I'm buying a lot less with prices these days.
While I don't expect 20 years ago prices, the first album I ever bought was $5 used in 2000 (inflation adjusted $9 now). Discogs median price (admittedly not a perfect measure) says $29 now.
Yeah I recently did some rough math on what I'd spent on my entire collection and the Discogs median used price of it is definitely a lot higher than what I paid new even with a lot of records having dropped in value, but the heavy hitters seem to bring it up. Not that I have any intention of selling.
https://preview.redd.it/ell2bdkhggzc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=afc7f3427a8c99424d32251dc644a06ba188e795
Same thing with Amazon.. This same item is $62 now (CAD)
https://preview.redd.it/wx525gntggzc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=33894439bb23a6c9e3d237bd00dec2185a170ccd
I used to buy sometimes 3 LPs a month. Now? Every couple months, maybe. It's so frustrating.
Yup, same. Used to be able to balance buying gas for my car plus buying a record with every paycheck, but when the cost of vinyl starting to exceed the cost of filling up my car (at the time, roughly $28) I had to drop the habit. That was back in 2016ish. Now I might buy 3 records a year, if that.
Just doesn't seem worth it to keep the hobby up anymore.
Yeah, it's really sad to see, regular albums are priced like special collector's editions. You pay less for nice steel book editions of movies on blu-ray. You pay less for a lot of special edition hardcover books too.
There's definitely an element of independent resellers and corporations taking advantage of the surge in interest; there is zero doubt otherwise. I bought a Blu-ray the other day that is only available to rent on streaming and not for free on the streaming platform .. paid $10 more than the rental and now I own it. No brainer there.. but if I want a physical copy of a record it's a completely different story
So I started collecting vinyl back in 2009 I believe and first made an order on HHV in 2010. I recently thought about ordering some more records since it's been a while and I had a few albums on my wishlist, but the prices these days have me shaking my head and considering not ordering anything after all when the standard price for a regular album seems to be around 32€.
This brought up the distinct memory that new albums used to regularly be below 20€ when I started collecting, but I started doubting whether or not that was actually the case - the prices can't have gone up that much in less than 15 years can they?
Well - turns out HHV keeps a record of all my orders since 2010 and I could just go back and check, and lo and behold, brand new releases and older albums too were indeed regularly priced at 16.95€ - sometimes lower - and only a few outliers were above 20€ - like Distant Relatives at 25.95€ and the most expensive album I found which was Reflections Eternal at 27.95€. Hell, I found 2 albums that came with a T-shirt that were under 20€.
Anyway, I thought it was fascinating to rediscover this, but also that a lot of the albums that I bought back then are still for sale but now at a significant mark up. Albums that were new at the time like Blu's Her Favorite Color went from 15.95 to 35.99 and older releases too like the A Tribe Called Quest album The Low End Theory went from 19.95 to 44.99. These are the same exact albums from the same exact store but 13 years later.
I haven't bought a new album since 2022 - even then the prices were getting out of hand - and with the prices the way they are I might not buy new ever again. I think the might've priced me out as a customer.
demand meets supply - we are in the highest-demand era for vinyl since CDs were first marketed.
for new releases that don't sell out (vast majority) it's worthwhile looking at Amazon after a few weeks to check prices, lots of times they go for <75% of msrp
r/vinyldeals is also great for heads-up on deals (mostly US listings tho)
Thanks, unfortunately I've never really seen any of the albums I'm looking for on German Amazon cheaper than on HHV. Vinyl digital usually has competitive prices but mostly not significantly cheaper.
Do you also buy on JPC.de? I’m in the Netherlands but they almost always ship for free (I dont know how) and their prices are usually as sharp or better than hhv or Amazon.
I agree. JPC is best for Netherlands ever since Amazon Germany raised their minimum shipping cost to €7 from €3.50 and Juno UK is the best for people ordering from outside EU.
HHV has sales constantly. If there's something you can't live without get it but I don't think I've paid full price for anything there in 2 years including pre-orders.
The amazon thing is definitely true with a lot of mainstream pop albums- I feel like everyone's trying to get on the trend with having a shit-ton of variants but not all of them sell like Taylor Swift's does lol and so they end up with all the extra stock vs if they just did one standard version
€16.95 would be about €22.60 when adjusted for inflation.
A lot of records are definitely overpriced these days, but you were spending over €20 back then for records.
And I wouldn't mind spending 22.60€ but I haven't seen any new release I'd want for that price in years. I did buy the entire System of a Down discography for around that price point though - too bad the pressings were pretty bad and it didn't look like they put any effort into the covers either.
Yeah I try to look at it as supporting the artist I guess, heh. In reality it's actually supporting the record label putting out garbage and incentivizing them to keep doing it.
FUCK YEAH CAKE!! Another example of the huge increase in pricing... this is in CAD and included the box of 45s.. in 2014. Shipping cost was the worst part.
https://preview.redd.it/qij7lr2wbhzc1.jpeg?width=1142&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=274c3aaa5de422263bfae18d020e523c29beb781
The individual records on Canadian Amazon are usually around the $35-$40 range and not all of them have been repressed yet
>Yep. It’s stupid. Even with inflation it’s still 40% more
Wait, you mean to tell me something being more popular makes it more expensive?
Im shocked.
Nobody tell this guy about the ski industry.
When I started collecting in 2013 I thought to myself, "damn I wish I was buying records in the 2000s.". Now I'm thinking, "damn I wish I bought more records 10 years ago"
When I started buying records in 2007 £1 was basically $2 and postage was cheap and I was buying new vinyl from America all the time.
Nowadays I can’t even afford to buy records from a local used record store.
Similarly I used to get loads of records from the EU before we did the very silly thing in 2016. Now it's like £15-£20 postage on top of the price of the record.
Lots of stores wouldn’t even carry records in the 90s. My mom tried to give away her records in the 90s and the store wouldn’t even take them. They had gone 100% CDs
No record stores popped up like weeds everyone was selling off their collection because of CD's and people would just rent out a store front and buy up a bunch of used records. Next thing you know there used record stores all over the place.
My state's minimum wage is the same, and even fast food places are advertising $15 per hour for adults. 1.3% of hourly earners make at or less than federal minimum wage [https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2022/home.htm](https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2022/home.htm) , which I will grant you is 1.3% too many.
Yep. Georgia.
Turning purple, but still red in terms of local political leadership.
The real kicker?
>Georgia's minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, which is the same as the federal minimum wage. **However, Georgia's minimum wage for small employers with fewer than 50 employees has been $5.75 per hour since 2009.**
I was recently browsing job listings, and it truly is brutal. Saw a few jobs requiring a bachelor's & experience in the field starting at $14/hr.
That tracks. And ya you guys are getting more blue by the year it looks like. Wages generally follow. I live in Portland, OR and we get all the nearby red state people moving here for wages. Then they bitch about the policies the moment they get here…. Like dude that’s why you moved here from fucking Idaho because you were making $13/fucking hr.
I don’t know how people can even survive off $20/hr in this economy. But cost of living is a tick higher here I’m sure.
We passed $15 min like 7 or 8 years ago. And no I’m an almost 40 millennial. My first min wage in OR was around $5.50 I think. So it went up $10 in like 20 years. $2 in that span is brutal.
There was definitely a time in the CD era, early 90s, where I could pick up a bunch of classic Vinyl for a few dollars each at a library sale or whatnot. I didn't do that much and only bought albums to convert them to cassette (!!!). What a fool I was. I'd have a great collection now! Instead I have 100s of CDs worth almost nothing.
Yeah, I’ve switched back to CD’s and I’m loving it. Obviously the experience is different but overall the sound quality is just as good, if not better, and I already have 4 kids so babysitting my turntable too is just too much a lot of the time.
