If you wandered in here thru Google, etc, and this page does not have a frame w/ menu at left, start over at www.undergroundalbums.com, then enter the site to navigate properly.
INFO ABOUT SELLING YOUR RECORDS TO ME
I am always BUYING RECORDS. You should read this page thoroughly
before offering records.
General Info
What I Buy
Terms of Purchase (via mail) and General Pricing Info
Large Collections And "Bulk" Lots
Wantlists
Important Info For Local Sellers
Trading Your Records To Me
My Personal Wants and Other Things I Am Buying
Buying Prerecorded Tapes
CONTACT INFO:
undergroundalbums.com
Jerome Tomko
PO BOX 1686 PLAINS PA 18705-0686 USA
TEL: 570/472-9137 (noon-10PM eastern [NYC] time)
FAX: 570/472-9489 (24 hours)
Email me HERE
(NOTE: if your email bounces or you don't get a reply within 48 hours, please call, write or fax).
HEY: If you email to offer me only ONE record please just state your asking price when you email, especially if it's a one-off private pressing from your old band. Thanks.
GENERAL INFO:
I am a full-time mailorder record dealer. I purchase records via mail mainly for RESALE. Sorry for the length of this page but by reading it thoroughly you will have a much better idea of what to expect when selling your items to me. I have revised this page a great deal (as of Spring 2006) as the market has changed greatly since I started my mail-order business in 1995!
I try to have fun and be friendly while conducting my business, whether buying or selling. If the tone of this page puts you off or offends you, I'm sorry- don't take it personally, I am not passing judgement on you, your records or how you go about your business- I am just trying to save time and effort by being straightforward here.
If you are a record collector and are experienced in mail-order transactions, most of the information below is going to be redundant. You probably already know how the basic process of selling goods to a dealer via mail works, and you probably know what records you have that are collectable, and which ones will bring some money and which ones won't. In that case, it's basically going to be a matter of figuring out which of your records I will buy and hashing out the details of condition and price.
The simplest way to sell me your records is to send me (via email or snail mail) a specific list of what you have: for each item, list the artist, title, label, catalog number, and the grading for condition of both the cover and vinyl, with any flaws to either noted specifically. If you can include your asking price for each item, that would be appreciated, or I can make offers. For many items, I may need to know the color or design of the record label, or other arcane details, to ascertain which issue of a given item you have.
If you are not a record collector, have no idea what your records are or what you want to get for them, and have no idea what I mean by terms like "cover / disc grading", the situation gets a bit more complex. Please be patient and read the rest of this page. It will explain, hopefully, whether you have the sort of records I would be interested in purchasing- and also whether the terms and conditions of trade which I employ when making purchases for resale will be workable for you. I don't want to waste anyone's time, and naturally I would prefer not to have my time wasted either! Firstly, and most importantly, if your records are beat up, scratched, mildew or water-damaged, missing their original covers, etc, they are not in collectable condition, and I won't have any interest in puchasing them.
WHAT I BUY- and what I don't buy:
My main interest is US & UK rock, psychedelic, folk and progressive LP's (the more obscure, the better) from approximately 1964-1972. Many of the items I seek tend to appear as PROMOS, IMPORTS or CUTOUTS. I buy the same types of records (garage, psych, early prog, etc) from every country in the world. Feel free to offer anything you think might be if interest from those genres. This is the type of material for which I can pay very well.
I also buy rock / R&B records from 1955-1963 and blues, jazz and soul records from approximately 1955-1970 but frankly I do not pay very much for this type of material.
I AM MOST INTERESTED IN THESE TYPES OF COLLECTIONS: Obscure 1960s rock, Import albums (British, German, etc imports), Promotional albums & 45s (DJ copies), and sealed / NOS store stock, cutout bin or warehouse inventory:
1) Collections accumulated by individiuals who are / were involved in the music industry in some way (wholesale, retail, promotion, music publishing, broadcasting, etc), consisting of promo copies and / or sealed / unplayed retail inventory dating from the 1950s through early 1970s- especially large quantities of sealed / unplayed / promotional rock, blues, soul & jazz LP's & 45's pre-1972 or so, particularly by lesser-known and / or non-charting performers;
2) Collections accumulated by buyers who purchased large numbers (i.e., 500-1000+) of records during the approximate years 1964-1972, especially individuals who bought LP's by "underground" rock bands (i.e., bands who were not in the top-40 singles charts), persons who bought many import albums (especially British imports of rock / progressive rock artists from late '60s-early '70s), and who also kept their records in top shape. In other words, the collections of people who were very into music in those days and bought very large numbers of records at the time such records were still readily available new through normal retail channels.
