CD/Vinyle Estate sale question

Are you in a large city or near one? Most record dealers will give you pennies on the dollar for used vinyl even if there are some records within that collection that are worth far more. The alternative is to find a local collector who is willing to go through the collection and give you some sense of value. The only way to maximize that is to retail the records, which is time consuming and labor intensive. I got rid of quite a bit of vinyl that was 2nd, 3rd and 4th tier in terms of value (both to me and in the market) by working with a fellow who took the records, handled the ebay listings, fulfilled the orders and remitted a % to me. Saved me a lot of trouble.
You could go to a site like Discogs or Popsike and get a sense of value, but it is going to be very time consuming if you don’t know how to quickly cull through a collection. Many dealers will use those sites to price their records-- sometimes, in my estimation, over true market, but it’s at least a data point.
Very few hi-fi dealers are interested in used gear unless it is vintage collectible or hi value. That is the reason this place, Audigon, ostensibly exists- for people to unload their used or unloved gear and turn it into cash. I think there is a blue book value facility on this site but never used it. You could, conceivably, research each piece of gear and get a range of asking prices from Internet listings. (I think gear that is sold or for which listings expire here doesn’t show the prices and those were ’asks’ anyway).
FWIW, unless it is a real high value record, most classical records these days bring very little money b/c the market for them is small. 

I sent you a PM

Thanks both of you for the respinse!  I will pass what both of you said to the family

i do not know if the family is going to keep the actual audio gear, the main speakers were some electrostatic speaker.... I didn’t have time to look at the brands of the various equipment.  Also not sure what they will be doing with them. .  It’s at a condo in Dayton Ohio so a medium/small size city but close to a few large cities.  

Again thanks for the help/info!!

@viggen900 - the only other thought that might make sense is to ask the family if he had any "audio buddies"-- often hobbyists consort with like-minded individuals. One of them may be able to provide more immediate guidance on the gear and records, so long as the family trusts the person and doesn't believe that they will take advantage of the situation. Good luck. 

I am one of the few idiots that buy large intact classical collections, but I am near Dallas and probably can not squeeze in the 10000 discs you have in with the 100000 I have. Dealers will come to you to cherry pick the most valuable items and then you will need to decide on how to sell the remaining 9000 discs(Craigslist,estate sale,...). Then you will probably still have 8000 and if lucky some dealer or store might offer about a dime a record. If the current owner of the collection is fortunate enough to itemize deductions on their taxes it may make better financial sense to donate the collection and take the fair market value (up to whatever cap the tax code stipulates).