My observance of ebay is that Joni vinyl doesn't fetch too much $.
I just read a couple articles complaining about vinyl venders on ebay,
written by pro vinyl venders. The biggest complaint has to do with
grading. Pro vinyl sellers are very serious about grading records
accurately-and alot of the records that show up on ebay are not
accurately graded-they usually are in lesser condition than the
seller says they are, and usually not due to deception (sometimes,
though), just inexperience. It's easy to get nostalgic value confused
with actual condition. If your S&L is 'pristine', it has NO scratches
or scuffs, cover ringwear, writing on it--etc. In that case it is worth
more than the average S&L out there. Getting more is the trick.
In record collecting, condition is everything, and separates a
$1.25 copy of "Love Me Tender" from a $4,000 one.
If you think your collection is still in like-new shape, and you
have enough records to justify it, I would suggest taking out an
ad in Goldmine or Discoveries. This will reach lots of record
collectors. A 'one unit space' ad in Discoveries (one ninth of a
page-the pages are large) will cost you about $44 and hold maybe
50 titles. Goldmine is probably more $.
Listing in ebay is very inexpensive, and if you want to, you can set
a minimum starting bid or a reserve price which is the least you will
let it go for. If you list with ebay, I suggest working extra angles into
your listing title, for instance "Joni Mitchell vinyl 2LP Shadows and Light
Jaco Pastorius, Pat Methany". That way anyone searching for
any of those words will see it.
Here is an abreviated list of record grades from Discoveries:
SS=Still Sealed ie still unopened in factory shrink wrap. Perfect
condition implied
M=Mint. original unsealed condition, may have been played, but
no visual or audible deterioration
EX=Excellent. may show slight signs of wear but will have almost
no audible defect. Sleeve may show marginal deterioration, but no
repairs, pen or pencil marks
VG=Very Good. Noticeably less than perfect, obviously played,
damage is not visually or audible distracting. Minor scuffs and slight
surface defects. Sight ring wear.
G=Good. visual and audible distractions, still playable
F=Fair. Visually and audibly distracting
P=Poor. One step away from the trash, may or may not play.
Anything worse should be classified as BAD.
Some people use + and - such as M- to describe something
as 'almost perfect'. Some record collectors hate this, though
alot of them do it.
Also, you see the phrase "play graded" or "visual graded"-
sometimes a record looks great, but the grooves have been
damaged by bad equipment.
A short accurate description should accompany your listing.
I would suggest getting a copy of Discoveries or Goldmine
at an independant record store or large newstand.
Good luck.
One more suggestion-offer your Joni vinyl to the jmdl for
set sale (non auction) prices. I'm guessing S&L in M condition
would be worth about $20 tops. Might only get $5 for it on
ebay-but who knows?
RR
Barbara Hirahara wrote:
> I'm not much on the price of vinyl recordings. My family has hit upon
> hard times and I am trying to find out where to sell my vinyl
> collection. I have a pristine copy of Shadows and Light. I would
> appreciate any feed back on where to sell and pricing my albums. I
> don't want to turn this into e-bay but I can trust the people on this
> forum to give me the straight skinny. Love & Peace, Barbara
> Hirahara
>
> [demime 0.97c removed an attachment of type text/x-vcard which had a name of
>hirahara.vcf]
