Is the time for affordable LPs over?

[soundbuff]

I do think we are trying to 'convert' rather than guide the OP. IMHO it does not make much sense for him to 'go vinyl'. It makes much more sense to find some one who can convert his vinyl to digital and get on with life. Yes, I know turntables can be made to sound very good, but there is a lot of money, time and tinkering needed for that. 'Play and plug vinyl' is no better that even a modest digital rig. So I for one would discourage the OP from getting into vinyl, and too for records that are most likely mastered poorly even if their condition be good.

 

[reubensm]

+1, I have made contacts during marriages, customer visits, even funerals I just scored another batch of 70 LPs last weekend, courtesy a hidden treasure revealed by my bother Most of them are in splendid condition. At the same time, beware, these days there are a lot of people out there who are aware of vinyl either through interest or as a medium for making a quick buck. My brother was carrying the LPs in small batches to my home (we stay in the same locality so he took a short walk). A by-passer gentlemen asked him what he was carrying and when he said records, he asked for them, saying he is interested in old records

Most oldies are sad that they will be gone soon and there is nobody to care for their prized possessions. Most will give off their stuff for free, if they find out that there's someone to care of them. The modern generation is so deep into digital media that they often laugh at someone talking about records. I once visited a friend and we were talking about career, etc. I noticed his son playing with a 45, he was rolling it on the ground and sitting on it. When I enquired, I was told that there are quite a few of those lying around in the store room. I came back home that day with a box full of Bollywood 45s. You'd never know when luck strikes. Another good trick is to build networks with the upper middle class families and high end families especially if they had people travelling back in the day. Almost all of them had extensive record collections. When I contacted few, I found out that there are professional scouts walking around, they keep checking with people living in larger homes for old electronics, cassettes and tapes. They buy these at almost scrap rates and then resell. I left word with some scrap dealers and actually came across a lot of records but did not pick them up as they were not in good condition.

Giving away a few trade secrets here. I hope the guys don't mind

Treasures are always hidden.You have to make contacts and hunt. That's what I do. I have collected a lot through contacts...over last 20+ years.

Marriage ceremonies, public or private functions , I just do not mind. Make men@50+ as prime targets. Do not hesitate, just open up,talk.Who knows, you might hit a bounty,all free.

Also, make your family comfortable with all these because today many people consider the records and the turntables as junk... . Somebody's junk is my treasure...that's a blessing to we,collectors .

Good luck.

 

[Deleted member 38504]

I rather buy lps off discogs than make friends with people just for a few Records. Im not into scoring Records either. I guess thats why I have a relatively small collection compared to most of you guys. Not interested in collecting lps. Rather spend time listening to what I have than telling people oh I got 3000 lps. Just my opinion.

 

[skroderider]

Discogs seems to be a revelation..I can see lots of records for less than 5 dollars..i was looking for western classical. Do you guys now how the shipping logic works?

say I searched for Mozart LPs with price being lowest to highest. There are many records below 5 with shipping extra. How does this shipping work if i buy it from various sellers but say from one country like US? its worth buying say 20 LPs of 2 dollars each and pay shipping of 10 dollars in total and have it shipped to someone in US

In one of the records it said 5 dollars for first LP and 1.25 for each additional...still makes sense to buy in bulk.. but not sure if we need to buy from the same seller. While I continue my research..would appreciate if someone who has experience can clarify. Thx

I have not actually bought from discogs yet (planning to), but from what I understood by browsing through it, shipping rates are defined individually per seller. So if I buy 1 record from seller A and 1 from seller B, the shipping policies will be applied separately to each record.

More knowledgeable members can shine more light on this.

 

[G401fan]

+1, I have made contacts during marriages, customer visits, even funerals

Another good trick is to build networks with the upper middle class families and high end families especially if they had people travelling back in the day. Almost all of them had extensive record collections.

When I contacted few, I found out that there are professional scouts walking around, they keep checking with people living in larger homes for old electronics, cassettes and tapes. They buy these at almost scrap rates and then resell.

Giving away a few trade secrets here. I hope the guys don't mind

So, now, who indeed are these professional scouts?

 

[Selvin]

Not interested in collecting lps. Rather spend time listening to what I have than telling people oh I got 3000 lps. Just my opinion.

I already came to this stage. At least I need 4 years to play once all my records, Cassettes and CD's if listening happen an hour per day.

 

[Deleted member 38504]

I bought my first lps from u Selvin sir. I remember. It was dire straits and Sade amongst a few others.

 

[peace_sells]

I have not actually bought from discogs yet (planning to), but from what I understood by browsing through it, shipping rates are defined individually per seller. So if I buy 1 record from seller A and 1 from seller B, the shipping policies will be applied separately to each record.

More knowledgeable members can shine more light on this.

Yes that's right. You will get discounts on shipping price only if you buy multiple LPs from the same seller. It's similar to eBay. You can actually send PM messages to sellers and try to bargain as well.

