Free parking for single speed bikes, 10% discount if you're wearing a plaid shirt, free box of artisan cereal with every 50 vinyls de-oiled...?
Commercial record cleaning?
- Thread starter Jimin
- Start date
Free parking for single speed bikes, 10% discount if you're wearing a plaid shirt, free box of artisan cereal with every 50 vinyls de-oiled...?
david ellwood
Kirabosi Kognoscente
We used to have a Keith Monks set up in the front of the shop for customer use at 50p per record. This was back when records were only £10 a piece new.
Very few people bothered as it was considered expensive!
Very few people bothered as it was considered expensive!
Let's see; two quid a clean, wee bit of profit on sleeve, post/packing on top maybe £4, so minimum of £5 or 6 quid a record unless you're local (after the lockdown).
Used RCM is about £250 to £400. Taking a sample here, for the price of cleaning about 50 records, you could get yourself an RCM. This from the potential customer's p.o.v.. Besides, from your p.o.v., would you REALLY enjoy making peanuts for the laborious task of cleaning others' records which may or may not represent a satisfactory improvement to them?
I rest my case ('cos I'm tired and it's heavy).
Funny isn't it? If you have a grimy album, better to have it cleaned than buy a new one for £20 plus. To my mind anyway
Mike Reed
pfm Member
Funny as well that of all the different genres in my collection, grime is conspicuous by its absence.
Tony L
Administrator
It amazes me there are any serious vinyl buyers without a decent wet-vac machine! I’ve had one for well over 20 years now and really can’t imagine life without it. I even clean brand new vinyl before its first play, and it is utterly indispensable when it comes to second hand vinyl, which given I’m a first/best pressing collector is most of my collection. As a dealer I have a more expensive cleaner (a VPI 17i, my second VPI in this timeframe) than I would if it was just for my own use, but I’d unquestionably have one. It is a total game-changer.
Mike Reed
pfm Member
Alvarado
pfm Member
I've had the same thought as the OP.
I want my records cleaned. I don't want to buy a record cleaning machine because I don't want to be the owner of one. I'd rather pay for the service.
None of my records have ever been cleaned. I've looked locally for people who do it and asked in a couple of record shops, and have come up with nothing. If you live in Calderdale and are setting up a record cleaning business, I've got £50 with your name on, and probably at least another £100 again, if the first £50 makes a difference...
I want my records cleaned. I don't want to buy a record cleaning machine because I don't want to be the owner of one. I'd rather pay for the service.
None of my records have ever been cleaned. I've looked locally for people who do it and asked in a couple of record shops, and have come up with nothing. If you live in Calderdale and are setting up a record cleaning business, I've got £50 with your name on, and probably at least another £100 again, if the first £50 makes a difference...
Weekender
pfm Member
Complete waste of time.
Most people buy records new...and would not even consider that a new record will benefit from a clean.
Most 2ndhand shops clean their records.
There are hardly any serious record collectors and they all have machines.
The four attendees at my music night were gobsmacked that I'd paid 250 quid for an Okki Nokki. One of them thought it a badge of honour that his records were dirty and was put out when I either insisted on cleaning them or refused to play them.
Then there's the very real issue that a cleaner does not repair records in poor condition. Which Customers do not realise.
There used to be a specialist service in Mcr - they went bump:
https://www.cleanyx.com/GB/Stretford/510176239161037/Vinyl-Reviver
A minor side-Gig at best.
Most people buy records new...and would not even consider that a new record will benefit from a clean.
Most 2ndhand shops clean their records.
There are hardly any serious record collectors and they all have machines.
The four attendees at my music night were gobsmacked that I'd paid 250 quid for an Okki Nokki. One of them thought it a badge of honour that his records were dirty and was put out when I either insisted on cleaning them or refused to play them.
Then there's the very real issue that a cleaner does not repair records in poor condition. Which Customers do not realise.
