What's your Discogs collection value?

[halvis]

I already had much of my collection logged prior to lockdown, but did a tidy up during.

I found it really worthwhile. Some records from my collection which were worth quite a bit (a few hundred a piece) and didn't listen to anymore were sold off to buy material I would listen to. I think I now have got a much better collection because of it. Only 1 or 2 slight regrets of sale this time around. I sold a pile of records about 15 years ago which I very much regretted, so am more careful now.

 

[Tony L]

As a most basic guess I reckon I have about 2,200 records (not counting the shop, just my stuff). That is not a lot at all given how long I’ve been collecting, but as stated upthread the quality is very high indeed as I curate hard! There is a lot of expensive collectable stuff and everything is in really good condition. As such even assigning an average unit cost of say £30 gets me to a pretty crazy figure!

PS This is just a rough guess, really just figuring out that 10cm is about 23 typical records and then doing the math for the shelves! Probably less in the jazz shelves as so many fat-ass Impulse, Tone Poets, Verve gatefolds etc. I’d be fascinated to see it in Discogs, but I doubt I can be arsed to put it there.

 

[paulfromcamden]

Discogs says 2,928 releases. I know the real figure is a bit higher because I regularly pull out records I've not added.

I'd guess I have somewhere between 2,000 and 2,500 LPs (plus a bunch of CDs). That's basically as much as I can fit into the flat without storage becoming a problem*.

If I had the space I think I'd probably keep most things unless they were a) really terrible and/or b) worth a pile of money.

* I recently had to repair the Ikea wardrobe because a pile of 78s stashed at the back caused a shelf to collapse...

 

[stevec67]

Mine is probably worth about 35p. Every so often I rake out a few dude and give them to a charity shop. I'm not sure that a scratched Gary Glitter is very sought after though. This week I've picked up 8 CD s for £2. For that price I'll listen to them in the car and give them to the charity shop if I no likee.

 

[matt j]

Discogs says I've added 400, I would say there is a few missing but not many, at most maybe another 100. Not a very large collection at all to be honest but I only buy really nice stuff, there isn't one LP that is filler or crap. That and I've only really been buying vinyl in any numbers for the past 5-6 years, I did have a collection 20 or so years back but I had to sell it all when I hit hard times, so this is in effect my second collection.

 

[Hook]

Discogs says I have 3520 vinyl records. Roon says I have 1752 albums ripped from CDs, but none are catalogued in Discogs.

Having never sold before, I plan to start this year. Goal is to move all the CDs and about half the records. Will sell the priciest records individually on Discogs, and the rest a box at a time to local dealers. Figure it will take a couple of years.

 

[halvis]

I was just comparing what is in my collection with what was entered in Discogs. Quite a lot missing that I am sure were previously entered.

Has anyone else seen this phenomenon?

 

[Big Tabs]

I was just comparing what is in my collection with what was entered in Discogs. Quite a lot missing that I am sure were previously entered.

Has anyone else seen this phenomenon?

Yes.

I am convinced several times that I had previously entered details of record that I own, only to find it not being on the database.

Sometimes there is an indication that I have entered details before by my ‘star’ ranking being there on that particular release.

I have no explanation for the absence of previous entries.

 

[paulfromcamden]

Yes.

I am convinced several times that I had previously entered details of record that I own, only to find it not being on the database.

Sometimes there is an indication that I have entered details before by my ‘star’ ranking being there on that particular release.

I have no explanation for the absence of previous entries.

Interesting. I've not experienced this - but I'm pretty sketchy at what I have and haven't catalogued so it's possible I just haven't realised.

I wonder if this is to do with duplicate entries for a particular release being merged/deleted or something.

 

[halvis]

It certainly appears to be a thing: https://www.discogs.com/forum/thread/787474

I have no explanation for the absence of previous entries.

The only plausible reason I can think of is that a particular release is deleted, the one you had added into your collection. Perhaps it was a duplicate or considered erroneous in some other way.

There were about a 1/3 (32 records) missing from what I went through last night, a lot!

 

[Whaleblue]

My new collection, having sold most of my previous collection three or four years back, will consist almost entirely of limited editions of stuff I like. Mainly coloured vinyl to boot.

However, my CD collection is fairly large. Never sold a single one since I started buying in the mid-eighties. Not sure how many I have but probably over 3000.

 

[Rockmeister]

I'm not sure. I have 500 odd LP's, but gave up valuing them on dicogs after 10 or so. Couldn't really get my head around the condition stuff. How does any record remain mint or excellent after 40 years of playing and sitting on a shelf? which 20 something bloke treated his LP's like babies in the 60's and 70's????
It weren't me guv anyway.
I reckon I should get a pound or two each and maybe 25 quid for the 20 or so i think are mint and rare so I guess between £1000 and 2000. They probably cost about £3000 ish, so it was a trade off between not caring and paying for that now. I think, on the whole that I am glad I was carefree

 

[mondie]

I have been slowly building my music collection over a lifetime and it now numbers around 3,500 items roughly comprising 1,500 records, 300 SACD's and the rest CD. The value is well into six figures and it has been staggering to watch the value growth in the six years since I spent about three months getting everything into Discogs. I only collect near mint or better and as with anything collectible, condition is king. I don't know where it will all end as it feels like a bit of a bubble but with the cost and selling prices (not to mention some questionable source/mastering) of new records ratcheting ever up, perhaps good vinyl has a price floor.

