What is a record worth?

Posted by: u77033103172058601 on 29 May 2016

My wife's son is visiting this weekend. He had been asked to sell his partner's father's records. One of the LPs was a version of The Beatles Rubber Soul, on some little known and obscure French label. He said that, even after careful cleaning, the sound was nothing special and the record was in poor condition (probably would have counted as NM on Discogs, though). The item sold for over £500 on eBay.

He and I were discussing this over a glass of wine and it made me query what motivates some people. In this case the recording was of poor quality on a medium that had see far better days. This seems akin to the (reported) growth in LP sales by people who have no means of even playing an LP. Why?

Surely what is on the disc is of far greater importance than the medium? The medium is of no, or little, relevance; the content of the music and the quality of the recording should matter above all else.

Posted on: 29 May 2016 by blythe

Rarity will always attract interest in anything, be it cars, jewelry, furniture or records.
A friend of mine sold his collection of one-off 78rpm recordings to the Getty museum for a MASSIVE 7 figure sum of money.....

Posted on: 30 May 2016 by joerand

Nick,

There are millions of Rubber Soul LPs out there. If you could provide details about the particular pressing that sold it might lend better perspective as to the rationale for the price paid. The little known and obscure French label for one. Presumably, there is more to the story than a poor condition LP with sound that was nothing special.

Posted on: 31 May 2016 by dayjay

People collect things and are willing to pay over the odds to add to their collection. Several years ago I bought a first edition hard back book by an unknown author, I bought the next six or seven of the series before I got bored. Years later the books were made into a TV series and I sold all of my first edition Games of Thrones books at really silly money. I've just ordered a couple of Rush and Marillion albums on vinyl even though I already have them several times over but I want a near mint vinyl version too and I paid way more than I would have for a 24 it download. It's just the way people are and it keeps life interesting.

Posted on: 31 May 2016 by u77033103172058601

Whilst I can understand rarity in terms of works of art, in this case the musical content (which might be regarded as a work of art) was not rare, nor was it of a particularly good standard. Yes the record label was very rare, but.....

This seemed, to me, like buying a 1 of 1000 copy of a painting (intrinsic value not a lot) and paying over the odds because this one happened to be printed on a unique piece of paper. Madness, but my wife's son and his partner's father are both happy.

Posted on: 31 May 2016 by joerand

Nick from Suffolk posted:
Yes the record label was very rare

Nick,

Looking through the French discography for Rubber Soul LPs I find only releases from Parlophone, Odeon, and Apple. None of these are rare or command a price in the range you stated. Could you please identify the label you allude to?