. Once they get to their store, they call up either the next kabadiwallah in their food chain to sell the lot, or the dealer in Chor Bazaar. Those guys pay a little more, between 2 to 5 apiece to take the entire lot. If the dealers sell a few to you and me for anything above Rs 100 (nowadays 300+) , they've made their money and can them dump off the rest for somewhat less, either to the general public, or another dealer, often from another city. And so it goes.

Now, if you get to your friendly neighbourhood kabadiwallah before the dealer does, you might get lucky at prices like 15 and 20. Most kabadiwallahs in Bombay have, since 2009, gotten smart and have started quoting 50 to 100, or they insist on you buying the entire pile.

The kabadiwallah is the key person in the used records market in India. Most people with small and mid-size collections have no idea about the dealer market, and know of no other way to get rid of their old LPs.

 

[Saket]

Also, I have heard that in Kolkata, there are those erstwhile rich families owning thousands of records. Some housekeeping people would just take out (read: 'steal') 30-40 LPs at a time from that collection and sell it to the street record vendors at anything between 30-50 rupees each. In that way, they make money out of nothing as there is no one in the home interested in the stuff and check it every fortnight. It is just some old stuff of their fathers and grand fathers which they would not 'sell' willingly and hence, they are keeping it for the sake of keeping it.

 

[Record Player]

Well, here in Bangalore we find no such Kabadiwallah's except for a very few. This could be because Bangalore was not too much into Record Players and Vinyl when compared to cities like Mumbai and Kolkata where this format was and is quite famous from back in the days. I have seen people from 70s in Bangalore with Vinyl collections but their collections were only a few hundreds or even smaller. And then again, you will mostly find Indian Classical and some 70s English pop which you will find in most vinyl collections and not something that will interest you.

Today, many of these people who want to give away their records/collections are quite aware of its so called value. They simply refer online sites and then quote their prices. These sellers do not know anything else about records. What they need to understand is that's its not that straight forward. There is soo much work involved after you buy these records. Cleaning is the most tedious part as these records would have been shelved in some dusty loft and we don't even know how they will sound before the buy.

P.S: I've got a couple of hundred records that have not been played yet only because they require cleaning and the though of it just kills me.