3) Large quantities of pre-1972 promo LP's and/or warehouse-type quantities of sealed pre-1972 LP's (and even tapes), especially "prepacks" of cutouts sold by rack jobbers to department stores, etc...somebody's gotta know where this stuff is buried! Rock, folk, jazz, soul & soundtracks only and NO mid-'70s and later stuff wanted. If you are reading this and know of retail or wholesale inventories (i.e., sealed, not used) of records that have been sitting for 25-35+ years, I HAVE CASH WAITING. I am especially intersted in buying wholesale quantities of old sealed records directly from rack merchandise service firms (the people who used to stock the record racks in five & dime stores, drug stores, grocery stores, etc). I will consider paying finders fees to persons who provide info leading to the purchase of such inventories.
If your collection fits into these categories above, I'm very interested and have cash ready to purchase some or possibly all of your collection. If you worked at a record store or distributorship, or worked for an importer like JEM or Peters Int'l, or reviewed records for a newspaper or magazine, or worked at a radio station, department store, five-and-dime, etc, and bought / took home / received free a lot of rock, folk, soul or jazz records circa 1964-1972, PLEASE GET IN TOUCH!
STUFF I DON'T BUY: Not to cast aspersions on these types of artists (some of which I like, as music) but the following types of records are of NO interest whatsoever to me for potential purchase, sorry: Country & Western, Polka, Christmas music, easy listening (i.e., orchestras like Mantovani, Ray Conniff, Andre Kostalanetz), MOR pop vocals (i.e., Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand, etc.), Gospel, Broadway showtunes, Classical, Opera, Big Band, Hawaiian, Dixieland, Organ Music, Readers-Digest type box sets of various artist LP's, ANY mid 1970s and later top-40 popular / rock type hit artists (arena rock, dance music, whatever), and almost all 78 RPM records. Unfortunately, nobody else is likely to pay you very much for these categories of records, either (with a VERY few glaring exceptions for certain old C&W, classical & 78 RPM's). For what it's worth, 78 RPM records from _before_ WWII are sometimes valuable, especially if they are blues or jazz by black artists (NOT the swing-era big-band jazz, and NOT old Enrico Caruso type opera records- you basically can't give those away, even though they are really old and look cool). However, I'm not the guy to sell them to! Do a Google search on 78 RPM records wanted (put that phrase in quotes too), etc, to find the right buyer. (Yes, you are going to get another Google hit on this very paragraph if you do that. Just ignore it.)
Don't get mad if I turn down any records you offer me. Most of what I am looking to buy, for what it's worth, are "rare & collectible" records in mint or like-new condition. If your collection is mostly "hit" tunes you bought because you heard them on the radio, they are probably "commons" (items that sold in the multi-millions of copies which are consequently still very easy to find for a dollar or less today at used record shops, flea markets, yard sales, thrift shops etc). Most collections consisting of music by hit artists from the '70s and '80s will fall entirely into this category. If you have these types of records, your best bet is to donate them all to a tax-deductible charity such as Goodwill or the Salvation Army in your local area. These "common" records still have some value to the collectors who enjoy picking the thrift stores- PLEASE don't just throw them out, folks! Remember, if your records fall into the "stuff I don't buy" zone, don't get mad, it just means you don't have what I am looking for.
Before you go any further, a couple caveats:
1) If you want "book value" for your records, you should most likely try retailing them yourself (open a record store, etc). The rise of internet selling and auction sites has resulted in the price books being even further removed from the reality of market conditions than they were just five years ago. In my experience, the main effect these guides have is to jam the natural flow of business transactions: people consulting these guides when selling their records will tend to think all offers they recieve are absurdly low, with the result that the guide-users never sell any of their records at all (for fear of being 'lowballed'), and never even make back the twenty bucks or so they paid for their price guide! I don't base my selling prices on book values, either, or I would soon be out of business. Most of these guides claim that almost _any_ rock or jazz LP made from, say, 1955 to 1970 is worth a minimum of between $25 to $50 in mint shape. Take a look at all the records that sit unsold on ebay for a more realistic view of the market. Only a small percentage of all the records ever made have more than a nominal value and have any demand amongst collectors. The rest are basically flea-market / yard-sale items, not worth the money it would cost to mail them!
