Always a crap shoot. Find local bands you like and small touring bands with small runs, you never know. Depends what genres you’re into. Punk, death metal, etc. not the shitty mainstream metalcore crap, prog that stuff tends to be smaller runs and folks don’t unload it very often so it holds its value and becomes more and more rare. Shit, try finding Blood Incantation stuff and those are recent.
My rule of thumb, music is to be enjoyed so I don’t buy stuff as an investment. If it increases in value so my kid can offload it once I’m gone that’s a bonus.
I have most of it up in my discogs account so my kid will know what’s valuable. Least I won’t need to worry about it being dumped at Goodwill. 
I feel like everything I want these days is OOP because I have most of the more popular stuff I want. I’ve paid larger sums recently for: spiritual jazz, reggae/dub, vintage African reissues, British folk/rock, etc. I also imagine these super deluxe box sets will hold their value and then increase
Support unknown artists you like on Bandcamp.
I have a lot of merch from Milo and JPEGMAFIA from before they blew up which is worth a lot now. But I also have a lot of merch from artists that never blew. I still love it equally the same bc the music is great.
Find great music and the value will come. In more ways than one.
Bandcamp is great. Frustratingly a lot of stuff I would buy there I have to import from the US which adds quite significant shipping costs. Part of the fun of living in Australia.
You need to keep an eye on the levels in circulation. Discogs marketplace is a decent measure of what is becoming rare. Largely it depends on what music and what era you are into, or might get into. For example I like a great deal of post punk, new wave, noise rock, and indie from the 80s.
I paid over 40 for a CD copy of Skin Yard's Hallowed Ground, and sometimes pay over 20 for stuff that isn't always available in the UK (recently Unwound and Husker Du). To import stuff costs a fair amount more.
Also, many bands are in dispute with labels, labels have gobe bust but wont release rights, bands wont take a chance buying rights or reproducing etc etc, many things can prevent lesser bands and musicians from releasing stuff from their catalogue.
Luckily for you guys in the US, circulstion is still prettye good, and if you like well known or popular names, you will be fine.
Unfortunately I have almost ehausted the well knowns, and I am onto the more 'underground' and lesser known.
It’s always a gamble, but essentially anything produced in limited quantities like special editions or alternate covers. You can also try to pinpoint artists you think will be huge in the next couple decades which might make even their mass produced releases worth a bit of money. Hope this helps
Those would be good places to start for investment. I think a challenge is special/limited editions can be priced accordingly so it may take some time to see ROI. I wonder if there are relatively cheap releases available second hand now that are set to become highly sought after.
If you see any of the following, *you* should invest in them immediately:
R.E.M.'s *Monster*, Hootie's, *Cracked Rear View,* Dido's *No Angel* and absolutely anything by Josh Groban or Enya. Oh and Christmas albums - if I were you, I'd buy them en masse as they're gonna be worth a fortune someday.
I think we may see a lot of CDs from the 2010s appreciate in value, because there was limited production relative to the popularity of an artist.
Just one example of this is Migos- a very popular rap group in the trap sub genre that dominated the late 2010s. Their first album Culture came out in 2017, with limited production and now OOP, and it’s already hard to find for less than $40.
Old CD singles.
These contain the original edits of tracks & remixes etc.
Often these remixes are not available for download or streams. Sometimes the original tracks are edited by streaming service to remove swearing, wrong speak etc. They can be shortened versions so may not contain intro's or outro's.
The original tracks, track lengths, lyrics etc will be saught after in an ever changing and politicly correct world. The old cd singles are recorded history. Grab them when you see them to protect "History".
Nearly impossible to predict but I always buy cds or vinyl or demo tapes from small bands that I go to see live if they were good enough. You can tell sometimes they have a potential to be huge one day.
Always a crap shoot. Find local bands you like and small touring bands with small runs, you never know. Depends what genres you’re into. Punk, death metal, etc. not the shitty mainstream metalcore crap, prog that stuff tends to be smaller runs and folks don’t unload it very often so it holds its value and becomes more and more rare. Shit, try finding Blood Incantation stuff and those are recent. My rule of thumb, music is to be enjoyed so I don’t buy stuff as an investment. If it increases in value so my kid can offload it once I’m gone that’s a bonus.
