Selling LPs to a Record Store

If you’re thinking about selling a large collection of vinyl records, you have plenty of options. You can sell the records yourself online, list them on Facebook Marketplace, or spend the time identifying, grading, photographing and selling individual records on Discogs. Or, you can take the collection to a record store and sell everything in bulk.

For many people, selling to a record store is the easiest and most convenient option. One transaction can turn hundreds, or even thousands, of records into cash without spending months dealing with individual buyers. But there’s something important to understand before you bring in your collection:

A record store isn’t buying your records at retail. They’re buying inventory.

That distinction explains a lot about how record stores determine what they can pay for a collection.

What Happens When a Store Buys a Collection?

It might look pretty simple from the outside. You bring in a stack of records. The store looks through them, makes an offer and you decide whether to accept it.

But there’s a lot that happens after you leave. The store has to turn that collection into saleable inventoryand that means identifying records, separating desirable titles from common ones, grading condition, cleaning records, replacing sleeves, repairing or noting damaged jackets, researching prices, entering inventory, pricing the records, shelving them and eventually selling them.

And all of that takes time and money. The records aren’t simply going from your basement to the store’s record bins, there’s a lot of work in between.

A Record Store Is Buying Inventory

This is probably the most important thing to understand when selling a collection. Let’s say you find a particular record online for $50. It might be tempting to think:

“If this record sells for $50, the store should pay me $50.”

But that’s not how retail works. If a store pays you $50 for the record, it still has to sell that record for more than $50 just to begin covering the costs associated with acquiring and selling it. The store has to pay for the record itself, but it also has to pay the people who work there, the rent on the building, utilities, insurance, credit card processing, supplies, equipment, taxes and all the other expenses involved in running a retail business.

And that’s before considering the time and work required to get the record ready for sale.

The price a record sells for at retail and the price a store can pay to acquire it are two very different numbers.

Your Records Take Up Space

This is another part of the equation that is easy to overlook. Records take up a lot of space…A collection of 500 records isn’t just 500 items. It’s hundreds of physical objects that have to be stored somewhere until they sell.

And the record store has to pay for that space. And unlike a product that arrives at the store and sells immediately, used records can sit in inventory for a long time.

Some records may sell within days — Others may take weeks or months — Some may sit on the shelf for years.

The store has already invested money in all of them. That’s why inventory turnover matters to a record store. A $20 record that sells quickly can sometimes be more attractive than a $100 record that sits around for two years waiting for the right person to walk in.

What Happens to Your Records After the Store Buys Them?

Before a record makes it onto the sales floor, somebody has to do the work. Depending on the record and the store, that can include:

Sorting

A large collection has to be sorted – Desirable titles need to be separated from common records, damaged records, duplicates and material that may not have enough resale value to justify putting it into inventory.

Identifying

The store may need to determine exactly which pressing or edition a record is. An album can have multiple pressings and reissues, and those versions can have very different values. You can learn more about this over at our post on Discogs and Goldmine Magazine.

Grading

The vinyl needs to be inspected and graded, and so does the jacket. A record store can’t simply put “looks pretty good” on a price tag because collectors care about condition, and an accurate grade is part of determining what a record can realistically sell for.

Cleaning

Used records often need to be cleaned before they’re ready for the sales floor. Dust, fingerprints and dirt can affect both appearance and playback, and cleaning takes time, plus the store needs the equipment and supplies to do it properly. And unfortunately, cleaning doesn’t magically repair scratches, groove wear or other damage. The condition of the record still matters.

Sleeving and Packaging

Records may need new inner sleeves and outer protective sleeves. Those supplies cost money, and someone also has to put everything together and make sure the record is properly packaged and ready for sale. And have you seen the minimum wage in Denver?

Researching and Pricing

Then comes one of the biggest jobs: determining what the record should sell for. The store needs to research the pressing, look at market activity, consider condition and compare it with existing inventory. The goal isn’t necessarily to put the highest possible price on the record, but rather to establish a price that is realistic for the store’s customers and the current market.

Someone Has to Do All of That Work

This is where the labor component comes in. Imagine a collection of 1,000 records, even though it may take only a few minutes to inspect, grade, clean, sleeve and process each record, you’re talking about a substantial amount of labor. And that’s before the records are priced, entered into inventory and put on the floor.

That work is part of the cost of acquiring used inventory.

A record store doesn’t have employees standing around waiting for something to do. The time spent processing a collection is time that employees could otherwise spend helping customers, buying collections, maintaining the store, stocking inventory or doing other work necessary to operate the business.

Running a Record Store Isn’t Free

This is the part sellers don’t always see. A record store has overhead.

There’s:

• Rent
• Electricity and utilities
• Insurance
• Payroll
• Taxes
• Credit card processing
• Computer and point-of-sale systems
• Record cleaning equipment
• Cleaning supplies
• Inner and outer sleeves
• Shelving and storage
• Advertising and marketing
• Website and online expenses
• Business licenses and other operating costs

And then there’s the biggest one:

The owner needs to make a living, too.

A record store isn’t a hobby if it’s someone’s business. The owner has to earn enough to support themselves while also keeping enough money in the business to pay the bills, maintain inventory and keep the doors open. That’s the reality of any retail business.

The Record Store Takes the Risk

The store gives you money today for inventory that it hopes to sell in the future, and that comes with risk. Some records will sell quickly, while others may sit on the shelf for months or even years. Some may need to be discounted to move, some may turn out to have condition issues that weren’t apparent when they were purchased, and some may never sell at all. The store assumes all of that risk when it buys a collection, which is one of the reasons it can’t simply pay the total of what the records might potentially bring in at retail.

