The value of the recent vinyl releases seems insane. Particularly Republic, Best of, Get Ready and WFTSC. Were these records really that scarce they need to command such a high price?
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Vinyl Madness
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thehim wrote: The value of the recent vinyl releases seems insane. Particularly Republic, Best of, Get Ready and WFTSC. Were these records really that scarce they need to command such a high price?
Ultimately, it all comes down to what people are willing to pay for them. But to give a bit of context, vinyl was overtaken by CD in terms of home listening from 1991. As a result, the number of vinyl pressings went down. I would certainly say that, from 97 to 2006, the runs were small (500-1000 maybe).
There's quite a few albums from that period that fetch a fair bit of money (for example, Dopethrone by Electric Wizard came out in 2000 on 2LP. The cheapest you'll find an original pressing for now is £150) so I'd say those NO records (with the exceptions of Republic and WFTSC) are scarce enough.
I singled out Republic and WFTSC because the former turns up second hand on a regular basis and can be bought for £12-£15. The latter was easy to find when released, but I haven't seen a copy since (bar my own).
There are quite a few 1995-2005ish albums worth a load now, you'd be surprised. In each case the CD equivalent is a charity shop item.
I went on a big JD/NO vinyl collecting spree about ten years ago and picked up as many of the original pressings as I could find (mainly the albums). Seeing a copy of (The Best Of) double-LP on Ebay last month going for close to £80 was a bit of a shock. The first copy of Get Ready I won off eBay arrived in a lousy state, holes in the cover etc. so I returned it. Eventually got a NM- copy for £30. I think these days it can go for proper silly money, three times what I paid.
I think it's fair to say that industry perception of vinyl as a format in 2001 was very different to now (or even 2005). Then it was seen as a legacy format which had it's day and not many copies of new albums were being pressed on it but towards the end of the 00s the hipster vinyl boom happened and now you can't move for 180g "heavyweight" reissues. I remember walking into HMV etc. around 2006 to find a dedicated 7" single section with the CD equivalent section all but gone. Didn't make much sense at the time.
CDs were never as hip as vinyl but it is still a wonderful sounding format if mastered in the right way. I hope it manages to hang in there a bit longer.
This is very interesting. There are problems with vinyl pressing these days, and it's not just the lack of presses.
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NotAMod wrote:
CDs were never as hip as vinyl but it is still a wonderful sounding format if mastered in the right way. I hope it manages to hang in there a bit longer.
I think CD's will become a bespoke format (with an album being packaged in a box set with a 35-40 page booklet with extra CD's of extra songs, demos etc) as they're still a strong seller. A friend runs a record label specialising in underground metal. He puts out albums on LP, CD and tape and CD's always sell out.
For me, I couldn't live without my portable CD player. I hate iPods, and still carry CD's about with me to listen to.