2) If you are offering me ONLY ONE RECORD (i.e., "I have a copy of the first Troggs, what'll you pay?"), I will just ask you to state your asking price. I have gotten a lot of these types of inquiries recently, and I'm beginning to think most such inquiries are just trolls from people curious about the value of something they have (in other words, people who are 'offering' me something that isn't really for sale at all). Don't get me wrong, I do buy records "one at a time" but I will generally ask YOU to set the price in such cases. Those of you who won't set a price in hopes I will offer a vastly higher sum than you had in mind: I suggest you invest in some lottery tickets, you must be feeling lucky :)
TERMS OF PURCHASE (VIA MAIL) & GENERAL PRICING INFO:
Unless I know you well, you will have to send me your records first, then I will make you an offer on them. DO NOT send anything without contacting me first. I will reimburse you for postage for records you send me but ONLY if I approve the shipment first. If you randomly send me records without asking first I will assume they are a gift. If I reject any LP's you send me or we cannot come to terms re pricing, etc, I will return any items not purchased at my own expense. Generally, I pay between $1 and $20 per LP, though some rarities will fetch a much higher price (there are many LP's for which I will pay $50-$200+). By 'rarities' I mean clean originals of LP's like Hunger on Public or C.A. Quintet on Candy Floss. I don't mean VG condition Beatles and Elvis albums. IMPORTANT: if you are not familiar with how to pack and ship records, ASK before you send me anything and I'll provide the necessary instructions! I can't pay anything for records that have broken during shipment!
For big collections, we will have to negotiate a price per item; if I cannot pick out only the items I actually want from your collection, and I have to buy a lot of 'fluff' to get the good records, rest assured the 'per item' price will drop accordingly. Obviously some collections will be too big for you to list the items or ship them to me, in those cases we will have to discuss what you have for sale, in order for me to determine whether it is feasible for me to travel to inspect your collection.
If you have a large collection of 1960s-early 70s rock / psych / prog / obscure / import LP's I can send you a very specific WANTLIST of specific titles I am purchasing. I will have to have some idea of what you have to sell before I can send you this list. I have wantlists for rock LP's from the USA, the UK, Canada, and also a list for continental Europe, Australia / New Zealand and other places. These lists are pretty much entirely non-charting LP's from the psychedelic and progressive genres. If your collection is all common hit artists there will be no need for you to see the wantlist- bands like the Seeds and the Fugs are the 'well-known hit acts' on these lists. I no longer publish the wantlists publicly on the site, sorry. The wantlists are now only available to persons with large collections of obscure '60s-'70s rock, prog, etc, for sale. Here is a brief sample if you don't know what sort of records I am talking about:
Aggregation-Mind Odyssey-LHI 12008
American Blues-Is Here-Karma KLP-1001
American Blues-Do Their Thing-UNI 73044
Art of Lovin'-s/t-Mainstream S/6113
Arzachel-s/t-Roulette SR-42036
Baroques-s/t-Chess 1516
Blue Things-s/t-RCA 3603
Bohemian Vendetta-s/t-Mainstream 5/6106
Bow Street Runners-s/t-B.T. Puppy BTPS-1026
Ceyleib People-Tanyet-Vault LP-117
Chocolate Watchband-all Tower LP's-Tower
Christopher-s/t-Metromedia 1024
Common People-Of The People By The People For The People-Capitol ST-266
Creation Of Sunlight-s/t-Windi 1001
Karen Dalton-It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best-Capitol
Darius-s/t-Chartmaker 1102
Deep-Psychedelic Moods-Parkway 7051
...and so on and so forth. If you have a lot of this type of material to sell, get in touch. I don't have any wantlists for 45s- there are just too many of them!
LARGE COLLECTIONS AND "BULK" LOADS of used records: PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IN ITS ENTIRETY before offering me an entire collection or "bulk" lot.
I may consider "bulk" purchases, but ONLY of large quantities of SEALED / NOS records, large collections in MINT condition, large lots of PROMOTIONAL records, and large lots of IMPORTS, and only from the era and styles of music that I am seeking, as described above and /or as stated in the print ad you read- i.e., pre-1972 rock, pre-1970 jazz & blues, etc.
I do not buy bulk lots or large quantities of just any old records at all, sorry to say- especially common used records in well-worn condition! In general I am interested in viewing large lots of records because I want to pick them for the items I actually need.
I may be interested in purchasing large collections in their entirety IF they are all or mostly in top condition and / or consist all or mostly of the era and styles of music that I am seeking. In other words, if your large collection has a little bit of everything, all in different conditions, I'm probably only interested in "cherry-picking" the items specifically of interest to me. If that is the case I might be able to provide information about disposing of the remainder of your large collection, but I will only do this after I have purchased anything I want out of your collection. NOTE: given current economic conditions and recent market developments, the number of sources for disposal of common "bulk" records has declined dramatically over the last couple years and I cannot guarantee that you will find a cash buyer for the "leftovers" (there are always various tax-deductible charities they can be donated to).
If you have 1500 records it is much more likely you will have something that I will actually buy than if you have, say, 150 records. If you have 10,000 records it's almost certain you have something I want (unless they are flea market / estate sale / tag sale leftovers, or they are all classical, instrumental or showtunes, etc) but I probably do not want to buy all of them unless they are all mint, there are a lot of sealed records / promos / imports in the lot AND they are all or mostly pre-1972 rock, jazz, blues, folk etc.