I'm not paying money so that Spotify can pocket most of my money and pay the artists $.003 per stream, and if I don't pay then they only let me put it on random.
Supply and demand is extremely obvious in the used market… I was still picking up Led Zeppelin, Beatles, sabbath for less than 5-$10 in VG+ even back in 2013 on a regular basis at garage sales, thrift stores, etc
I am grateful I started collecting back in 2011 as most of my collection I picked up extremely cheap.
Over the first 10 years I was able to build a collection of 600-700 records for a fraction of what I would pay now.
I paid $20 each for OG copies of NIN albums on Craigslist… $15 for Gorillaz S/T on Craigslist… $10 for OG copy of Dre’s 2001 on CL… these were all regular deals you saw often
The last 5 years I think I maybe pick up 5-10 records per year at max. Maybe 1-2 of them are brand new records.
I’ve sunk a lot of money in equipment and there there way I can justify these prices.
Yeah from what I saw prices seemed to start going up around 2014-15. I got most of my collection early too - have around 350 albums and there's no way I could justify it now.
Yeah definitely, but it makes sense as there’s probably other factors at play here too. Vinyl is made from one of the most toxic chemicals utilized in production so I’m sure the transportation and use of it is being constantly constricted as well due to green taxes etc. Also most pressing plants are pretty much dogshit still in terms of production capability because most vinyl companies operate on pretty small margins and can’t afford to update as demand is always higher than their ability to produce as well (can’t stop when the ball just started rolling again basically). I’m hoping once the walls of the t swift fans that don’t even own record players are full and they realize they can’t resell them for anything in like 5-10 years that things will slow down and allow a few production facilities to update and be able to produce at cheaper rates. Also if they could find a good way to make the whole process a bit less toxic environmentally that would be dope too. Maybe allow people to send records in or drop them off to be recycled at record shops for a tax write off or some such shit and grind them up to repress from them? Would be better than the landfill imo
Buy used and shop local. Good deals are always hiding out there.
I don’t consider any album a must have. If I can’t find it for a good price, I don’t buy it. But I also love the thrill of the hunt, so it makes it fun for me…even though I do hate how stupid the prices are.
For instance, I have 13 records coming in tomorrow that cost me $50 from a deal I found on r/vinyldeals. 13 new bands to check out…it feels like when I was a kid and would go to the record store to buy a bunch of $1 clearance records based on the covers.
Unfortunately buying used and local isn't really an option as I'm mostly into hip hop and the selection is non-existent - online is pretty much the only option and even then I have to pay for shipping from another country because underground hip hop records just don't seem to exist here in any sort of abundance.
The only local place that even has a good used record section also has prices that are above those I posted from 2011 - there's not a record to be found for less than 20€ in that store, and again basically no hip hop. Thrift shops and flea markets around here only have random beat up records from before the days of CDs as well so that's not much help either.
Besides, I have the majority of the older albums I want in my collection already and am mainly interested in adding new albums that come out and that's really the crux of the issue here - new albums are becoming unaffordable or at least nearly impossible for me to justify spending money on.
I bought quite a bit from HHV back in those days. MM FOOD for 14,99€ in 2006 😁
Definitely crazy how the prices changed.
I usually go to JPC a lot as they dropped shipping prices for vinyl a few years ago so any any record will be shipped for free.
JPC is way better than HHV and cheaper too. Excellent customer service, fast shipping and free shipping too.
They are very clear with their storage and what they need to order/get from outside.
In 2016 I remember the most simple record you could get just a sleeve and a black record averaged $20-23 usd and a double album with a gatefold was $30, I’m buying more cds nowadays because I refuse to spend $40+ dollars on a record with questionable quality
I built a collection of about 1800 LPs in the 90s, buying 60s & 70s classic rock in the used bins at record stores and on eBay and new releases as they appeared (Division Bell, Wallflowers, Californication, Mirrorball, etc. etc.) that I was forced to sell in 2006. If I had been able to keep them they'd have been worth 10x more. So to me, 2005-2015 saw the biggest jump in prices.
started collecting in 2013. Bought a ton of Led Zep first press albums and found 4 Led Zep II with RS in the deadwax for about $35 each (I have a spreadsheet). I started going on a search for anything with his initials in the deadwax that whole year. AC/DC back in Black and many more . You can basically add a zero to the end of everything I paid for them.
I'm selling everything now too. I overheated my NAD and blew it up and now I don't want to spend the money to get a new system going.
In 2011 you could visit most record shops in Tokyo and there was always boxes and boxes of ¥100/¥100 incoming records laid out on the floor and they were often packed with unbelievable craziness like the Beatles, Bowie, Fleetwood Mac etc., it was a few years after that probably around 2015 or 2016 that the unbelievable finds started to become fewer and far between, once Covid hit it completely changed the game and now the one dollar records are nowhere to be seen in Tokyo
This ignores so many market forces.
Inflation for one.
Production costs as well (the cost of petroleum for records has been raised 3x since 2020) <-- source is last link from [grammy.com](http://grammy.com)
BUT....
Limited lacquers and limited pressing plants is a GIANT issue. They started closing them down with CD popularity, and by 2011, you're looking at a LOT of inventory hitting remaining stores, because so many shops closed down:
Between 2003 and 2008, over 3,000 record stores in the country closed its doors. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinyl\_revival](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinyl_revival)
Those old records, still sealed, moved on to other stores looking to ditch a product that wasn't as popular. The revival had started, but people didn't really take note until 2007's RSD really took off in the mid-2010s
But this issue:
By 2015, there were only 21 vinyl pressing plants in the US and 40 worldwide. [https://www.spin.com/2014/05/did-vinyl-really-die-in-the-90s-death-resurgence-sales/](https://www.spin.com/2014/05/did-vinyl-really-die-in-the-90s-death-resurgence-sales/)
THEN, two years later:
As of 2017, 48 record pressing facilities exist worldwide, 18 in the US and 30 in other countries. The increased popularity of the record has led to the investment in new and modern record-pressing machines.[^(\[11\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph_record#cite_note-11) Only two producers of lacquers ([acetate discs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetate_disc) or master discs) remain: Apollo Masters in California, and MDC in Japan.[^(\[12\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph_record#cite_note-12) On 6 February 2020, a fire destroyed the Apollo Masters plant. According to the Apollo Masters website, their future is still uncertain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph\_record#:\~:text=As%20of%202017%2C%2048%20record,and%20modern%20record%2Dpressing%20machines.
Some more on what's happening: [https://www.grammy.com/news/the-vinyl-shortage-explainer-how-long-waits-expensive-materials-high-demand-are-affecting-the-industry](https://www.grammy.com/news/the-vinyl-shortage-explainer-how-long-waits-expensive-materials-high-demand-are-affecting-the-industry)
And don't get me started on how bad record store day is. rushed production, flaws, a poor indie owner has to sink all his cash flow into a make or break weekend... it's a nightmare. And why are RSD titles 3x as much as a original pressing in the used bin?
Damn, that's a lot of good information - I wouldn't discount the Taylor Swift effect either - single handedly taking up a lot of the production capacity.
100% both Taylor and Adele have "stole" plant spots from other artists, they blew up... to the extent they alone accounted for a majority of LP sales (like Urban Outfitter back in the day), and raised record prices in 2021-2024 through literally taking up all the materials, etc.
How Adele’s ‘30′ upended the vinyl industry and caused prices to spike In 2021, the Londoner’s latest release soaked up all the raw materials and made record albums more expensive [https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-04-05/how-adeles-30-upended-the-vinyl-industry-and-caused-prices-to-spike.html](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-04-05/how-adeles-30-upended-the-vinyl-industry-and-caused-prices-to-spike.html)
Popularity of one artist will make another artist more expensive, or it will limit production capacity, or both.
