How much are my vinyl records worth?

An album title covers more than one release

Two people can own "the same album" and be holding different objects. One might be a British pressing from the year it came out. Another might be a later reissue, a copy pressed in another country, a club edition, or a coloured-vinyl repressing. The artist and the title on the front cover are shared. The catalogue number, the label and the barcode often differ. Buyers who collect records shop for the release, so the title on its own is a poor answer to what a copy is worth.

The figure this site shows is our offer for the release the number matches. It is the offer Vinyl Buyback is putting forward for that record. It is a separate question from what a private buyer might pay on a marketplace, which where to sell vinyl explains. How it works and the terms cover the sale itself.

Catalogue numbers

A catalogue number is the label's code for that release. On British records it is usually a short run of letters and numbers, sometimes with a space or a dash. The catalogue box on the homepage uses the shape PCS 7088 as an example of how to type one. Type your own number as it is printed.

Look in three places, in this order:

• The spine. On an LP this is often the fastest place, printed beside the artist and title.
• The back cover. Often near a corner, or next to the barcode if there is one.
• The centre label. The round paper label on the vinyl itself. Check it agrees with the jacket. A disc and a cover that have been paired up from different copies will not describe one release.

A reissue commonly carries a different catalogue number from the original on the same label. A foreign pressing commonly carries a different number again. If the spine is scuffed, the centre label is the more reliable print.

Barcodes

A barcode is the machine-readable number for a release, printed as bars with digits underneath. On UK and European sleeves the usual code is 13 digits (an EAN). On many American sleeves it is 12 digits (a UPC). Some sleeves use a shorter 8-digit barcode. Those are the lengths the checker on the homepage asks for.

You will find it on the back of the outer sleeve. Sometimes it is on a white sticker. If that sticker lived on the shrink-wrap, and the wrap has been thrown away, the barcode has gone with it. Use the catalogue number. Many LPs pressed before barcodes were routinely printed on sleeves have no barcode, and they are still straightforward to check from the catalogue number.

A later reissue is given its own barcode. Scanning the bars tells you which release the manufacturer registered, which is why the scanner asks for the barcode before it asks you to describe the album in words.

Pressings

A pressing is one manufactured version of a record: a particular country, label, era, speed and cut. Mono and stereo editions of one title can be different pressings. A first run and a reissue a decade later can be different pressings. The sleeve can differ too: a later cover, a sticker, a gatefold, a printed inner sleeve.

Collectors use the printed catalogue number and, when they need to go further, the matrix number etched in the runout (the smooth vinyl between the grooves and the label). That etched code can separate pressings that share a printed catalogue number. The vinyl value checker uses the barcode you scan or the catalogue number you type. Reading a runout is a separate step, for you, when two pressings share a printed number. After a lookup, compare the match it shows (label, catalogue number, format, country and year) with the sleeve and the centre label in your hand.

If several releases could fit, add the artist and the title. Both are optional on the catalogue form, and they give the search more to go on.

Condition

A number tells you which release you have. Condition is a separate question: surface marks, a skip, a warp, a torn sleeve or writing on the cover all change what a buyer will pay. Our grading guide sets out how we describe condition.

Chris Faulkes checks every record's condition himself when it arrives. The offer from a scan is made before anyone has seen your copy, so the check is part of selling here. Details of that check are on how it works and in the terms.

Use the vinyl value checker

On the homepage scanner, either scan the barcode or type it, or enter the catalogue number. Read the release it matched before you add the record. Then add the copies you want to sell. A single LP and a long shelf use the same checker; a full collection has a method on sell your record collection, and the selling steps are on sell vinyl records online.