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Regardless of whether your collection is only a few LP’s or numbers into the hundreds or thousands, we are always keen to purchase rarer items provided that they are recordings in excellent condition (ie without visible marks or scratches) which would have been produced around the period 1955-1972. The repertoire sought is quite varied, ranging from instrumental pieces to symphonies, concertos, sonatas and also certain operatic or vocal works.
The following labels are generally regarded as being those that collectors are mostly interested in, although it must be stressed here that by no means is every LP fitting into these parameters worth a lot of money:
- DECCA (SXL / SET / LXT )
- MERCURY (AMS / SR)
- HMV (ASD / ALP / BLP / CLP / DLP / SAN / FALP )
- EMI (ASD / SAN )
- COLUMBIA (SAX / 33CX/ FCX)
- WESTMINSTER (WL / XWN)
- RCA (SB / LDS)
- CAPITOL (SP / P / CTL)
- DUCRETET THOMSON (DTL / MEL)
- PHILIPS (SABL / SAL)
- BRUNSWICK (AXTL / AXL / SXA)
- PARLOPHONE (PMA / PMC)
- DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON (SLPM / SLPEM)
- PATHÉ
The letters which you see above in parentheses represent all the series that I am interested in. These are easily seen on the back of the sleeve (or on the spine in the case of a boxed set) and will appear with a set of numbers alongside them. Together, they provide the record catalogue number which we need to know in order to establish whether the record is mono or stereo etc.
Although we are prepared to visit you in order to view large collections, we have found that dealing by post (fully or partially subsidised by us) is an extremely effective and efficient way of doing business where smaller numbers of LP’s are involved. However, please do not send us any LP’s without having first contacted us and until you have received verbal or written confirmation that the LP’s in question are of interest.
It is important that before contacting either ourselves or any other dealer in respect of the sale of your LP’s, the following points should be noted:
1) As with books, LP’s have a first, second and often third edition, although in LP terms this is known as the first / second / third label or pressing. Naturally, first labels attract the higher prices and records with later labels will always attract substantially lower prices and sometimes are not wanted at all.
2) Please note that some records that fall into the desired categories mentioned above are relatively common and at any given time we may have multiple copies in stock. So please don’t assume that because a disc is mentioned here there is a guarantee that it will always be wanted.
3) It is worth reiterating here that prices offered for LP’s are for really fine copies – in other words without visible marks or scratches, with only the slightest occasional vinyl tic. This also applies to jackets, which need to be very clean – what we would term “mint”. A dirty (or sellotaped) jacket will certainly reduce the price.
If there is any scratch or mark causing noise for more than around 5 revolutions then the record will be considerably devalued and may not be wanted at all. It is also important with expensive records to check for “groove damage”. Records that have been so damaged (i.e. through use of a too heavy cartridge or by excessive playing with a mistracking cartridge) can look perfect but sound quite unacceptable. Groove damaged records are generally worthless. Unfortunately, they tend to occur most often with the more expensive records – this is because records from the 50s and early 60s were often played with a “blunderbuss” cartridge. As a rule of thumb: If a mint copy of a record is worth £10, a mint minus copy will be worth £4, and anything below that will probably not be wanted at all.