Massive Newcastle vinyl collection sells for more than £50,000

A Newcastle music lover's vinyl collection that sold at auction for more than £50,000
-Credit: (Image: Anderson & Garland)


A retired university professor’s collection of 15,000 vinyl records spanning decades and a range of genres has sold at auction for £52,000.

The Tyneside music devotee’s lifelong stock of records, many of them rare, featured in a 500-lot sale by Newcastle auctioneers Anderson & Garland. Almost half of the collection of LPs were still sealed and unopened.

The collection included original pressings of rare reggae music, through 70’s punk, 80’s electronica, 90’s hip-hop, dub, techno and indie-rock, through to modern doom-metal, trip-hop, soul, folk, ambient, experimental and dubstep, industrial heavy metal, with many others in-between including classic rock, folk, funk and jazz.

READ MORE:Gateshead Council lost over £16,000 through seven cases of fraud last year

READ MORE:Newcastle University faces £35m blackhole as international student numbers decline

Highlights include limited edition box sets, including by Newcastle-based ambient band Zoviet France of a 17 LP box set restricted to 400 hand-numbered copies. It sold for £416 including fees.

Adam Barr, music specialist at Anderson & Garland, said: “This is a huge collection for one individual. We’re really pleased with the results, with a fantastic sales rate and many obscure, niche titles finding new homes across the world.

“This was an amazing opportunity for people to add to their own collections, stock record shops, or just invest in rare records, many of which were created in such low numbers they very rarely come to auction, especially still factory sealed in mint condition. This was our first vinyl only auction, and certainly won’t be our last.”

The record collection was assembled by a now retired university professor. On offer at this week’s sale were also Dubstep 12” singles, Afro-Funk from Nigeria, trip-hop band Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky and Bjork, as well as more mainstream names such as Radiohead, PJ Harvey, Oasis, Gorillaz, Sonic Youth, Bob Marley, The Beatles, Primal Scream, Miles Davis, Brian Eno, Joe Strummer and many others.

Records included Record Store Day exclusives, and LPs on coloured and decorative vinyl. As well as individual LP, and artist bundles, the sale offered mixed bundles of five, 10, 20 and 40 LPs and 12” singles, featuring mixed artists and sought-after compilations in specific genres including shoegaze, downtempo, drum’n’bass, folk-rock, acoustic, techno, electro pop, and industrial noise, with many pressings from the US, UK, Japan, France, Germany, Jamaica, Africa, and elsewhere.

Ander & Garland’s next music auction, featuring musical instruments, more vinyl records, hi-fi and memorabilia, is on October 23.