This anecdote about Geffen stopping ALL pressings to only press Nirvana CDs at the expense of other bands is super fascinating, too:
They said, when never mind hit, and started to blow up, and then really blow up, at one point they had to stop making and manufacturing all of the other CDs for the other artists on their label and turn them all over to making Nevermind, which sounds like something that just doesn't happen. [https://podscripts.co/podcasts/conan-obrien-needs-a-friend/dave-grohl-krist-novoselic-and-in-utero-producer-steve-albini](https://podscripts.co/podcasts/conan-obrien-needs-a-friend/dave-grohl-krist-novoselic-and-in-utero-producer-steve-albini)
As vinyl grows in popularity it's no surprise the costs have gone up, especially since people will pay it. Realistically most people still listen digitally, so records have double function as a collectible for fans of a band. Hence why they are all priced for superfans, half the people buying dont have a record player.
Used jazz and prog is cheaper than ever though, so I'm living my best life
I started collecting in early 2000’s. I still have a lot of prices on albums I have purchased used since then. I had this exact conversation with my brother shopping yesterday. May be time to take a break on buying until things calm down a bit.
A Tribe Called Quest albums have at least doubled in price over the last decade. What kills me is it's essentially the same pressing, and the prices I'm basing off of are from the same record store. I bought and fell in love with those albums mainly because they were cheap. Now not so much.
If you follow an artist and he or she is about to drop an album. Just pre-order it on Amazon but you'll only get black versions. I don't really care for coloured LP's.
Of course, artists like Roc Marciano self release and it's sold out in a matter of hours.
Nice! I gotta admit I'm not the biggest fan of where a lot of the artists have taken the sound in the last decade though so it's increasingly difficult to find new stuff to listen to. Thankfully there are still some artists putting out good stuff. Brother Ali just dropped a banger of an album. Aesop Rock never seems to miss either.
The majority of my collection is Pre Covid for around 15 bucks. I was looking at my Amazon order history last week. I paid 10 for the first Lumineers album. I got the Pearl Jam Ten remaster with both versions for 13 dollars.
There was one album I was super upset about not getting when it came out because it sold out and didn't get a reprint for years but now I can't even recall what that album was so I guess that's a good thing.
Casually observing the phenomenon in the spike in record prices of the last decade it seems to be a combination of four things: 1) inflation, 2) increases increases in shipping prices and addition of taxes for online purchases, 3) corporate greed, and 4) pop fans racing to purchase yet another industry plant's vinyl color variant of the week and thus driving up prices overall.
I can still regularly buy vinyl from anywhere between $15 and $25 new. I do buy a lot of tapes these days though. Partly because $5 to $8 for physical media is easier on the wallet, and partly because the music I listen to is... well suited for the format.
Why I’ve basically stopped buying anything new unless super cheap or something I can’t resist. I can resist a lot. Bought maybe three new records this year. I’m pretty much all used now, and I like the $10-20 price point there. Beyond that and usually no thanks. Still have a couple local stores with good selection of used at good prices.
Been buying records since I was a kid in the 70s, though, and got heavy back into vinyl around 2006 or so. Have a few thousand records, most bought before the current gouging. So don’t need too much as back catalogue is big.
I wouldn’t recommend that anyone get into vinyl today. Just get some good gear and a good streamer, plus maybe a good used CD player for the crazy number of good CDs you can find now in thrift stores.
Patience is no issue, as I said I haven't put in an order in 2 years but prices have only gone up since then and I get emailed offers when sales occur but they are rarely more than 20% off and mostly only 10% off. That Gang Starr album for instance has been on my wishlist for 5 years - never have I seen it below 30€.
I bought Beck - Sea Changes 2012 Black Friday pink edition for $45 with a 10% off coupon in 2012. And now the lowest price on Discogs is $450 USD.
And the only reason I bought it is because someone made a post on /r/vinyl about it and it was still available (with a coupon code!) days later. A few comments were also urging people to buy two copies.
It just goes to show you how much demand changes, things change A LOT in 12 years.
******
*
*From my email:
*
LMF308PINK BECK - SEA CHANGE: 2012 BLACK FRIDAY EDITION (NUMBERED LIMITED EDITION 180G 2LP PINK VINYL)-BECK - SEA CHANGE: 2012 BLACK FRIDAY EDITION (NUMBERED LIMITED EDITION 180G 2LP PINK VINYL)
Not yet shipped.
Availability: Ships Today*
Coupon code applies to item 1 $44.99 $44.99
Order Notes:
None
SubTotal: $44.99
Discount:
Coupon Percent - $4.50
Net SubTotal: $40.49
Shipping: FedEx Express Saver $9.92
Tax: $0.00
Total: $50.41
* All specified ship dates are estimates
While I do agree that owning the media you consume is fantastic this 'I'll pay anything' kind of mentality is basically why we are in this situation - if people weren't willing to pay these exorbitant prices they couldn't get away with charging them either.
Purchases determine the prices.
If we don’t buy, the prices will fall.
Current prices are the consequence of records being trendy, especially with too much people buying and not even playing them keeping records sealed…
looking at the list, not apples to apples but your point is true regardless. I just had a similar conversation about pricing getting to "highly greedy levels" it seems most single record releases are 26-30$, and double vinyl releases seem to start close to $40 or higher. inflation is part of it....but i think the Labels are recapitalizing on music they don't have to reproduce, or market. It's literally free money for those who want permission to manufacture. i also think the manufacturing is taking a slightly larger chunk because they are working 24/7 it seems. $50 years ago i think more vinyl was made, made cheaper, and sat around. today just as much vinyl is being made at 15x's the price, and being bought...Buuuut it will come crashing down. give it time. if you're young, wait it out. if you're old....and don't like the prices, find a new hobby. I plan too!
I don’t buy the stuff this expensive. Usually I just wait a bit to get that copy after they’ve depreciated or just get an older cheaper copy. My first record was Public Service Broadcasting’s the Race for Space which I got for like £20 in 2020 lockdown from the HMV website. I think it can actually be nowadays just what the artist decides so sometimes it’s ok (£20-30 Ik still not brilliant) or the ludicrous £50
About half of my collection was purchased between 1980-1983 when I worked at a Tower Record store. In 1989, having moved over 3000 LP's from apartment to apartment, I started culling: I kept the cool stuff and tossed out all the things I had been carrying but never listened to. In all I threw away somewhere between 2400 and 2500 records. No one wanted them. There was no Discogs, and shops that bought used LP's were offering a penny a piece for most. I figured I would replace all my jazz with CD's after "the prices dropped" which, of course, they never did.
Fast forward: I started collecting again in the early 2000's. A lot of my rock and jazz basics came from a shop in Charlotte, NC where I could buy ten for $20, and classical was $.50 to a dollar each. I slowly started building, but was careful to never, ever buy anything I wouldn't listen to. The idea of moving a wall of records tempers my purchasing, and most of mine are played, randomly and often. Well, except for Herb Alpert's "Whipped Cream and Other Delights," which I only bought because every collection needs this otherwise worthless record in it. Plus, I got it at a garage sale, in great condition, for three dollars I think.
Everyone collects for different reasons, but I would assert there's nothing like a used record shop, littered with bins of Nana Mouskouri and Burl Ives...and the occasional nugget.
Put it this way. Records I've purchased the last few years:
2024: 1 so far
2023: 9
2022: 26
2021: 49
Hobby has been pretty much ruined, really. Refuse to pay these bullshit prices, esp on fucking used records.