Complete collections that were assembled by one individual who focused on one style or era of music are going to be of the most interest to me. Collections that were assembled by years of yard-saling or that came by way of 10 different relatives, former roommates, ex-spouses etc are likely only of interest for me to cherry-pick. I hope this is clear, ask if need be...
Please note that I will only consider "bulk" purchases (large quantities or entire collections) at "bulk" prices. This is usually a dollar or less per item on average unless you have a very special collection (for example, if you have 1000 sealed '60s rock LP's I will pay you much more than $1 per item!). You will always do better having me pick over your collection rather than insisting it be purchased as a piece in an "all-or-nothing" deal. And finally, beat-up or scratched records are usually not worth anything at all, sorry to say.
OTHER IMPORTANT INFO- this mainly applies to local sellers responding to my print ads:
1) If you are local, I may be willing to come and inspect your records in person. I will need to have a good idea of what you have to sell AND a good idea of what price you will want PER RECORD before I will come to view your records in person. I am in northeast Pennsylvania, near Wilkes-Barre / Scranton.
2) If you will not sell your records when I come to inspect them (for instance, you won't set a price per item and also won't accept my offer, or purchase is conditional upon me also purchasing other records that I don't want, etc), please do not contact me. No offense, but I just don't have the time, and I have had too many problems with this sort of thing in the past. Remember, the whole point of this process is for me to buy your records. If you have records that you simply are not going to sell, I don't need to know about them!
Please keep in mind that I am offered many records for sale, literally EVERY DAY. If you want to "shop them around", go ahead, then call me last with your selling price. If you have the kind of records I need (i.e., clean '60s rock / psychedelic LP's), keep in mind that I will generally pay more than most resellers for this stuff- get their prices first, then call me LAST.
I do not do much trading anymore. It's become too much of a hassle, for the most part. It's better if you just send a priced & (strictly) graded list of anything you are cutting loose and we can proceed from there. If you have one of my personal wants stated below the situation might be more flexible.
Don't get mad if I turn down your trade offer- by now I have gotten out of trading almost entirely, unless you are making the proverbial "offer I can't refuse" or you have really good stuff that I actually want!
Major-label US & UK '60s psych LP's and seldom-offered private press classics recieve priority for trades / purchases. See longwinded rants above about what I buy and don't buy, that info will apply to trades as well.
Prices on my website are are CASH prices; I am not doing much trading these days EXCEPT at wholesale prices for items I can sell quickly or for things I need for my collection. I would usually give between 25%-50% of my expected retail (NOT of whatever amount you spent originally on the LP, note) for traded-in items, possibly more for records I want myself. This means if you are trying to trade for $300 retail worth of stuff off the site, I will need to receive in trade items which I can easily sell for $600-$1200 total to make the swap worth doing on my end. If this seems low, take your records into the local Used Record Shop, see what they give you for 'em there (probably a dollar apiece).
PERSONAL WANTS and other things I will buy:
any working 4-TRACK CARTRIDGE PLAYERS (I might consider busted ones too)
Non-Music Related items I will purchase or trade for:
CARS: I am interested in purchasing a '60s musclecar. Just in case anyone reading can help: I am looking for a 1966-1967 Dodge Charger, a 1964-1967 Pontiac LeMans / Tempest two-door or convertible, or a 1961-1964 Pontiac Catalina, Bonneville, Star Chief, Ventura or Grand Prix (will consider different body styles on these models). Dodge Chargers from those years are seemingly easier to locate and cheaper than a LeMans ragtop (a decent GTO is out of my range, unfortunately). I would prefer a driver needing a little mechanical work (no frame or body rot), not a show car. Matching numbers are not really that important, though obviously I would pay more for a correct example. I would prefer a vehicle with AT / AC / buckets / console. No pro-streeted or race cars, no bondo buckets, no basket cases. TIA for any assistance on this.
I BUY 8-TRACKS, 4-TRACKS, pre-recorded REEL-TO-REEL tapes, and pre-recorded CASSETTES (especially Ampex snap-box tapes) of '60s rock, psych, etc! (Almost nothing wanted post-1970, please). I generally pay around $2 to $5 per item for sealed or mint tapes in fine working order, regardless of the value of the vinyl equivalent (though there are some exceptions to this). Please click on "tapes" link on menu at left for much more info. I am currently only buying tapes I want for my own collection- I generally am not buying anything tape-wise for resale (again, with some possible exceptions like Pink Floyd on Tower, Velvet Undergound on Verve, certain reel tapes, etc.)