For Indians I think the best bet is to buy from German sellers. Their shipping rates are by far the cheapest among European countries.

Sent from my FRD-L02 using Tapatalk

 

[skroderider]

Yes that's right. You will get discounts on shipping price only if you buy multiple LPs from the same seller. It's similar to eBay. You can actually send PM messages to sellers and try to bargain as well.

For Indians I think the best bet is to buy from German sellers. Their shipping rates are by far the cheapest among European countries.

Sent from my FRD-L02 using Tapatalk

Thank you for the tip about German sellers.

 

[Dr.Bass]

Collecting LPs is fun, cheap or expensive. Waiting for a good copy of your favourite LP is also fun. If you want something straightforward without paying current retail price then digital is the way to go.

 

[jmascreen]

Was LPs ever cheap? During its prime age?

 

[prem]

No. It never was. In the early 80s it was around Rs 50 and that was a lot of money in those days.

 

[G401fan]

Rs.50 in the early 80s is equivalent to Rs. 2k+ today, if you factor in inflation, purchasing power and average salary earned then and now.
In fact, LPs often cost less these days.

 

[Naturelover]

CD prices have remained comparatively quite stagnant during the last, say, 20 years.
Maybe vinyl prices will come down as demand, and this supply, rises .

 

[Deleted member 38504]

Supply will never come down with dealers all over the country sitting on hoardes of lps.

Ask him led zeppelin, he will say 3000 rupees. Ask him for osibisa and he will say, thats free with the led zeppelin.

Now if only there was some magic easy way to find out whether an lp is a good pressing or bad, without hearing.... that would be another story!

But in short, the good times of owning lps at reasonable prices have gone for sure. Even most dealers have run out of the More popular artists.

 

[navinsinha]

No. It never was. In the early 80s it was around Rs 50 and that was a lot of money in those days.

In my opinion it was more expensive those days. I had some vague idea about it but wanted some data to say so. Today I Googled "price of gold in India in 1970" and got the below result:
Year Price (10 grams)
1970 Rs. 184.00
1971 Rs. 193.00
1972 Rs. 202.00

Now gold was INR 200 per 10 gram in 1972, it means that a record was worth 2.5 grams of gold. In today's terms, it means INR 7,500...phew!! Kindly think about our parents, how they would have managed buying records those days. We are looking at INR 50 by today's standards when we feel bad even tipping a waiter 50(100 is the minimum perhaps). Please remember that many people even didn't earn 50 bucks a month those days. My two cents

 

[prem]

Agreed Navinsinha. I really find it odd when people on the forum cry about high prices of lps

 

[Deleted member 38504]

I dont think its about high price of the lps. Its more about how much is it worth to you. How much will you pay for an lp u like/want desperately.

Ex. One rich collector got off his expensive car with two valets, paid a dealer a couple of lakhs, took a crate full of lps, loaded it into his car and drove off. In front of me.

The dealer asked me sir what lp u want. But let me tell u please my rates start at 1500 rupees minimum. Now, I had ridden in an auto for 45 minutes to get to this fellows house. I thought to myself izzat ka sawal hai . So I bought a cliff Richard lp for 1500 rupees and quietly made my exit.

Moral of story. We all have paid crazy money occasionally for lps that are probably not valued at that price. In the same breadth, we have also paid peanuts for an lp that was probably worth a lot more.

Its all about affordability. Value. Need. An lp could be only worth 200 rupees today. But I have rupees 800. I can afford it. Ill buy it. Price of that same lp has now become 800 rupees beacause there are plenty of buyers like me for who, 800 rupees is absolutely ok. This is an example. And I mean you and me all in third person. Not really me.

 

[navinsinha]

My view expressed earlier was based on the price of brand new (Indian) LPs available in India during late 60s and early 70s. Almost all LPs were available for 45-50 bucks and pure analogue discs. There was no sentimental or "I love it" value attached to them. They were produced in the plant at X cost and sold in the shops for 45-50. When Vinyl went out of favour in late 1990s till 2010, they were practically stored like kabad in homes and most of the people got rid of this junk by selling to scrap dealers or gave away. Now here starts the game of demand and supply. There was over supply and practically no demand. That's what people are talking now since the LPs were available at throwaway prices those days. Comes this decade and there was resurgence of vinyl and as a result, the prices started going up (limited stock and no new production). Further, people started putting sentimental or rarity value to the records and prices of some records shot up and sometimes to insane level. Is there any justification of Bhoot Bangla being sold at 20,000 bucks? But even now some good records are available (Indian only, I have no idea of Western music) at reasonable price. I purchased K L Saigal (Angel first copy, mint) for 50 bucks 2 years back. What I want to say is that if you can get a good Indian LP in VG condition for 500 to 1000, it's not a bad deal.

 

[navinsinha]

And I am not talking about the new pressings during last 3-4 years. Less said, the better about them.