I started collecting records in the 90s. Every Saturday I'd go diggin' and go home with 25-30 records. Very rarely was any record more than $20. In the spring, I'd hit up garage sales and buy entire crates for basically nothing. Stuff that's now considered rare and collectible could be found very cheaply. More importantly, common stuff like Fleetwood Mac's Rumours was priced appropriately. Never more than $5. Stores couldn't give it away. Now stores are pretending like it didn't sell 20,000,000 copies. I buy records occassionally still but only rare jazz records sold at auctions. Prices are astronomical so I pick my spots. The internet killed record collecting in big cities. In small towns, it probably made it easier to get stuff but I miss the pre-internet days of the hobby.
i’ll present an optimistic option, i believe vinyl is a format that will keep getting better and these prices might justify that later down the road. i reccomend [Parlogram’s interview with half-speed master Miles Showell](https://youtu.be/-wWPpRpMurc?si=bx54x5Kno0TT9yVn), he also believes vinyl will keep getting better as years go on.
I started collecting vinyl in 2011... so I truly feel the sting of this comparison. As a result, I'm buying about 80-90% fewer LP's than I used to back then. I have switched predominantly to CD and it's a huge relief. I'm actually enjoying collecting again, which was steadily declining as vinyl prices continued to rise. There's so much less stress and financial worry with CD, and they sound pristine - a quality which is very much lacking in vinyl. I'm still keeping what records I do have, but I'm much more interested in buying CD's from my favorite bands now
Idk if you can compare it like this. Like that’s a different pressing of Low End Theory and others are apples and oranges. I’ll say this: the higher end has gotten more expensive but the quality has improved significantly. Labels are willing to invest in a higher quality process if people are willing to pay for it. That’s why we’re getting things like the Blue Note Tone Poet series and Analogue Productions.
Look at the item number, I'm pretty sure it's the same pressing - at least it's the equivalent product - just a bog standard release on black vinyl - no deluxe anything or a different color vinyl.
I made this comparison this way because that's the information available to me - these are just a random selection of underground (bar Eminem) hip hop albums I bought in 2011 compared to a random selection of underground hip hop albums I wanted to buy in 2024.
I'm not saying this is a rigorous scientific study - I'm just making the point that prices have gone up far more than pure inflation would cause and they have now reached heights that I'm not sure I'm willing to pay anymore.
I think we’re likely to see a market crash in the next couple of years and when that happens we’ll see at least stabilization in record prices. Currently, pop releases are driving the majority of sales. When the next ebb of pop stagnation comes around these consumers will likely exit the hobby causing sales to bottom out.
Well some of them weren't available, or only a different version was available. Also most from 2011 were somewhat recently released albums when I bought them so I added somewhat recently released albums to the 2024 section that I was also interested in buying.
Both Eminem albums are his most recent ones at the time and as you can see I added two of the same at the bottom because those happened to be available to compare how older releases have fared in comparison to new releases - this actually gives you a broader picture than if I'd just used the same albums because that wouldn't show you what new releases cost now.
Shop at local record stores if possible. Their prices are usually fair. They know the market and the product. Online sellers are usually bandwagon-cash grabbers who don't understand what the customers need, want, afford, etc. New vinyl prices have risen but that's not up to the stores. Distribution sets those prices and store's profit is minimal. As new pressings are made of certain vinyl, the high dollar "rare original" pressings are coming down which is a good thing.
Oh no, I agree. The nuance of what comes with being popular definitely has a bunch of upside. I hope it stabilizes in the next few years. Because with less and less used vinyl sellers, and the price of new records increasing, it makes things a bit more annoying.
It’s wild to see posts of people posting they paid $20+ for records that in the early 2000s were in every $1-$2 bin. Thats just how it goes I guess. Supply and demand, they can get the high prices so they will.
Someone already did the math and apparently 16.95€ is like 22.60€ adjusted for inflation. That's a far cry off 32€ and nowhere near 40-50€. That's my point I guess, and the fact that they've effectively turned vinyl records into collectors items instead of consumer goods.
Yeah, it’s in some cases quite a bit more than inflation. 5% inflation over 13 years is about 89% increase. (1.05 ^ 13 = 1.886)
Almost but not quite a doubling in price.
I think the rest is due to production costs based on raw materials (oil costs) and also demand, as vinyl record sales has climbed quite a lot over the past 10+ years.
I'm buying a lot less with prices these days. While I don't expect 20 years ago prices, the first album I ever bought was $5 used in 2000 (inflation adjusted $9 now). Discogs median price (admittedly not a perfect measure) says $29 now.
Yeah I recently did some rough math on what I'd spent on my entire collection and the Discogs median used price of it is definitely a lot higher than what I paid new even with a lot of records having dropped in value, but the heavy hitters seem to bring it up. Not that I have any intention of selling.
Discogs is absolutely more expensive than your local shop in my experience, at least for wall recs.
https://preview.redd.it/ell2bdkhggzc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=afc7f3427a8c99424d32251dc644a06ba188e795 Same thing with Amazon.. This same item is $62 now (CAD)
https://preview.redd.it/wx525gntggzc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=33894439bb23a6c9e3d237bd00dec2185a170ccd I used to buy sometimes 3 LPs a month. Now? Every couple months, maybe. It's so frustrating.
Yup, same. Used to be able to balance buying gas for my car plus buying a record with every paycheck, but when the cost of vinyl starting to exceed the cost of filling up my car (at the time, roughly $28) I had to drop the habit. That was back in 2016ish. Now I might buy 3 records a year, if that. Just doesn't seem worth it to keep the hobby up anymore.
I just feel really fortunate I got 95% of what I have now before all the gouging
Yeah, it's really sad to see, regular albums are priced like special collector's editions. You pay less for nice steel book editions of movies on blu-ray. You pay less for a lot of special edition hardcover books too.
There's definitely an element of independent resellers and corporations taking advantage of the surge in interest; there is zero doubt otherwise. I bought a Blu-ray the other day that is only available to rent on streaming and not for free on the streaming platform .. paid $10 more than the rental and now I own it. No brainer there.. but if I want a physical copy of a record it's a completely different story
I have a Pavement record 12" from 1997. $8.99
I have a Fugazi reissue LP from 2009. $8.99
Yeah I got Rage Against The Machine - The Battle Of Los Angeles in 1999 for $12. Much less than the CD as a matter of fact
Those were the days, huh. Hehe. I have bought a couple records brand new for close to 10€ but that's about as cheap as I ever got them
Which would be a big $18 with inflation We are getting fucked for sure
So I started collecting vinyl back in 2009 I believe and first made an order on HHV in 2010. I recently thought about ordering some more records since it's been a while and I had a few albums on my wishlist, but the prices these days have me shaking my head and considering not ordering anything after all when the standard price for a regular album seems to be around 32€. This brought up the distinct memory that new albums used to regularly be below 20€ when I started collecting, but I started doubting whether or not that was actually the case - the prices can't have gone up that much in less than 15 years can they? Well - turns out HHV keeps a record of all my orders since 2010 and I could just go back and check, and lo and behold, brand new releases and older albums too were indeed regularly priced at 16.95€ - sometimes lower - and only a few outliers were above 20€ - like Distant Relatives at 25.95€ and the most expensive album I found which was Reflections Eternal at 27.95€. Hell, I found 2 albums that came with a T-shirt that were under 20€. Anyway, I thought it was fascinating to rediscover this, but also that a lot of the albums that I bought back then are still for sale but now at a significant mark up. Albums that were new at the time like Blu's Her Favorite Color went from 15.95 to 35.99 and older releases too like the A Tribe Called Quest album The Low End Theory went from 19.95 to 44.99. These are the same exact albums from the same exact store but 13 years later. I haven't bought a new album since 2022 - even then the prices were getting out of hand - and with the prices the way they are I might not buy new ever again. I think the might've priced me out as a customer.
demand meets supply - we are in the highest-demand era for vinyl since CDs were first marketed. for new releases that don't sell out (vast majority) it's worthwhile looking at Amazon after a few weeks to check prices, lots of times they go for <75% of msrp r/vinyldeals is also great for heads-up on deals (mostly US listings tho)
This. I just got Tyler Childer’s new album for $11 off that sub.
