Overgraded Vinyl Blues
Vinyl is like a new car – as soon as it is driven out of the showroom (you plonk the needle down on it), it devalues by25%. A brand new unplayed record is in “mint” condition. Usually the cover is too – although not infrequently the cover has been banged up or creased in some way – in which case it becomes “near mint”. A record that has been played a few times without any evidence of scuffs, scrapes or scratches – is near mint. (NM). The highest quality second hand records are, generally, near mint in near mint covers. Collectors seek out NM+/NM- discs and pay a premium for them. Obviously the older the record is, the less likely it is to be in NM condition, and the more valuable it is. Record stores often obtain NM treasures not from ordinary Joe’s but from DJs, record reviewers, individuals working in record companies, or obsessive collectors (he dies and 5 seconds later, without remorse, his widow flogs the collection – which is then bought up piecemeal by dozens of other obsessive collectors with long suffering wives).*
Over the past couple of months I have been cataloguing my record collection, which features lots of new (mint) records, newish (near mint) records, albums that I have bought second hand and ones that I have purchased new myself over the past 35 years. In general, of the latter group, the only records that are NM are the ones that I picked up in sales, and discovered that I didn’t like them much! A couple of needle slides across the record will produce a scrape that reduces the quality of the record to Very Good Plus (VG+). In fact, most records that you buy in a second hand shop will have a cover that is VG or VG+, and likely a VG+ record. Rarely is the cover better than the record. Similarly a scuffed up stained cover with somebody’s name written on it is unlikely to house anything worth buying.
A record that has lots of scrapes and scuffs – but plays well with minimal noise is considered Good+ (G+), if there are pops and crackles but no skips or scratches – it is Good (G). Anything below this is not worth talking about. Nevertheless, I am willing to buy a tatty cover if the record is in VG+ condition, if I want it (because I might pick up a NM cover to replace it in a bargain bin later).
Anyone who grew up in the vinyl era (up to 1990), who was a music fan/record collector, would have spent a lot of time looking at second hand records, to see if they could spot scrapes, scratches, warps etc. We became experts at looking at the disc at just the right angle in just the right light. A record that looks mint from above, can deteriorate to good when the light and angle changes.
There are two types of second hand records shops: the “old timers” that hand you the record and expect you to examine it in front of them, and the amateurs to whom you have to request a viewing before they package it. Not an issue, really – you examine the record – if it is VG+ or NM you are likely to buy, based on the price, if it is G+ and relatively inexpensive and fairly rare – you might buy, or you can put it back on the shelf. But second hand record shops are rare as hen’s teeth these days, so most of us are forced to go online to buy catalogue records that are unlikely to be reissued and day soon.**
Many collectors frown on digitally sourced reissues from Music on Vinyl etc, and want original recordings. Irrespective, we use ebay, musicstack, GEMM and discogs to buy records. I confess to being ebay averse, as there are so many charlatans out there that I find it really hard to trust anybody- and I hate auctions in any case (due to annoying gazumping). I have long suspected that “buy it now (decent price)” means – “piece of shit priced to reel in the sucker.” So there is musicstack and discogs. Musicstack is purely a marketplace – a storefront for second hand retailers, and I have bought many items from these sellers, usually getting what I paid for.
Discogs is a terrific website that allows you to catalogue your own collection, create a wish list for records that you want, 
alert you when they become available and buy them. All kinds of people sell on discos – shops, former shops who trade only online, collectors, individuals who have a few records etc., and this is the problem. Look up a record – for example Egg’s debut album “Egg” (Deram SDN14). This is a rare record – and a mint copy is probably worth $100-200 . For a record such as this the starting price will be $65: serious collector territory. The sellers in this market will not screw you around, because at this price range their reputation is key. For more expensive items, like this, I have never been burned at either music stack or discogs (but I am sure that it happens).
For less expensive records, however, I am having a bad run. For the vendor, grading a record as NM rather than VG+ is worth 25% more – but if they price the item in between, not only do they get more money for the VG+ record, they are more likely to sell it. Most records are bought in ones or twos, most buyers of less expensive records are likely to be inexperienced and less discerning, and even if they notice that the record was OVERGRADED, and get a little pissed off, they are unlikely to do anything about it. Occasionally they will put in a negative review of the vendor – but many fear that they will get a negative review in response. Recently I bought 6 LPs from a seller in the UK and 2 from one in Italy – all of which were overgraded. In the Italian case, the vinyl of one record was listed as NM (I usually won’t buy anything below this) and the sleeve VG+ – what I received was a VG record and a G sleeve. I would not have even looked at this album if it was in a local record shop. The UK items were all in NM sleeves, and superficially the records looked NM – but on examination they were all VG or VG+. I would probably have bought all of them in a shop, but for less money.
The other issue that is manifest in the vinyl renaissance is the number of pirated or bootlegged records out there. I recently bought 4 or 5 prog albums from Amazon (marketplace sellers) – assuming them to be authentic reissues. I noticed that they were on Timeless and Tapestry labels – which I did not check. One of these records was Gentle Giant’s first album. When I opened the package the record popped out – in a beautiful sleeve – 200g vinyl, shrink wrapped. On the back it said: (c) 1986 limited edition 500 copies. I paid 20 pounds for this. Of course, I immediately twigged that this was a scam: 1.
where had this pristine record been for the past 30 years, 2. a mint 1986 200g reissue would cost probably 3 times the price, 3. there was no number – there was no address for the record label, they have no website, no production or reissue credits are posted. It is probably a 2011 CD sourced pirate job. It turns out that the Tapestry reissues are the same. Apparently you can buy these records from independent retailers all over the place. Now I have no problem with bootlegs – of 1974 Neil Young radio concerts or equivalent – but pirated records by bands that made very little money back in the day, for which there must be a bit of demand – well this is awful.
The moral of this story is 1. to wait for big label reissues from trusted sources (MOV, BOB, MFSL, Audio Fidelity, Sundazed, Org), 2. go on a record buying field trip to a place where they have lots of record shops, 3. contact the sellers on websites and ask precise questions about the record that you are thinking of buying. Apparently, many of the records that are currently being purchased by 18-30s are never played – they don’t have turntables- they listen on their iPods but think the record looks cool. So, maybe having a really good looking copy of Gentle Giant, that has been unplayed, in my collection, will make me look cool in front of my nerdy though knowledge less, record appreciating peers. No I don think so either!
*not being sexist here – nearly all obsessive record collectors are men. Women have other things to think about like – living, children and where to go on holidays. Of course record collecting is more important.
** I have been burned by this recently as well – the stranges and most random records are being reissued these days, whereas many albums that were big sellers back in the day are still on the fence.
audioexchange 