Unplayable second hand LPs

[steveinfrance]

Just bought 20 -odd LPs (quite a lot of wide band Deccas) from various EBay sellers. Only three are near perfect, most track poorly due (I presume) to wear and half a dozen are unplayable.
Depressing really.
What's your rejection rate on second hand vinyl?

[alfie2902]

These days I try to see the 2nd hand vinyl first if possible or use reputable dealers who understand how to grade vinyl. eBay is just a lottery...

[camtwister]

Three out of twenty is unfortunately poor.

I split my purchases about fifty-fifty between record fairs and eBay. I have established a saved sellers list for the auction site and buy from those that I trust whenever possible. I took a few to the chin initially, but now I know that the vendors gradings are reliable, it's less of a lottery.

[Jac Hawk]

only 2 really bad ones from ebay, 1 had a really bad edge warp, and the other was covered in bad scratches, both were described as VG+, mind you the seller who sold me the LP with a bad edge warp did offer to give my money back. It's always a gamble buying used vinyl, some is good some is bad, i've found vinyl 'traders' on ebay don't give the best description of the vinyl as most of the time they don't actually play the LP, they only inspect by eye, so in general they have no idea what the sound is like, that's not to say that they're trying to sell you crap, just that they don't always get the time to actually listen to the LP they're selling.

A couple of days ago a received a copy of 'Nightclubbing' by Grace Jones, it was sold to me by a person selling off their record collection, it cost me £1.99 plus postage, anyway when it arrived 1st off it was very well packed in a proper LP postage sleeve, then i found a letter detailing roughly how many times it had been played, how it had been stored and that it was sold from their collection. It's the 1st second hand LP i've ever bought that didn't need anything, no cleaning, dusting, nothing it's absolutely perfect.

Personally i don't think it really matters where you get the vinyl from, yes if you go to a shop and inspect the LP 1st you will avoid the stuff that should be in the bin, but again you can only inspect by eye, and to be honest the LP i bought with a bad edge warp wasn't spotted by me until it was on the TT and spinning, at the end of the day, you pay your money and you take your chances ;)

[steveinfrance]

It's always a gamble buying used vinyl, some is good some is bad, i've found vinyl 'traders' on ebay don't give the best description of the vinyl as most of the time they don't actually play the LP, they only inspect by eye, so in general they have no idea what the sound is like, that's not to say that they're trying to sell you crap, just that they don't always get the time to actually listen to the LP they're selling.



Yes, one of the vendors admitted he never listens to the disk, just visually inspects. Unfortunately I don't have much choice being in the Back of Beyond in very rural France. The other problem for me is postage since I tend to buy from the UK (cheaper and the Euro is still absurdly strong against the ££). £9 to send a £1.99 record back is not an option.

[hifi_dave]

I reckon 1 in 4 of my E-Bay LP purchases have been 'immaculate' as described, which is not good. I've now got a small pile of vinyl which I would describe as 'fair' and will be going to the local charity shops.

This makes me very wary of buying any more.

[The Grand Wazoo]

I generally have a very high success rate. I've been disappointed with Ebay deals once or twice. However I once spent about £85 at a market stall on what I thought were pristine condition, cleaned records, as I had very carefully inspected the playing surfaces of each one, got home and found they were noisy beyond listenability. I reckon the stall holder had spent some time cleaning them with Brillo pads or something! They were clean and shiny. Oh yes - that was beyond doubt - but the grooves were destroyed.
Needless to say he wasn't there when I took them back the next week.

[Macca]

I generally have a very high success rate. I've been disappointed with Ebay deals once or twice. However I once spent about £85 at a market stall on what I thought were pristine condition, cleaned records, as I had very carefully inspected the playing surfaces of each one, got home and found they were noisy beyond listenability. I reckon the stall holder had spent some time cleaning them with Brillo pads or something! They were clean and shiny. Oh yes - that was beyond doubt - but the grooves were destroyed.
Needless to say he wasn't there when I took them back the next week.

That's a bitch -it's a crime against humanity akin to book burning IMO

[The Grand Wazoo]

Yeah & if I think about all the stuff he had on the stall - he probably nadgered 10's of 1000's of quid's worth of stuff at today's prices!! He had a really different selection of records that you just don't see anywhere - ever!
If I'd been slightly less self controlled, I could've spent a lot more that day!!

[jandl100]

... They were clean and shiny. Oh yes - that was beyond doubt - but the grooves were destroyed.


Yes, that happens quite a lot. Visual inspection can't identify groove damage from a worn stylus, sadly.

Having come a cropper a few times too many on eBay, I now do most of my used LP shopping in charity shops ...
- visual inspection
- usually very cheap
- if it's a duffer then the money went to a hopefully good cause anyway! :)

I've found some really lovely LPs in charity shops. Most of my collection is from them. :thumbsup:

[hifi_dave]

I don't know how you guys do it. Every time I go into charity shops, all there is are MFP, Russ Conway, Band of the Irish Guards, Leo Sayer, Des O'Connor and other tat that I'm not really interested in. I've never bought a single LP from a charity shop..:scratch:

[Macca]

, Band of the Irish Guards

:lolsign:

[chelsea]

I've been pretty lucky.
Out of the 200 i've bought this year from ebay,car boots and charity shops about 5 are to noisy that i can't play them.It makes radio luxemburg sound like sacd.