How about Records That Aren’t Worth Much?

This is particularly important when you’re selling a large collection. A collection might contain 500 records, but that doesn’t mean all 500 have equal value.

You might have:

• 20 highly desirable records
• 100 moderately desirable records
• 250 common titles
• 75 records with condition problems
• 55 records with little current demand

The store has to deal with the entire collection. The valuable records may help make the purchase worthwhile, but the store can’t simply ignore the records that are difficult to sell.

That’s one reason a collection isn’t necessarily worth the sum of the highest prices you can find online for individual records.

“But I Saw This Record Online for $100”

This is probably the most common misunderstanding when someone is researching a collection. Finding a record listed online for $100 doesn’t necessarily mean the record is worth $100. There is a HUGE difference between an asking price and an actual selling price. Anyone can list a record for $100.

The more useful question is: What are comparable copies actually selling for?

And even that isn’t enough by itself. You need to consider whether it’s the same pressing and whether the condition is comparable. A Near Mint copy of a desirable pressing may sell for $100. A worn copy of a common pressing of the same album may be worth a fraction of that.

If you’re interested in learning more about grading and determining the exact pressing of your records, check out this post on Record Grading, and Golmine Magazine.

Why a Record Stores Offer Less Than You Expected

When a store makes an offer on your collection, it’s looking at the collection from a different perspective than the person who owns it.

You may be thinking:

“I found $3,000 worth of records.”

The store is thinking:

“How much can we realistically sell these records for, how much work will it take to get them ready, how long will they take to sell, and what does it cost us to carry this inventory?”

Both perspectives are legitimate. You’re looking at the potential retail value. But the store is looking at the value of the inventory it is purchasing and the risk involved in turning that inventory into sales. That’s why the two numbers won’t be the same.

You’re Also Selling Convenience

There’s another way to look at it. When you sell a large collection to a record store, you’re not just selling the records, you’re selling the work that comes with selling the records.

The store takes that work off your hands.

You don’t have to:

• Identify every pressing
• Research every album
• Grade hundreds of records
• Clean them
• Photograph them
• Write listings
• Answer buyer questions
• Package orders
• Pay for shipping supplies
• Make trips to the post office
• Deal with returns
• Wait months or years for everything to sell

You make one transaction and you’re done and that’s worth something.

Could You Make More Selling Everything Yourself?

Absolutely. But what is your time worth? If you have the time, knowledge and patience to sell every desirable record individually, you may be able to generate more total revenue than you would by selling the collection to a record store. But you’re essentially taking on the job of being a used-record dealer. The question is how much your time and convenience are worth to you. And then, you need to deal with grading, answering questions, uploading to Discogs, shipping, returns…ugh.

Selling a Collection Isn’t the Same as Selling One Valuable Record

If you have a small number of particularly valuable records, selling them individually may make sense. But if you’re talking about hundreds or thousands of records, the economics change. A store isn’t just buying the 20 great records, they’re buying the collection and taking responsibility for everything that comes with it. That’s why the value of a large collection needs to be looked at as a whole.

What Makes a Collection Attractive to a Record Store?

Every store is different, but collections become particularly interesting when they contain records with strong demand and good resale potential.

Things such as:

• Original pressings
• Jazz
• Blues
• Soul
• Punk
• Garage rock
• Psychedelic
• Early rock & roll
• Classic rock
• Country
• Regional releases
• Private press records
• Promotional copies
• Rare or unusual releases

Condition matters, too. A collection that has been stored carefully and contains clean, well-preserved records is much easier to process and sell than a collection that has been sitting in a damp basement for decades.

And remember: quantity isn’t everything.

A collection of 200 great records may be considerably more desirable than a collection of 2,000 common records.

What Should You Expect When You Sell a Collection?

The best thing you can do is have realistic expectations. Don’t walk into a record store expecting the store to pay the total of the highest online asking prices.

Instead, understand that the store is making an offer based on:

• What the records can realistically sell for
• Minus the costs of processing and selling them
• Minus the overhead of operating the business
• Minus the risk of holding the inventory
• While leaving enough margin for the business to remain profitable

That’s not a formula you need to calculate yourself.

It’s the store’s job to do that.

Before You Sell: A Few Things You Shouldn’t Do

If you’re planning to sell a collection, don’t make major changes to it before having it evaluated.

• Don’t throw away old inner sleeves.
• Don’t discard inserts, posters or booklets.
• Don’t tape up damaged jackets.
• Don’t try to remove scratches.
• Don’t use household cleaning products on the vinyl.
• And don’t separate the records from their original packaging.

What looks like an insignificant piece of an old record to you may be important to a collector.

When in doubt, leave it alone and let someone familiar with collectible vinyl take a look.

The Bottom Line

Selling a large record collection to a record store is a trade-off. You may be able to make more money by selling the records yourself, one at a time. But doing that means taking on all of the work, time and risk associated with selling them. When you sell to a record store, you’re getting something different:

Convenience, expertise and a single transaction.

The store is taking on the work of sorting, identifying, grading, cleaning, packaging, pricing, storing and selling your records. It’s also taking on the risk that some of those records won’t sell quickly—or at all.

That’s why a store’s offer is based on what the collection is realistically worth as inventory, not what the records might bring in if every album were sold individually at the highest possible retail price.

A record store has to make enough on the records it sells to pay its employees, pay the rent, cover its operating costs, pay the owner and keep enough money in the business to continue buying and selling records.

That’s how a record store stays in business—and how it can continue buying collections from people like you.