What to do with 2000 mostly-classical LP records?

by philg

About 15 years ago a polo-oriented friend was showing a teenage polo champion from Argentina around Cambridge. I invited them for a gathering that would today likely be illegal and the rich teenager happened by shelves holding 2000 mostly classical LP records. She asked “What are these?” I explained that they were “LP records”. She followed up with “What are those?”

I am thinking that our children would not be excited to inherit these, although classical music has been terribly served by the streaming services. The “classical” radio stations play tracks at random from CDs classified as “classical.” So you’ll hear the third track from a string quartet followed by the first track from a three-movement piano sonata followed by the fourth track from a symphony. There are some annoying American NPR classical stations (constant interruptions with chatter even when they’re not fundraising). The European stations are better, but the sound quality is not ideal.

What to do with these? It does not seem that it will make sense to bring them with us when we move from Massachusetts to Florida (August). There are probably 200 jazz, rock, and pop albums mixed in that could conceivably have collector value, but I don’t have time to sort through them.

32 thoughts on “What to do with 2000 mostly-classical LP records?”

  2. I have SiriusXM in my car. The Metropolitan opera channel is truly impossible to listen to because the sound quality is so abysmal. The adjacent symphony channel is a bit better probably due to the way the human ear perceives orchestral music in comparison to voice. I doubt that the channel quality is any better.

    However, not to worry. These fringe forms of art (classical music & opera) are dead as soon as the octogenarians frequenting Met or similar establishments are dead too.

    As to the LPs, I’d just dump them in the garbage unless you have a matching set of vacuum tube amplifier and connecting golden wires (in which case you would not be asking the question !). Having said that, I cannot bring myself to get rid of the old Soviet Zenit SLR made sometime in 80’s that I’ve not used for decades and will never use again.

  5. The sad fact is that, unless you are a serious collector specializing in rare recordings, the LPs you own are the very popular LPs that everybody else owns/owned. And there are already digital equivalents of those (e.g., anything on a Deutsche Grammaphon LP you’re going to be able to find on a newer DG CD). Which is to say, they have zero value.

  6. @Philg: I certainly wouldn’t dumpster them, given the niche resurgence of vintage vinyl listeners and collectors and the increasing nostalgia/desperation of classical music lovers, there is sure to be someone in one or more various “communities” who could sort through your titles and give you a ballpark valuation or make an offer for the whole kit and kaboodle. Even Popular Mechanics have picked up on it (please don’t needle me for the pun…badump bump cymbal crash.) There has to be some curator of classical music you can think of…

    https://www.popularmechanics.com/home/a30362997/turntables/

    It’s too much time to digitize them before you leave, but you could plausibly make a ~2000 line Excel spreadsheet with the titles, dates, etc. and approximate condition with some effort and help from the kids? Then you could circulate that to the cognoscenti and fellow empathic sufferers, and maybe put some of them in loving hands/ears.

    During your recent helicopter photography trip I noted that you mentioned Vinalhaven, ME while passing near Brunswick, and of course there is a vinyl record store there: “Finestkind Vinyl Haven.”

    https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2021/01/23/maine-coastal-aerial-photos-vinalhaven-to-westport/

    If you had an .XLSX of the titles you could pass it on to some of the Defenders of the Faith in Maine? I have a friend who is in a band and has rediscovered vinyl to listen to his old Judas Priest albums, so someone out there has to want some of your classical music titles.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=vinalhaven%20maine%20vintage%20records&safe=off

    • And while I see that there are more “biff ’em” votes than “try it” votes, I will note this:

      A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I lived in Chicago and had a friend who was, kind of, into films. So over the years he amassed a collection of more than 9,000 assorted CDs (soundtracks) and DVDs of movies. He was real OCD and maintained an elaborate spreadsheet of all the titles. Well, inevitably he got married and it was decided that a big portion of the collection had to GO. Surprisingly, he circulated his list among some fellow asylum dwellers and managed to sell a good number of them off rather than landfill them. Not a huge percentage, but he had some obscure and international titles that people thought were valuable.

      And I’m sure you’ve taken good care of your LPs over the years….

      If you did 100 records a day for 20 days to make the catalog, you’d be finished by the end of June….

    • A 2000-line Excel spreadsheet?!?! Remember that this is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of stuff we have to get rid of before we escape to the Florida Free State.

