Don’t ditch your stereo for a streaming music service just yet. Despite streaming services like Spotify, vinyl albums – especially vintage vinyl albums – are staging a comeback.  Sales of albums have steadily crept up – soaring 29.2% to $619.6 million, compared to $479.5 million as recently as 2019, according to one source.

Record companies are busy re-issuing classic rock and roll albums and musicians from Paul McCartney, Mumford & Sons and Pink Floyd to Childish Gambino offer vinyl releases. And this year, Record Store Day (now in its 14^th year) moved from April and now is observed on June 12 and July 17.

Why Vinyl?

Why the renewed interest in vinyl? Some enjoy owning a piece of music, instead of renting it. Others claim that vinyl offers a richness and warmth of sound that digitizing can’t match.  Still others cling to their vintage vinyl albums for the memories they hold.

And others are in it for the money.

That Queen’s Greatest Hits album you bought for less than ten bucks years ago now sells for $30.

Vintage Vinyl dollars

There’s a brisk trade in the albums you enjoyed in college; that Queen’s Greatest Hits album you bought for less than ten bucks years ago now sells for $30. That Special Edition Big Bambu album by Cheech and Chong?  Worth almost $80!  The value of vintage albums, like everything else, depends on condition, rarity and demand. A Rocky Horror Picture Show album signed by Tim Curry and the rest of the cast currently has some 20 bids on the album auction site Popsike and the bidding is north of $300.  Once you get into rarities – limited edition albums or albums that were recalled – the sky’s the limit.

What about my collection?

Anyone looking to de-clutter or downsize might consider selling their vintage vinyl. Even if you don’t own a rarity, online sources like eBay can give you a rough guide to pricing your vintage vinyl for sales…but there are some specialty sites for selling your albums either directly or by auction:

Popsike.com: This site tracks eBay sales and lets you find the most valuable records (in its system) of all time, the past year, and the past month.

Discogs: is one of the most popular sites for buying and selling records online. Search for your vinyl records and see sales price statistics, including last sold date and low, median and high prices

Music Stack: Although similar in concept to Discogs, Music Stack is “not Amazon, eBay, or Discogs” so don’t expect fast or high-volume sales.  You can search for a record by artist and/or title, and features robust historical pricing data.

Moneymusic.com:  Although not a power site like the others, this site has a wonderful Record of the Day feature with cover art and a bit of backstory.  Did you know Ringo wrote the lyrics to Eleanor Rigby?  Read more here.

Online record stores like Academy records will buy vintage vinyl, CDs, and DVD’s and operate several online stores. Others include CDandLP.com  and sellmyrecords.net, but a quick internet search will reveal many more.

And in case you’re wondering what the Next Big Thing is, that might still be in your garage or attic…..

…think 8 track tapes.  Seriously.

What vintage albums do you still have – the ones you’d never sell? Let us know in the comments!

Photo by Jace & Afsoon on Unsplash