Frequently Asked Questions

What are my payment options?

You have several payment options at Classic 45's, which you can select when you checkout. For quick payment online, you can use VISA, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, or PayPal. We ship purchases made with these online options the next business day after receipt of payment. Although the site doesn't offer a COD option, we do accept money orders as payment; if you want to pay with a money order, contact us and we'll arrange that with you.

How do you pack and ship your 45's? How about shipping costs and times?

When checking out your shopping cart, you'll be offered a variety of mailing options, each of which will display its price for your order. For U.S. customers, Media Mail is about $4.00 for up to 8 singles. First Class shipping starts at about $5.00 and goes up depending on the size of your order. Priority mail is about $8.00 for up to 8 records. Express Mail service is also available and varies by weight. International shipping is expensive, unfortunately. It's about $14.00 for 1-3 45s and $23.00 for 4-18. Media Mail shipping depends on your destination... 3-7 business days. First Class shipping also depends on destination and takes 2-5 business days. Priority Mail shipping is usually 2-4 business days. International shipping times vary considerably, but we usually estimate 5-9 business days for First Class Int'l.

Shipping Credits: Customers earn a $5.00 credit against shipping costs when they spend more than $100. If you spend more than $200, you get a $10.00 shipping credit. The credit is applied as you check out with your cart of 45s, and you can use it on any available shipping option.

Shipping to international addresses is via Priority Mail and First Class International (the least expensive). Rates vary by the number of records you order. It's about $14.00 for 1-3 45s and $23.00 for 4-18. Your exact postage cost will be calculated and displayed during the checkout process.

U.S. customers can request insurance on their packages for an additional fee. This service includes delivery confirmation. You will also receive delivery confirmation for free when ordering First Class, Media Mail, or Priority Mail.

Packing: All 45's are professionally packed in heavy-duty boxes designed for 45 shipments.

Do you have a catalog?

Yes! It's available 24 hours a day online at Classic 45's! We don't, however, maintain a printed catalog, since our inventory changes every day. A printed catalog could never be up-to-date, despite the expense and care taken in compiling and printing it. However, here are some simple steps you can take to make your own printable catalog of Classic 45's records. If you want a listing of all of the records in our inventory:

1. Click on the magnifying glass icon () in the search form at the top of the Classic 45's home page (or on any other page on the site) without entering any search terms. This will generate a list of all the 45's in our catalog.
2. You'll notice that the list page that comes up next has the catalog broken into pages of 40 records each... Not too helpful if you want to print the whole shebang! So on the list page, look for the line that reads "Get print file of this list" just below the heading. It has a little printer icon ( ) beside it.
3. Click on either the "HTML" or "Plain Text" links. This will open a separate window and produce a list of all the entries in one file, which you can save then to disk or print.

Note: You can do this with ANY results list. For example, if you're just interested in getting a listing of Girl Group 45's, go to that category page (from the left-hand navigation, click on the + beside "Rock" and then click on the name "Girl Group") and click on the "HTML" or "Plain Text" print-list links you find on that page.

Do you have jukebox title strips?

I'm very glad you asked! During our first 3 years, the answer was "No, sorry... but you can get them here." In January 2005, we started offering jukebox title strips to our customers as a checkout option for a small fee. We still don't sell blank strips, but the ones we do make available are very nice indeed! More information is available when you checkout, or you can take a look at the pricing and design here.

Do you want to buy my 45 collection?

We continuously buy 45 collections, but we're pretty picky about it. In most cases, we'll be interested only in 45s that are in new, unplayed or in near-mint (M-) condition. Rarer items in Excellent condition may also be of interest. As far as pricing, we have no set pay scale, but we always offer a fair market value for collections we'd like to purchase.

If you're interested in selling your collection to Classic 45's, the first step is to prepare an inventory list showing the Artist, Title, Label, and Condition of each 45. For Condition, please refer to the Classic 45s Grading System to determine each record's grade. If your collection runs into the thousands, you can probably prepare a partial list. Once you have an inventory list prepared, you can email it to leland@classic45s.com. Please also include an overall summary of the collection (approximate number, release dates, types of music or artists). If your collection looks like one we might be interested in buying, we'll ask you to put together a random sample of your records that you can send here for an evaluation (Arlington, VA). We will send you a self-addressed mailing box for this purpose. If the transaction doesn't work out, we'll ship the records back to you.

If you're in the Washington, DC, vicinity, you can simply email us, and we can make an arrangement to view your collection first-hand.

Are you selling original issue 45's, or reissues?

Many web sites that specialize in 45's are selling modern reissues of the original music. Sometimes these reissues are of high quality, but sometimes they are not. Some are not the original artist, or they are re-recordings of the original artist rather than the original.

Classic 45's specializes in sales of original-issue 45's... meaning, these are the real thing that were sold back in the 1950's, 1960's, etc. Typically, an original issue in Mint or Near Mint condition sounds better than a reissue, and you will be assured that this is the version that actually was popular way back when. Often, reissues are made from copies of originals, and they lose something in the translation.

However, Classic 45's does sell some reissues, and these are clearly distinguished in our listings with a label. We try to stock only the very best quality reissues available. Unfortunately, in recent years the number of companies that make new reissue 45's has dwindled to just a handful, and large record companies like Columbia and Warner Bros. have eliminated their reissue titles entirely. As a result, it becomes harder to keep high-quality reissues in stock... but that doesn't keep us from trying! For a great deal of detailed information about all the various reissue labels that we have stocked and about reissues in general, see the chapter of our online book, " The Joy of 45 Collecting," about Reissue 45s.

Do you guarantee your records?

Absolutely! We guarantee that the records you buy from Classic 45's will meet the strict grading standards we have posted on our site. Keep in mind that we provide much more grading detail than most sites, which only provide overall grades for each record. In addition to overall grades, we provide a separate grade for the Label, for the Vinyl, and for the Audio. The first two are strictly appearance criteria, whereas the third grades the sound of the music. Be sure to check the detail grades for records you purchase... since a record with an overall grade of M- can have a variety of detailed grades, for example:
    Label M-, Vinyl M-, Audio M-
    Label M-, Vinyl M-, Audio EX
    Label EX, Vinyl M-, Audio M-
    Label M-, Vinyl EX, Audio M-
    Label M, Vinyl M-, Audio M-
    etc.

If you find a record that doesn't match these grades, we will refund you the purchase price and pay for return postage if necessary. All we ask in return is that you carefully review the grades for each record before buying. If you return records that on review we conclude were graded correctly, we may deduct a restocking fee of 15% from your refund for each such record.

Do you offer discounts?

Yes, we currently offer 10%-15% discounts to customers depending on the size and/or frequency of purchases. See our discounts policy page for more information.

What the heck is a...?

Record collecting, like any other hobby or profession, has its own terminology, some of which may be mystifying to the uninitiated. We've put together a glossary to help newcomers out.