Charity Shop Vinyl

At the end of the day they are a charity shop not a dealer!

In London the charity shops are pretty much a waste of time now. I used to find good stuff but probably haven't bought anything in the last 20 visits.

I've stopped looking in charity shops around my area. They used to be a good source of LPs in the '90s but no longer. I think the shops in more provincial towns are more promising as my father still picks up a few LPs in Devon.

In my neck of the woods i get the impression that people use charity shops to dump their crappie pop/rock vinyl because it's in such poor condition and/or perhaps failed to sell on ebay.

Classical vinyl is more hit and miss, but the problem remains; the classical goodies on vinyl that is sought after is more likely to have been pre-played to death by previous owners using a low-tech plough of a stylus.

Pondering upon a slightly different viewpoint I sometimes wonder what would happen if i suddenly died:

...my estate would be received by family who know and care very little about my audio and musical interest, and i'm pretty sure they would value my LP collection as junk and unhesitatingly dump it into the nearest charity shop.

Quite a sobering thought really.

Debs

This is a spot on observation, Andrew - and something I have noticed increasingly of late. Charity shops seem to have gotten it into their heads that vinyl is desirable again. They seem to have people that look at an online optimistic Discogs or Ebay asking price without taking into account that their particular copy is trashed. I have recently frequently seen very poor copies of not terribly rare albums marked up at £10 or more. OK it's for charity, but I can't imagine anybody buying.

Debs,I'll pass on my details for next of kin! Give the 72 to a charity shop tho?

What ever happened to all those 3rd party Top Of The Pops records that took permanent refuge in Charity Shops?

Sorry Debs....only joking (a bit)!

Andrew.

Andrew

you've unremarkably missed the point completely,

whatever happens to your LP collection [or anyone else for that matter] if one were to suddenly die, is something beyond your control.

There is certainly no need to belittle, or so arrogantly disrespect the situation.

Debs

Debs

It's not totally beyond your control.

I have about a dozen records valued over £100. I keep these inside  plastic sleeves, along with a piece of A4 paper with value written on it.

One of my local charity shop sells albums at 4 for a pound. Most are trashed but quite a lot are mint. Most others sell at 50p or £1.00 each.

Debs,I apologise if I offended,certainly not my intention to belittle or be disrespectful. First time I've ever been called arrogant tho. I was only trying to inject a bit of obviously misplaced humour into the situation. I must have inadvertently hit a nerve. 

As far as my collection is concerned, my partner knows that any monetary value of the LP's I own are documented in a listing of all my vinyl. As far as any hifi is concerned she is well aware of its value having contributed to its purchase.

Humbly sorry,

Andrew.

You have a point Debs. Only the other day I told my son that there is some is valuable vinyl in my collection and to be aware of it. I gave him a few examples and told him to refer to a copy of Record Collector that I have as a bench mark. Unfortunately it doesn't include Classical.

Not exactly a case in point, but an illustration of different attitudes. I once asked my son if he would water my bonsai collection while I was on holiday. Some are quite valuable. His reply was : " Yes if I think on to." He has no interest in bonsai.

I've done very well for classical vinyl from a music oriented charity shop at 10 records for a fiver but that's dried up of late and nothing much under £3 a go now, I used to buy stuff just because I'd never heard of it. The Rock/pop disks are priced by a friend of mine (and LP12 owner) who reads record collector so no bargains there but he does at least take condition into account. The prices in a local 2nd hand record shop are about the same but no classical.

I know of one charity shop locally that stockpiles albums until "Trevor" or someone comes in once a month to go through them to see if any are worth a lot. Naturally he gets first refusal on anything decent.

I can imagine him saying something like "Just a pile of rubbish again but I'll give you a quid for this turquoise lettered first Zeppelin album"

On the subject of collections, I use the Music Collector system and put dealer values (rather than individual e-bay values) against each item for my wife's benefit so that she could get quotes from dealers for the entire collection and know if she was being treated fairly. I have also highlighted the VERY collectables so that she could go the e-bay route if she wanted.

I really must get round to telling her how much the record player is worth one day.

Ron

Ron,

I don’t know if his name was Trevor, but on one occasion at my local cats home charity shop with my chosen 20 various LP’s nearly all classical with one or typical oddities like ’The King and I’ movie soundtrack - i was standing at the checkout with a ten pound note in hand when a scruffy 40 something man came in and very rudely said to me, “Oh I bet you’ve been though and snapped up all the best ones!”.

I replied that I hoped so… but he anxiously went on to ask about any Jazz albums recently in but long-story-short he gave me the distinct impression he was an opportunist trader only interested in buying up for 50p each original minty pressings of Miles Davis, Mingus, Herbie Hancock, Brubeck etc ...as so to re-sell for hundreds on evil-bay.

I kindly advised him of the near mint Barry Manilow albums that were available, just before leaving the shop arm in arm with my Beethoven and Mozart bundle.

My guess is that most of us on this forum appreciate a bargain purchase whenever available, which imo is justified to help balance the often extravagant costs our audio and music collection hobby present to us.

But my belief is that most of us on this forum [if not all] visit the charity shop for discovery of music, and it’s entertainment and enjoyment of, and this is really not so much to do with personal monetary gain.

My last two visits to my local charity shop revealed nothing but very poor condition vinyl fit for the dump : (

Debs

It's jealousy really Debs, we would all like the opportunity to be "Trevor"

Well sort of. I detest the notion that "mates" get special treatment in retail circumstances. "You? We don't know you, so you get pay full whack for crap. Trevor, on the other hand is a buddy, so how about your purchases subsidize his? Then everyone's happy." Well, no.

Is it jealousy? Perhaps a little, but really it just offends my sense of fair play.

Ought we put out a disclaimer that we don’t wish to offend or suggest that anyone called Trevor is an over privileged so and so?

I'm sure there are nice guy Trevor's too...

And I for one am not jealous of wheeler dealer Trevor’s, [is that the correct way of using the apostrophe?] because I know at heart they want to make money money money and although they know the price-cost of everything they know the value of sod all.

Those sort of people are never really happy, only turned on by their own greed, I wouldn’t want to be like that.

Besides, it’s a charity shop and those cats need feeding.

Debs