Insuring Records Insurance companies can be quite skeptical when asked to pay for losses of recording collectibles. The most common record categories are rock, pop, country, and jazz. These were usually bought for immediate entertainment- to be danced to, sung along with, etc.
Records are subject to wear when being used and the covers to damage when being moved about.
The first step toward an accumulation becoming a collection is either through adding a friend's bunch of records or yard sale acquisitions, often in questionable shape. The next level is the used record shop, record show and mail-order lists, where condition is a major pricing consideration. Collectors are always replacing copies of a lesser grade with better ones as opportunity allows. Top values for all but the scarcest items are for like new copies, and market prices are scaled down from this figure sharply. These books are now making considerable effort to identify the label design of the first, usually most collectible pressing.