Learnt quickly that visual condition dosen't mean to much.
Bought an xtc album that looked really good but is awful.

[rusty bearing]

Hi all, new here but I've bought plenty of vinyl from 'that auction site'.
Sounds like I've been reasonably lucky then. Had a few that were not in the condition the seller described, probably only two that I can think of in the last couple of years.
I think you just need to be very careful and read between the lines sort of thing. Most sellers exagerate conditon so I never buy below Ex, and anything that says visual condition I avoid like the plague!

[Audioman]

Very few Ebay sellers listen to the records they sell. Even if they do it is often with an old nail. You have to look out for sellers who detail the condition and/or RCM clean records. Still no guarantee of perfection and I now restrict myself to EX+ / mint- grades. Having purchased regularly on Ebay for over 8 years I can say it is becoming increasingly hard to source top condition vinyl. Furthurmore there are few cheap items available with overpricing widespread - not just collectables.

[keiths]

I don't know how you guys do it. Every time I go into charity shops, all there is are MFP, Russ Conway, Band of the Irish Guards, Leo Sayer, Des O'Connor and other tat that I'm not really interested in. I've never bought a single LP from a charity shop..:scratch:

It's like that much of the time Dave. I go in to two local charity shops regularly (maybe twice a week each) to see what they've got and it's mostly the same old James Last and Max Bygraves LPs, but every now and again they've better stuff just in and, very occasionally, you can be really lucky (as I was a few weeks back with a bunch of early Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra discs - all original pressings and all in excellent or better condition).

[Alex_UK]

I too pretty much gave up buying used vinyl from eBay. Most of the stuff I've bought has been rubbish compared to the description. My best source for 2nd hand LPs is the local Barnados shop. They openly admit they haven't a clue about what they get in, and they sell everything for £1 each, whatever it is. I've offered to help by checking whatever they get in and selling the good stuff on eBay for them (and of course having "first dibs" on anything I want, at a fair price) but they're not interested - they'd rather just punt them out at a quid each and take the rough with the smooth.

[colinB]

Most stuff i buy of ebay has been good but this morning i received a Banshees lp that was described as " looks like it has never been played ".
Looks like some ones tried cleaning it with sand paper more like. :lol:

[rusty bearing]

Very few Ebay sellers listen to the records they sell. Even if they do it is often with an old nail. You have to look out for sellers who detail the condition and/or RCM clean records. Still no guarantee of perfection and I now restrict myself to EX+ / mint- grades. Having purchased regularly on Ebay for over 8 years I can say it is becoming increasingly hard to source top condition vinyl. Furthurmore there are few cheap items available with overpricing widespread - not just collectables.

Agree 100%. I've found that I dont buy now fior those very reasons.:rolleyes:

[stewartwen]

There is a GOLDMINE of vinyl in Lnancashire. The downside is that you have to go along in person, cash money only.
The seller has a vast amount of vinyl, although he carries a relatively small amount to his pitch. If you want anything he can generally get it. I have been dealing with him for about 7 years now and have bought many albums of him and not one of them has had to be returned.
If you want details pm me.
S

[serendipitydawg]

Some wisdom from Mr Popeck

" There are probably six billion LPs out there with amazing music trapped in those little grooves, the majority of which may never appear in hi-resolution digital format. And as these records don’t deteriorate if looked after, they are now passing down to new listeners. "

Max Townshend interview with Howard Popeck.

Stewart, I guess this means there are goldmines everywhere.

Not being critical, but I note with interest that you "tease" us all by telling us ABOUT a goldmine,not WHERE it is.

Not that I blame you. I'd always keep any treasure trove of vinyl to myself. I once scratched a meagre living as a record dealer.

Just curious. Some of my favourite vinyl items just seem to "come into my possesion" with no intervention or searching. I'd like to think all the records I ever sold were playable

[synsei]

My hit rate with ebay purchases is appalling, I've bought 10 LP's from various sellers and not one has been playable. To be fair to the sellers they all offered refunds and to a man and woman, told me to do what I will with the albums. The problems I encountered range from, a severe pressing defect which is very visible to the naked eye, several off centre pressings, severe warpage, one deep scratch and excessive surface noise. I should add that apart from the album which exhibited the pressing defect, all the others looked superb upon cursory examination.

As some may remember, I source a good many of my records from a local recycle centre and my success rate from this outlet is superb. I've purchased over forty records in just over a year and of those records I have rejected just two. The advantage here is that I can personally examine any vinyl that catches my eye, although as has already been mentioned, that is no guarantee in itself. Another fantastic advantage is that I've not paid more than a pound for any individual LP, and often a lot less. They tend to price their LP's on the popularity of the artist. :cool:

[stewartwen]

I have another one, that you all can use............................................... ............................www.juno.co.uk
S