Outside of the big stars (Mantle, other Yankees)and the rarest or mintiest of cards, all that goodness from the 50s and 60s has gone way down from the prices they seemed to be fetching during the Goldplate Era of rampant speculation. 

The market for them is getting too old to be much involved in that kind of collecting.

> Remembers thousands of comics in his attic. <

Ulp!

And not to be left out, Canada issued this.


Had this sent to me on a cover and it looks great.

The "more obscure the better" thing isn't strictly true with vintage vinyl. Pressings of Beatles, Stones, Hendrix, Floyd etc, if they are in great condition, can go for 100s of pounds, in spite of how many copies of those albums were pressed at the time. And that's especially true of rarer mono versions of those records. It seems to me that, in the vintage vinyl market, first pressings of the evergreen favorites (if they are well looked after) and medium-to-good condition '60s obscurities are the things that go for big money. It's all the stuff in the middle -- the stuff that may've been popular once, but which subsequent generations have little interest in -- that is worthless.

Well, not exactly. For exemple, the version of hte White album that is worth real money only had a 1000 copies print. 99% of the time, when you have a great looking original copy of one of those old classic albums, they'd at best be worht 80-120 quid. There's the simple ratio of how many years old/how many copies were printed. If a record is 50 years old and had a pressing of 200 copies, it's unlikely more than a couple of copies will surface in the next decade. I've got dozens of records by that ratio, and most of those I can secure a good 5000 quid from. I got originals from most Beatles album, I know how it works. Only the original first pressing will be worth a damn, and that is only if the pressing was of less than 5000 copies, sometimes 10 000 if the band is that popular. Only hardcore collectors pay crazy money for records, and no one is paying crazy comic book prices, that just doesn't exist in htat world. Partly because vinyl records are a younger medium than comics, but also because records are not IP orgin artefacts. So there might be 10 000 guys who are ready to pay serious money on a Beatles rarity, but guess what, those rarities only are 50 years old and usualy in a print run of not that much less htan hte amount of hardcore collecors.
I have a 7" from Bernard Parmegiani (my favorite composer and most precious record), a mixture of musique concrète and free jazz, 50 copies private press from 1968, none of the tracks featured elsewhere, and the music is really good, not average Parmegiani. It's one of the two recordings of his featuring jazz players, and in this case some of the most famous ever. Parmegiani died 5 years ago or so and still has a quite small discography, around 20 records in total, including compilations, repackages and reissues. I've seen one other copy of this before I got mine  some 8 years ago or so (that's how I became aware of its existance) and none since that, no one else online claiming to own a copy. Now the pooll of hardcore collector of that kind of music is admitidly limited, probably around 1000 around the globe, even if always in an increasing number. But those collectors are aware of the ratio, of the scarcity, a starting bid at 200 quid on ebay would be seen as low. and in hte end, maybe 7-8 collectors would battle for it, and it could end up fetching around 5-6000 quids, if sellers knows how to play it.
Records like that exist in the tens of htousands, and an increasing number gain such status every year. Beatles/Hendrix/Floyd/etc level records? Their number isn't gonna increase. Original basic prints will probably go up a little every now and hten, granted, but if one inted to start a collection with the same aim the OP's father had, rare OG classics won't get you far, not that far at least.

I don't really see how what you say contradicts anything I said.
Those pressing you refer to, th mono OG ones of Beatles etc, those are the very ones I was talking about as being small press.

About private press though, you have a misconception about those : A private press is just what it is, it's not pressed by a record company, it doesn't mean it has no commercial release. Many private presses were and are still distributed  in the general outlets, just not through a proper label company.

And I wasn't saying that only obscure records are worth a damn, only that if you were to collect for the same reasons the OP's father did, those are the ones in greater amount, if not increasing amount, and that the real pricey items within hugely popular artists only are a few, when the fad is gone.
In any case, no records commands the kind of money we see nowadays sithin the comics world.

Edit : oh and as you must have noticed, when I was speaking about pricey records, I wasn't talking about 500 quid ones
Last thing, never trust the prices you see in shops. The real market isn't there anymore. With tools like Discogs, ebay, popsike and others, you get real statictics on how much and how often records actually find buyers and in which condition.

Just to quote your exemples

Hendrix - Axis: Bold as Love for £500
Last two NM copies on discogs in the past 6 months : 230 and 150 euros
www.discogs.com/sell/history/1348423

OG mono Piper at the Gates of Dawn by Pink Floyd can indeed be in hte realms you stated, but that mono pressing is super rareless than 5000 copies pressed back then, a rarity.

I just checked the Beatles first press LPs on discogs in NM mono, and the first proper LP I checkes, "Beatles For Sale" NM copies recently sold at highest at 60 euros...
Their very first album releases, "With The Beatles", 60 euros as well in NM mono, that was a month ago.

