Pricing your Vinyl Record

[peace_sells]

Also I never run after collectible items. I buy the records which I like the music and I will listen multiple times. No museum in making.

Of course. I was assuming that people buy LPs because they really like the music..and not buy it just because it's rare Yes, there are people like that who just collect to create a museum.

On the other side there are quite a few people like me, that do a lot of obsessive research with music (music nerds basically hyeah. As a result we end up liking some really rare & obscure music. And getting some of them on vinyl is a pain trust me

 

[jls001]

All LPs sold used in the country are over priced. Period. I stopped feeding that monster, which we buyers helped create.

 

[jenson]

i only buy from ebay.uk and USA. one e. got almost mint condition albums by elton john for under INR 2500, how many albums? 15. the best ones.

 

[G401fan]

To put vinyl pricing in India in perspective, for Western music, that is:

Taking 1985 (the start of the decline in LP manufacturing in India) as a benchmark, the cost of any average new LP in the stores used to be Rs.50. People bought them sparingly, maybe one a month, because Rs.50 was worth a lot of money in those days. With inflation, cost of living, salary hikes, this should work out to be approx Rs.1500 per LP today in 2015. We are often paying much less, typically 900 to 1300, for new LPs. Yet there's a mental block about even these prices, especially for old timers used to the old prices.

In 1985 a used LP in Chor Bazaar, Bombay could typically be had for Rs.20 to 35. This rate slowly rose to 50 by the late 90s, and stabilized at 100 through the new millennium, up until 2009, when the vinyl revival hit India and stores started stocking LPs at Rs 1K per pop. Till then, the dealers (who were experts on 78s, Bollywood, Indian classical) had no clue about rock/jazz artists, aside from Elvis and the Beatles. But suddenly, a new generation of jejune buyers descended on them clamouring for Zeppelin/Floyd/Purple/The Who and so on, that they wised up quickly, and today some even use Whatsapp to send you album cover pics, plus check out the 'net for album information. Since 2009, prices are between 200 to 500 for used LPs irrespective of condition, and 1000+ for most classic rock LPs, a situation that shows no signs of changing. Supply has also gone for a toss, as the dealers prefer to sell entire lots to upcountry buyers( a new species cashing in on the revival) from all over the country.

Coming back to that 'reasonable' price, it is still possible to buy NM LPs from eBay and Discogs for the equivalent of Rs 500 to Rs 1000. Shipping charges, unfortunately take the net total beyond Rs.1500 these days, what with the weakening rupee. Still, if your desperately want a particular LP, it's not impossible to get. And the rates are not that much different from 1985.

 

[greenhorn]

I listen to mostly easy listening LP's, and I browse on discogs with a <1pound filter. Usually i find a seller with a large selection of what i like, and buy 40 or so of the kind of stuff that I like, with prices from 20p to 1 pound, and buy anything and everything that comes close to what I might listen.
Even after shipping, the prices are close to indian prices, and the LP's are in much better shape. While i understand the cost+ approach indian sellers are looking at, they should also consider their videshi competition

 

[jmascreen]

I listen to mostly easy listening LP's, and I browse on discogs with a <1pound filter. Usually i find a seller with a large selection of what i like, and buy 40 or so of the kind of stuff that I like, with prices from 20p to 1 pound, and buy anything and everything that comes close to what I might listen.
Even after shipping, the prices are close to indian prices, and the LP's are in much better shape. While i understand the cost+ approach indian sellers are looking at, they should also consider their videshi competition

Do you import it directly or carry it to india? if import was there any issues with customs etc?

 

[greenhorn]

some I carry (which comes under the 45K limit, so is not taxed) , and some were sent via cargo. The cargo part (with some 300 records) + a bunch of houshold goods, had to go through customs, for which i had to pay a nominal (but correct) fee. The officials were planning to extract a decent amount as bribe, but since we had a contact, they valued it as used household goods (which it was mostly) and had to pay a few K as handling charges etc.

Ive read about people importing directly from discogs, and from the site, the prices still seem on par with indian prices if you are buying a large amount