Guides
For vinyl collectors.
Practical answers to the questions collectors ask before, during, and after building a catalog. New guides added as the questions come up.
Looking up a specific record?
Browse 40 album value guides.
First-press labels, catalog numbers, matrix clues, and value ranges by condition.
Comparing more than one album?
Browse vinyl values by artist.
Put collectible originals side by side and see which labels, matrices, and inserts move each record's value.
Starting with the center label?
Identify four classic pressing-label families.
Visual markers, rim text, catalog prefixes, plant clues, and records that use each design.
Staring at the dead wax?
Decode 20 matrix and runout marks.
Matrix prefixes, mastering signatures, plant codes, and the symbols that look like scratches until you know what they mean.
How it works
How a vinyl record makes sound.
From the lacquer cut and the metal stampers to the press, the turntable, the cartridge and the speaker, with a working cutaway of each machine.
Valuation
Are my 70s and 80s records worth anything.
Why most records from the era sell for $5–25, and the four kinds of copy that are worth a closer look.
Pressing identification
Record club editions: Columbia House and the rest.
How to spot a Columbia House, Capitol, RCA or BMG club pressing, and what it's worth next to the copy from the store.
Album value
Why 90s country vinyl is worth so much.
Garth, Alan Jackson and Travis Tritt LPs from the CD era sell for $70–115. Why so few were pressed, and which copies exist.
Valuation
Are compilation records worth anything.
K-tel and Ronco LPs usually bring $2–6. The various-artists records that are worth more, and why people keep the rest.
Pressing identification
Promo records and white labels.
How to spot a white label, a Not For Sale stamp, a timing strip or a promo punch hole, what each adds to a record's price, and how cut-outs differ.
Valuation
Are old comedy records worth money.
What Pryor, Carlin, Cheech & Chong, Lenny Bruce and the party records actually sell for, why most bring $2 to $15, and the few that bring more.
Pressing identification
Japanese city pop originals.
What first pressings by Tatsuro Yamashita, Mariya Takeuchi, Taeko Ohnuki, Anri and Junko Ohashi sell for, how to read the catalog number and obi, and how to spot reissues and fakes.
Valuation
Why some new records are worth more than old ones.
Short first runs, limited variants and the bootlegs that follow: why Blond, Madvillainy and a numbered Taylor Swift pressing outsell most 1970s originals.
Inheritance & decisions
You inherited a record collection. What now.
A practical sort-and-decide walkthrough for the box that arrived at your door — what you probably have, what it's worth, and which records to keep.