If you take more modren obscure UK bands such as coil, one of their most successfull recent album (Musick to play in the dark, 1999), the last five copies to sell, even VG+ ones all sold for over 400 euros.
I used to make a living out of dealing rare records some years ago. It was nice and easy if you know your stuff and live in a big city (lots of clients and more places to source copies), trust me, the real money isn't in those pop records. As I said, sure, there's a bunch of expensive ones, but Beatles collectors usually are Beatles collectors, same with Pink Floyd. There's only that many real rare records from those bands, and rarely anything above 250 quid, when almost every single rare LP of psychedlic folk will fetch over 500 if sold the right way.
The most I sold a record for was 9000 quid, and that was a free jazz record. If I still had it today, I could maybe sell it for 12000 but this is an anomaly. If you can sell a Beatles records for over 100 quid, that's fantastic, but a rare occurance. Maybe in the not so far future though.
The futire indeed looks bright since the ratio rarity/availability hasn't yet been really understood by the outside collectors : few mediums have such small pressings, and hte vas majority only has one pressing. I'd even risk that in its 70 years span, the average pressing of one record is under a thousand. With the increased online sources of info, the availabilty doesn't increase, but the demand sure will. That is why I have stoped selling my doubles. I'm building up a collection for a future sale, parallel to my own collection that I indtend to keep. So far, I have around 2000 doubles with a current average sales value on discogs of 180000 euros, and mostly with obscure one time pressing only recordings, from all over the world recent and old. I monitor it on a daily basis to try to anticipate movement, re-issues, old forgotten stock copies being discovered, etc, various forums of collectors. So all in all, my take is that if you want to make some money with records, avoid hugely popular artists unless you just stumble upon the records and find yourself extremely lucky
One ohter point : ust because there isn't as much money in record collecting as in comics, I must confess I find it a little more fun, also as there's so much more stuff out : you'll find records everywhere! I found records in the depths of China, where those are supposed to be non existant and illegal! I found records of local electroic avant garde music in Cuba, in New Zealand, in Chili, in Peru, in India, in Irak, in Ethiopia, and I find that insane in hte best possible way.
When I look at my shelved record collection I feel as much as Scrooge as the lead character in the Umberto Eco novel "The name of the rose", played by Sean Connery on hte screen

About the Hendrix LP, it is the mono version first press, just follow the link at the link.
And check the beatles LPs I mentioned as well if you don't believe me, the data is all there and is factual

I Absolutely believe you, about your friend's sale, I even wrote that it actually is the one that is consistant with the prices on ebay and discogs, didn't you see that? I would even go as far as command him for managing to sell it for it's real market value. But as noted, it isnt due to the popularity of the record but because it is a rare case of a small and sole original mono pressing. Most records that popular from that time had more and larger OG mono pressings (There's a book about that topic actualy, I have it somewhere, need to unbury it, hahaha)

Discogs can be inefficiant with grading, but you just have to check if it's a newbie seller or not. Every purchase I make there (I've made thousands since 2001) I send the seller, the discogs link to the goldmine standard of grading and ask them to confirm to me that their grading is matching those standards. By doing that, the few problems I had were all ruled in my favor within minutes.
What is great with discogs is that it is the closest we'll ever get to the actual matching prices of offer and demand, it's mechanic, as there is no go-between.
Records that used to fetch crazy money before discogs, just because of the hype and the lack of data have long been down to their real value, because of access of suply that was previously exclusive to shops and therefore locations. Trips to London shops used to be like a freakshow, visiting the Sounds Videos Exchange outlets and their overpriced LPs displayed on the walls. But they could only pull it off because they had no real competition.
I remember some 5-6 years ago, finding as many copies of Nirvana's Nevermind I wanted in second hand London shops for 6-8£. Trust me I bought as many as I could afford. It was a bit of a gamble, but one that paid off spectacularly. But that was only taking advantage of a temporary situation that sure will even itself out sooner or later, with massive reissue programs that will make that record available at a fair price again. It's bound to happen, yet, people have no patience and will buy now, when they want it, when it's the least offered ever. So that is short term view from both seller and buyer, but only to the advantage of one.
Discogs evens it out for both : if you have a real good item, you will get what it's worth for sure. And if you want a real good item, you will pay what it is currently worth, not more
If you think a record is overpriced, that just means you noticed it because of no ohter copy available : If there were other copies at a more "acceptable" price offered, you'd barely have noticed that other one. So if you still consider htis is too much, wait 2 months to see if that copy is still available. If it isn't, that means you were wrong.
Many times I cried after passing a record I htought I could get for cheaper, trust me