Please read the disclaimers at the bottom of this page where you
will also find my phone number!
Please note I am a uk collector and rarely buy from outside the
uk.
Got a load of 78s? I hope so! See my
hopefully helpful artical on them they are my main love!
I am also interested in large collections (100 or more) of
classical cds on labels like EMI, Chandos, Deutsch Gram, etc. Rare
repertoire is also of great interest to me on CDS. Please email
me
Are you looking to sell your collection of classical music on
vinyl? Have you recently inherited a huge load of vinyl albums that
you have no idea about? As a long-time collector or hoarder of
records I can help you with that and hopefully buy your records as a
collection, to save you moving them around your local car boot
sales/charity shops!
First thing’s first, classical records, even in mint
condition, are not rare. If you thought that lovely readers digest
box set was going to fund a holiday forget it! However a wideband
stereo decca may well do that, and if you’re wondering if
that’s some sort of magic incantation or what all that means,
read on…
I’m going to talk through classical lps first of all, then
other types, this is because with classical records I know what I’m
talking about and everything else is way too wide for a single
webpage!
p.s. a series is usually a prefix before a number on a record,
for example hmv ALP1990. Think of it as sort of a catalog code, that
does not mean it was made in 1990!
Let's talk first about the big labels:
sell your Decca vinyl lps/albums:
While the label started in 1929 with M series 78s
it’s the lps (long players, albums, vinyls, whatever you want
to call them) that I’ll be talking about here. The LXT prefix
was used on the first 12 inch lps, and these were revolutionary (pun
not intended)
I’ve trorled through the 1950s editions of
the gramophone magazine and the importance of these issues, when they
first came out in 1950 and 51 were some of the first lps in the uk.
For classical music lovers this was huge! No more flipping over
stacks of big heavy 78s, buying autochange sets of 6 12 inch discs
each for a symphony, listening to that annoying (you get used to it)
ca-ching! As one record ends and the stylus returns, I’m sure
you see my point!
That’s
a picture of decca lxt2501 from 1950, from discogs.
The mono LXT records can be quite valuable, the
ones that spring to mind are of violinist Emil Telmanyi playing Bach,
those can fetch 3 and 4 figure sums! But the majority can be had very
cheaply, indeed my nice copy of the above record of Bach’s
Brandenburg concerti was bought from ebay for under £10 postage
included!
Sort after records on mono deccas, as indeed with
most mono lps seem to be solo violin or violin sonatas, some solo
piano, cello etc and not orchestral music, and surprise surprise most
of what was put out was orchestral music! Decca also made 10 inch lps
in an LX series, these are harder to find but not too valuable, good
records though!
But, here’s where even the orchestral lps
get pricey…
in 1958 Decca started issuing stereo lps in the
SXL series. This is where things get complex, as a lot of these were
issued and then reissued with the same numbers etc! First editions
can be easily recognised due to the words 'Original Recording by...'
written around the rim of the label, also they have a wide band just
under the label name (Decca)
confusing,
definitely! Here are pictures of one of my stereo decca first
editions…
I
hope that helps!
If you’d like more pics, head over to the
great guys at Watson
records
Sell your old
Columbia vinyl records:
Again they had
their start much earlier on, Columbia cylinders were being made in
the 1890s and were very clear for that early date! In the 1920s they
made wonderful sets of classical 78s, some of which were tied with
string in their albums! They started producing lps in the early 50s
with a 33cx series, 33 for 33rpm, c for columbia, what’s with
the X? These had a blue label with gold writing, here’s an
early example from 1952.
Among these are
some incredibly valuable items. If you have any Johanna Martzy
hanging around you’re really doing well! Or columbia 33cx1415,
David Oistrakh playing Tartini and Mozart sonatas, which is still the
most valuable record I’ve ever had through my hands! But again,
most releases were orchestral and are not of great value though they
are very very good! The same can be said for the 10 inch lp 33cx
series.