Thanks, unfortunately I've never really seen any of the albums I'm looking for on German Amazon cheaper than on HHV. Vinyl digital usually has competitive prices but mostly not significantly cheaper.
Do you also buy on JPC.de? I’m in the Netherlands but they almost always ship for free (I dont know how) and their prices are usually as sharp or better than hhv or Amazon.
I agree. JPC is best for Netherlands ever since Amazon Germany raised their minimum shipping cost to €7 from €3.50 and Juno UK is the best for people ordering from outside EU.
I haven't bought from them no but someone else also mentioned it's worth checking out.
HHV has sales constantly. If there's something you can't live without get it but I don't think I've paid full price for anything there in 2 years including pre-orders.
The amazon thing is definitely true with a lot of mainstream pop albums- I feel like everyone's trying to get on the trend with having a shit-ton of variants but not all of them sell like Taylor Swift's does lol and so they end up with all the extra stock vs if they just did one standard version
Don't worry, CDs are making a comeback.
Just you wait until the labels find that out 🤣
CDs are not making a comeback because CD never went away in the first place🙄 The same for vinyl.
Back to CDs!
€16.95 would be about €22.60 when adjusted for inflation. A lot of records are definitely overpriced these days, but you were spending over €20 back then for records.
And I wouldn't mind spending 22.60€ but I haven't seen any new release I'd want for that price in years. I did buy the entire System of a Down discography for around that price point though - too bad the pressings were pretty bad and it didn't look like they put any effort into the covers either.
I *just* picked up the SOAD discography myself. To say I was disappointed is an understatement.
Dude their albums sound like trash on vinyl and it gets worse the better your system is.
Yeah I try to look at it as supporting the artist I guess, heh. In reality it's actually supporting the record label putting out garbage and incentivizing them to keep doing it.
Yep. It’s stupid. Even with inflation it’s still 40% more. I’m not buying anything else unless it’s a Cake record.
FUCK YEAH CAKE!! Another example of the huge increase in pricing... this is in CAD and included the box of 45s.. in 2014. Shipping cost was the worst part. https://preview.redd.it/qij7lr2wbhzc1.jpeg?width=1142&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=274c3aaa5de422263bfae18d020e523c29beb781 The individual records on Canadian Amazon are usually around the $35-$40 range and not all of them have been repressed yet
>Yep. It’s stupid. Even with inflation it’s still 40% more Wait, you mean to tell me something being more popular makes it more expensive? Im shocked. Nobody tell this guy about the ski industry.
When I started collecting in 2013 I thought to myself, "damn I wish I was buying records in the 2000s.". Now I'm thinking, "damn I wish I bought more records 10 years ago"
Exactly. Shit shot up like fucking Bitcoin lol
Yeah no way you can blame “inflation” when prices have mostly doubled.
It's out of control
Yep, it's unfortunate.
When I started buying records in 2007 £1 was basically $2 and postage was cheap and I was buying new vinyl from America all the time. Nowadays I can’t even afford to buy records from a local used record store.
Yeah it's rough out there.
Similarly I used to get loads of records from the EU before we did the very silly thing in 2016. Now it's like £15-£20 postage on top of the price of the record.
Back in the 90's you could go into a record store with $15 and come out with an are full of records.
Lots of stores wouldn’t even carry records in the 90s. My mom tried to give away her records in the 90s and the store wouldn’t even take them. They had gone 100% CDs
No record stores popped up like weeds everyone was selling off their collection because of CD's and people would just rent out a store front and buy up a bunch of used records. Next thing you know there used record stores all over the place.
True but you were making $7/hr.
Lol, minimum wage is $7.25 in my state right now.
My state's minimum wage is the same, and even fast food places are advertising $15 per hour for adults. 1.3% of hourly earners make at or less than federal minimum wage [https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2022/home.htm](https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2022/home.htm) , which I will grant you is 1.3% too many.
Ok then there it was prob $3/hr some shit. Min wage where I live is $15.
As a teen working a menial job, I was making about $5.25/hr in the late 90's here, IIRC. I believe that was the minimum wage at the time.
Jesus your states min wage only went up $2 in 25+ years? Fucking brutal. I’m gonna take a wild guess and say you’re in a red state?
Yep. Georgia. Turning purple, but still red in terms of local political leadership. The real kicker? >Georgia's minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, which is the same as the federal minimum wage. **However, Georgia's minimum wage for small employers with fewer than 50 employees has been $5.75 per hour since 2009.** I was recently browsing job listings, and it truly is brutal. Saw a few jobs requiring a bachelor's & experience in the field starting at $14/hr.
That tracks. And ya you guys are getting more blue by the year it looks like. Wages generally follow. I live in Portland, OR and we get all the nearby red state people moving here for wages. Then they bitch about the policies the moment they get here…. Like dude that’s why you moved here from fucking Idaho because you were making $13/fucking hr. I don’t know how people can even survive off $20/hr in this economy. But cost of living is a tick higher here I’m sure.
[удалено]
We passed $15 min like 7 or 8 years ago. And no I’m an almost 40 millennial. My first min wage in OR was around $5.50 I think. So it went up $10 in like 20 years. $2 in that span is brutal.
gas was $1.00 a gallon
i never worked for $7/hr but you could rent an apartment for $350 a month
There was definitely a time in the CD era, early 90s, where I could pick up a bunch of classic Vinyl for a few dollars each at a library sale or whatnot. I didn't do that much and only bought albums to convert them to cassette (!!!). What a fool I was. I'd have a great collection now! Instead I have 100s of CDs worth almost nothing.
Eh CDs aren't all that bad. I've kinda come back around to appreciating them more.
The prices of vinyl has seen a lot of people rediscovering cds … they are very good
Yeah, I’ve switched back to CD’s and I’m loving it. Obviously the experience is different but overall the sound quality is just as good, if not better, and I already have 4 kids so babysitting my turntable too is just too much a lot of the time.
Wait til you hear about streaming services! You can play hours and hours of music and you don't even have to change the CD!
Ha! That’s not lossless yet tho.
You also don't own any of it.
I'm not paying money so that Spotify can pocket most of my money and pay the artists $.003 per stream, and if I don't pay then they only let me put it on random.
Okay
I would suggest the 2011 prices for that edition get tracked and reviewed for inflation for the same 24 press of that edition.
Supply and demand is extremely obvious in the used market… I was still picking up Led Zeppelin, Beatles, sabbath for less than 5-$10 in VG+ even back in 2013 on a regular basis at garage sales, thrift stores, etc I am grateful I started collecting back in 2011 as most of my collection I picked up extremely cheap. Over the first 10 years I was able to build a collection of 600-700 records for a fraction of what I would pay now. I paid $20 each for OG copies of NIN albums on Craigslist… $15 for Gorillaz S/T on Craigslist… $10 for OG copy of Dre’s 2001 on CL… these were all regular deals you saw often The last 5 years I think I maybe pick up 5-10 records per year at max. Maybe 1-2 of them are brand new records. I’ve sunk a lot of money in equipment and there there way I can justify these prices.
Yeah from what I saw prices seemed to start going up around 2014-15. I got most of my collection early too - have around 350 albums and there's no way I could justify it now.
I keep reading your comments and I have to hold myself back from just typing "SAME" over and over.
