Really, Really old lp's

Thank you very much for the needed coments and advice. I hear Ebay calling!

Out of curiosity, I just checked Ebay to see what 78s are selling for. Amazing, and I must revise my earlier comment to reflect this "reality." Take a look -- It might well be worth trying to sell yours there, if you're prepared to pack them well enough to avoid breakage!

Thems ain't LPs, which stands for 'long playing', as opposed to the short play you have, called 78 rpm. LP is 33 1/3. They are probably not shellac (apologies above, they are even older). You can clean them safely with Disc Doctor. The conservator at the Library of Congres was using that last we spoke. The surface noise is probably 95% a combination of your cartridge and not deep cleaning. Last is a big final boost to greasing your skids.

It depends on how much you love the records. The market is more alive than it has been since the Tokyo market crash. But the internet cuts both ways. I have more ability to buy and to sell. That makes an efficient market.

It is also quite possible that your records were horribly abused by playing with shattered needles. In that case the cover art is worth the most.

I wouldn't get my hopes up, about their value. I'm still playing 78s and buying them (mostly jazz) but have never paid more than a buck and they mostly go for 25-50 cents or less. I clean mine on a Nitty Gritty with VPI fluid and they sound great on an old Dual TT (with the cartridge leads strapped for mono). To get the most out of them, you need a specialized phono preamp with the old equalization curves. Good luck in selling them; the market is slim, I'm afraid.

Yes these are old! They are definitely 78's which are shellac based so be very careful when cleaning, no alcohol should be used as it will disolve the record! I would search the archives to see if there are any recommended cleaning formulas. As for value, yes they probably have some, but like current LP's it's very performance specific. If there's one thing I've learned over 20+ years of collecting "stuff" there are very few things that don't have some value!