A Montreal retailer is offering a single disque vinyle for $10, 000 amid an inventory of roughly 50, 000 records — a striking contrast with an average in-store purchase of $40–$50 and provincial sales that rose 12. 4% to 372, 000 units. What does the coexistence of ultra-rare collectibles and modest daily buyers reveal about the market’s health and transparency?
Disque Vinyle: Who is driving the ultra-rare market?
Verified transactions and firsthand accounts show a concentrated collector demand at the top end. Pierre Markotanyos, owner of Aux 33 tours, says the shop acquired a rare 1963 jazz album, It Is Revealed, from a private jazz collector and has listed that copy for $10, 000. Patrick Chartier, director of logistics at Aux 33 tours, describes the pressing as “excessively rare” and estimates fewer than 300 copies were printed originally. The same album has previously realized more than $9, 000 on the international market.
Aux 33 tours has seen wealthy customers express interest after purchasing other high-end jazz pressings; one client who bought a $2, 500 jazz vinyl contacted the shop to negotiate on the rarer item. If the $10, 000 sale closes, it would surpass the shop’s historical high, where no record had exceeded $5, 000. Large single-collection purchases also feed the shop’s inventory: Pierre Markotanyos recounts buying a 72, 000-record private collection that required six workers and two 20-foot trucks for transport.
What is not being told?
Production capacity and the distribution of sales are central gaps in the public picture. Dominic Savard, co-owner of Le Vinylist, provides production figures that suggest an expanding but still limited pressing infrastructure: 30, 000 discs in the first year of operations, 200, 000 last year, and a projection of 225, 000 for the coming year. Le Vinylist added a third press in 2024, operates with seven employees (five full-time), and competes with larger facilities in Toronto that maintain many more presses.
The Institut de la statistique shows overall vinyle sales rose 12. 4% in 2025 to 372, 000 units. At the same time a report from the same institution indicates CD sales declined by 14% in 2025. Benoit Huot, owner of CD Mélomane, notes renewed interest in CDs among certain buyers, citing price and in-car CD players as factors, even as the statistical record shows a fall in CD volume.
Industry movement of equipment and capacity also matters: Le Vinylist purchased the presses and undertook an expansion after the Société des loisirs closed its press-boutique in 2023. Drummond Vinyl remains another pressing option in the region. These shifts illustrate concentration of physical pressing capacity and raise unanswered questions about how capacity constraints influence price, turnaround times and product variety.
Verified facts and analysis
Verified facts:
- Pierre Markotanyos, owner of Aux 33 tours, and Patrick Chartier, director of logistics at Aux 33 tours, confirm the store has a 1963 copy of It Is Revealed listed for $10, 000 and that fewer than 300 pressings were likely produced.
- Dominic Savard, co-owner of Le Vinylist, confirms production rose from 30, 000 discs in year one to 200, 000 last year, with a projection of 225, 000 for the next year and the addition of a third press in 2024.
- The Institut de la statistique shows vinyle sales climbed 12. 4% to 372, 000 units in 2025 and that CD sales fell by 14% in 2025.
Analysis (informed interpretation): These verified facts point to a bifurcated market. A narrow collector segment drives extreme valuations for rare pressings, enabled by concentrated supply of legacy pressings and occasional large-collection acquisitions. Simultaneously, broader consumer behavior remains modest: the typical in-store purchase value Aux 33 tours is $40–$50, and provincial unit sales, while growing, reflect aggregate volume rather than where revenue concentrates.
Production-side constraints — a limited number of pressing facilities, recent capital moves such as the acquisition of equipment from a closed press-boutique, and the technical work required to develop specialty variants — likely amplify scarcity at the high end and increase lead times for mainstream releases. At the same time, the statistical decline in CD sales coexists with merchant observations of a niche CD resurgence, underscoring how headline percentages can mask divergent behaviors across consumer segments.
Accountability and next steps: Stakeholders with the capacity to clarify market dynamics should publish more granular data: breakdowns of unit sales by price tier, press capacity utilization, and inventories derived from large private-collection acquisitions. Greater transparency would let collectors, artists and everyday buyers assess whether high headline growth for the disque vinyle benefits a broad market or concentrates value among a few rare items.
Uncertainties remain where the public record is silent; those gaps should be filled by systematic reporting from industry operators and statistical agencies so that policy makers and consumers can judge whether the current boom is durable and equitable for the wider music ecosystem centered on the disque vinyle.
