2nd hand record values - who decides and how?

I’m doing that thing where I’m cataloging all of my records on discogs and records that I think will cost a fortune are cheap and others I think will have held their value at most are worth small fortunes. I get that it fluctuates based on tastes/fashion but how are the prices/value determined?

Discogs “lowest, median, highest” values are from the last (up to) 10 completed sales on the site. This doesn’t take into account condition, which can skew things quite a bit - i.e. if all the recent sales were for mint copies, or knackered copies, then the “median” price will not be a true reflection of the value of the average copy.

Discogs also comes up with a “suggested price” when you’re selling an item. This attempts to be a bit more sophisticated, with some sort of secret algorythm. My guess is, condition + previous sales + currently for sale + geographical location. Can be helpful as a rough guide, but can also be completely off.

In general, it’s desirability + scarcity that pushes prices up.

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Sometimes some trendy DJ will drop the record on a recorded set and suddenly prices shoot up.

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There’s a committee, meets monthly in the back room of a pub in Wakefield

Not many people know about it

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There are some real chancers on Discogs.

Sellers realising that the only copy on sale is theirs, and ramping up the price of a 50p record to £40 accordingly.

That ‘Holy Grails’ seller is having a fucking giraffe!

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Big Disco runs everything.

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I’m listing below suggested value as I want to shift a few of the doubles I have. The cheap junk of my random buys is being culled into the bargain bins of local shops.

As a buyer I’m mostly looking at stuff in Discogs Europe or possibly a trip abroad. Don’t forget the location factor,as if you have the only one in your country, it is likely to sell in hours.

Post lockdown value of my collection has dropped 5k or more. There will be some settling down of the silly price more for common stuff. The silly stuff is the £100 for a pop single type stuff.

The modern very short runs of niche house/electronic stuff is an absolute pain when you want to buy and to the viability of it’s very existence. I’m not sure if promotion and pre orders could solve supply and demand.

Is there a vote to get people onto the committee? A nomination process at the very least.

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It’s populated exclusively by the stubbly men in band t-shirts that are a size too small for them and who need a belt for their jeans who inexplicably run every record fair in the UK

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