Album Purging - seeking advice

Common records with ratty covers are hard to monetize. Record shops may not take them at all, and if, maybe 10c or less per records, as they will go into the 1$bin. You may be better off donating them to good will, planned parenthood or some other charitable organization, and claim a tax deduction. Up to $5K you can self-appraise. Depending on your tax bracket and whether you will go over standard deduction with itemized deduction, you may be financially better off donating them than selling them. I AM NOT A TAX PROFESSIONAL, not liable for any tax consequences, check with your CPA.

Even if you don't get a tax benefit, it may make you feel better donating them to charity rather than selling them for pennies on the dollar. That is my general approach with potentially sellable items. Most of them I just give away.

As others have said, I would also start with the obvious ones to remove, the ones you know you don't like. I also put the duds in a separate pile as I listen to records. Then it isn't the one day monumental task, but you whittle away at it.

Good luck!

For the albums you choose to sell I highly recommend doing so on the Steve Hoffman Music Forum classifieds. If you're not yet a member then join up and start contributing some posts, they don't let you use the classifieds until you become active. I've purchase loads of records, CDs, video and gear there with no problems what so ever as both a buyer and seller.

The key thing as a seller is being accurate in your listing. If you have a records that should command some good money then be sure to play grade them. If you have VG+ or NM record and the sleeve is only G to VG, have a look through Discogs. Sometimes you can fine a cheap replacement sleeve is great condition because the record itself grades poorly and then be able to sell the album for significantly more than you would with the bad covers.

I'm also in my early 60's and facing the same issues of lack of space and play time. Right now I have four cartons of records I need to move on. I'll sell 90% of them on the Hoffman Forum, but it's a fair bit of work and I've been putting it off for a while.

If you have the time, try cataloging what you have on Discogs, it really helps to gauge what you've got and what's really of some value. As that previous poster suggested, donating might be the easiest way to go, so if you've got what you donate properly cataloged then you've got proof of value should the IRS ever question the donation. Just go with the low to middle estimates, the high valuation is generally a fantasy.

Of course you can sell on Discogs, but then you're dealing with them grabbing a chunk of the sales, at the Hoffman Forum there are no fees at all. Although I've made many purchases using Discogs, I've only sold there once, a rare punk 45 single that fetched over $500 within 20 minutes of my listing it. I just had to send the buyer photos to prove I had it on hand and the listing wasn't fraudulent. I was paid quickly and shipped it off to the happy buyer.

Best of luck with everything!

It depends on how much time and effort you want to devote to this.  It's like parting out a car.  Sell the whole lot of in one or two shots and be done with it but get less money.  Or pick through them all one by one, taking pictures, writing descriptions, dealing with dozens or even hundreds of people over an untold amount of time to sell them off.  That could take months or even years.  You'll probably get more money that way, but what is your time and aggravation worth?

I reduced 2000+ albums to 600 through getting rid of 1) music I hadn’t listened to in a decade and 2) crappy sounding records that sounded better remastered and available for streaming. I kept audiophile recordings.

 

Streaming frees you…

OP

a recent related conversation here:

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/suggestions-on-disposing-of-a-collection-of-jazz-vinyl

I weeded, weeded, not finished (after 4-1/2 years), and of the ones I kept, I am weeding more.

One key decision is 1 in/2 out, it’s not fast, but it allows you to alphabetize now and not move everything when any ’letter’ gets too much

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My process of weeding ’too many’ (forget money, doesn’t matter and slows you down):

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!

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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!

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Now, I stroll, and randomly pick a letter, grab two to listen to, and discover, ’I’ll never listen to that again’, so I move it to a future give it away shelf.

I go for content/artists I enjoy, combined with recording/imaging excellence (not audiophile demos). 

NEW acquisitions (remember 1 in/2 out) 

When I find a favorite that is worn/beat up, I also buy a new copy, but unlike you, I do NOT worry much about the BEST PRESSING, it’s too much effort to decide and then distracting to enjoyment to listen for the slight differences, I go for original version, used, very good, or new, at a good price.

I find many 180 gm versions come warped, so I stopped buying them.

45 rpm is nice, but also, a well engineered played at 33 is quite good. You are correct, many are good enough for Streaming or CD’s, 

Cleaning OLD Dirty LP’s is important, I vigorously scrub mine manually, what a remarkable difference it makes, especially if they were previously played with elliptical and after cleaning you play with an advanced stylus shape that gets deeper in the groove. (watch for dirt 1st play, they can dig stuff out of the grooves you didn’t get out.

You might find you do not need a new copy afterall.