Why 90s Vinyl Is So Hard to Find (and Why Everyone Wants It)
The Decade That Shaped Us
I love the 90s. They’re my formative, high school years. When the music was the soundtrack to everything I did. I still remember the first time I heard Nirvana or had the Red Hot Chilli Peppers blasting from the CD player in my car. Every Triple J Hottest 100 felt like a diary entry.
But I didn’t collect vinyl then. None of us really did. I had stacks of CDs. It wasn’t until years later, through Neil, that I discovered what vinyl collecting could be (yes an addiction) but also I understood the listening quality and joy in each cover, liner notes, lyrics. Now, like everyone else, I’m chasing those 90's albums that I used to have on CD all over again, just in the format they never got the first time around.
It Started with a Message About The Living End
Someone messaged us on Instagram this week asking if we’d ever had a copy of a Living End record on vinyl. They know we sell second hand in store and thought maybe we just might have one. They called it super hard to find. They weren’t wrong. That question pops up every other week now. 90s albums that seem to have vanished into thin air. People remember the cover art, the songs, the smell of the old jewel case… but when they go hunting for vinyl, it’s as if those albums never existed.
That’s the funny thing about the 1990s. It wasn’t that vinyl died. It just went into hiding.
What Happened in the 90's
By the mid-90s, most record pressing plants were winding down. CDs had taken over, promising “perfect sound forever.” Labels loved them. They were cheaper to ship, harder to scratch, and easier to produce at scale. The shift was global: production contracted, plants closed, and a generation of records skipped vinyl entirely.
Many albums between 1994 and 2004 never made it to wax. A few artists pushed small runs for radio or collectors. Sometimes just a few hundred copies. In Australia, there was effectively only one major plant still pressing locally for a while, which meant limited capacity and short runs. When vinyl roared back in the 2000s, those 90s originals suddenly became gold dust. It’s not nostalgia inflating the prices, t’s scarcity meeting sentiment.
Discogs marketplace activity and historical sales data tell the story: 90s albums sit in that awkward middle ground. Too new to have been pressed in big numbers, too old to benefit from the revival. It’s the perfect setup for scarcity.
Records That Fetch Serious Money
Original 1993 pressings of Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream are often listed around US$500+ on Discogs and have fetched high sums depending on variant and condition. Beck’s Mutations and Mellow Gold commonly trade in the low-to mid-hundreds for early Bong Load pressings, sometimes higher. Clean Soundgarden – Superunknown 1994 originals can reach several hundred dollars.
Closer to home, Australian 90's vinyl sits in even scarcer territory. You Am I – Dress Me Slowly (2001) has fetched a few hundred dollars historically in top condition. Early Something for Kate pressings were small runs that sold out quickly and still vanish fast whenever they reappear. The original Living End (1998) Australian pressing is keenly hunted. Reissues exist now, but originals command a premium among collectors.
But all is not lost
If you’re just looking to fill those 90s gaps in your own collection and don't want to drop a house deposit on an original copy then, our 90’s Classic Collection is the place to start. Everything there is new stock. Represses and modern reissues that bring those albums back to life on vinyl, no crate-digging required. We keep it updated as titles come back into print, so check in when the nostalgia hits.
The Short Answer
Why is 90s vinyl expensive and hard to find?
Because hardly any of it exists. Pressing plants closed. Labels moved on. Artists chased the CD era. When vinyl came back, it skipped a whole decade. The people who love that music now are the same ones who grew up with it, they’ve got turntables again and they’re hunting down the records they never had.
Every time someone walks into the shop asking for that one album they loved in high school, we tell them the same thing: if you ever see a clean 90s original, don’t think twice. Because next week, it’ll be gone, probably to someone scrolling Discogs or Marketplace at 2 a.m, And trust me it will haunt you ....
