CRATE-DIGGING GUIDE
How to Dig for Electronic and Spiritual-Jazz Vinyl Without Getting Ripped Off
By Jerome Wagner, founder of VinylVault. Jerome has spent fifteen years digging for records, first behind the decks and now behind the counter. Here is his guide to buying in two of the trickiest genres without overpaying or ending up with the wrong pressing.
Spiritual jazz and underground electronic are two of the most rewarding corners of collecting. They are also two of the easiest places to overpay, buy the wrong pressing, or end up with a record that looks perfect in a photo and sounds like it was stored in a chip pan. I have made most of those mistakes so you do not have to. Here is how I would start if I were new to it today.
Know exactly what you are buying
The biggest trap in both genres is confusing an original pressing with a reissue. A spiritual-jazz LP from 1973 and its 2020 repress can look almost identical in a small photo. One might be worth two hundred pounds, the other fifteen. New collectors get caught either way: paying original prices for a modern reissue, or occasionally skipping a genuine original because a seller has undersold it.
You do not need to be an expert to avoid this. You need to check four things:
· The runout groove. That blank strip between the last track and the label carries etched or stamped matrix numbers, plant codes, and sometimes a mastering engineer's initials. This is the record's fingerprint. Compare it against the specific release on Discogs, not just the master page.
· The catalogue number and label design. Labels change their logos, fonts and rim text over the years. A logo that is a decade too new is a dead giveaway for a reissue.
· The cover. A barcode almost always means a later pressing. Original US jazz sleeves from the sixties and seventies rarely carry one. Small print about distribution and rights societies changes over time too.
· The overall feel. Modern reissues tend to have cleaner, sharper printing and heavier card. That is not a fault, it just tells you what you are holding.
None of this takes long once it becomes habit, and it is the difference between paying the right price and funding someone else's holiday.
The photo is not the record
For electronic twelves in particular, condition is everything, and a photo tells you almost nothing. A record can look glossy and still be full of groove wear from years of club play. Before you buy, ask the seller for a clear shot of the runout and, more importantly, ask how the record actually plays. If a listing says "VG+, plays near mint," that is not a grade. That is a wish.
Learn the Goldmine grading scale, because it is the standard serious sellers use, and it removes the guesswork. If you want a plain-English breakdown, this guide to how records are graded covers what each grade actually means for how a record sounds. Once you know the scale, you can spot the sellers who hide behind vague, cheerful language.
Treat these phrases with suspicion:
· "No skips." A record can be worn to death and still not skip.
· "Plays through." Through what, and how does it sound while it does?
· "A few marks that don't affect play." Sometimes true, often the seller has not listened.
Buy from people who grade the vinyl visually and tell you it has been play-tested. Everything else is a gamble.
Clean it before you judge it
Here is the mistake that costs new collectors the most good records: writing off a second-hand pressing that is simply dirty. Grime, old release-agent haze, and decades of fingerprints sit down in the groove and mimic surface noise. I have bought plenty of records graded "VG, quite crackly" that turned out to be a clean VG+ after a proper wet clean.
A clean record is not just about noise. Dirt in the groove can be dragged against the stylus with every play, affecting playback and contributing to unnecessary wear. If you are buying second-hand at any kind of volume, a simple cleaning routine is one of the most useful upgrades you can make. It is worth doing properly rather than relying on a dry cloth that may simply move dust around. For practical cleaning, stylus-care and storage advice, see Legend Vinyl's complete guide to looking after vinyl records.
Clean first, grade second. You will be surprised how many "worn" records were only ever filthy.
Where the money quietly leaks
A few more traps that catch newer diggers, in roughly the order they will cost you:
· Paying original money for a reissue. Covered above, and it is the big one.
· Trusting a Discogs price without reading the condition. The lowest price is often the worst copy. The median tells you the market, not the value of the specific record in front of you.
· Buying hype. "Rare" is not a grade and not a promise of quality. Plenty of rare records are rare because not many people wanted them. Buy music you will actually play.
· Ignoring packing. A mint record posted in a thin mailer arrives seam-split or dished. Ask any seller how they pack before you spend real money. Good ones use rigid mailers and pull the record out of the sleeve so it cannot split the seam in transit.
· Buying blind from bulk sellers who never listen to what they sell. Volume is not curation.
Start with your ears, build slowly
You do not need to hunt grails on day one. Buy the reissues first, learn the music, follow the labels that keep turning up on records you love. Preview on Bandcamp or YouTube before you commit to an expensive original. The collectors who end up with the best shelves are rarely the ones who spent the most. They are the ones who were patient, learned to read a runout, and cleaned everything before they judged it.
Dig with your ears open and your eyes on the deadwax, and this scene will pay you back for years.
VinylVault is an independent London record shop specialising in underground electronic, jazz, rare groove and dub. It also runs a personally curated vinyl subscription.