Vintage Japanese Market Albums. Where do I sell these things?

[bigcaddy64]

I stopped by one estate sale yesterday with plans to purchase one item and get home quickly due to a birthday celebration starting in the afternoon. It didn't really work out that way and I ended up with some great stuff, all of being Japanese.

The Toyota tools will make me a buck or two and the Olympic reel already sold for 85.00 about an hour after being listed so now it comes down to these records.

I know less then nothing about records, especially when it comes to where to sell or what is good to buy. Since my father in law is Mr. Vinyl, I figured I'd give them to him and let him figure it out.

After the birthday dinner, we hung out in the living room and just listened to some of these albums for entertainment. Each album was a total surprise but you had no idea what to expect once it started playing. Some of them will definitely be kept in the collection and other will be sold.

Nearly all are perfect with no dust or damage. All are in sleeves with the booklet and plastic sleeve to cover the outside as well.

Does anybody have some input on these records? Are they worth more since they are Japanese market and are priced with Yen on the back cover? Is there a better place to sell them aside from eBay?

 

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[Lost&Found]

https://www.discogs.com/search/ should have the info you seek on the LPs they also have a marketplace where you can buy and sell.

 

[diggummup]

Nice find. On a related note... I had a pipe burst under my sink last week. Woke up at 1 am with my house completely flooded. I lost several hundred albums among other things.

 

[trdhrdr007]

Nice find. On a related note... I had a pipe burst under my sink last week. Woke up at 1 am with my house completely flooded. I lost several hundred albums among other things.

That sucks. We had an unusually wet December followed by 10" of rain Christmas Eve. Enough water to raise the water table above the level of our basement forcing water through the slab. Totally sucked with a lot of loss.

 

[Tom Bigbee]

Sorry to hear about your water problem... That's awful, we spend years collecting our ''stuff'' and it gets destroyed overnight... Sincerely, Tom

 

[bigcaddy64]

That is a great resource for old albums! Its going to take me the next 3 years to navigate the whole thing but its a place to start.

 

[JimDon]

Nice find. On a related note... I had a pipe burst under my sink last week. Woke up at 1 am with my house completely flooded. I lost several hundred albums among other things.

Man I hate that for you. I hope you had insurance!

 

[JimDon]

I stopped by one estate sale yesterday with plans to purchase one item and get home quickly due to a birthday celebration starting in the afternoon. It didn't really work out that way and I ended up with some great stuff, all of being Japanese.

The Toyota tools will make me a buck or two and the Olympic reel already sold for 85.00 about an hour after being listed so now it comes down to these records.

I know less then nothing about records, especially when it comes to where to sell or what is good to buy. Since my father in law is Mr. Vinyl, I figured I'd give them to him and let him figure it out.

After the birthday dinner, we hung out in the living room and just listened to some of these albums for entertainment. Each album was a total surprise but you had no idea what to expect once it started playing. Some of them will definitely be kept in the collection and other will be sold.

Nearly all are perfect with no dust or damage. All are in sleeves with the booklet and plastic sleeve to cover the outside as well.

Does anybody have some input on these records? Are they worth more since they are Japanese market and are priced with Yen on the back cover? Is there a better place to sell them aside from eBay?

Really cool records. I never saw those before. I'd be curious how they do.

 

[mojjax]

Nice haul ! I got this Doors one a couple weeks ago at a barn sale . My Son in law (who lives next door ) is my record guru ! I showed it to him - he was impressed . He said the paper band in Japanese letters is called an Obi strip .
He sells lots of records in a group shop . He goes to his 9 -5 job , and every week he gets a check in the mail for his record sales .

 

[callmez]

mojjax is right about the strips being called OBI strips. Take good care of them, they add to the value!

I've been a casual record collector for years, and have occasionally been known to set up at nearby record shows. My opinions are by no means gospel, but in this situation maybe they are of some use.

