5 Must-Know Tips For Buying Used Vinyl Records

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Despite being the oldest media format still in any kind of wide use, vinyl records have come back with a vengeance in recent years, even exceeding CDs as annual physical media sales go. There are a number of different reasons why more people now buy vinyl records than buy CDs, from superficial benefits like bigger cover art and the playback ritual to serious arguments for the format's sonic superiority, but whatever personal reasons you cite, vinyl's big business in 2025.

When we look at those massive numbers of vinyl records being sold, it's important to note that those numbers only include new titles sold through official channels, not used CDs or vinyl. The business of selling used records is a separate entity with nobody keeping track of what's sold every year across the United States and beyond. It's still its own big business, though, as you can see from the countless used vinyl listings on Discogs and eBay and the numerous new stores centered on selling used records popping up every year.

If you're new to buying used records, though, then you could use a few pointers. Vinyl's a fickle, temperamental kind of physical media, one that can easily be thrown for a loop by small imperfections on the record, so understanding the grading scales for record condition is paramount, for example. Expanding on that, let's use my experience as a hardcore vinyl enthusiast to look at five different lessons you should heed about how to shop for used records.

When buying used records online, you'll inevitably sign up for a Discogs.com account. The concept is brilliant in its simplicity: A website built around a user-maintained database of recorded music, easily leveraged for personal collection management and selling music through the site's marketplace. It's one of the best places to buy used and collectible records online, but it comes with quirks that need to be understood to get the most out of it.

One is that sellers don't always follow Discogs' official grading guidelines for vinyl. If you look at those guidelines and start poring over listings, it quickly becomes clear where the disconnect is: The guidelines involve play-grading the record (near mint has zero cosmetic or playback issues, very good plus has marks that don't affect playback, very good has noise that's generally overpowered by the music, etc.) but many sellers carry too much inventory to do more than visual grading. As a result, early on, you'll want to lean towards NM or better records, or at least VG+ records from sellers who add insight gained from play grading. In time, you may find sellers you like whose grades you're particularly trusting of.

Discogs' listings have also gotten more granular over the years, as records now have separate listings for variations from different pressing plants. (In vinyl's heyday, popular records were pressed at multiple plants across the U.S.) Understand that this complicates how you'll engage with Discogs' user interface to find the right record.

During the vinyl revival, the role of the mastering engineer has received increased focus for their pivotal role in shaping the sound of a recording. Mastering engineers are simply the audio engineers tasked with making albums sound their best in the destination format, whether analog or digital. Some — Bob Ludwig is arguably the most legendary — have developed particularly great reputations, to the point that you can generally assume that what they put out will sound its absolute best in their very capable hands. There are also particular mastering houses that developed excellent reputations regardless of who was doing the cutting, like Sterling Sound and Masterdisk. Learning about specific masterings and engineers is key to the hi-fi experience.

This doesn't mean that records mastered elsewhere, like at a label's in-house studio, or even those without any mastering credits whatsoever, can't sound great, so much as some are much closer to sure things. The more popular an album was, though, the more a stamper would get used, to the point that a new one needed to be cut. Sometimes, this was done repeatedly by the same engineer, but other times, it might lead to a completely different version being cut by a different engineer at a different studio. The American release of Duran Duran's 1983 album "Seven and the Ragged Tiger," for example, has circulating pressings that were cut by both Wally Traugott at Capitol Records' in-house mastering room and Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound.

There are alternate versions of popular records that can throw a monkey wrench into what's expected, though: Club editions, the versions sold through discount subscription services like CBS Record Club (later Columbia House) and RCA Record Club (later BMG). These were often mastered by unknown engineers separately from the mainline release, and can sound worse as a result. On Discogs, club editions are clearly marked, but in person, you should look for telltale signs such as a "manufactured by [X] Record Club" credit or the lack of a UPC barcode on a record released after they became standard.

For example, I recently made the mistake of not reading a listing closely enough and thus ordering a CBS Record Club pressing of Sting's "Thea Dream of the Blue Turtles," which has no mastering information, as opposed to the retail release cut by the legendary Bob Ludwig. It doesn't sound bad, but it definitely doesn't sound as good as Ludwig's usual work. Note the back covers: The retail version has a UPC barcode, while the club version doesn't.

To be completely clear, this isn't necessarily a universal problem, as there are club pressings out there that use identical stampers to the retail pressings. Comparing the relevant details between Discogs listings is easy enough; in person, it's best to consult Discogs on your phone if you find a good price on a club edition and want to see how similar it is or isn't to the retail release.

Outside of the rare occasions when you're buying records that the seller has explicitly listed as having cleaned themselves and placed in a new, archival-quality inner sleeve, you want to make sure that you clean all of the records you buy. (This applies to new records, too, as pressing plants aren't exactly clean rooms and a lot of detritus can end up in the grooves.) There's a whole lot of dust and who knows what else that can end up on records even if properly handled, so it's best to give every record a good cleaning (and drying) before the first time you play it.

The easiest to use solution that does the best job relative to the low cost is the $79.99 Spin Clean and its knockoffs. The concept is simple: A vat with brushes and rollers that you fill with distilled water and a small amount of cleaning fluid before giving each record three rotations in each direction inside the bath before letting them dry. The best deal among the knock-offs is probably the $59.99 Big Fudge Record Friend, which includes two bottles of cleaning fluid and a drying rack that nests in the underside of the cleaning vat when not in use. Other, more sophisticated options are available, like vacuum-based solutions and ultrasonic cleaners, but they're a lot more expensive than Spin Clean and its various knockoffs.

This is simple, but underpinned by various reasons why it's good advice: Don't be afraid to ask sellers questions about individual records, whether online or in person. One area that might require extra investigation is how strictly a seller is adhering to Discogs' grading standards. This can even work in your favor if the seller is a strict grader, and thus some buyers may skip over a listing in search of a higher grade.

For example, in 2024, I was pursuing the out-of-print Intervention Records reissue of Joe Jackson's "Night and Day." (A repress has since been announced for May 2025.) Most listings were priced higher than I was looking to pay, but one seller had a reasonably-priced VG+ copy. Looking further through their listings, I noticed that nothing was listed as Mint, with sealed records listed as NM, so I called their store: They confirmed my suspicion that their VG+ was closer to most sellers' NM. I ordered, and after cleaning, it was pretty much perfect.

Alternatively, you might be looking for a record that's had a confusing release history. Take, for example, DGC's 2013 version of Nirvana's "Nevermind." It's a repress of the highly-regarded reissue from audiophile label ORG Music, making it desirable. Newer pressings with a different mastering have the same barcode, though, so it's best to double-check, never buy sealed, and ignore sources like the Amazon listing that think the current version is 2013's due to the UPC.