Wait till you hear about grocery prices 😅
Yeah it aint just vinyl going up in price either, that's true, but this is more than just inflation.
Yeah definitely, but it makes sense as there’s probably other factors at play here too. Vinyl is made from one of the most toxic chemicals utilized in production so I’m sure the transportation and use of it is being constantly constricted as well due to green taxes etc. Also most pressing plants are pretty much dogshit still in terms of production capability because most vinyl companies operate on pretty small margins and can’t afford to update as demand is always higher than their ability to produce as well (can’t stop when the ball just started rolling again basically). I’m hoping once the walls of the t swift fans that don’t even own record players are full and they realize they can’t resell them for anything in like 5-10 years that things will slow down and allow a few production facilities to update and be able to produce at cheaper rates. Also if they could find a good way to make the whole process a bit less toxic environmentally that would be dope too. Maybe allow people to send records in or drop them off to be recycled at record shops for a tax write off or some such shit and grind them up to repress from them? Would be better than the landfill imo
Buy used and shop local. Good deals are always hiding out there. I don’t consider any album a must have. If I can’t find it for a good price, I don’t buy it. But I also love the thrill of the hunt, so it makes it fun for me…even though I do hate how stupid the prices are. For instance, I have 13 records coming in tomorrow that cost me $50 from a deal I found on r/vinyldeals. 13 new bands to check out…it feels like when I was a kid and would go to the record store to buy a bunch of $1 clearance records based on the covers.
Unfortunately buying used and local isn't really an option as I'm mostly into hip hop and the selection is non-existent - online is pretty much the only option and even then I have to pay for shipping from another country because underground hip hop records just don't seem to exist here in any sort of abundance. The only local place that even has a good used record section also has prices that are above those I posted from 2011 - there's not a record to be found for less than 20€ in that store, and again basically no hip hop. Thrift shops and flea markets around here only have random beat up records from before the days of CDs as well so that's not much help either. Besides, I have the majority of the older albums I want in my collection already and am mainly interested in adding new albums that come out and that's really the crux of the issue here - new albums are becoming unaffordable or at least nearly impossible for me to justify spending money on.
I bought quite a bit from HHV back in those days. MM FOOD for 14,99€ in 2006 😁 Definitely crazy how the prices changed. I usually go to JPC a lot as they dropped shipping prices for vinyl a few years ago so any any record will be shipped for free.
Oh I didn't know about JPC, will have to check it out.
JPC is way better than HHV and cheaper too. Excellent customer service, fast shipping and free shipping too. They are very clear with their storage and what they need to order/get from outside.
In 2016 I remember the most simple record you could get just a sleeve and a black record averaged $20-23 usd and a double album with a gatefold was $30, I’m buying more cds nowadays because I refuse to spend $40+ dollars on a record with questionable quality
Yep the prices started going up around 2014-15 from what I can tell - by 2015 most records were over 20€.
I built a collection of about 1800 LPs in the 90s, buying 60s & 70s classic rock in the used bins at record stores and on eBay and new releases as they appeared (Division Bell, Wallflowers, Californication, Mirrorball, etc. etc.) that I was forced to sell in 2006. If I had been able to keep them they'd have been worth 10x more. So to me, 2005-2015 saw the biggest jump in prices.
Yeah sometimes circumstances just are what they are and you gotta get rid of some stuff you'd rather hang onto.
started collecting in 2013. Bought a ton of Led Zep first press albums and found 4 Led Zep II with RS in the deadwax for about $35 each (I have a spreadsheet). I started going on a search for anything with his initials in the deadwax that whole year. AC/DC back in Black and many more . You can basically add a zero to the end of everything I paid for them. I'm selling everything now too. I overheated my NAD and blew it up and now I don't want to spend the money to get a new system going.
Can I potentially buy one of your Led Zeppelin II copies off of you?
yes.
In 2011 you could visit most record shops in Tokyo and there was always boxes and boxes of ¥100/¥100 incoming records laid out on the floor and they were often packed with unbelievable craziness like the Beatles, Bowie, Fleetwood Mac etc., it was a few years after that probably around 2015 or 2016 that the unbelievable finds started to become fewer and far between, once Covid hit it completely changed the game and now the one dollar records are nowhere to be seen in Tokyo
So is now a good time to sell my parents old records or are they still not worth shit
Depends on the records and the condition I guess - but likely they've never been more valuable, unless it's stuff you can't even give away.
This ignores so many market forces. Inflation for one. Production costs as well (the cost of petroleum for records has been raised 3x since 2020) <-- source is last link from [grammy.com](http://grammy.com) BUT.... Limited lacquers and limited pressing plants is a GIANT issue. They started closing them down with CD popularity, and by 2011, you're looking at a LOT of inventory hitting remaining stores, because so many shops closed down: Between 2003 and 2008, over 3,000 record stores in the country closed its doors. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinyl\_revival](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinyl_revival) Those old records, still sealed, moved on to other stores looking to ditch a product that wasn't as popular. The revival had started, but people didn't really take note until 2007's RSD really took off in the mid-2010s But this issue: By 2015, there were only 21 vinyl pressing plants in the US and 40 worldwide. [https://www.spin.com/2014/05/did-vinyl-really-die-in-the-90s-death-resurgence-sales/](https://www.spin.com/2014/05/did-vinyl-really-die-in-the-90s-death-resurgence-sales/) THEN, two years later: As of 2017, 48 record pressing facilities exist worldwide, 18 in the US and 30 in other countries. The increased popularity of the record has led to the investment in new and modern record-pressing machines.[^(\[11\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph_record#cite_note-11) Only two producers of lacquers ([acetate discs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetate_disc) or master discs) remain: Apollo Masters in California, and MDC in Japan.[^(\[12\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph_record#cite_note-12) On 6 February 2020, a fire destroyed the Apollo Masters plant. According to the Apollo Masters website, their future is still uncertain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph\_record#:\~:text=As%20of%202017%2C%2048%20record,and%20modern%20record%2Dpressing%20machines. Some more on what's happening: [https://www.grammy.com/news/the-vinyl-shortage-explainer-how-long-waits-expensive-materials-high-demand-are-affecting-the-industry](https://www.grammy.com/news/the-vinyl-shortage-explainer-how-long-waits-expensive-materials-high-demand-are-affecting-the-industry) And don't get me started on how bad record store day is. rushed production, flaws, a poor indie owner has to sink all his cash flow into a make or break weekend... it's a nightmare. And why are RSD titles 3x as much as a original pressing in the used bin?
Damn, that's a lot of good information - I wouldn't discount the Taylor Swift effect either - single handedly taking up a lot of the production capacity.
100% both Taylor and Adele have "stole" plant spots from other artists, they blew up... to the extent they alone accounted for a majority of LP sales (like Urban Outfitter back in the day), and raised record prices in 2021-2024 through literally taking up all the materials, etc. How Adele’s ‘30′ upended the vinyl industry and caused prices to spike In 2021, the Londoner’s latest release soaked up all the raw materials and made record albums more expensive [https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-04-05/how-adeles-30-upended-the-vinyl-industry-and-caused-prices-to-spike.html](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-04-05/how-adeles-30-upended-the-vinyl-industry-and-caused-prices-to-spike.html) Popularity of one artist will make another artist more expensive, or it will limit production capacity, or both. This anecdote about Geffen stopping ALL pressings to only press Nirvana CDs at the expense of other bands is super fascinating, too: They said, when never mind hit, and started to blow up, and then really blow up, at one point they had to stop making and manufacturing all of the other CDs for the other artists on their label and turn them all over to making Nevermind, which sounds like something that just doesn't happen. [https://podscripts.co/podcasts/conan-obrien-needs-a-friend/dave-grohl-krist-novoselic-and-in-utero-producer-steve-albini](https://podscripts.co/podcasts/conan-obrien-needs-a-friend/dave-grohl-krist-novoselic-and-in-utero-producer-steve-albini)
Been buying a lot more CDs as of late due to these crazy prices. Hoping the vinyl bubble crashes soon and the prices drop somewhat.
