If you’re like me, you like music… a lot. If you’re anything like me, you’re a pack rat. A bad combination, because now you’re collecting a lot of vinyl records. And he’s also collecting CDs, let’s not forget that. CDs play and store better than our dusty collection of vinyl records, we use them regularly.
Now you must ask yourself… When was the last time you played one of your vinyl records? Do you have a turntable/record player? How many times have you moved since the last time you played one of your records? You may find that you no longer play them.
If you’re like me, you’re ready to get rid of most of these vinyl records. There is no way that you or I will separate ourselves from all of them. Some are too sentimental and will stay with me, and with any luck, vinyl records can be passed on to my children. I’m hoping to pass out a turntable or two, so they can play the old vinyl music.
I have almost 400 vinyl records and I hope to keep about 100 of them in the collection.
Because I have been subject to moving a few times, my vinyl record collection is out of order. To start with, I grabbed the first 20-30 discs and started making two stacks, intending to get rid of most of the discs. There are certain bands that I will keep all the vinyls I have like U2, Rush, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and more… some of these vinyls came out as collector’s editions… and I will keep them, sorry folks. ! Once I finished separating the vinyl record collection, I set up a website to sell them.
If you are like me, you can create your own website. If you’re not like me, you can use eBay or CraigsList. I used an out of the box ecommerce website.
I have indexed over 100 of the vinyl records. I have digital photos that I took of each record that is uploaded to the e-commerce system. I make the available quantity of each record set to one (1) so as not to oversell the item. I also had to set up a Merchant system to accept credit card transactions. I really liked this part, because when I receive a purchase from a customer using a credit card, it goes directly to my bank account! And again!
I learned about shipping and order processing. The first order I shipped through UPS, I was too excited to ship my first order, and everything went well. I charged $5 for shipping and paid $8 at UPS, that was a lesson learned. I found that using the postage and shipping rate was the best option. Shipping cost at the post office was usually less than $3, and when adding insurance and delivery tracking, the total cost was still less than $5 for a vinyl record. I was sure to send email communication to my clients at every step of the transaction. I inform the customer that their order was received and when it will be shipped. I locate the vinyl records before I send the first communication to make sure I can complete the entire order. When I send the order I send the delivery confirmation number as verification of the shipment. I haven’t had a customer complaint yet…I’m sure I will at some point.
If you’re like me, you want to please your customer. I used special shipping boxes for vinyl records. They cost me about $1.20 each; the high cost is because i only ordered a few. The more shipping boxes you order, the cheaper each one will be to buy. My plan was that if my vinyl record sales worked out, then I could invest more in the business. The boxes I use are exactly the right size for shipping vinyl records. The box can be folded at different points to accommodate various quantities.
I’m making money selling my old vinyl records. It’s been an online bestseller that after I’m done adding all my vinyl records, I’m going to add any old t-shirts that I have. After that, you may very well add some CDs as well.
