Bluebook value of records

Book value is worthless if you can't buy want you want for that. I've seen people turn down (not buy) at what I would consider a fair price, because they read some stupid Blue Book that it should be less.

While not records I get a laugh at the Orion Blue Book which is considered the audio bible. There is Blue Circle gear listed that either does not exist, or is only a prototype that has never been sold to anyone public. How they know what non-existant audio gear is worth is a mystery to me...

The Goldmine is one of a few books that attempt to give a value to LPs.
The values listed are (as mentioned in the preface of that book) top prices paid by serious collectors for LPs.
They are all that exists as far as published prices go.
But! seeing some idiot at a record show with a scratched up reissue of say, JERU by Gerry Mulligan with a price of $40 'cuz that's what the book says... Jeez... just walk on by...

Good answers. Thankyou.

if you really want to get an idea of what a record is worth, check out closed auctions on ebay. as my old friend the record store owner said, "it's worth what you can get for it" and ebay tells you what people are actually paying for things. it's been my experience that local used record stores ask a little less than what they could get on ebay, but not if you're talking really valuable stuff. it makes no sense for them to NOT put it on ebay when they get their hands on a rare thing. in fact, a lot of the super rare stuff never even makes it onto the floor of record stores; it goes straight to ebay.