John Fiset asks for:

>...help and advice regarding the sale of my late father's classical
>record collection.  I've tried to get some idea of what the collection
>is worth and have been told by a couple of places that the most I could
>hope to get would be 5 to 10 cents per album?  Is this the case?  The
>collection is made up or roughly 6,000 albums.  Mostly classical recordings
>collected between 1955 and 1975.

I'd say it all depends on how quickly you want to sell them, and of
course the means you use.  In the end you may settle for the near-insulting
price you were quoted, but in the meantime you can try several things.

One is to see what the going rates are on eBay, which is a fair indicator
of what people are paying for things of all kinds.  Then again, that
fluctuates daily.  I recently got a CD of Herb Alpert and the TJB's
'Going Places' album (still far#$%^out!) for the equivalent of about
US$16, whereas a Japanese CD release on eBay consistently fetched over
US$100 a couple of months ago.  Simply a case of a new release, more
availability.  Such factors can swing a huge difference, in other words.
Also, the same CD can vary widely in sale price from day to day, and for
no apparent reason.  So the value of consulting eBay is strictly for a
rough estimate.

Another route is to seek out specialist 2nd hand LP sellers in your town
and on the Internet.  I recall one called Mikrokosmos on the 'net a few
years ago, with a rich collection that seemed priced according to the
LPs' levels of rarity.

If you're tech-savvy and have time on your hands, once you've got a
handle on the prices of your stock, consider opening up your own virtual
shop to sell them on the Internet.  That would provide exposure to a
very wide range of music lovers.

Maybe your local 2nd hand music shops should be a first step.  While
one still hears of collectors who appreciate LPs in a big way, the best
2nd-hand music store in my medium-sized city is eager to be rid of the
stock they'd bought with the store, and would turn down any request to
buy more.  Maybe a big city is the best option to pursue.

Good luck,

Bert B, in Ottawa