Do you remember your first vinyl record?

In this post, Vinyl Record Price Guide: Discover The Value Of Collecting Records, we’ll cover a brief history of the vinyl record, grading vinyl for price evaluation and wrap up with a few of the most expensive vinyl records ever sold!

The history of records

The earliest “records” were actually just wax cylinders invented by Thomas Edison in the 1880’s.

By 1888, inventor Emile Berliner came up with the 78 as an alternative. He called it a “flat disc,” and experimented with different types of materials before settling on shellac in 1891. 

Edison would in return, respond with his own, much thicker version of that flat disc. He claimed better quality sound and many would agree that he was right.

However, Berliner’s 78’s would eventually win this battle and by the end of the decade, Edison’s version was no longer being produced, according to Goldmine’s Essential Guide to Record Collecting.

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