Got an LP cleaner you want to make money on?

I'm got an older rotel TT with Van den hul MM1 that I broke back out and listened to the other day at Audio Connection. They set it up properly and it sounded ok. Then I heard a record on the Clearaudio Concept i think it was and WOW...What a difference. I now am thinking of maybe selling off my table and getting a Rega 6 and Bellari phono stage, but no matter what I need a decent record cleaner.

I find your thread interesting. In order to keep your collection clean and static free, how often to you have to clean them on average? Is it worth spending the money to get a good cleaner instead of paying someone whenever you want them cleaned? What are some of the better cleaners out there that aren't over 300 or so? I can't even find a VPI or Nitty Gritty for sale used.

Your question is very interesting to me as I've been thinking about this for a few days now. How much would it cost to clean a record? Do you all use new jackets when you clean them? Hope I didn't hijack your thread, but I think some of my questions piggy back it. Thanks.

To add to Elizabeth's posts, would the customer ask to listen to the difference on the owner's system (looking for improvement)? It could also be a half-day affair, talking-cleaning and such. What is someone's time worth?

Glad to see some responses. I've also received some personal positive ones that I hope to see repeated here in this forum. Although I was thinking of it more of a local thing where people could meet and discuss it, one was suggesting offering to do it by mail if necessary.

To Elizabeth: Thanks for responding. You've come up with a lot of reasons not to do it but I'm sure there are many who wouldn't have any problem paying $2 or more per record to have some records cleaned well. I have personally set up a system to manually clean mine that works well, but others I've spoken to are perhaps less 'do it yourself' than I am and have shown interest in such a service.

Most of us here are accustomed to many times spending a great deal of money for equipment to listen to our records. A couple bucks to clean one for less pops and snaps and a quieter sound is a drop in the bucket rather than spending another $1000 for a cleaning machine that actually works. And also rather than spending $100 on one that really doesn't.

Any other thoughts?

ctsooner: Uh oh... Now you've done it! Opened up a whole can of worms going out to listen to new equipment! But I'm always glad to hear people enjoying listening to LPs either again or for the first time.

And well the answers to some of your questions is part of why I posted this here. To maybe get a little conversation going on what to do with those LPs that may benefit from a cleaning. I buy quite a few thrift shop LPs many of which are in pristine condition, others not so much.. I don't waste my time if the surface isn't still shiny, but even then there can be dust on them that can lead to lots of pops and snaps. But after cleaning them the difference is remarkable and makes what would be difficult to listen to really enjoyable again.

But the cost of a good quality record cleaner can be staggering. So I was hoping to hook up those owners of these cleaners and who may be willing to offer their services a chance to get together.

As far as how often you clean I guess that's a personal preference, but let your ears tell you I guess is the best way to know. Less messing around with the surface to me is best, but if it gets too snap poppy it's time to do something. If the inner sleeves are really in bad shape and you think that by sliding the record back in there might just make it dirty again you can replace it, but having all the original stuff that goes with an LP to me is best. I have bought on eBay some new ones to have around to replace some that are missing in some of these thrift shop purchases.

Thanks for your response ctsooner