Large Classical Record Dealers


Hi all! I am beginning to get into vinyl and am looking for places to purchase classical vinyl material and had a few questions:

I'm a bit leary about Ebay, but they have a good selection on things I'm looking for. Any recommendations on how to decide between vendors? How can I trust their vinyl grading? Is it worth even trying to go this route? Any prefered vendors that you guys use?

Another option would be going through a dealer. I know of one, namely Sikora (http://www.sikorasclassical.com/inventory.htm) and was wondering if there are any other large classical vinyl vendors that you guys might recommend? Is this a good route to go, compared to Ebay? I like the fact I would be establishing a relationship with a vendor, but I'm not sure how cost effective this might be...

Finally, I'm not very knowledgeable on all the various gradings and terminology... For example, all I can really offer is the artist and composer that I'm looking for, for example Gyorgy Cziffra's Hugarian Rhapsodies by Listz... I'm not really sure how to get from this information to a recommended label, pressing, etc. Any ideas? This was my motivation for going with a large record vendor, but maybe I could sort this out for myself?

Thanks everyone!
mre2007

Showing 2 responses by opalchip

Ebay offers mixed results, but it's often so much cheaper than the internet dealers mentioned above that you can write off the mistakes and still be way ahead of the game.

Or just stick to Ebay sellers that have high feedback scores and good return policies. Three that I'd say you can't go wrong with are:

Meangene5 (feedback of 5683, 99.8% positive)
scottcampbelllps (feedback of 3328, 99.9% positive)
kevinarmy (feedback of 3400, 100% positive)

An important bit of advice about buying on Ebay:
On Ebay (assuming at least 100 transactions as history), if a seller has less than 98.5% Positive feedback, I stay away. Less than 98% is a bad sign. It may sounds paranoid, but you have to realize that most Buyers are afraid to leave Negatives for fear of retaliation by the Seller, who often withholds leaving feedback until the Buyer has done so - ESPECIALLY if they know the item they sold is not so great.
As can be seen by the track record of the sellers I listed above - outside of the occasional random mistake that we all make, there is little excuse for accumulating Negatives. In my mind, a seller that has 98% is probably running more like only 70% of customers truly happy with their purchases. A seller with less than 97% is generally a complete disaster.

Hope this helps.
Agree with Rushton - the DGG lp's are all over the place in quality. The farther back you go, the more consistent they are, but some of the later issues are the best. They often remastered subsequent pressings of the same recording very differently. I have 3 versions of the Carlos Klieber Beethoven's 5th which are all excellent, but have different attributes - the latest pressing is the one I find to be the superior master.

Being that the DGG's on Ebay though, without being able to preview or easily return it, I think I'd go with the Speaker's Corner version.

A couple of other related vinyl suggestions:

Another Schneiderhan on DGG I can heartily recommend is the Tulips issue of Mozart Concertos #4 and #5, (especially the "Red Stereo" pressing if you can find it). #5 is awesome.

Also if you don't already have it - don't neglect the Francescatti/Walter version of the Beeth on Columbia lp. It's a very nice recording, and all the 2 eye pressings I've heard sound good.