How to Find and Collect Rare Vinyl Records

If you love music, you should consider collecting music memorabilia as a hobby. Everyone has their favorite artist or band – why not start collecting all of their prior releases on vinyl?

 

The most valuable record of all time is John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Double Fantasy” album (1980). This album went up on the auction block for $400,000 in 1999.  But the album’s value had nothing to do with the price, and only one particular copy went for this price tag.  Mark David Chapman asked John Lennon to autograph his copy on December 8, 1980.  Several hours later, Chapman shot Lennon and killed him.  The album that Lennon had autographed for him had Chapman’s fingerprints on the cover as well as Lennon’s signature, and was used as part of the court case against him.

 

As you can see, an album’s value often has nothing to do with it’s rarity.  Vinyl records fascinate many people because they want to hear music the way they remember it from their youth.  They believe that the too crisp sounds of an MP3 aren’t authentic to the music – they like the scratches, hisses, crackles and pops that came out of the old players as the needle moved through the groves in the record.  Others simply enjoy the collectability factor and realize that some records can be worth a lot of money.

 

If you were born after 1980, it’s very likely that you won’t have grown up with all your favorite music coming out on vinyl.  In this case, you will want to learn the basics about vinyl records before you start collecting.  Vinyl records come in different speeds and sizes, and some of the vinyl can be quite valuable.  Most vinyl records are black, but some albums have special editions of another color.  Some of the other colors you might find include red, purple and white.

 

Getting started as a rare album collector is fortunately very easy.  You can find a number of places to buy vinyl records today at local music stores, pawn shops and at garage sales.  The Internet has also made it very easy to find all sorts of vinyl records for your collection.  The auction sites such as eBay are very popular places to buy records.  Do some research into your favorite artist, and start collecting their albums today!

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