    • @Philg:

      Heh. Back in the ’80s I would have given the boxes of records to a team of 5 of our crack key-entry workers and you’d have had it in four hours, tops. $200. One day with careful attention paid to the orchestra and other information. Times have changed. Kids these days.

  7. Audiogon.com is a community for hifi enthusiasts to buy and sell gear and music. You might be able to list the whole lot there and say “$x and you come and get them in Cambridge, MA.”

  8. I have found Apple Music to be pretty great about classical music. Whenever I have looked for recommend versions of particular pieces (in snooty classical music forums), I have found them. I know that doesn’t address the question but I just wanted to provide a counterpoint to your perspective on streaming services.

    • Bill: Deezer, Napster, YouTube Music, et al. work fine for the use case that you’ve described. You can pick a classical album and then play it (i.e., do the work of a classical DJ). I did try Apple Music and found that their classical “radio” channel exhibited the same behavior as the other services: it treats each track as independent. So you don’t hear an entire work or an entire album.

    • Okay, I don’t use Apple Music that way. I play one “album” at a time rather than use the radio feature for precisely the reason you suggest.

  10. You should donate them to our office library in Inman sq! A wall of classical vinyl willis be perfect.

    • Do you really want 2000 square feet of LP record tile? And can there be a bronze plaque reading “Donated by the world’s third most generous human (after MacKenzie Scott Bezos and Melinda Gates)”?

  11. Seconding PaulG’s suggestion. Also, consider donating to a nonprofit radio station like MIT’s WMBR.

  12. @Phil, as @Ajm suggested, call your local library and few others around you to see if they will take them, if so, let them have it. No, your donation will not land you with plaque or cause any disturbance in to the universe! 🙂

    About 3 years ago, I run into a similar situation, but with books that I have accumulated since 1982 (I was book craze and I stop buying around 2000)! I had over 600 of them ranging from fictional to technical (most technical). Some were required by my school others but the majority I bought on my own. And if that was not enough, I also had magazines from the likes of DDJ to IEEE to name some (all are in prefect shape and complete).

    I went to my local library and they told me they will not take them because they are out of date and most are technical books. They referred me to “More than Words” [1] where they took them in a heartbeat. They even gave me a receipt for tax deduction. I don’t know if they will take your LP’s but your local library or “More than Words” may have a suggestion.

    Btw, kept some of my books and all the magazines. Those that I kept are sellable on the internet with some real $$ but I don’t know if I will ever sell them as they are considered classic. Sadly, none of them will fetch me anywhere near Seuss’s books [2].

    [1] https://mtwyouth.org/donate-books/
    [2] https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2021/03/03/fund-burning-of-existing-copies-of-harmful-dr-seuss-books/

  15. There are some serious collectors of classical music on vinyl out there, so it’s possible that you may have some rare gems in there. Almost all RCA Living Stereo albums are worth money (mono not so much), as well as original DGG albums, Mercury Living Presence, Decca Gold, etc. 80s Digital stuff is worthless. Generally, violin and cello recordings are sought after, too…

  17. LP’s are becoming popular again, I myself am a millennial with a collection of 100 records (mostly jazz and starting my collection of classical LPs) honestly if you were in my area I’d make a serious offer to buy them off you. But if I were you I’d look into donating/selling to a local record store or second hand store (like goodwill) so someone can still enjoy them. If you had time you could get better money for them, selling as an individual off eBay or Discogs- but then you’d have to worry about shipping them.

  18. Read Marie Kondo’s book. What you need to do is close your eyes, thank the records for their service, and then throw them away.

    Don’t donate them. Don’t enable another hoarder by giving them to someone else. Don’t waste your time trying to sell them.

    The earth will be fine with them in a landfill.

    Throw them away, ideally in a destructive manner.

    And not just your records. A move is a rare opportunity to get rid of crap. Develop this mindset as soon as possible, and get to work on it.

    And your photographic negatives? Guess what? Nobody wants those either. Preserve only the best 1 percent of those, and then throw the rest away also. That includes family photos. This is Kondo’s most shocking advice, but when you finally grok it, you will have reached Nirvana.

  19. It is a pain. When we left our ruins after the hurricane, I photographed several school yearbooks our children had left behind, then took a deep breath and ordered a dumpster. The cassette mixtapes and old VHS tapes hurt the most for some reason.
    A friend just gave me a 64GB flash drive with 1300 obscure books he has personally scanned to pdf page by page. Obsession is a thing.

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