nothingfails

I largely buy vinyl over CD nowadays, but one thing I've noticed at nearly every used shop is how ridiculously high they jack up the price on Beatles records, more than any other artist.

While yes they are one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, bands of all time and every album of theirs is worth owning, why do stores act like scratched up and worn out copies of Something New or Meet The Beatles are worth $30+ used. I can understand limited edition pressings or something that was a very poor seller in original release but became a cult classic years later, but all of these Beatles albums from the 1960's sold in the millions, there is nothing "rare" about them. I read Meet The Beatles sold 5 million copies, yet stores try to act like a copy of it is hard to come by?

How valuable are these albums really, considering they were the biggest band on the planet for several years and every last album they released on Capitol in the 1960's was a huge seller.

Supermallet

While some of it is simply the name factor, also consider that since the 80's The Beatles' catalog has been the British releases only, and then the two Past Masters discs. While the British catalog has remained in print on vinyl throughout the world, the American one has gone out of print, and will likely never be reprinted again. So there is a certain amount of rarity to them in comparison to the British versions.

nothingfails

Actually, everything is out of print on vinyl except for Abbey Road for some reason, which every store that bothers to carry vinyl has.

I do find it odd because in 1995 everything (British) was reissued on wax, but Abbey Road has remained in print while White Album, Sgt. Pepper, etc... has all gone OOP and up in price. Not that I'm fussing that AR is in print but if Green Day and Coldplay's entire catalog are still in print on vinyl, I think The Beatles should as well.

RagingBull80

I've noticed this trend as well but mostly at places that don't specialize in vinyl. I've always thought that people in these stores or garage sales or whatever say, "Oh man, that's a Beatles record! It must be worth at least $30."

I work at a record store (an actual record store, not F.Y.E.) and our Beatles albums are usually about $9-$14, depending on condition, rarity and which album. People will pay that for Beatles vinyl in reasonable shape. We sold a real butcher cover once for $2,000 on E-bay.

nothingfails

$9-14 seems reasonable for the price, that's about what Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin albums go for in nice shape. But I always find it funny when stores like Half Price Books put "Meet The Beatles" behind glass and slap a $50 sticker on it and it's not even mint. Every household in the 1960's had a copy of that album.

RagingBull80

Half Price Books was the first place I thought of that did this sort of thing.

Mabuse

There are people who are not record collectors but purely Beatles collectors. They don't walk into a record store to look at all the vinyl, they're only interested in the Beatles. They may not own a record player, they just want anything and everything Beatles.

It's like my James Bond Criterion laserdiscs: It's a dead format, the quality has been bested, and the recalled commentary can be listened to on the net--they shouldn't have any value. Yet they are still worth $75-$80 each because James Bond collectors, not movie collectors, want to own them. They probably don't own Laserdisc players, they just want small print run, hard to find, James Bond items.

obscurelabel

Keep in mind also that there are lots of label and cover variations (different Capitol and Apple versions) over the years, some more sought after than others. The mono versions of the albums usually command a premium, as they stopped pressing them in 1967 or 1968 (or so) and many consider them to be sonically superior to (or at least different from) the stereo versions. It's just supply vs. demand - I've read estimates that there were 60,000 of the paste-over butcher covers sold, but even they can command hundreds of dollars because of the hordes of Beatles collectors. I have many (non-Beatles) LPs that were local or promo pressings with only a few hundred copies manufactured, if that many, but aren't worth much of anything because few people want them (I find them all fascinating of course).