Have you ever had something (1000's of them actually) that you didn't use but felt completely paralyzed over the thought of getting rid of?
I have shelves and shelves and shelves of old LP records. Everything from Johnny Mathis to Elton John, Frank Sinatra to Cat Stevens, Miles Davis to John Coltrane to...well, you name it. Many of them were my father's. He was a music freak of the 1st degree. Most of them are in impeccable shape.
I do in fact own a good turntable and actually have a high-quality receiver with phono jacks, you know, most don't anymore. Cost me a pretty penny to buy one a couple of years ago. I DO listen to albums fairly often - it's not like I want to get rid of them all. The vast majority of them however I wouldn't play if I were locked in a room for the next year with nothing but these albums and my turntable.
So, what do I do with them? I've checked on Ebay and even the rare ones - I'm talking from the 50s, pristine shape - aren't getting any bids at all. If that's the case - what are my options? It's not like I can just throw them out and at the same time I can't move them from house to house and room to room for the rest of my life.
We have a decent sized house but very little storage - no attic or basement and the garage is too hot to store anything in - even canned goods! Right now, the albums are split between my closet and my daughter's closet and she really needs the space back for all of her "stuff".
At this point, I'm not looking to make money on them although I certainly wouldn't be opposed to the idea. I don't however want to get stuck paying to ship them someplace if in fact I found someplace to donate them to.
Does anyone have ANY ideas? Posted by Bruce Bowers (Member # 892) on :
I am in the same club...
I am curious what the outcome is going to be...
Posted by Bob Rochon (Member # 30) on :
Kimberly,
Give me a call, if you have a list, I can let my father in law know and ask him if he is interested, he buys and sells records worldwide.
508-865-7330
Posted by Kimberly Zanetti (Member # 2546) on :
Bob, that's sensational. I'll see what I can do to piece together a list and get it to you. Thanks!
That's one of the things I love about this place.
Posted by Santo (Member # 411) on :
Buddy of mine sells them on E-bay profitably.
Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
I know Kimberly.
I can't seem to get rid of my parents old albums because I keep thinking they are worth $$ . . . but a check on E-bay revealed they are only worth a few dollars over their original cost. Most of them are in excellent to very good condition... but, I guess the thing is...there are so many of us (boomers) around who have inherited these things . . .
Some of the albums I have include Billy Vaughn, Chuck and Tommy Dorsey together in NY (a special edition set) A Famous Country hits which has Lefty Frezzell, Patsy Kline and Tex Ritter among the 9 different artists. A live recorded race at the Indinapolis Speedway,'500 Miles to Glory', Ballad of the Green Berets-Veit Nam war songs (Sgt.Barry Sadler) A 3 Stooges Album,'6 funnybone stories', Memories of Hank Williams, and an album that has a bunch of theme songs from old TV shows like Hawaii 5-0, Get Smart, etc.
I also have a few (about 30) 45's...most of them would be more valuable except for some minute warps . . . these include an Elvis, a Beatles, an Al Jolson, Lt.Col.John Glenn "Man in Orbit', and a Winnie the Pooh.
I think I need to get a turn-table so I can just listen to this stuff...although most of it would probably just make me cry...
I saw a really cute thing on a commercial where someone made a huge wall-collage of old 45's shaped like a fish.
When I make my collage of our trip to Arizona & New Mexico, I might use a couple of the 45's in that, as the collages will merge items, locations and events of my parents lives there in the 50's with the trip Emily & I made in 2004.
At any rate, try to hang on to them . . .keep them somewhere real cool in tempature so they won't warp.
A couple of cute ideas:
You may have to wait 'til your baby's a teen, or in college, but I've often thought it would be really fun to have a bunch of kids over from our youth group and play these old tunes. Mabey call it "Hokey music Party' or somethin'...lol.
I think they would get a real kick out of some of it and I'm sure they would really enjoy the bluesy-swing stuff . . . besides, who does'nt like Billy vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald or George Gershwin?
I wonder if a nursing home group would enjoy hearing these old tunes? I would love to go around to the nursing homes and spend a day, a coupl'a times a month playing them for the residents.
Posted by Jackie B (Member # 186) on :
Just a random thought . . . Call your PBS (non-profit public radio) radio station. Bet they'd have some ideas. They might even have a handle on what they are worth and where to sell them. Randomly, Bomba-Dear
Posted by Michael Clanton (Member # 2419) on :
I saw a place on the net that was taking the record and melting them into bowl shapes- all kinds of kitchy stuff- lampshades, coasters, etc. It was a high-end artsy-fartsy store, so they had large price tags.
I saw a show on tv where they took a bunch of old records and arranged them into a collage on top of a coffee table, then applied a really thick layer of clear decopauge(sp) on top.
You could always put fake labels on them of really cool artists, and mount and hang them like gold records- would be a cool conversation piece.
One last one- a local teenager decorated his room and mounted 33"s all over the ceiling, and 45"s as a border- with all his other music related stuff like guitars and rock posters hanging- it was very cool.
