A decision guide
Sell, donate,
or keep them.
A few hundred records. Maybe more. The question is whether they're worth the effort of selling, the simplicity of donating, or the shelf space of keeping. The honest answer depends on a single fact: what's actually in the box. Sort first. Decide second. The order matters.
01
Sort before you decide
A typical 1970s-era collection splits into three categories. The split is usually surprising — most collections have less filler than the owner thinks and more value than the inheritor expects.
The keep pile. Records tied to a specific memory. Signed copies. Records that complete an artist or label run you care about. Value is irrelevant here.
The sell pile. Anything that has meaningful resale value. The threshold is usually $20 per record — below that, the time cost of selling individually exceeds the proceeds.
The donate pile. Common records in playable shape that you don't want. Easy listening, Reader's Digest, Christmas LPs, scratched-up hits from the period. Worth a dollar or two; not worth your weekend.
Sorting is the bottleneck. Pulling each record, reading the label, looking up recent sold listings, and graders-eyeing the condition runs about fifteen minutes per record by hand. A 200-record box is a full weekend. Crown Vinyl reads the same information from a photograph and returns the pressing, condition prompt, and a current value estimate — about thirty seconds per record.
02
Where to sell, and what each pays
Four venues, each with a different deal. Pick by what you're willing to trade: speed for money, or money for speed.
| Venue | Typical payout | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Local record shop | 30–50% of retail | Bulk sale, fast, common records |
| eBay | 70–90% of retail | Patient sellers, individual high-value items |
| Discogs marketplace | 75–90% of retail | Collectors looking for specific pressings |
| Specialist auction houses | Variable; usually best on rare pieces | Genuinely rare items over $500 |
The 30–50% record-shop payout is consistent with US Bureau of Labor Statistics data on used-goods retail markups across categories.
Mix and match. The common-records pile usually goes to a local shop in bulk because the time saved is worth the discount. The five-or-ten valuable records get priced individually on eBay or Discogs. Anything truly rare gets a specialist's opinion before it's listed anywhere.
03
What to donate
Common LPs in fair-or-better condition still find homes. Where to send them, in rough order of preference:
- Public libraries. Many take vinyl donations for circulation or local sales. Receipts are typically issued for tax purposes.
- Community radio stations. Especially college and non-commercial stations. They'll often pick the keepers and pass the rest on.
- Local thrift stores and Goodwill. Reliable for bulk donation, fastest path to clearing space.
- Music schools and youth programs. Sometimes use vinyl for production and history curriculum.
Donations of property over $250 are deductible on US federal tax returns under IRS rules; check the IRS Publication 561 guidance on determining fair market value for non-cash donations.
04
Catalog what you keep
Whatever survives the sort is your collection now. Whether it's ten records or two hundred, the move that turns a stack into a collection is recording what you have on paper. Otherwise the next time someone inherits records, they're back at the start of this guide.
Crown Vinyl scans each record from a single photograph and saves it with the exact pressing, condition, catalog details, and a current value pulled from recent real sales. Cloud-synced across iPhone and iPad. Free to start. The whole keep-pile gets cataloged in an evening.
A few questions
The ones that come up.
Only if you want speed over money. A shop pays 30–50% of retail because they need to mark up to resell. For bulk-common-records it's a reasonable trade. For valuable records — first-press jazz, original Beatles, Stax/Volt soul — selling them individually on eBay or Discogs typically returns 60–80% more.
Both work. eBay reaches a broader buyer pool and the auction format can lift prices on competitive listings. Discogs reaches a more focused collector audience and tends to settle closer to documented sold-listing prices. For rare pieces over $200, eBay's auction model often clears higher; for catalog records with established price ranges, Discogs is faster.
Yes, in the United States. Donations of property over $250 are deductible if the receiving organization is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The deduction is based on fair market value of the records, not their original retail price. IRS Publication 561 covers the methodology. Keep a receipt and an itemized list.
A typical 200-record 1970s-era collection totals somewhere between $500 and $1,000 once everything is priced individually. Most of that value lives in five or ten specific records. The rest is bulk-rate. Knowing which five or ten is the entire reason for sorting before selling.
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