this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2025
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Observation about Op Shops.
for 5 decades Aussies were buying singles and vinyl LPs by the tens of millions a year, millions of the things should be floating around and they should be dirt cheap for an ordinary condition copy.
There are no pop music LPs in Op Shops, record shops have sprung up every where selling old stuff for over $20 at least. Bat out of Hell is not a collectors item. π
I donβt even bother looking at record collections at op shops, anyone with money on their mind will take their collections to record stores who pay good $$ and sell for even higher. Or sell on eBay etc
With the vinyl revival, pop music collectable LPs are more valuable than ever.
how is a common record that sold by the million and is in average condition valuable?
Well if thereβs lots of copies floating around and no demand then yes, should be cheap. But thereβs a caliber of record that will never sell at a steep discount at an op shop. Records in high demand that for a million copies in existence, a million people want to own them and they hold their value. Thereβs also pressings that come into it; a pressing from the 1980s will always be more valuable than a modern pressing because of scarcity and older vinyls have that nostalgia factor.
I agree with you though that records are very overvalued.
I see huge bags of vintage pop LPs in the donation bins π€¨
Vinyl collectors and resellers are next level though. You'll see them go straight to the vinyl, check everything quickly and leave.
Then there's the op shops themselves starting to list things closer to the resale values than the 'opportunity' value.
It's insane when the shops ask prices as if the item they have is rare or pristine
Or that that weren't just donated it for $ZERO, or that the fucking shop is called an OPPORTUNITY shop. I gotta go meditate, it gets me going.
Op shops often don't have the foggiest idea what they are dealing with. it's supposedly too time consuming to look up everything, however I assure you that that ratty looking 1st Ed [whatever] will sell for more than the 18 perfect copies of Twilight that will never move
Like the artist signed ewer I bought for $6 last week? or the italian and silver and gemstone chain I bought for $5
unless it has obvious marking they have no clue
Yeah. And the total opposite also, your bible from 1930 is neither old nor valuable
there are so many souvenir books of the queen's coronation, they are worthless
Yes, unless signed or of other irrefutable provenance. Tracing this stuff is my workspace, valuations is not.