Rarest and most valuable vinyl records worth up to £800, according to an expert – do you have one?

IF you’re got a box of dusty records in the loft or shelves of unlistened to vinyl, then you could be sitting on a goldmine. 

The rarest and most valuable records can fetch up to £800 – and now is the time to sell, says expert vinyl specialist James Hancox, a valuer at Gorringe’s Auctioneers. 

“It’s such a burgeoning market. There’s a resurgence of interest and it’s the perfect time for records – demand has never been higher,” he said.

“It’s nostalgia for older people, but it’s also become a trendy thing for young people to listen to and collect records. 

“There’s a ceremony in putting a record on, as opposed to just looking through Spotify.”

James says that records that command the biggest prices tend to be from the late 60s and early 70s, though there can also be high returns for vinyl from the 1950s through to the 1980s. 

For example, Elvis Presley’s Rock n Roll can fetch £300 for lucky owners.

How to spot a valuable record

How do you know if anything lurking in your collection is valuable? “The really obvious factor is rarity because demand will be more than supply. Condition is critical too,” said James. 

That doesn’t mean it has to be mint, though – records are there to be played. “Just well looked after, no scratches. You shouldn’t be able to see damage,  you don’t want the cover to look beaten up.”

There are exceptions to this though – if your vinyl is particularly rare, it will sell for a premium regardless of the condition. 

“At Gorringe’s, we sold the archive of Brian Matthew, the late Radio 2 DJ .

“Because he was at the BBC, he’d been sent demo recordings of 7-inch singles going back to the year dot and he had all of the earliest Beatles demos.

“He didn’t really look after them – but someone paid nearly £900 for one that was badly scratched.”

The early singles and albums of iconic bands tend to be the most valuable. 

“A big name group such as the Beatles, their early works before they were famous – that tends to be where the major value is,” said James. 

Another big draw is albums from certain eras with impressive artwork.

“Particularly genres like progressive and psychedelic rock, for example, like first pressings of albums by bands such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Yes. The artwork lended itself so well to the vinyl format.”

Though it’s not an exhaustive way of working out the value of your vinyl, James says that the matrix number, which is scratched or stamped into the actual vinyl on the “run out” (the bit in the middle when the grooves stop, before the centre label) can determine the rarity. 

Then, look the number up online – there are useful websites like Discogs and the Record Collector guide.

“Very few records are worth a fortune, but there is a good number of records that are worth a good few 10s of pounds so,  if you’ve got a box of records, it may well add up,” he said.

“A lot of people in their 60s might have a box of 100 records and are sitting on a lot of value – there could easily be £1000 pounds worth.”

Mostly, it’s best to sell a collection together.

He said: “We take big collections and break them down into themed groups, and there are some that are worthy of being sold on their own right.

“Someone brought in a first pressing of an early Beatles album just last week – but there are very few records that sell on their own.”

James added that it is worth taking your collection to an auction house.

“If you’re not sure what something’s worth, if you take it to auction, everyone will fight over it so the process of the auction establishes what it’s worth – whereas, if you advertise it somewhere, you don’t know what to ask.

“In a public auction, you get both the dealers and the collectors.

And, of course, the collectors are bidding against the dealer, so you can achieve a better price.”

James’s guide to the most valuable records across the decades

Here are the most valuable records from the sixties to the ninties.

1960s 

1963 – The Beatles Please Please Me, first pressing with black & gold label – £400-600

1966 – The Who My Generation, black and silver label – £300-£400

1967 – Jimi Hendrix Are You Experienced, mono recording with laminated sleeve – £200-300

1967 – Velvet Underground & Nico, non ‘banana’ cover – £160-£180

1968 – Deep Purple Shades of Deep Purple, with mono yellow and black label – £300-£400

1969 – Rolling Stones Let It Bleed, with red inner sleeve, poster and stickered sleeve – £200-£300

1970s

1971 – Led Zeppelin IV, with maroon label – £100-£150 

1971 – David Bowie Hunky Dory, with orange label – £200-300

1971 – T Rex Electric Warrior, with poster, inner sleeve and stickered sleeve – £80-£120

1973 – Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon, with solid blue triangle and label – £400-£600

1977 – Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks, with pink rear sleeve and without track listings – £600-£800

1980s

1983 – New Order Power Corruption and Lies – £30-£50

1986 – Kraftwerk Electric Café – £20-£30

1987 – Guns N’ Roses Appetite For Destruction with robot sleeve – £40-£60

1989 – Nirvana Bleach on white vinyl – £80-£120 

1990s

1993 – Jellyfish Spilt Milk £40-£60

1995 – Queen Made in Heaven on ivory vinyl  – £60-£80 

1997 – Radiohead OK Computer – £40-£60

2000 – Coldplay Parachutes – £100-£150