Recording
I’ve always stayed away from buying vinyl records because they seem notoriously worthless on the resale market. Most sell for only $1 each, and even if you have a more valuable one, the record grading scale is super subjective and finicky. On top of that, they’re also impractical to listen to nowadays, so you’re only selling to true collectors (who, like mentioned, are annoying and finicky).
Recently though, my interest in records has peaked. The first thing that changed my mind about these otherwise frisbees was friend Organtitus selling a Misfits record he bought in the 80s…FOR OVER $600.
AND IT WAS IN BAD CONDITION. Wow.
Then, Zach went to Dixieland Flea Market to shop for old watches and stumbled on this:
And this:
Both of these albums are super rare. The first is The 13th Floor Elevators debut album in Mono, which is apparently important to collectors. This record in mint condition sells for over $1,000. Zach’s copy had definitely seen better days, but for $20, it was worth buying for sure.
What’s funny is that Zach looked right over this record because he wasn’t expecting to see it. When looking at record collections, you expect to see the usual 3 Dog Night, Pat Benatar, and Wings albums. You don’t expect to see a super rare and valuable album…especially not at Dixieland.
The second album is the Silver Apples self-titled debut album. While not particularly valuable, it is MEGA rare. Again, this isn’t in great shape, but it was $2.
Zach ended up selling The 13th Floor Elevators album for $100, even though the jacket was taped and the album had scratches. Amazing.
And get this, the other day I was watching American Pickers and Mike Wolfe bought a copy of the Beatles’ “Yesterday and Today” album with the rare “butcher cover.” The album was pulled for its controversial cover, but supposedly 100 copies still float around in existence today.
Mike paid $500 for his copy because it was pretty beat up, but this record can be worth as much as $15,000.
So what is the most rare record? Or perhaps the most valuable? Well, in 1999, a copy of John Lennon’s and Yoko Ono’s “Double Fantasy” sold for over $400,000 at auction. The reason? It was autographed by Lennon just hours before his death. And who did he sign it for? None other than this eventual murderer, Mark David Chapman.
Ok, so one last record thing. Check out this super corny deleted scene from High Fidelity. It features most of the rarest records out there. It also features the corniest content of a movie scene possibly ever.
-Erin