How can I liquidate these collectibles?

August 24, 2005 7:54 AM

What's the best way to get rid of a tremendous collection of CDs, vinyl LPs, press kits, comics & collectibles, especially in this age of filesharing, online music stores and eBay?

Long story short: an older acquaintance of mine used to be in a semi-legendary 1960s garage band, after which he became a music journalist for Creem, Rolling Stone and so forth, for about twenty years. During that time, he acquired thousands of LPs and CDs—many of them still sealed—as promo items, plus tons of more collectibles he acquired through his music connections, plus thousands more albums he bought with his own money.

These days, the acquaintance in question needs help selling it all, and had the idea to set up an eBay store with my help. I told him it wasn't cost-effective to create individual entries for 8,000 LPs on eBay, plus real vinyl junkies are going to want to hold the genuine article in their hands before purchasing.

Thus, I thought I should have a record fair. Essentially put up flyers around town which direct people to a location where I have tables set up and all the merchandise out for people to inspect.

I used to go to comics conventions all the time when I was younger -- do they have similar conventions for record collecters? Are there other venues in which to unload all this stuff without setting up an e-commerce site that requires it all to be tediously entered in a database? What are some other methods to get records/comics/collectibles nerds interested in this merchandise?

posted by highsignal to Grab Bag (7 answers total)

Yeah, in fact, they have huge record conventions. I can't seem to find the link to the one that's in Ann Arbor once or twice a year, but it's $5 to get in and then you can buy everything that you can carry. In my experience, this is the best way to get rid of rare vinyl, as you're selling to people who know what it's worth and are serious about collecting.
I'm not sure how you'd track down one in Charlottesville, as I did a google search and couldn't come up with anything too terribly helpful (I don't know how far you are from Nashville or Memphis, but that sort of thing happens all the time there).
Perhaps there are some other record geeks around who could help you (asking at the local used shops is also helpful— a lot of places buy a lot of their vintage stock at these shows).
posted by klangklangston at 8:16 AM on August 24, 2005

There are a number of record fairs throughout the year at various cities around the US - I would imagine used record shops in your area might have more details.

I would recommend having a knowledgeable collector help evaluate the worth of particular items (esp. things you think might be worth something) if you don't already know. If they are in mint shape, but pressings that were widely released on big labels, they might not be worth much. If they are limited pressings, esp. w/ songs that don't show up on other releases, then collectors are probably looking for them. You can use Gemm.com to gauge collector prices for various releases (but be aware some sellers there over-price everything on Gemm and their stock sits there collecting dust forever).

You could also try posting to some online collector forums or craigslist and mention the types of things in the collection without giving an itemized list.
posted by p3t3 at 8:25 AM on August 24, 2005

Best answer: If you feel like an NYC adventure, WFMU has their next record fair in New York in early November -- it's a pretty good place to sell semi-obscure collectible stuff to people who appreciate it. People mainly sell vinyl & CDs, but there are also comics, videos, etc.
posted by lisa g at 9:39 AM on August 24, 2005

(Plus, it's huge -- and if your friend was in a semi-legendary 1960s garage band, the WFMU folks will love him.)
posted by lisa g at 9:48 AM on August 24, 2005

Ebay works for collections if you break them down into lots. I broke my CD collection into lots of 40 (cuz that's how many fit in the boxes I had), one lot was electronica, one was 80s metal, etc.
posted by mischief at 10:28 AM on August 24, 2005

sounds to me like you have too much stuff to get rid of at a record fair. carting thousands of items off to a fair is going to be an expensive and hard thing to do.

I'd either get hold of some record dealers who might want to buy significant chunks of the collection, or use ebay and sell off lots. I know it will be a pain to set up but not sure how else you are going to let people know what you have to offer?
posted by juniorbonner at 10:41 AM on August 24, 2005

Second lisa g's recommendation for the WFMU Record Fair. It's the only fair I've ever been to where everyone -- dealers and fairgoers alike -- knows the true values of things. (i.e., as a collector, I can get some truly amazing things there. But it'll cost me, as the dealers are sharp and you're not going to walk away having paid $5 for a record worth $100, as you might at a garage sale.)

I'd make an adventure out of it, rent a van, and head to NYC. (And let us know who you are, so we can say hi!)
posted by Vidiot at 8:46 PM on August 24, 2005