Where is the Best Place to Sell Vinyl Records?

The best place to sell vinyl records depends on various factors such as the condition of the records, their rarity, and your preferences regarding ease of use, selling fees, and potential audience reach.

Many independent record stores buy and sell vinyl records. Selling to a local record store may offer convenience and immediate payment, but the price offered may be lower than market value. You may also be able to sell your records at places like dedicated record fairs and events.

Do keep in mind, though, that selling at events like these as a vendor requires proper planning and registration – and is not typically a method that private or individual sellers look to take advantage of.

Selling records to brick-and-mortar or online record shops can be a convenient option if you prefer immediate payment and don't want to deal with the hassle of listing and shipping items online.

With this service, you have the satisfaction of moving your collection on in one go, which gets you space in your home back and an immediate lump payment. Provided they purchase the entire collection, it also means that they’ll deal with the poor condition and low to no-value records on your behalf, meaning you don’t get left with a pile of worthless records that are difficult to dispose of.

This is also a service that we offer right here at Atlas Records! If you are looking to sell your own collection, you can use the button below to get in touch with us. Our valuations team will then follow up with the next steps.

Firstly, you’ll want to start by researching record shops in your area to find ones that buy vinyl records. Look for shops that specialise in vinyl or have a diverse selection of music-related items. Visit the shops in person or check their websites to see if they have a buying policy or guidelines for selling records.

Once you've identified potential record shops, contact them to enquire about their buying process. Some shops may prefer you to make an appointment to bring in your records for evaluation, while others may accept walk-ins during specific hours. Ask about any requirements or restrictions they have for selling records, such as minimum quantities or genres they're interested in.

Important: We would always recommend making sure that you call ahead if you’re going to drop into a shop with your collection, to make sure that they have the staff available to have a look and make you an offer.

Websites like eBay and Discogs provide online platforms for buying and selling vinyl records. These platforms offer a global reach and allow you to set your prices, but they will involve fees and shipping costs, as well as organising returns and dealing with customer queries.

Online marketplaces are a great place to start if you are looking at getting into the selling space as more than just a way to sell your own collection. They offer immediate access to an incredibly large audience of potential buyers, as well as having proper structures in place to protect both buyers and sellers from fraudulent activity.

Learn more about selling your records online.

Much like other online marketplaces, selling your record collection through a social media platform gives you immediate access to an incredibly diverse pool of people who may be looking for exactly what you are selling.

With the sheer volume of people utilising platforms like Facebook Marketplace, Reddit, and Instagram, Social media can be an incredibly powerful, and often free tool to have at your disposal. The fact that platforms like this often promote no selling or listing fees can be great if you are looking to cash in on a record (or indeed a collection’s) full value. Definitely be prepared for some good old-fashioned bartering, though!

Selling on social media does also has its drawbacks, however. Because listings like these are often concluded face to face, there is often not much in the way of buyer/seller protection, meaning there are no official routes to explore should any unwanted situations arise – like returns, for example.

Selling your record collection through one of the various social media outlets can sometimes be quite convenient as well, as you can often monitor any offers, requests and other messages on the go directly through that marketplace’s mobile app (if it has one, of course).

Feel free to take a look at our guide to the most popular apps that you can use to sell your own records!

Still perfectly good options when looking to sell your record collection – listing a local, classified ad allows you to advertise to a wider audience for a potentially much lower cost when compared to taking out full ad space on either a newspaper or website.

With the surge in other (predominantly online) marketplaces in recent years, classified ads have shrunk in popularity in recent years as a way for people to sell their belongings. They can definitely still be an effective method to use if you would prefer to sell more locally and if you are looking to keep costs low.

Online marketplaces like Facebook Marketplace are essentially an online, modern-day equivalent to posting a classified advertisement in your local newspaper. Through both outlets, listings need to be created, managed, and meetings arranged in order to actually move your collection on.

Listing a classified ad will mean that you will also have to publicly list your personal contact information so that those who are interested in buying your collection can reach out to you. 

This privacy aspect is something that most online marketplaces like Facebook will allow you to tweak and adapt to your liking – as more often than not, you won’t need to share any information like phone numbers should you wish, as all communication happens within the platform.

Auctions are still an incredibly popular way to sell record collections, especially larger ones. Local auction houses are an ideal selling solution if you want to very simply hand your collection over and let someone else take care of all of the admin.

Some auction houses can even group and sell your records in certain categories for you so that they have a better chance of achieving a higher price when the hammer falls. This is something that you would likely want to check that they do in advance, though, just in case any prior sorting is required.

Selling your collection through a physical auction environment can be great as well if you are not quite sure what your records are worth, or indeed if you don’t really mind too much what they sell for. You will often find that things like records will often sell for their true market value in auction settings, as people are literally bidding on what they believe them to be worth.

One thing to keep in mind when selling through auction houses, however, are the fees. Auctioning off your collection in this way may attract a dent looking final price (depending on what is in the collection, of course), however, things like commission, VAT, and lotting fees can put a dent in the cash you end up taking home.

These fees are often fixed, so it may be that you can work out ahead of time what you will end up having to subtract from your collection’s final selling price – should you have a rough idea of what they might sell for, of course.

The other thing to bare in mind when handing over your collection to an auction house is how you are going to transport your records. This may not be an issue if you are looking to sell a smaller collection, however, it may be something that needs a bit of pre-planning if it isn’t. Records can be extremely heavy and cumbersome when carried in larger amounts, so maybe check to see how many trips you’ll need to take before you begin to pack everything into the car!