Thoughts on selling a collection

so, right now i have a collection of ~1000 records, CDs and tapes worth roughly £18k based on discogs median prices. i've been obsessed with the idea of buying a property recently (renting is shit) and figured if i liquidated most - if not all - of the collection, and dumped it into stocks/shares (index funds etc) and crypto, in a few years it would put me into a good position to put a deposit down on a house. but, i wonder if i would ever regret it. i have some special ones, and it's always a cool talking point or activity if people ever come round - maybe it would be a shame to dump them all.

what do you guys think? have you ever purged yourself of all musical worldly possessions? why? how did you feel about it?

The answer is - of course - it depends.

First of all, you won't be getting anywhere near the median price of your collection: if you sell them in bulk, you'll be lucky to get a third of the median price; if you sell them one by one, there's going to be a lot of grinding work involved, communication, packaging, posting, returns, complaints, scams etc. - spending a lot of time and money. Second, there's the subjective value for you and you alone: how much time and effort you've put in on amassing the collection - if you're selling, you need to be ready to let go of all the memories attached to the collection - they're product, and regardless of the fact how immaculately you've curated the collection and how important each one is to you, there will be a lot of items which will not sell and you'll be either giving them away, throwing them in the bin or stuck with them.

I've thought about this a lot as I my own collection's median valuation is around 80K € - a sizeable chunk of it is basically garbage taking up space, although I love each and every record to bits - they're a chronology, a physical manifestation of the evolution of my musical taste, tools of the trade (I'm a DJ) - although they're insured as a collection, I would be absolutely devastated if they were destroyed e.g. in a fire, the insurance money cannot replace 30-odd years of my life. I have sold a batch of records from my collection once (to make rent) and I still feel the pangs of regret after 20+ years - YMMV.

Then there's the investing part - unless you take it slow and manage the risks, you can get skint in heartbeat. I'm not an expert on matters financial - my record collection stands as evidence of that - so I can't recommend any courses of action, but there's plenty of information available on it, easily digestible.

I assume my progeny will be stuck with the collection of well over metric ton (and growing) of cardboard, paper and plastic at the point when I no longer am.

I did this, then spent shit loads of money buying most of it back again.

Not saying this will happen to you, or that you have the same mental health issues that I do, but y'know. It does happen.

  On 1/4/2021 at 9:11 PM, dcom said:

I've thought about this a lot as I my own collection's median valuation is around 80K €

This puts it into a perspective that my family thinks that I have too much money tied to vinyl when it's maybe around 3k€ at best, lol.

Of course I'm not a DJ and I never even really collected.

A friend of mine losslessly digitized his collection of about 2000 vinyl records and then sold the lot. It took him a couple of years in fits and starts, but in the end he got it done, and he hasn't looked back after selling, no regrets.

I’m working on selling some stuff, but goddamn, not looking forward to the dozens of hours on discogs that will take. A couple of friends have made up front generous offers for some of it.

  On 1/6/2021 at 7:31 PM, Rubin Farr said:

I’m working on selling some stuff, but goddamn, not looking forward to the dozens of hours on discogs that will take.

Me too. I'm not sure it's worth the trouble to sell them individually except for the few priciest ones.

  On 1/4/2021 at 3:47 PM, realthanks said:

so, right now i have a collection of ~1000 records, CDs and tapes worth roughly £18k based on discogs median prices. i've been obsessed with the idea of buying a property recently (renting is shit) and figured if i liquidated most - if not all - of the collection, and dumped it into stocks/shares (index funds etc) and crypto, in a few years it would put me into a good position to put a deposit down on a house. but, i wonder if i would ever regret it. i have some special ones, and it's always a cool talking point or activity if people ever come round - maybe it would be a shame to dump them all.

what do you guys think? have you ever purged yourself of all musical worldly possessions? why? how did you feel about it?

i'm not sure the premise/point of this is really even valid...selling things would take at least half a year i'm guessing to be able to get any kind of decent return...

then you're gonna invest that in stocks, shares, crypto, etc...? that's most likely all long term investments. i mean if you're wanting to buy a place in 10 years, sure putting money into investments now could help, of course, but if you want to 'invest' money into a down payment on a property, you'd be better off trying to get a better job or get a second job or what have you. stuff like stocks is a great way to invest your cash long term, or build up wealth for retirement or to pass down to kids/grandkids, but it's not a great return on short term needs (unless you're in the high stakes stuff, but if you were i doubt you'd be asking questions like this on an IDM forum, no offense ofc)....and unless you've got an in on some super-certain crypto returns within a couple years, 'investing' in crypto is a hell of a gamble with what's essentially some portion or the bulk of your life's savings. 

  On 1/6/2021 at 7:31 PM, Rubin Farr said:

I’m working on selling some stuff, but goddamn, not looking forward to the dozens of hours on discogs that will take. A couple of friends have made up front generous offers for some of it.

image recognition + bulk listing uploads = something discogs seems it should do