Buying Records
GENERAL ADVICE
Set a budget - set a monthly record budget, or give yourself a hard limit before going into any record shop. It's too easy to leave with over £100 of records only to spend the rest of the month eating beans on toast.
Create a wishlist - create a handful of records you want. It's incredibly satisfying when you find one of these in person. I had a niche comedy record on my wishlist for about 10 years before finding it in a tiny record shop in the wee village of North Berwick, which made my day!
Don't be tempted by infinite re-releases. Do you really need a fourth copy of your favourite album?
For 'classic albums' I would always go good-condition used over new. New records are expensive and vary in quality, old ones may have a fully analogue chain. The most popular music of the 70s and 80s had millions of albums pressed, which are still the bread and butter of most used record shops.
Keep an eye out for reasonably priced records from 1990-2015. Very little vinyl was pressed in this era, and they are now desirable with so many Millennials becoming record collectors. The majority of albums from this era for less than £10 should be snapped up. Less than £20 should be checked on discogs. Most of the highest-value records I own are from 1994-2008 - simply because very few artists were releasing any, and only in very short runs of hundreds or low thousands.
'Classic Albums' pressed between 1970s and 1980s - this was the last time albums were intentionally made with only the vinyl format in mind. From the late 80s onwards CDs were the preferred format, and digital equipment started taking over recording studios.
Punts - if you have some spare change, take a punt on the odd record. Around one in five of my purchase are complete punts: it's either cheap, looks interesting, or has fantastic artwork.
Chat with the shop owners / staff - they live and breathe vinyl and are mostly friendly.
📸 - Classical albums are the best value for money; they're almost always impeccable quality (older, more sensible owners!) and are not desirable these days. I buy almost every Deutsche Grammophon & Decca album I see as they're generally great quality recordings & pressings.
BUYING USED IN-STORE
This is the best part of collecting records... Digging through crates, bins, boxes, and racks for hours trying to find a record you're looking for, or seeing something that tickles your fancy. Flicking through all the weird and wonderful covers, seeing how designs, fashions, genres, have all changed over time.
- To me, the vinyl disc condition is the most important thing to check.
- Always take any record you'd consider buying out of the inner sleeve carefully, to look at the condition, and also confirm that it's the correct record! Move the record around against the nearest lights looking for...
- A dirty record will gunk up your needle and potentially transfer to more pristine records.
- Light & faint scratches are usually OK, most used records will have some dust/fibres on them
- The sleeve condition is a large part of the record's value, but I'd always rather have a poor sleeve (or no sleeve) with a good record inside over a great-looking bit of cardboard with a wrecked disc (Nancy & Lee). You can also get fantastic sounding records with no sleeves for insanely cheap.
- Original / first pressings are coveted by collectors and worth more than a re-press from the next year. Audio quality is not linked. I'd rather pay half the price for a re-press that sounds identical.
- Taking a punt - some of my favourite records have been albums I've never heard, from bands I can't pronoucne, but picked up because it looked interesting and was reasonably priced.
- If a shop has ANY records in south-facing windows lay any potential purchases flat on their sleeve and press down, to make sure the sunlight hasn't warped it.
📸 - Big no's would be... mould spots, deep scratches, water damage, visibly warped vinyl.
BUYING USED ONLINE
I don't do this lot of this for multiple reasons;
It's too easy to spend loads of money and get carried away!
Vinyl grading is subjective and one person's 'Excellent' is another person's 'Good' - without seeing a disc in person it's difficult to know the true condition.
Supporting local in-person shops, to keep them open
Discogs: reputable sellers with high ratings and a long history of good sales is the only way to minimise any potential issues with your purchase.
BUYING NEW RECORDS
The high cost of new records means that very few of my records are "Brand new". Walking into HMV or browsing online and seeing most new records priced between £30-50 just makes me furious! There are still a couple of ways to get good deals on new records in general... just be wary of hidden shipping costs!
In-store
Independent shops - some used record stores have a 'new' section and will usually be cheaper than high-street shops
Sale items - most record stores will have a bargain bin or sale bin for stock they can't shift.
Pre-sale/pre-ordering - ask about an upcoming release, and if they can be ordered in.
Multi-buy deals - things like HMV's 3 for £66 makes buying new a little more palatable
Online
Amazon - use the filtering options to add price limits and browse specific genres you like. Regularly checking a wishlist also highlights some crazy automated pricing changes if you catch it at the right time.
Pre-sale- usually cheaper as artists will want to sell as many units as possible on the week of release, to get as high in the charts as possible.
Artists direct - the postage fees can sometimes be a turnoff, but buying direct is one of the best things you can do to support small and medium bands. I've also had some nice notes & bonuses from artists when buying direct (Moron Police / Djunah). Some independent releases are also too rare to ever be found in shops or online stores (mammal)
Bandcamp - usually a more direct way of buying from artists. "Bandcamp Fridays" also give the artist all of the money from that purchase.
Record Store Day (RSD)
I personally hate Record Store Day. Every day should be “Record Store Day”. To me, it just feels like an excuse for artists to release special edition “RSD pressings” of their newest, or poorer-selling albums. You can also buy RSD stuff online, which totally defeats the point. Just go into your nearest record shop as often as you can!
The only real plus I can see is that it encourages people into record shops for the first time.