Tips for buying used Vinyl needed

Buy a record cleaner and you will be shocked at what a high % of used vinyl will sound just great.

Absolutely required - especially for used vinyl. Some clean them manually - which didn't work for me as I lacked the patience.

When buying used vinyl I do a visual inspection. I personally care less about the jacket than I do the vinyl itself - though I would obviously prefer a record with both in great condition. After cleaning I always put the LP in a new sleeve, and dispose the old (unless it has info printed on it).

I went for about 15 years without playing my personal vinyl collection that I acquired in the '70's - early '80's, and after my kids were raised resurrected my TT and began buying more records. At first I was really disappointed in the sound of my personal collection. I assumed it was all worn out. After buying a VPI 16.5 I learned a good cleaning made them like new. I have bought some fairly gnarly looking $.50 LPs at thrift shops and after cleaning they sound as good as a lot of new vinyl I buy.

I agree with Bdgregory that the look (and the smell) of the cover is irrelevant to the quality of the sound to be heard from the record. Even if the record is dirty (dust, finger prints, etc.) it is not tragic (it should be washed thoroughly). Essential for the quality of the sound reproduction from vinyl record is, that the disc is without (deeper/auditory) scratches, that it is flat, not "exentric" and that the grooves are not deformed/damaged by the previous playing (with a deformed/worn needle, improper setting or playing unclean record). The latter is hardly to detect without playing the record on the turntable.

Cleaning is mandatory. I use a Nitty Gritty f1.5 and it does the job. I make my own cleaning solution so I'm not concerned about cost of fluids. We have a Half Price Book Store which carries a good supply of vinyl and tons of CD's. The best part is the money back guarantee (7 days) or store credit (30 days) after purchase. I have spent as little as .25 and as much as $15 for albums that sound great and are not available anymore. Check the yellow pages for stores you may not know about in your area. Long live vinyl.

After cleaning the records, I recommend replacing the sleeves. They are most likely dirty inside.

You need to be able to clean the records thoroughly and properly, either with machine or by hand. Either can work well. There is a thread here on A'gon somewhere about manual record cleaning techniques if interested.

The key for me buying used records, assuming cover is in acceptable condition, is being able to determine whether an old direty, gnarly looking record just needs a good cleaning or whether there is groove damage or surface defects like scratches that will detract from teh material and not go away with cleaning. I will say I have a pretty good eye for this from experience and seldom make mistakes buying records that are not listenable, but it is an art based on science that you can only achieve from experience.

The trick is to observe how light reflects off the records surface. The difference between groove wear or scratches and dirty records with grooves in good physical condition that a good cleaning can recover can be detected with teh naked eye with reasonable certainty based on how the light reflects from teh surface of the record.

Severely warped records are also worth staying away from. The amount of warp in a record can be estimated by looking at the record from the side from multiple angles and looking for obvious deviations from a flat plane.

Yes, and it is worth keeping some decent lined paper replacement record inner sleeves around and use these with the used records as needed for protection if current inner sleeves are dirty or severely worn or torn. You can by these for reasonable price of vendors on amazon and ebay.