There used to be a specialist service in Mcr - they went bump:
https://www.cleanyx.com/GB/Stretford/510176239161037/Vinyl-Reviver
A minor side-Gig at best.
Tony L
Administrator
I’m actually not far from you at all and can do record cleaning as a service, though not at present due to covid. Once I’ve had my second covid jab I’d consider it though assuming there wasn’t too much. 75p a record, bring your own fresh inners if you want them. Drop off, collect in a few days.
It is amazing but it's true. I don't know anyone else with a wet vac machine, and if I hadn't bought mine second hand for forty quid, I'd have happily paid ten times that, in retrospect.
Mike Reed
pfm Member
Everyone's different but why does ownership bother you? You'll do a better and more specific job than a third person. Furthermore, If buying a used machine, there really is little or no cost of ownership. Having said that, I bought mine new 20 years ago but its used value is around the same now and my modest 1400 (+/-) collection has been thoroughly cleaned (and more than once in appropriate instances) for peanuts as I mix my own juice.
I value the longevity of my cart's, quite apart from s.q. and no static prob's.
Weekender
pfm Member
Forty quid is a bargain.
Alvarado
pfm Member
OK, we might have our first deal! If I don't have a Plan A (and I haven't had one yet) by the time we get out of this that would be great. It'd be a pleasure to meet you too.
That's a special kind of stupid :-(
Mike Reed
pfm Member
Well, there's no denying the wide variance in opinion here!
. I totally disagree, however and new records need cleaning as much if not more than used in many instances.Okay, I guess if you've a cheap cart. which does its own 'cleaning' and is disposable (like the records?), then fine. I do hark back to the days when RCMs were not widely known but other surface cleaners (even the Dust Bug?) were deemed adequate on low VTF magnetic cart's. With hindsight, I don't know how we coped but we did. However, Even a Shure V15 was in in a different ball-park to today's high-end cart's and I doubt that the arms of the time were quite as sophisticated or revealing as those of today.
Alvarado
pfm Member
This is my perspective Mike:
- It's something I would not often use (once a record's been cleaned that would be it for years)
- I've already got a house full of stuff and I don't want more. Stuff doesn't make me happy
- I've got nowhere to put it when it's not in use (ie 99.999% of the time), it would just clutter up my office or utility room
- It's unnecessary for me to own a thing I'll virtually never use, and a poor use of the world's resources (yes I do think like that)
- I envisage that mixing the cleaning spirit and cleaning the records would be more of a chore for me and not an enjoyable hobby.
wylton
Naim and Mana member
To get it into perspective, I have a Loricraft PRC3, for which I paid around £1200. I have cleaned 4186 records with it (I know that, because I have a field on the Access database that tells me if a record has been cleaned). If I cleaned the same amount for somebody else at £0.75 a shot, then I would have made £3,135.75, but once you take away the cost of the record cleaning machine, then I would have only made £1,935.75 profit, and it took me 14 years to clean that lot, so that's about £138 per year, not including the huge investment in sleeves, cleaning fluid and other consumables. So for sure, you'll not get rich on it.
I was round there like a shot!
14 years non stop? Wow that's some commitment
Seriously, if I was to spent ten hours a week, fifteen records an hour, that's over a hundred quid for time that would be spent watching shite on Netflix. I said it would be pocket money, and a spare time activity. To expand, part of my thinking was, given that I have a space available, I would be able to clean my own records in comfort, plus the ones I want to sell which would increase their value significantly.
People do buy second hand records, it's a huge market. I reckon part of the reason for the success of CD was that most people had dirty records that seemed 'worn out' that just needed a clean. We all have our own perspectives, don't we?
Absolutely a minor side gig. I wouldn't expect anything more than pocket money, and time spent doing something (in my opinion) really worthwhile. It's just interesting to think about all the people who don't play records any more because they jump. Having an RCM has been an utter revelation to me and to reiterate, I don't know anyone else who has one.
If nothing else comes out of this thread, this is a huge win!