These days I prefer CD and tracking down good masterings and early versions where worthwhile. Whether CD's ever become desirable or become a mainstream collectible like records remains to be seen, but they will stay with me, and eventually, 90% of the records will go.

 

[Operajulian]

I thought I would give the app a go with the (small) box of vinyl records I have at home. There are boxes and boxes over in my storage locker......
I found the app a bit of a pain and not always suggesting the right version - even with the barcode on the cover. But I did four or five at a time whilst waiting for the kettle to boil.
Much to my surprise - and with very conservative grading - I seem to have 52 records and a Clash Soundbox set that are have a value range of CDN$664 to $1980. None of them that special for collector but I enjoy listening to them.

 

[hockman]

I've never bothered to catalog my collection on Discogs (although it is indeed in need of some sort of organized listing for my own future purchasing purposes). It's just too much work and to me, largely meaningless.

For a large collection, the Discogs valuation is just a theoretical number (fraught with all sorts of caveats and market factors) that is very hard to realize in the real world. No buyer or dealer is going to give you anything close to that valuation for your entire collection. The only way to get close to it if indeed possible is to individually sell each item. This process is a full-time job and probably takes years to achieve and then there will always be some remnants that are impossible to move at the 'theoretical' discogs valuation.

So, I don't get caught up with the value of the collection. Perhaps the only use of the valuation is to provide the starting point for a price negotiation with a dealer. I also take the individual album valuation with a pinch of salt. Whilst I sometimes use it to check whether the asking price of a record is within the ballpark, I know it is flawed thinking. You should pay for something if you personally value it at or above the asking price and if you think that it cannot be obtained cheaper elsewhere without much additional effort.

 

[Big Tabs]

impossible to move at the 'theoretical' discogs valuation.

I also take the individual album valuation with a pinch of salt.

You do realise that Discogs valuations are based on actual Discog sales? There is nothing theoretical about it.

It is easy on Discogs to look up actual sales.

for example, I have a couple of copies left of a well known Bjork album. I know that I can get 6 to almost 10 times what I paid for those albums. I have already sold several copies.

 

[Alvarado]

I don't even know how many records I have, not that many in comparison to some on here, they take up about 5 feet so probably in the region of around 350. I started pulling out a few and cataloguing them on discogs during lockdown, the ones I have done are valued at
Min £1,312.70 Med £2,583.72 Max £6,708.85
My records are pretty much all VG+ or NM so this lot might be worth in the region of 5 grand. I have only done 127, ie maybe a bit more than a third, though admittedly these are likely to be the most desirable ones, and probably half a dozen alone amount to £750. My little 5 foot collection could have a replacement value the thick end of £10k. I hadn't even considered them on my home insurance policy but when I realised how much they would cost to replace I made a call to my home insurer... There might be a lesson in there for some who don't appreciate what they're sitting on.

It's pretty easy to catalogue as you are going along but having done these I don't agree with those who say cataloguing (retrospectively) on discogs is piss simple. Some are easy yes - the ones with very few pressings, but many require intense scrutiny of dead wax codes, labels, credits etc, and even then, for something with loads of pressings you might never find which exact copy you have. Good luck cataloguing The Wall, Wish You Were Here, Rumours, etc. I've got an early Stones album in mono, might be worth a fortune, I gave up trying to match it after about an hour.

 

[halvis]

You do realise that Discogs valuations are based on actual Discog sales? There is nothing theoretical about it.

So true. I have on a number of occasions noticed that albums I no longer listen to or are ever likely to are worth ~€200. So I advertise them that evening and by the morning some guy from around the other side of the world has snapped it up.

I agree it would be a lot of work to sell your complete collection for the value quoted, but that is not my ambition. I am just trying to replace an album I no longer listen to with a few albums I will and you can very often do so for free.

 

[farfromthesun]

Yeah, just because some eejit paid an over inflated price at some point doesn't mean that price is now the minimum people will pay for it. The whole valuations thing needs to be taken with a hefty pinch of salt. As for selling items one by one - that's just been made infinitely more difficult by Brexit. Previously I was selling decent amounts to customers in the EU, now that there's a risk of them having to pay extra duty at their end upon receipt of the goods, it's stopped completely.

 

[gavreid]

Yes @Alvarado it's not aways straightforward at all with multiple editions and pressings. Sometimes your pressing is not even there. That's even more the case with CDs.

I think the median value is probably the upper end of an 'insurance estimate' or roughly what it might cost to replace like with like, subject to supply and demand of course and assuming that you aren't in a huge hurry. The max values are usually specials e.g. autographed copies and the like.