"Rainbow" (rainbeaux)
01/29/2016 at 13:36 • Filed to: None
2
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"Rainbow" (rainbeaux)
01/29/2016 at 13:36 • Filed to: None | 2
| 6 |
At $0.77 each, Goodwill records make excellent cheap wall art, if nothing else. But whenever I find one by someone I’ve actually heard of, I do a quick eBay search on my phone just to see if someone made a big mistake by donating it. Usually, even fairly big names show to be selling for under $5 or whatever, so when I looked up this Carpenters album, I was pretty surprised to see that the absolute lowest selling price (on a sold listing, not just an asking price) was $20, which was a pretty good deal in itself since the next-lowest listings were all around 50 bucks. Most sell for $60-80, it seems, and if this plastic wrapping happens to be original from 1969, the condition of my copy could easily push it over a cool hundred. I’m not sure how to determine the age of the plastic, unless someone can manage to put an era to that orange sticker, but either way, the sleeve is in spectacular shape for a 47-year-old piece of cardboard.
What makes this valuable is that it’s not only their debut album, but an early version thereof; the title was quickly changed to “Ticket to Ride” and the sleeve was given a completely different design. Excluding acetates and other special things, the only Carpenters record more valuable than this is exactly the same thing, but with a white label on the disk itself.
So, yeah. 77 cents for something worth, let’s say, at least that many dollars... I’ll take a 10,000% profit any day.
On a related note, I found an Elvis record as well as ZZ Top’s debut at the same store. Neither one is worth much more than ten bucks on a good day, but still. Make sure to value your things before you donate them, people. Especially when they’re a hot collectible that can be worth thousands.
Sam
> Rainbow
01/29/2016 at 13:45 |
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My dad was a DJ at a rock radio station here in Indianapolis during the 80s, but left after they became an oldies station. They sent out a memo to all the employees that the record library was up for grabs, so he drove there with a bunch of boxes and loaded up his car with albums. Thus, we have a ton of records that are marked [Not For Retail Sale, Property of ——- Records]. Also, about 20 Elvis records and a bunch of multi-disc radio shows. We also have an original, unopened copy of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which is worth quite a bit.
Urambo Tauro
> Rainbow
01/29/2016 at 13:45 |
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Nice find! I will never tire of Karen’s voice.
Jonee
> Rainbow
01/29/2016 at 14:11 |
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That’s awesome. Good record, too. One time at a Goodwill here in L.A. I stumbled across what must have been an old record distributor cleaning out his basement. Or, maybe they died and their family cleaned out their basement. There was several hundred sealed LP’s. Most of them were stuff that no one cared about, but mixed in were copies of all of Bowie’s albums from the 70's brand spanking new. Several copies of each, so I got to sell the duplicates and have a nice Bowie collection for myself.
lone_liberal
> Rainbow
01/29/2016 at 14:34 |
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I would guess the plastic is original because who runs an old album through a shrink wrap machine? I’ve know a few people over the years who would open albums by just cutting the plastic like that so it protected the cover. It’s too bad the inner dust cover isn’t there.
davedave1111
> Rainbow
01/29/2016 at 14:43 |
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It’s up to you, of course, but you really ought to give some of the profit back to Goodwill, or some other charity - unless you’re so hard-up that the profit’s going to buy food for the next month or something. Also possibly have a word with the staff where you got it and mention that they might price some of the records a bit higher.
My best find in a charity shop was an old, dilapidated Pashley butcher’s bike that I happened to see them putting out by the bins because they thought it was unsaleable. They were quite surprised to learn it was the single most valuable item in their shop...
slipperysallylikespenguins
> Rainbow
01/29/2016 at 17:14 |
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http://www.discogs.com/
, you can put in the album ID number and look it up on there. They often have notes for the different versions. Sometimes it comes down to the numbers that are etched into the vinyl surrounding the label. Great find btw.