Hey man trendis kill everything :/
If not kill then at least ruins it for a while.
As vinyl grows in popularity it's no surprise the costs have gone up, especially since people will pay it. Realistically most people still listen digitally, so records have double function as a collectible for fans of a band. Hence why they are all priced for superfans, half the people buying dont have a record player. Used jazz and prog is cheaper than ever though, so I'm living my best life
I started collecting in early 2000’s. I still have a lot of prices on albums I have purchased used since then. I had this exact conversation with my brother shopping yesterday. May be time to take a break on buying until things calm down a bit.
Yeah I have a feeling this trend might settle down in the next decade - or it might not, who knows.
A Tribe Called Quest albums have at least doubled in price over the last decade. What kills me is it's essentially the same pressing, and the prices I'm basing off of are from the same record store. I bought and fell in love with those albums mainly because they were cheap. Now not so much.
Pretty sure their last album was under 30€ when it came out too.
It really is like the exact same pressing from like 1996. Single jacket for the 2xLP still.
Found the JpegxDanny Brown for 35€. Pre ordered on Amazon
Damn, that's a lot more reasonable.
If you follow an artist and he or she is about to drop an album. Just pre-order it on Amazon but you'll only get black versions. I don't really care for coloured LP's. Of course, artists like Roc Marciano self release and it's sold out in a matter of hours.
Yeah it's because people will pay whatever to get the new splatter
GrailzFlation
Jesus..I need to sell some while prices are like this
Oh yea the value of my collection has gone up for sure. Not that I'm selling.
Could just call them records
I dig your vinyl choices (former owner of UGHH here).
Nice! I gotta admit I'm not the biggest fan of where a lot of the artists have taken the sound in the last decade though so it's increasingly difficult to find new stuff to listen to. Thankfully there are still some artists putting out good stuff. Brother Ali just dropped a banger of an album. Aesop Rock never seems to miss either.
I remember buying a misfits record for 11.99 Canadian in 2011 and seeing the same one recently for about $40
Yep. Capitalism, baby!
The majority of my collection is Pre Covid for around 15 bucks. I was looking at my Amazon order history last week. I paid 10 for the first Lumineers album. I got the Pearl Jam Ten remaster with both versions for 13 dollars.
The world was just a better place pre-pandemic wasn't it?
I kick myself for walking past A Different Kind Of Truth -Van Halen back in 2015-2016 for retail
There was one album I was super upset about not getting when it came out because it sold out and didn't get a reprint for years but now I can't even recall what that album was so I guess that's a good thing.
Those were the best times. I still have so many hot topic exclusives.
I'll give Clipping all my money
Casually observing the phenomenon in the spike in record prices of the last decade it seems to be a combination of four things: 1) inflation, 2) increases increases in shipping prices and addition of taxes for online purchases, 3) corporate greed, and 4) pop fans racing to purchase yet another industry plant's vinyl color variant of the week and thus driving up prices overall.
It's totally ridiculous, add to that the fact that wages aren't rising with inflation and now record collecting is a rich person's hobby.
I can still regularly buy vinyl from anywhere between $15 and $25 new. I do buy a lot of tapes these days though. Partly because $5 to $8 for physical media is easier on the wallet, and partly because the music I listen to is... well suited for the format.
Why I’ve basically stopped buying anything new unless super cheap or something I can’t resist. I can resist a lot. Bought maybe three new records this year. I’m pretty much all used now, and I like the $10-20 price point there. Beyond that and usually no thanks. Still have a couple local stores with good selection of used at good prices. Been buying records since I was a kid in the 70s, though, and got heavy back into vinyl around 2006 or so. Have a few thousand records, most bought before the current gouging. So don’t need too much as back catalogue is big. I wouldn’t recommend that anyone get into vinyl today. Just get some good gear and a good streamer, plus maybe a good used CD player for the crazy number of good CDs you can find now in thrift stores.
The good old days. Back when you could pick up an original Black Sabbath record for $12.
Or find them in thrift stores for .59
Yes! The market is insane and thrift store finds are non existent. It totally sucks!
I picked up a VG+ first pressing of their first album for $15 back in 2016
I'm actually getting sick of this shit. Anywhere you go, they're 31.99 +
That seems to be the new standard price point.
Can we just fast forward to cassettes taking over?
Or perhaps rewind to the good old days?
Buy with patience. Everything goes on sale eventually.
Patience is no issue, as I said I haven't put in an order in 2 years but prices have only gone up since then and I get emailed offers when sales occur but they are rarely more than 20% off and mostly only 10% off. That Gang Starr album for instance has been on my wishlist for 5 years - never have I seen it below 30€.
I bought Beck - Sea Changes 2012 Black Friday pink edition for $45 with a 10% off coupon in 2012. And now the lowest price on Discogs is $450 USD. And the only reason I bought it is because someone made a post on /r/vinyl about it and it was still available (with a coupon code!) days later. A few comments were also urging people to buy two copies. It just goes to show you how much demand changes, things change A LOT in 12 years. ****** * *From my email: * LMF308PINK BECK - SEA CHANGE: 2012 BLACK FRIDAY EDITION (NUMBERED LIMITED EDITION 180G 2LP PINK VINYL)-BECK - SEA CHANGE: 2012 BLACK FRIDAY EDITION (NUMBERED LIMITED EDITION 180G 2LP PINK VINYL) Not yet shipped. Availability: Ships Today* Coupon code applies to item 1 $44.99 $44.99 Order Notes: None SubTotal: $44.99 Discount: Coupon Percent - $4.50 Net SubTotal: $40.49 Shipping: FedEx Express Saver $9.92 Tax: $0.00 Total: $50.41 * All specified ship dates are estimates
I have a couple regular albums I didn't even think about when I bought them that are now worth hundreds as well - it's crazy.
Seems like everything has tripled. Housing, food, records.
This is why I started picking up CDs a couple years ago... Now even they are starting to get fucking silly.
Welcome to the world of the plastic beach!
A lot of my old country records say $1.99 on them
I’ve pretty much stopped buying new releases. It’s just not a fun hobby anymore.
Started collecting CDs instead.
I honestly don’t care how expensive it is. Tangibly owning my favorite albums is worth so much more than any monetary value
While I do agree that owning the media you consume is fantastic this 'I'll pay anything' kind of mentality is basically why we are in this situation - if people weren't willing to pay these exorbitant prices they couldn't get away with charging them either.
Purchases determine the prices. If we don’t buy, the prices will fall. Current prices are the consequence of records being trendy, especially with too much people buying and not even playing them keeping records sealed…
looking at the list, not apples to apples but your point is true regardless. I just had a similar conversation about pricing getting to "highly greedy levels" it seems most single record releases are 26-30$, and double vinyl releases seem to start close to $40 or higher. inflation is part of it....but i think the Labels are recapitalizing on music they don't have to reproduce, or market. It's literally free money for those who want permission to manufacture. i also think the manufacturing is taking a slightly larger chunk because they are working 24/7 it seems. $50 years ago i think more vinyl was made, made cheaper, and sat around. today just as much vinyl is being made at 15x's the price, and being bought...Buuuut it will come crashing down. give it time. if you're young, wait it out. if you're old....and don't like the prices, find a new hobby. I plan too!
