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Classical music interest in China

Colonel_Mad

Colonel_Mad

pfm Member
As mentioned in another thread I've recently decided to sell some of my classical LPs to generate cash for music I will actually listen to. I've recently sold 5 HMV/Columbia/Decca LPs on Ebay and am in the process of shipping them out.

Something I didn't expect:
All the auctions were won by people in China. Out of the approximately 30 bids in total, all were from Chinese bidders. In my item description I clearly stated that any overseas bidders should contact me before bidding to get a postage quote for their country. None of them did which has added to the hassle.

Is this a normal thing to happen? Is the current interest for high quality English classical LPs now purely in the Far East? Have British listeners generally fallen out of love with classical as I have?

Anyone else had a similar experience?
 
No experience of selling LP's, but very interesting.
Could it be part of the whole experience of owning classic UK equipment, so why not have the LP's to go with it?

My sister in law is Chinese (now lives in England); it seems that UK is very popular with Chinese and our products/education system seem to have quite high status.
 
I suspect China is following the trajectory of Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea etc, which were the main areas I sent valuable/collectable vinyl back in the days I sold on eBay. I’d not be at all surprised if a lot of classic audio was ending up out there too. Despite communism there is clearly a very successful and wealthy class and I suspect they’ll follow the lead of the other eastern countries when it comes to audio kit and vinyl.

PS Classical vinyl is largely dead in the UK as far as I can tell, which is a huge shame as I like it a lot and consider myself a pretty knowledgeable dealer. I’ve hardly sold anything the past year or two and I’ve loads boxed up waiting to list.
 
Looking at the occasional HK hi-fi blog the emphasis definitely seems to be on classical music.

Classical vinyl is weird - it either seems to be worth big money or you can't give it away. The last classical clear out I had a few years back I ended up selling as a single lot to a listener in Russia. He was thrilled to bits.
 
Have a read of "Beethoven in China" by Jindong Cai (its a Penguin special), it sheds some very interesting light on the Chinese relationship with western classical music as it (China) developed over the twentieth century.

In terms of China and classical music, one of my favourite versions of Riley's In C is by the Shanghai Film Orchestra using traditional instruments. You can pick up the download on Presto Music.
 
When I bought a Planar 3 secondhand for my son, the owner practically pleaded with me to take his 200 strong classical collection (if only to the tip). It was all in excellent nick and has sat untouched, for the large part, for the last decade. If I can offload it all on to the Chinese then I am quids in. Now, if enough of them cotton on to the neo psych revival then I am seriously minted.
 
Colonel_Mad said:
As mentioned in another thread I've recently decided to sell some of my classical LPs to generate cash for music I will actually listen to. I've recently sold 5 HMV/Columbia/Decca LPs on Ebay and am in the process of shipping them out.

Something I didn't expect:
All the auctions were won by people in China. Out of the approximately 30 bids in total, all were from Chinese bidders. In my item description I clearly stated that any overseas bidders should contact me before bidding to get a postage quote for their country. None of them did which has added to the hassle.

Is this a normal thing to happen? Is the current interest for high quality English classical LPs now purely in the Far East? Have British listeners generally fallen out of love with classical as I have?

Anyone else had a similar experience?
Click to expand...

Out of interest, what cost a record to China?
 
If they didn’t get back to you this hardly going to be worth your while absorbing such costs?
 
paulfromcamden said:
Looking at the occasional HK hi-fi blog the emphasis definitely seems to be on classical music.

Classical vinyl is weird - it either seems to be worth big money or you can't give it away. The last classical clear out I had a few years back I ended up selling as a single lot to a listener in Russia. He was thrilled to bits.
Click to expand...

about twenty five years ago I spent two days in Cambridge selecting 1200ish lps from a collection before the rest went to charity shops. It was from a deceased obsessives collection that filled most rooms in a small terrace. I paid £300. It had already been picked over for goodies, but at the time I was getting into classical and I’ve yet to find an album that hasn’t played well so good deal at the time. Probably not worth much more now but it takes up most of a wall and it would take an age finding all the passwords I’ve hidden in there ;)
 
MUTTY1 said:
If they didn’t get back to you this hardly going to be worth your while absorbing such costs?
Click to expand...
Luckily on Ebay you can change the postage after the auction ends by sending a revised invoice. I got in very quickly after the auctions ended saying I was happy to ship to China but the postage was going to be more so to hold off paying until Id got shipping quotes. Also politely pointing out they were asked to contact me in advance.

For the person who won 4x LPs I guessed at £35 to save time. When it turned out to be only £25 I sent them a £10 refund. Not that they’ve said thanks yet!
 
Here we go. The Chinese classical music bidder is now claiming the condition isn’t good enough and want their money back despite me giving very detailed and accurate descriptions/photos of all marks on the records and grading conservatively in both the Record Collector and Discogs systems.

Id been being positive and optimistic about this so far despite the auction saying UK only but I will never send anything to China again. I’ve sent multiple things now and had this shit every single time.
 
I know an eBay seller in Sheffield who has plenty of buyers in China. It’s almost always the key repertoire in classical and romantic eras. DG is highly prized. We wondered if people were filling shelves with western LPs almost like those leather-bound tomes that never get read.
 
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