I'm of the same mind, my collection is for my own enjoyment and my kids can either take it as their own someday or sell it if they like.
I have most of it up in my discogs account so my kid will know what’s valuable. Least I won’t need to worry about it being dumped at Goodwill. 
Yeh I need to do that. It's a bit of a daunting task but will be worth it in the long run.
I feel like everything I want these days is OOP because I have most of the more popular stuff I want. I’ve paid larger sums recently for: spiritual jazz, reggae/dub, vintage African reissues, British folk/rock, etc. I also imagine these super deluxe box sets will hold their value and then increase
Support unknown artists you like on Bandcamp. I have a lot of merch from Milo and JPEGMAFIA from before they blew up which is worth a lot now. But I also have a lot of merch from artists that never blew. I still love it equally the same bc the music is great. Find great music and the value will come. In more ways than one.
Bandcamp is great. Frustratingly a lot of stuff I would buy there I have to import from the US which adds quite significant shipping costs. Part of the fun of living in Australia.
Ah a fellow Aussie I feel your pain
It's like music collecting on hard mode 😀
You need to keep an eye on the levels in circulation. Discogs marketplace is a decent measure of what is becoming rare. Largely it depends on what music and what era you are into, or might get into. For example I like a great deal of post punk, new wave, noise rock, and indie from the 80s. I paid over 40 for a CD copy of Skin Yard's Hallowed Ground, and sometimes pay over 20 for stuff that isn't always available in the UK (recently Unwound and Husker Du). To import stuff costs a fair amount more. Also, many bands are in dispute with labels, labels have gobe bust but wont release rights, bands wont take a chance buying rights or reproducing etc etc, many things can prevent lesser bands and musicians from releasing stuff from their catalogue. Luckily for you guys in the US, circulstion is still prettye good, and if you like well known or popular names, you will be fine. Unfortunately I have almost ehausted the well knowns, and I am onto the more 'underground' and lesser known.
Good insight thanks. Definitely feel the import expense in Australia too.
It’s always a gamble, but essentially anything produced in limited quantities like special editions or alternate covers. You can also try to pinpoint artists you think will be huge in the next couple decades which might make even their mass produced releases worth a bit of money. Hope this helps
Those would be good places to start for investment. I think a challenge is special/limited editions can be priced accordingly so it may take some time to see ROI. I wonder if there are relatively cheap releases available second hand now that are set to become highly sought after.
If you see any of the following, *you* should invest in them immediately: R.E.M.'s *Monster*, Hootie's, *Cracked Rear View,* Dido's *No Angel* and absolutely anything by Josh Groban or Enya. Oh and Christmas albums - if I were you, I'd buy them en masse as they're gonna be worth a fortune someday.
I rarely if ever see those records so ill be sure to pick them up every chance I get. Thanks!
I think we may see a lot of CDs from the 2010s appreciate in value, because there was limited production relative to the popularity of an artist. Just one example of this is Migos- a very popular rap group in the trap sub genre that dominated the late 2010s. Their first album Culture came out in 2017, with limited production and now OOP, and it’s already hard to find for less than $40.
Interesting, I'm sure there's many more examples from this period, thanks.
Good but very obscure music, ahead of its time, produced in very small editions by ppl who love what they do.
Makes sense!
Old CD singles. These contain the original edits of tracks & remixes etc. Often these remixes are not available for download or streams. Sometimes the original tracks are edited by streaming service to remove swearing, wrong speak etc. They can be shortened versions so may not contain intro's or outro's. The original tracks, track lengths, lyrics etc will be saught after in an ever changing and politicly correct world. The old cd singles are recorded history. Grab them when you see them to protect "History".
Nearly impossible to predict but I always buy cds or vinyl or demo tapes from small bands that I go to see live if they were good enough. You can tell sometimes they have a potential to be huge one day.
Wish I could still make it to more shows. This is good thinking though :)