Japanese records were known for being generally of high quality (good vinyl, quality pressings) so they are often preferred by audiophiles. Sometimes foreign pressings of a given album would contain variations of a given release -- this takes research to uncover. And the Japanese often seemed to be on the cutting edge of things like premium quality audiophile pressings (half speed mastered, superdiscs etc.) and quadraphonic, which is my collecting interest -- anything like this will be marked in some way. All of these things can add collector value to a disc.

As a rule I think you will find that the Japanese LPs of most interest are those by bands that were popular here in the states or otherwise have some sort of following today. There are a lot more people looking for an obscure variation of a Pink Floyd album than for an obscure Japanese artist. (So I'd probably take that Doors LP in trade for the entire lot, if they were mine!) On eBay I would list Art Garfunkel, Diana Ross, and ABBA individually, and see if there's any interest. The others you might be better off selling in small lots. List similar music together; if you have multiple classical music LPs put them all together. Classical LPs are hit or miss for collector interest, but mostly miss in my experience. Condition is always very important, that means scratches, scuffs, dirt, and warpage as well as wear to the jackets.

These look too late for quad at a glance, but if you see that any of them say "CD4", "SQ", "QS", "RM" or anything like quad or quadraphonic, drop me a note!

Mark Z

 

[bigcaddy64]

mojjax is right about the strips being called OBI strips. Take good care of them, they add to the value!

I've been a casual record collector for years, and have occasionally been known to set up at nearby record shows. My opinions are by no means gospel, but in this situation maybe they are of some use.

Japanese records were known for being generally of high quality (good vinyl, quality pressings) so they are often preferred by audiophiles. Sometimes foreign pressings of a given album would contain variations of a given release -- this takes research to uncover. And the Japanese often seemed to be on the cutting edge of things like premium quality audiophile pressings (half speed mastered, superdiscs etc.) and quadraphonic, which is my collecting interest -- anything like this will be marked in some way. All of these things can add collector value to a disc.

As a rule I think you will find that the Japanese LPs of most interest are those by bands that were popular here in the states or otherwise have some sort of following today. There are a lot more people looking for an obscure variation of a Pink Floyd album than for an obscure Japanese artist. (So I'd probably take that Doors LP in trade for the entire lot, if they were mine!) On eBay I would list Art Garfunkel, Diana Ross, and ABBA individually, and see if there's any interest. The others you might be better off selling in small lots. List similar music together; if you have multiple classical music LPs put them all together. Classical LPs are hit or miss for collector interest, but mostly miss in my experience. Condition is always very important, that means scratches, scuffs, dirt, and warpage as well as wear to the jackets.

These look too late for quad at a glance, but if you see that any of them say "CD4", "SQ", "QS", "RM" or anything like quad or quadraphonic, drop me a note!

Mark Z

Wow! That's a quite a bit to take in but appreciate the info. There is some truth to the albums being of higher quality. I noticed that nearly all of them were virtually spotless and sounded great. As for audiophiles, I'll ask the father in law once he's back in the country. He's seriously into music and has no problem spending big bucks for good equipment so he might be the one to ask about the records.

 

[bigcaddy64]

There are a number of albums by the Dark Ducks which were a super famous vocal quartet in Japan. Some is in Japanese while other songs are in English. They sound pretty good and are mildly entertaining so I think I might keep them and sell/give the rest to Dad.

There is another 10 album set by Fubuki Koshiji I saw listed in South Korea for 95.00. Maybe mine will do better here and I noticed the condition of my was far better then the on in South Korea.

 

[cyberdan]

He said the paper band in Japanese letters is called an Obi strip .

That makes sense. An OBI is kind of like a belt. It is one of the last things a lady puts on when getting dressed in her kimono.
The obi strip wraps around the album spine.

 

[callmez]

That makes sense. An OBI is kind of like a belt. It is one of the last things a lady puts on when getting dressed in her kimono.

Cool! Did not know that, thanks for sharing...