New vinyl is crazy expensive...

[friskinator]

I've had a pretty decent home stereo setup in my living room for awhile now, and I've been looking to expand my vinyl collection with new copies of my top 10 favorite records. However, after doing some browsing, I've encountered some serious sticker shock. I haven't found any new vinyl that's under $30 plus shipping, and I'm not talking special collector's edition items.

Are people really spending this much (or more) on this sort of thing? Are the inflated prices explained by the collecting craze of the last few years? If you have any recommendations for good sites to buy used, please send them my way. I've looked on Discogs, but the search process is very confusing.

 

[Stewie26]

Probably because vinyl records are now manufactured at a very low unit production rate compared when yesteryear's production of a single album could be produced by the millions.

 

[basss]

And who's gonna bother with vinyl when you can stream everything? People that are willing to spend $30/album, that's who.

 

[hbarcat]

I've had a pretty decent home stereo setup in my living room for awhile now, and I've been looking to expand my vinyl collection with new copies of my top 10 favorite records. However, after doing some browsing, I've encountered some serious sticker shock. I haven't found any new vinyl that's under $30 plus shipping, and I'm not talking special collector's edition items.

Are people really spending this much (or more) on this sort of thing? Are the inflated prices explained by the collecting craze of the last few years? If you have any recommendations for good sites to buy used, please send them my way. I've looked on Discogs, but the search process is very confusing.

The economic conditions for vinyl records are radically different now compared to what they were in the 70s and 80s.

Back then, LP records were the consumer standard, which meant both supply and demand were very high.

Such huge volumes of records meant that record producers could make large profits, ev3n with small profit margins, by making up for it in volume.

With vinyl records now a small, niche market, record sellers need to have much higher profit margins in order to make it worth their while. Hence, significantly higher prices.

That being said, basic inflation accounts for part of the price increase. A typical LP was between $10 and $15 in the mid 80s. If they're $30 now, that can mostly be accounted for by 40 years of inflation.

 

[ahbass2500]

And who's gonna bother with vinyl when you can stream everything? People that are willing to spend $30/album, that's who.

I stream and do vinyl. Felt weird buying a Sonos Port to hook my Technics SL1200mk2 into the system (of course not weird enough to stop me from doing it).

 

[PNW Tony]

I had hundreds of records, hundreds of cassette tapes, and then hundreds of CDs. I now have many thousand of MP3s. I probably last bought records in 1986 when they were probably usually $8.99. That price with inflation equals $26.09 in 2025. I went nuts in 1986 and spent $50 for a pair of shoes (like the ones on Joe Jackson's 'Look Sharp" album cover). That's about $150 in 2025 dollars. Doesn't shock me anymore.

 

[Kacey Y]

At this point new vinyl records are branded collectible merchandise for bands, more than playable music format, at least commercially speaking. So the cost lines up more with what you'd expect there. Unfortunately I've heard more than a few stories of bands releasing vinyl albums with limited colors and special designs that didn't even have proper mastering for vinyl, the RPM off from what was labeled, playback errors, etc., presumably because there was no real expectation of anyone actually listening to them. There's at least one such album from a decade ago released by a medium sized independent artist in a crate in my basement right now.

 

[S-Bigbottom]

Got people asking for a record on their wedding registry these days.

 

[bass12]

I was buying vinyl in the early 2000s for DJing and was surprised at how expensive a lot of the new vinyl was then. $30 for a record today sounds about right. Discogs used to be a good place for shopping but the prices are stupid now (I especially dislike the way a record might be listed at $2.00 but then the shipping cost will be listed as $50.00).

 

[Shepsdad]

I’ve bought a few vinyl records from the MeTv store. Not a huge selection, but I occasionally run across something interesting, and the prices are very reasonable. I’ve bought a few that were right around $10.

 

[JazznFunk]

Lower production runs, and usually vinyl is marketed as a special collector's item versus being the standard nowadays. But - a lot of what is being released is 180 gram, so it's much more stout in terms of the actual vinyl medium being produced, which to me justifies a higher price than older mass-run vinyl from decades ago.

All that being said, we have a fantastic vinyl production facility AND a killer studio in the same building, here in downtown Asheville. Check them out:

Citizen Vinyl

 

[RandomKaren]

I buy vinyl releases from artists I follow to support those artists and don't mind the price, and tend to advance order. For example I just got Sierra Hull's latest today. I stream for everyday listening.

 

[bass.slinger]

Used in my area runs $10+, so $30 seems about right, unfortunately.

 

[friskinator]

I buy vinyl releases from artists I follow to support those artists and don't mind the price, and tend to advance order. For example I just got Sierra Hull's latest today. I stream for everyday listening.

The ones I’ve been looking at are reissues of records by popular artists that came out in the 80s/90s. I totally get wanting to support up and coming artists, but that’s not my goal here.

 

[MCS4]

Well, we also now have the luxury of being able to listen to most any music we want for free or cheap without needing to buy vinyl, so we can limit vinyl purchases to albums we specifically prefer to enjoy on vinyl or artists we particularly want to support with the extra bucks.

 

[sonojono]

 

[DuluthDank]

15 dollars in 1995 is worth 31 dollars and change today. I remember going to Best Buy in the 90s and a typical CD costing about 15. Now consider that vinyl probably costs more in material, costs more to ship, and is produced in smaller batches, and what you're saying sounds about right.

 

[sunbeast]

I always buy used personally!

The number of vinyl pressing plants is fairly small these days as many closed down starting in the CD era through the early MP3 era, so there was a lull where pressing equipment sat unmaintained or was just lost entirely and little new equipment is being manufactured (kinda the same story as with vacuum tubes). What equipment remains is in the hands of a relatively few plants that are faced with growing demand. The re-emergence of interest in vinyl is still relatively niche but stresses the existing pressing infrastructure pretty hard- I worked at a pretty big independent label that printed a lot of vinyl and it was pretty normal for our releases to get stuck in backlog for 6 months to a year. Couple the decreased manufacturing capability with the already mentioned trend towards records as high-quality collectibles as well as inflation in general (most of us are getting poorer by the year as wages don't follow the cost of living for the vast majority of us) and the current price of records doesn't seem out of line at all.

 

[sonojono]

To add insight outside of the meme pic, some record stores typically sale below $30. Even most OGs (depending on the artist) cost a bit less than the reissue or remaster. I'd try local before resorting to online. Support your local record stores

 

[jerry]

I figure vinyl adjusted for inflation is probably almost at the level I paid for CDs in the early days, I'm still good with CDs. I still have thousands of Vinyl LPs, but I haven't bought a new vinyl album in 40 years, not going back now.