The majority of general record dealers just glaze over when they are offered a classical collection.Maybe they’ll give a second glance to certain labels (everyone’s heard of Deutche Grammophon, for example), but all that means is they’ll put a $5 sticker on the sleeve, as opposed to the $2 that everything else will receive. None of which means you won’t find classics that have been scratched into a state of unlistenable white noise.Just that it’s not at all difficult to find ones that haven’t.Īnother factor that comes into play is that classical records are less… what is the word?It’s certainly inaccurate to say they are less collectible or collected likewise, they are probably better-studied than any other field in recorded music (jazz notwithstanding).īut they are less understood by the general market.Take twenty rock rarities into your local used store and watch the dealer’s eyes light up.Take twenty classical rarities to the same store and you might not even make a sale. So yes, when classical records appear on the used market, they tend to have had just one previous, careful, owner, and they are in more or less pristine condition.
CLASSICAL MUSIC COLLECTOR REVIEWS SERIES
Late in the 1980s, for example, Deutsch Grammophon released a series of digitally recorded Mahler symphonies on both CD and vinyl, but with the latter in such limited quantities that, if you didn’t buy them within a few days of release, you were unlikely ever to find them again.As shown by the following list of the label’s most expensive collectibles, that early failure will cost a lot to remedy today. One could then wander through a variety of contentious, but nevertheless convincing demographic factors (age, income, etc), and even consider a canard that appears so often on sundry Internet forums that there must be a degree of truth to it-the belief that “serious” classical collectors will rarely purchase a used record or CD, unless there is simply no way a particular recording can be located in a particular format.
One couldif so disposed, hypothesize on why this should be.Īre classical lovers less likely to throw parties, at which their records are strewn across the floor, to be stepped on by clumsy dancers?(Answer: probably).Īre they more prone to listen to a piece of music all the way through, rather than constantly raising and lowering the needle to find their favorite tracks?(Answer: again, probably.)
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