And once again,
1958 saw the start of the columbia SAX series. Blue and silver
pressings of any of these should set you back £10 and far, far
more, some of the Kogan lps and other violin items going for 4 figure
sums! Later pressings however are far less valuable and have red
semicircle labels. Someone managed to get a breathtaking £7000
last year for this
lp, few! Speaking personally there’s no audible difference
between first and second pressings on my setup, the prices, to me,
seem to have mostly snob value!
Sell your old His
Master’s Voice (HMV) vinyl albums
I’m sure
many people still call 78s old hmv’s, hmv records, etc. When I
was out and about looking for them if an older person didn’t
know what a 78 was, old master’s voice records would sometimes
get a response! But let’s talk about the lps on this page.
There were quite
a few series. The main early one being the mono 12 inch ALP series of
records, there was also a BLP series of 10 inch discs, CLP tended to
be more popular, and DLP was the popular 10 inch series, for example
Elvis Presly’s first lps were on 12 inch CLP and the best of
Elvis from 57 was on 10 inch DLP
There aren’t
really many valuable items on classical mono hmv, exceptions include
those conducted by FURTWÄNGLER (his biography, to me, is more
interesting than his conducting) violinists like GINETTE NEVEU,
GIACONDA DE VITO, MAX ROSTAL and other generally more obscure
players.. Mono hmv’s tend to have a red label with that famous
logo in a semicircle.
Yet again the
stereo hmv albums tend to be much more valuable, but they have to be
first pressings and yet again there doesn’t seem, or sound, to
be a reason for that! They came in an ASD series, and started with
ASD250. Those early ones had a white label with gold edges, a lot of
collectors call them cream and gold though.
If all this has
just been really confusing, why not write out a list of catalog
numbers and email
me your list!
Smaller labels
and less valuable additions:
classics for
pleasure: good way of getting really great EMI recordings for a
fraction of the price, one example columbia SAX2386 has sold for
£7000 while you can have the classics for pleasure cfp139 for
£10 on a regular basis! I’m trying to complete a run of
cfp, by the way!
Deutsch
gramophon: the main German label, but the sound tends to be less
great than Columbia, Decca etc and they sold well. Some stereo
editions with large tulips fetch good money as do some mono cello
records but few and far between.
Philips: similar
situation to dg above, though some plum labels with hifi on them can
be more valuable.
Turnabout: I
personally like this label a lot as there are plenty of obscure works
on it, but they’re worth peanuts in terms of price, indeed I
bought over 200 of them as a job lot from ebay for I think £50
including postage! Alfred Brendel recorded a lot for turnabout, those
arr excellent records!
Harmonia Mundi:
this is a seriously excellent label for fans of early and baroque
music, I’m definitely one of those and have many hm records.
Not very valuable, though, other than a few now sort after titles
such as Musique de la Grece Antique which is rated among the best
audiophile lps, I have a copy and there are many good reasons for
that!
Archiv
Produktion: the early music branch of DG, again wonderful lps, not
overly valuable unless you happen to have Enrico MAINARDI playing
Bach’s cello suites!
L'Oiseau-Lyre:
Decca’s early music branch, I’ve yet to find a bad record
on this label! Not overly valuable but there are of course
exceptions, *JEAN-MAX CLEMENT again with Bach’s cello suites
(seeing a pattern?) the great Alfredo Campoli playing Sarasate’s
spanish dances, yet again mostly violin and cello records that fetch
the money.
Heliodor: dg’s
budget label, I’ve never seen any lps on this label sell for
much money.
I’m not
even going to attempt to talk about non-classical stuff here as I
know little about it, but please, if you have a mixed collection do
not hesitate to get in touch!
Disclaimer: I am
totally blind, hence the use of Watson records useful site for
pictures, and I may have not positioned photos correctly, etc. I’ve
tried to make this not just look like a huge block of text but it
possibly does!
I am a record
collector, not a dealer in the true sense of the world. I’d
rather take on a large collection of records for myself than for
resale value. There are many dealers who might look through and pick
rarities, not me!
Contact me:
phone: 07500422090 (do not text)
email:
rgodridge1@gmail.com