Suggestions on disposing of a collection of jazz vinyl


A audio friend of mine passed away recently and left behind his equipment and about a 1,000 lp collection of jazz music.  He was an audiophile and built up this collection over decades.  I am helping his wife dispose of the equipment and records.  I am looking to find someone with experience or knowledge on how to proceed with the vinyl collection.  Many of the records are valuable due to first pressings and since he was an audiophile they are all in excellent condition.  She is not looking to make a bunch of money but wants them to go to a good home.  I however, what to make sure she doesn't get taken advantage of.  Thanks for your thoughts!

goose

I inherited 4,000 lps, and already had 2,500, already too many. That’s about 80 lf, 27 three ft shelves. I already had shelves for the 2500, I quickly bought 10 rolling racks of tall shelving, to stack stuff and lps to near the ceiling: the garage is a total mess still.

I quickly sorted the inherited into 2 piles, keep or go, and I mean quickly, out of the box: two piles.

First, I asked friends to come by and take whatever they wanted from the ’to go’ shelves.

Next, I found and had 3 good record stores come here, and give me a price. None wanted them all, so I ended up selling 700 to this one, 1,000 to that one, 400 to the 3rd. 

I mailed 100 each to 2 nephews on the west coast who recently got into Vinyl.

I kept two rows, 9 lf each, just above and below eye level, easy to see and pick/replace, alphabetical, if I buy, it's 1 in, two out, that's it, and I want to weed them to what I realistically will listen to.

I had my son pick 50 lps from my 18lf for his 50th Birthday, and picked a dozen each for my two granddaughters (his kids).

I just gave 7lf of remaining unwanted LPs to a friend to give to his wife’s women’s group annual auction. Get em outta here!

That all took 4-1/2 years.

Lastly, I need to go thru the many classical that NOBODY wants, pick some to keep and get RID of the rest. (well, Steve at VAS came by to hear a cartridge he rebuilt on my system and I nearly begged him to take some classical, he bought 50. He’s the only one that would even take any).

The money didn’t make any damn difference, I should have made the record stores take them all or none, free, just get me some shelf space to get the garage back in order.

A good home? Unless you know for sure, people might lie to you and re-sell them, does it matter? 

I don’t save books anymore, it’s hard to give them away. Nobody reads!

 

Talk to the following local Seattle stores:

Vinyl: Jive Time

System: Hawthorne Stereo

Both deal with used items / collections and are great to deal with. 

 

aldc - Alan is very honest and good. I enjoy his channel and watched his episodes where he helped with the massive tasked of the Voice of America.

Mazzy - he is very knowledgeable and possibly can get the resources you need. 

https://www.youtube.com/@mazzysmusic

@goose, let me know if you go with either of my local Seattle store recommendations as I am curious how it all ends up.  Who knows, maybe I could meet you there when you do the drop-off (if you go with either) to say hi...

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