friend needs help to dispose of inherited vinyl

many collectors would take them off her hands

then again
sounds like an april fools to me!

I would give Dave Canfield at Ars Antiqua either a call or email. He will buys at wholesale but it is the simplest way to dispose of a large collection. If you want retail, you will have to sell them yourself. Dave can be contacted at either dave@arsantiqua.com or by phone at either 812-333-5454 or 812-322-2250.

unless your friend is willing to sell each record individually on ebay - the only way to get anything close to what they're truly worth - you are likely to get pennies on the dollar, value-wise. your best bet is to find a trusted friend (or friend of a friend) to go through the collection to get some idea what, if anything, is valuable, and then sell those on ebay. classical vinyl (I'm not too knowledgeable about musicals) generally does not sell for much; in fact, your friend might even be shocked to find that the local college/university will refuse them even as a donation. the catch is that some classical is very valuable, and not necessarily because it's 'audiophile' (i.e. RCA living presence with the 'shaded dog' labels) - some records are highly sought-after because of the performer. tell your friend to do careful research before acting!

For all the classical records that don't have much current market value, if there's a stereo pressing of Janos Starker's Bach Cello Suites on Mercury Living Presence in excellent condition, that alone could be worth $1000-1500.

And what is it with the Broadway show tunes anyway? About a year ago Acoustic Sounds came into about 30,000 LPs from an estate, many still sealed, and I get the impression that at least 40% are Broadway soundtracks.