So... just got back from my latest Craigslist Record foray... and let it be clear that this is the FIRST time I've met a less-than-stellar fate doing this.
Iranian or Indian woman, living up in an Uncle Joe DiMuro-like estate above Valley Circle in Woodland Hills.
She lets me in, and her records are nicely displayed in piles of 100 around a pool table.
I give my little speech about how records are usually worth less than one thinks, picking up a DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED that I sold for $5 ("Oh, but that's GOOD!" she chimed in). Then I asked about the history of the records, and it turns out she has them from buying up collections herself!
As I make my way around the table, I find I'm only taking one record per pile, and even some of those are Hail Marys...
At the end, I have 26 in a box. She had wanted to dump the whole collection of 800 for $800 ("...though I'm negotiable...") and I immediately pissed her off by offering $15 for 5 sealed classical LPs and a buck each for the rest. She countered with $20 for the sealed records, and $3 each for the rest. But boy, she was PISSED!
"You go through, you pick and choose. I need someone to buy the collection! I KNOW it is worth money! I KNOW someone will buy it! What will this get me? Almost nothing, and you pick and choose!"
I said: "Honestly, I mean no disrespect, but I've owned or seen every one of these records before, and I just can't sell them. For example.... (I pick up a double Dan Fogelberg concept album).... see this one? I had a mint copy, WITH the booklet (she had no booklet), and it was a beautiful record, but in the end I had to GIVE IT AWAY. And your sealed classical records? Frankly, I buy sealed classical records for a dollar all the time."
Well, blah blah blah, you come here and pick and choose, you said you would take 100 or 200...
"Look, I came here in good faith. I WANTED to buy a bunch of records!" I pulled out the wad of 20's in my pocket. "But I just can't sell these. I'm sorry I wasted your time."
So I went to Mr. Records and picked 22 from the Heartbreak Bin, which had recently been replenished.
