Four Questions About Record Collecting Up North

Nov. 23, 2014

WHAT USED RECORDS SELL IN TC?

Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, Rush’s 2112 and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. "Dark Side of the Moon, I can’t keep in stock. And I don’t get many of them, so I’d probably sell as many of those as Fleetwood Mac, but I don’t get them," said RPM Records Owner Greg Walton. A mint condition copy of Rumours retails for $14 to $16. "There were some periods during the summer where we were kind of running out of basic titles. You know, Duran Duran Rio and stuff that we never thought we’d be out of."

HOW MUCH IS THIS BEATLES RECORD WORTH?

"They are by far the hardest to price," said David Williamson of RPM. An original Meet the Beatles in mono in excellent condition is worth $150 retail. But the value of most of what’s out there is murkier. "We have a huge Beatles selection, but they’ve been reissued so many times that we don’t see the original ones very often. The Beatles were on Capital, Apple, Vee Jay Records, Epic Records, at least six different labels, and they were also pressed in a bunch of different countries. So you can get the Russian version, the Italian version, the French version of all these same albums."

HOW MUCH IS AN ELVIS COLLECTION WORTH?

"We’ve probably sold, in four and a half years, maybe three or four Elvis Presley albums said Wlliamson. And we’ve got 70 different ones. Music has a shelf life. Elvis Presley was way more valuable 20 years ago than he is now. And that’s because the people that like Elvis Presley are dying off. And that’s why right now, it’s Led Zeppelin, Rush, mid-60s to mid-70s bands. In 10 to 15 years it’s going to be the mid-70s to mid-80s bands that will sell the most," he said, though he added he doesn’t believe the Beatles or Pink Floyd will ever go out of fashion.

WHAT’S AN UP-AND-COMING COLLECTIBLE?

Hang on to those original Mudhoney and other grunge records. "The late 80s, early 90s grunge records are really rare, and one of the reasons was because Sub Pop out in Seattle was a horrible record label; a horribly run business," Williamson said. "The two guys that started it had no experience in the record business at all when they started Sub Pop, so there’s just not that many copies of those bands. Those are, I believe, going to become more and more valuable."