Are old records worth anything?
Some are. Most aren't, and the ones that are tend to be scarce for reasons that have nothing to do with how famous the album is.
The shape of it is straightforward. Records that sold in enormous numbers were pressed in enormous numbers, so ordinary copies of the biggest albums of the seventies turn up in every charity shop in the country. Scarcity comes from somewhere else: an early pressing on the original label before a catalogue number changed, a record on a small label that pressed a few hundred and folded, a promo copy that was never sold at all, a sleeve variant that was withdrawn after a fortnight.
Condition then rules everything on top of that. The same pressing in a crisp sleeve and the same pressing with a split seam and a scuffed first track are two different propositions, and the gap between them is wider than most people expect. A record that has been stood in a loft under a box of Christmas decorations for twenty years has usually taken more damage from the storage than from the playing.
If you want to know where a particular record sits, the way to find out is careful research rather than a guess. Identify the exact pressing first, grade it honestly, and then look at what copies of that same pressing in that same condition are currently listed for. Hedge everything you read: a listed price is what somebody is asking, which isn't the same as what anybody pays. And if you need a figure for an insurance policy, that's a professional valuer's job. A search result isn't a valuation and should never be used as one.
Why is every inherited crate full of the same albums?
Because those albums were the soundtrack of a specific decade of a specific life, and that decade was shared by millions of people who all bought the same fifteen records.
You'll find the enormous sellers of the era, a Fleetwood Mac record, something by Simon and Garfunkel, a Motown compilation, two or three albums that were clearly Christmas presents and were played twice. This isn't a failure of the collection. It's the collection telling you exactly what it is.
Read it as a portrait and it gets interesting fast. The genuinely worn sleeves show you what they loved, as opposed to what they merely owned. A run of albums by one artist across five years shows you a person following someone properly. A sudden stop around 1983 usually means a first child. Handwriting on a sleeve, a price sticker from a shop that closed decades ago, a train ticket used as a divider: that's the stuff you can't buy back, and it's sitting in a crate that most people sort in an afternoon without looking.
How do you go through a crate properly?
Sleeve by sleeve, in one pass, writing things down as you go. It takes an evening and it's the only version of this job that works.
Pull the record out of the sleeve every time. The outer sleeve tells you almost nothing about the disc inside, and a surprising number of crates contain a sleeve with the wrong record in it, or a second record that was slipped in years ago and forgotten.
Look at the vinyl in a raking light. Tilt it towards a lamp so the light skims the surface. Light hairlines that you can see but not feel are usually harmless. Deep marks you can catch with a fingernail aren't. Vinyl record grading explained covers what the standard grades mean and how to apply them without kidding yourself.
Read the label and the run-out. The label carries the catalogue number and the company name, and the etched text in the space between the last groove and the label carries the pressing detail. Together they tell you which pressing you're holding. First pressing vs reissue walks through how to tell them apart, and how to read matrix numbers decodes the scratched text itself.
Check the sleeve separately. Seam splits, ring wear, water staining and mould on the inner sleeve all matter, and they get graded on their own rather than folded into the grade for the disc.
Clean before you play anything. Thirty years of loft dust sitting in a groove is abrasive, and the first spin is when it does its damage. How to clean vinyl records covers the safe methods.
Don't sort into piles as you go. Go through the whole crate first, then decide. The record you'd have set aside in the first ten minutes often looks different once you've seen everything.
What do you keep and what do you pass on?
Keep the ones that were played. That's the honest rule, and it happens to be the good one.
A record with a soft sleeve corner, a worn spine and audible surface noise is the record that was on the turntable every Sunday for a decade. That copy isn't replaceable and a mint reissue of the same album isn't the same object. If you want a clean copy to listen to, buy one later and keep both.
Keep anything with handwriting on it. Keep anything you can't identify until you've identified it. Keep the two or three that make you want to hear what they heard.
Pass the rest on rather than binning them. Independent shops take trades, a box of solid albums is a fine present for someone starting to collect, and a charity shop will happily take the remainder. Somebody else's good afternoon is in there.
Then play them. This is the whole point and it's the step people skip while they're busy researching. Put on the one with the most worn sleeve, sit down, and listen to the record your dad wore out. Nothing you find out about pressings will beat that.
How do you keep the story attached to the records?
Catalogue the crate while you're handling it, because that evening is the only time all the detail is in front of you at once.
Cratemint is free on iPhone and built for exactly this pass. Anything from the mid eighties onward has a barcode, so you point the camera at the sleeve and the record lands on your shelf with the cover full size. Older pressings have no barcode, which is most of an inherited crate, so those get added by search. The ones you can't identify at all become ghost entries: they sit on the shelf as proper records with what you know written on them, so nothing is ever lost while you work out what it is. Private notes hold the rest, which is where "this was the one he played every Sunday" belongs.
For the handful that turn out to be scarce, insure your record collection covers documenting them properly and where a professional valuation comes in.
Then tell us which record in the crate stopped you. There's always one, and it's never the one anybody expects.
Cratemint is free on iPhone. Every feature, for everyone.
Common questions
Are old records worth anything?
Some are, most aren't in the way people hope, and condition decides nearly all of it. The albums that sold in huge numbers were pressed in huge numbers, so ordinary copies of famous records are common everywhere. The scarce things tend to be early pressings, small label releases and promos, and they're scarce for reasons that have little to do with how famous the album is.
How do I find out what an inherited record collection is worth?
Look up each record by its exact pressing, then see what copies of that same pressing in that same condition are currently listed for. Grade honestly before you look, because a small drop in condition changes the answer a lot. If you need a number for an insurance policy, that's a professional valuer's job, not a search result.
Does it matter if my parents played the records to death?
For condition, yes. For everything else, a played copy is the point. Surface noise and a soft sleeve corner tell you which records were loved, and that's the part of the crate that can't be replaced. Keep the played ones and buy a clean copy later if you want one.
What should I do with the records I don't want to keep?
Pass them on rather than skip them. Independent shops take trades, a starter box makes a good present for someone beginning to collect, and charity shops will take the rest. Nothing in a crate of well loved albums deserves a bin.
How do I catalogue a crate of records I know nothing about?
Work sleeve by sleeve in one pass and record what you see rather than what you assume. Scan the barcode on anything from the mid eighties onward, search by artist and title for anything older, and write the label, catalogue number and run-out text into a note for the ones you can't identify. That note is what lets you finish the job later.
Should I clean inherited records before playing them?
Yes, if they've been in a loft or a garage. Dust that has been sitting in the groove for thirty years grinds against the stylus, so a proper clean comes before the first spin. Check for mould on the inner sleeves too, and replace any paper sleeve that has gone soft or spotted.