Posted by Sonny Franks (Member # 588) on :
I guess after we used all our Mickey Mantle rookie cards to make motorcycle noises in the spokes of our bikes, we learned the hard way to save our "collectibles". Now we're a bunch of old coots, closets full of albums, thinking we got big bucks in vintage Monkees' and Bobby Vinton records. Let me know if anybody finds a sucker.....'scuse me - BUYER.
Posted by Carl Wood (Member # 1223) on :
Kimberly - I find there is a very active market for vinyl - I'm a casual collector - do you have anything of Johnny Cash? I have an extensive collection of Cash - mostly mint & near mint Sun 45's, 'bout 50 33's - Let me know, please; will also buy anything on Sun if in decent shape - I will also buy known 45's with picture sleeves - sometimes the sleeve is worth more than the record if in Mint or Near Mint condition - respond here or E-mail me - Carl
Posted by Kimberly Zanetti (Member # 2546) on :
Carl, Thanks for your interest. Unfortunately, I have no Johnny Cash or 45s. I appreciate the offer though.
Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :
Being a guy who first started listening to records on a 78 player, But I don't have any of them. (I was too young to buy them at the time)..
But I have a couple of hundred 45's and about a hundred 33 RPM albums, ranging from the mid 50's to the late 80's.
I have no concerns about what to do with them. I am gonna keep them!!
WHY???
Because, once in a while Shirl and I sit cross legged on the carpet, in the middle of the living room and play them as loud as our ears can stand!
Nothing like hearing a REAL vinyl record playing, with the accomanying scratches and stuff!!!
Yep..we also have CD's that are pure and perfect but there is something about a RECORD that brings back the memories! Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
kim look for the jazz lables...and list them. we have a large collection. some of the jazz vinyl hasnt been re recorded on to CD's. you cant get them anywhere. i have SONIC SOUND FOUNDRY 5 and i take the whole lp and copy it to my computer hard drive, do a preclean and a stratch & hizz removal and burn it to a cd. once i got 2-3 cd of it i delete from the computer......and do another lp. this will let you play em in the car or anywhere...DONT NOT disguard untill you put em on CD...this is digital remastering..... MOLLY HACHETT ALBUM COVERS ARE worth money. artist who dont record anymore are worth money. get me a list of jazz and ill let hennie look...to see if she would like to buy a few..
[ June 10, 2005, 02:13 AM: Message edited by: old paint ]
Posted by Curtis hammond (Member # 2170) on :
Get sonic Foundry sound Forge.. and record them into your computer,, convert them into high quailty MP3,, and burn em to a CD there ya got both worlds
Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
Carl, I have a Johnny Cash.
It's an Everest (records) Album, #FS 278 10 songs total. It is in Excellent condition.
(I have all my albums listed alphabetically by name/album title, #, lable and condition... Posted by Checkers (Member # 63) on :
Unfortunately, I sold all my albums a long time ago when I was moving around a lot. But, I still swear that vinyl is the best medium to listen to music. Definitely take Bob up on his offer or, at least, get them appraised. If you don't want to sell them, consider donating them to a worthy cause. You can get a lot more cash value for a donation versus selling them to a reseller.
Havin' fun,
Checkers
Posted by Bill Lynch (Member # 3815) on :
The PBS radio station here has an album/music sale once a year where you can donate old LPs and get a tax credit. Look for online collectors clubs that are in the same music category as your collection. They'll probably have a "For Sale" category and links to other sites. Good Luck!
Posted by Hugh Potter (Member # 5748) on :
lol, i have a similar situation with old car mags, hot rod, custom car, street machine, rod and custom, mopar muscle mag, etc, must have 1000's of em all n boxes, most have ended up in the shed now, i dont wanna chuck em, but no one wants to take them for the shipping cost ! must be $5k worth !!
re records, i've about 300 singles from around 88-91, my hay-day ! aswell as around 100 albums, about 25 of them are my most prized pink floyd collection (now there's design !), i have a friend who does vinyl cleaning, not like the anti static cleaners and fluid we all use, but a serious piece of kit that makes em sound like new again ! i love listening to them, they're such a nice sound, like dave says, cd's are great, and i have all my floyd on cd too, but the vinyl is how it was meant to be heard,
i see alot of you are into country, i like it but own very litle, mostly on mp3 format, loads of proper bluegrass and steel music, old school, not the modern stuff, dont like that ! i grew up on country, dad was a drummer for several bands during the 70's and 80's, never ceases to amaze me how many song i know the words to, yet 've not heard them in 20 year !
btw, pink floyd are reforming :-), in the origninal line up.... roger waters, david gilmore, nick mason and rick wright, it's purely for this 'one off', for this live 8 charity gig in londons hyde park on july 2nd, jeez, are my fingers crossed that i have managed to get some tickets, will find out i the next couple of days, a dream come true for me !!!
Posted by W. R. Pickett (Member # 3842) on :
...Kim, look for a magazine called DISCOVERIES. It has many ads from dealers.
...And/ or drag 'em all to your (local?) record store that sells used LPs. There are alot of music nerds out there lookin' for everything weird, out of print or rare.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
I don't however want to get stuck paying to ship them someplace if in fact I found someplace to donate them to. ![[I Don t Know]](graemlins/dunno.gif)
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
these include an Elvis, a![[Frown]](frown.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Applause]](graemlins/applause.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)