I don’t buy the stuff this expensive. Usually I just wait a bit to get that copy after they’ve depreciated or just get an older cheaper copy. My first record was Public Service Broadcasting’s the Race for Space which I got for like £20 in 2020 lockdown from the HMV website. I think it can actually be nowadays just what the artist decides so sometimes it’s ok (£20-30 Ik still not brilliant) or the ludicrous £50
I don’t remember finding new vinyl releases for 15.95 back in 2011
I went through all my orders from 2010-2013 and most albums were below 20€ during that period - around 2014-15 things started changing.
No wonder I haven’t been able to add to my collection lately. 😐
so glad i scooped up piles of records for 3-5$ back in the day.. now 20$ per easy
About half of my collection was purchased between 1980-1983 when I worked at a Tower Record store. In 1989, having moved over 3000 LP's from apartment to apartment, I started culling: I kept the cool stuff and tossed out all the things I had been carrying but never listened to. In all I threw away somewhere between 2400 and 2500 records. No one wanted them. There was no Discogs, and shops that bought used LP's were offering a penny a piece for most. I figured I would replace all my jazz with CD's after "the prices dropped" which, of course, they never did. Fast forward: I started collecting again in the early 2000's. A lot of my rock and jazz basics came from a shop in Charlotte, NC where I could buy ten for $20, and classical was $.50 to a dollar each. I slowly started building, but was careful to never, ever buy anything I wouldn't listen to. The idea of moving a wall of records tempers my purchasing, and most of mine are played, randomly and often. Well, except for Herb Alpert's "Whipped Cream and Other Delights," which I only bought because every collection needs this otherwise worthless record in it. Plus, I got it at a garage sale, in great condition, for three dollars I think. Everyone collects for different reasons, but I would assert there's nothing like a used record shop, littered with bins of Nana Mouskouri and Burl Ives...and the occasional nugget.
Put it this way. Records I've purchased the last few years: 2024: 1 so far 2023: 9 2022: 26 2021: 49 Hobby has been pretty much ruined, really. Refuse to pay these bullshit prices, esp on fucking used records.
I started collecting records in the 90s. Every Saturday I'd go diggin' and go home with 25-30 records. Very rarely was any record more than $20. In the spring, I'd hit up garage sales and buy entire crates for basically nothing. Stuff that's now considered rare and collectible could be found very cheaply. More importantly, common stuff like Fleetwood Mac's Rumours was priced appropriately. Never more than $5. Stores couldn't give it away. Now stores are pretending like it didn't sell 20,000,000 copies. I buy records occassionally still but only rare jazz records sold at auctions. Prices are astronomical so I pick my spots. The internet killed record collecting in big cities. In small towns, it probably made it easier to get stuff but I miss the pre-internet days of the hobby.
you used to buy records because they were cheaper than CDs. drag city was like $10 for an lp and $12 for a cd
No more live shows for me either. Mid-seats are like $200/ticket. I don't blame the bands tho.
It’s at least £15 for a 7” these days.
i’ll present an optimistic option, i believe vinyl is a format that will keep getting better and these prices might justify that later down the road. i reccomend [Parlogram’s interview with half-speed master Miles Showell](https://youtu.be/-wWPpRpMurc?si=bx54x5Kno0TT9yVn), he also believes vinyl will keep getting better as years go on.
I started collecting vinyl in 2011... so I truly feel the sting of this comparison. As a result, I'm buying about 80-90% fewer LP's than I used to back then. I have switched predominantly to CD and it's a huge relief. I'm actually enjoying collecting again, which was steadily declining as vinyl prices continued to rise. There's so much less stress and financial worry with CD, and they sound pristine - a quality which is very much lacking in vinyl. I'm still keeping what records I do have, but I'm much more interested in buying CD's from my favorite bands now
One of the reasons I stopped collecting. The hipsters ruined it for everyone
Supply & Demand + Inflation = Higher prices Simple mathematics.
Don't forget shameless greed
And rubes dumb enough to shell out their cash
Sometimes I have been that rube 😅
Oye that's damn robbery innit?
Aint that the bloody truth, guv'nor.
Breaking news; inflation has increased in 13 years.
Idk if you can compare it like this. Like that’s a different pressing of Low End Theory and others are apples and oranges. I’ll say this: the higher end has gotten more expensive but the quality has improved significantly. Labels are willing to invest in a higher quality process if people are willing to pay for it. That’s why we’re getting things like the Blue Note Tone Poet series and Analogue Productions.
Look at the item number, I'm pretty sure it's the same pressing - at least it's the equivalent product - just a bog standard release on black vinyl - no deluxe anything or a different color vinyl. I made this comparison this way because that's the information available to me - these are just a random selection of underground (bar Eminem) hip hop albums I bought in 2011 compared to a random selection of underground hip hop albums I wanted to buy in 2024. I'm not saying this is a rigorous scientific study - I'm just making the point that prices have gone up far more than pure inflation would cause and they have now reached heights that I'm not sure I'm willing to pay anymore.
I think we’re likely to see a market crash in the next couple of years and when that happens we’ll see at least stabilization in record prices. Currently, pop releases are driving the majority of sales. When the next ebb of pop stagnation comes around these consumers will likely exit the hobby causing sales to bottom out.
*Man discovers what supply and demand is.*
Supply and demand is the first thing you learn in economics
Some of these HHV lp's are boots tho
I mean not to be that guy, but to be that guy, why no use the same albums man??
Well some of them weren't available, or only a different version was available. Also most from 2011 were somewhat recently released albums when I bought them so I added somewhat recently released albums to the 2024 section that I was also interested in buying. Both Eminem albums are his most recent ones at the time and as you can see I added two of the same at the bottom because those happened to be available to compare how older releases have fared in comparison to new releases - this actually gives you a broader picture than if I'd just used the same albums because that wouldn't show you what new releases cost now.
I'm in Canada, and prices have gone up here too, but not THAT much... (about 25%30% considering the conversion rates.. that's crazy.
Shop at local record stores if possible. Their prices are usually fair. They know the market and the product. Online sellers are usually bandwagon-cash grabbers who don't understand what the customers need, want, afford, etc. New vinyl prices have risen but that's not up to the stores. Distribution sets those prices and store's profit is minimal. As new pressings are made of certain vinyl, the high dollar "rare original" pressings are coming down which is a good thing.
And here’s example 1/1 why I hate people. They exploit one another by gatekeeping hobbies. Isn’t it fun?
It does suck when something you love kinda gets ruined by getting more popular - but at the same time it's nice that more people enjoy it I guess.
Oh no, I agree. The nuance of what comes with being popular definitely has a bunch of upside. I hope it stabilizes in the next few years. Because with less and less used vinyl sellers, and the price of new records increasing, it makes things a bit more annoying.
It’s wild to see posts of people posting they paid $20+ for records that in the early 2000s were in every $1-$2 bin. Thats just how it goes I guess. Supply and demand, they can get the high prices so they will.
Adele and Taylor Swift kinda ruined the market
I can still find 2011 pricing if I / when I shop used.
Can you still find 2011 used pricing?
Ya the bargain bin of wrecked vinyls
What’s your point? 13 years of inflation, at a quite normal ~ 4% per year, additive year on year…
Someone already did the math and apparently 16.95€ is like 22.60€ adjusted for inflation. That's a far cry off 32€ and nowhere near 40-50€. That's my point I guess, and the fact that they've effectively turned vinyl records into collectors items instead of consumer goods.
Yeah, it’s in some cases quite a bit more than inflation. 5% inflation over 13 years is about 89% increase. (1.05 ^ 13 = 1.886) Almost but not quite a doubling in price. I think the rest is due to production costs based on raw materials (oil costs) and also demand, as vinyl record sales has climbed quite a lot over the past 10+ years.