Recently, I had the opportunity to visit my parents. It was a short stop-in to gets some hugs and see them smile. Much to my surprise, they are starting to shrink the number of possessions they have acquired over time. My parents are parting with their vinyl vintage records. The albums are self-explanatory, but the forty-fives require extra handling to catalog, clean, and prep.
My dad gave me a cosmetic suite case containing more than 200 hundred forty-five vinyl vintage records. At first, I had no idea what to do with them. After some research, I found out that I have quite a few gems in the collection. Here is my process for managing vintage records:
The process to manage vintage records
- Catalog – Create a list, a spreadsheet is preferable, of the inventory by title on both sides, artist and record label. Add the year and genre also, if available.
- Clean – Get the vinyl record cleaning fluid to add luster to the vinyl and remove minor scratches.
- Storage – Place individual records in acid-free sleeves. The appropriate size is 7 inches for forty-fives.
- Market – If you are interested in selling some of your collection, you can choose from e-bay, offer-up, or Facebook Market Place, to name a few.
There is a growing marketplace for vinyl vintage records. The average cost of a vinyl vintage record has risen from $7.00 to nearly $12.00 between 2007 and 2017. The vinyl market is on pace to outsell the CD market soon.
A few record enthusiasts are here in the states. The buying market is primarily overseas. I plan to put some of the gems I’ve found up for sale. I am only working with the forty-fives, but soon, I will have all the LP (Long Playing) albums to add to my collection in pristine condition.