Metal Collecting ..only for the rich & elderly?

[apollo.ra]

And last and not least (and I'm sure you all recognize this one): those rare items you own always seem to become cheaper, and the rare items you don't own (but desperately need) all become more expensive!

My collecting life in a sentence.
I would also add the non-rare items that get seriously expensive (just try to get a first-press Maiden, Metallica, Savatage, Virgin Steele, etc for a cheap price).

Something also worth mentioning is the craziness relating to shipping costs.
Unless you're buying a rare record on bargain it became forbidding to buy a single lp from abroad.
A 15$ record ends up costing you 25-30$

[fengisriprider]

Ok but I still stand by my statement, I will gladly pay for sheer brilliance, and although I am not rich I can still manage to put together a decent collection, even with some good Rarities.

[Prowler]

Well, what I've noticed so far during the past years the prices went certainly even down. If you judge prices by the guys that offer well known/wanted records with buy-now options, then yes, prices got up, but who seriously buys records for top prices? I've been collecting records for a hell of years and I know what I've paid for mine earlier. Nowadays the uncommon raries/local pressings can be otained for even $10-20 less than I've paid for them back in the day (some even with buy now options). And if you are just a little bit patient you'll find them for nothing like recently that first Mad Max 7". It's not the prices that got up, it's the sellers who get more greedy nowadays ...

[humus]

And last and not least (and I'm sure you all recognize this one): those rare items you own always seem to become cheaper, and the rare items you don't own (but desperately need) all become more expensive!

Not really, no. The only really expensive rarity that I should have bought in the past and didn't get was the Yellow goat. For all the other >€500 records I either own them or I don't need them. Still plenty of classics or mid-rarities that I miss, but you can't buy them all anyway. I have very few regrets when it comes to my music collection.

Well, what I've noticed so far during the past years the prices went certainly even down.

I don't know any of the last 100 records you posted on this forum though

[mordred]

On the evolution of record prices: I am not an expert on heavy metal and my first and true love is black metal. When I compare prices with 20 years ago there are few records that remained on the same price level, only a handful decreased in value, and most went up quite a bit. And then there's the 'WTF' category like Dissection, where Storm of the light's bane went from being a 50 euro record to a 600 euro record in just ten years.

I think it's very interesting how this works and although Dissection is an extreme example, you see the same effect on other bands, because they were considered influential and iconic but never had the sales to back up the amount of fan love they got from the clique that were into them. Good examples from the 80's are Celtic Frost and Bathory. They were always iconic but they did not sell a ton of records.

Their being iconic doesn't go away though, it's passed from generation to generation, so if anything their status grows. Every collector into extreme metal will want Celtic Frost and Bathory records, so rising prices reflect a demand which is constantly relatively high and a supply that reflects the moderate sales they had. The opposite is bands like Helloween, who had ten times the sales but only a tenth of the underground buzz.

For Dissection, of course it also weighs in that the album was from an era when vinyl was an outdated format still at least ten years away from its resurgence.

[The Sentinel]

You surely need a big bag of money nowadays to buy the "common" stuff like the old Roadrunner, Metal Blade and Steamhammer records. I still need some of these records to fill "holes". Records that were in a €10 - €20 range not that long ago have sky rocketed to insane amounts. Sure, there are reissues and I would certainly buy a good reissue BUT I have a troubled experience with a lot of reissues. A lot of them seem to have some kind of "fuck up" like warping, background noise, scratches and most of all sucky reproduction of the original artwork which I absolutely detest. So, I mostly quit buying those and being on the hunt for the originals once again. If more people like me detest most reissues that also could partly explain the insane price rise of these records. Regarding rarities, some of them have sky rocketed too but a lot of them have been stable in price for a long time or even decreasing. I still have some good deals once in a while but I also lack time to search.

[lynx]

Prices of new albums are ridiculous too, including reissues of old albums and older material not previously released as albums, as well as newer music. I see them for 22-29 Euros regularly, hardly ever 15.

I haven't even bought any metal vinyl this year, I bought some folk cheap the beginning of the year or maybe last year.

I'm buying CDs now, they can still be had for reasonable prices, and even there I can find ones with stupid prices if I keep looking.

[GulliverFoyle]

Prices of new albums are ridiculous too, including reissues of old albums and older material not previously released as albums, as well as newer music. I see them for 22-29 Euros regularly, hardly ever 15.

I haven't even bought any metal vinyl this year, I bought some folk cheap the beginning of the year or maybe last year.

I'm buying CDs now, they can still be had for reasonable prices, and even there I can find ones with stupid prices if I keep looking.

Alas, the circle of 111 vinyl douchebags is not alone...You have the other "fans" of Xian metal as well... What are they actually thinking? Like that I can't find a band myself and release it on 50 copies, receive the boxes and then sit on them... just to perpetuate this game... hope they spend their money on hospital fees...


Please, you can easily manipulate the stats from discogs with your buddies... Cd collectors are even worse...

[lynx]

Please, you can easily manipulate the stats from discogs with your buddies... Cd collectors are even worse...

What are you talking about? I collect to listen to. I've never sold a CD, and haven't sold a vinyl in 25 or 30 years.

[GulliverFoyle]

Please, you can easily manipulate the stats from discogs with your buddies... Cd collectors are even worse...

What are you talking about? I collect to listen to. I've never sold a CD, and haven't sold a vinyl in 25 or 30 years.

My comment wasn't refereeing to you, it was rather a general comment on how you could manipulate the stats there

[lynx]

My comment wasn't refereeing to you, it was rather a general comment on how you could manipulate the stats there

Ah, ok.

One interesting thing I noticed: a lot of rarer releases are easily available from Russian sellers, at good prices too. Are most of those bootlegs?

[Zombie Dance]

My comment wasn't refereeing to you, it was rather a general comment on how you could manipulate the stats there

Ah, ok.

One interesting thing I noticed: a lot of rarer releases are easily available from Russian sellers, at good prices too. Are most of those bootlegs?

If you're talking about CDs I believe there was a massive production of bootlegs in the recent years over there, so be careful to read the user's rating. If you were talking about LPs I don't know.