Tony Renouf, of Too Tone Records, said rare Dunedin 7-inch and 12-inch records continue to be sought after, such as the 1981 debut single from The Clean, Tally Ho.
A copy of that single, which had never been played, had a $250 price tag at the Northeast Valley store.
It was not uncommon to have people from outside Otago or even the country looking for hard-to-obtain Dunedin vinyl, with some rare Flying Nun items going for between $50 and $650, he said.
Despite the demand, Too Tone has no online presence and Mr Renouf refuses to take phone orders - "I buy the stuff locally. I source it locally. Why shouldn't it be made available locally?"
"Trading online is soul-less. It is just horrible.
"I would rather just hang out in a record shop, where I can talk to people about music.
"I can share music, and they can look at it."
Verlaines frontman Graeme Downes said he had heard anecdotal reports of vinyl LPs from the band, such as Bird Dog, which featured a gatefold sleeve, attracting high prices.
"It is a compliment to the work because it is getting on some 25 years or longer since those songs were written and recorded."
While he had witnessed the rise and fall of the cassette tape and the emergence of digital music, he still liked vinyl as "there is not that much that happens in popular culture that commands that sort of interest".
"If you go back into your memory banks you remember what a complete pain in the butt vinyl was because you had to send it to a cutting plant and they send you a test pressing to make sure it worked."
An attraction of vinyl was the larger cover illustration - and "the old argument is that they sound better".
"Committing sound to tape makes music sound warm and lusher, but digital makes it sound ... cold.
"Although we have this amazing availability and transportability of digital things, such as people out jogging with their iPods, a lot of people go back to vinyl because of the sound and the physical look."
The Verlaines are due to release their latest album on CD and digital formats and, while thought was given to releasing it on vinyl, its length would have required a double album, he said.
Late last year, Flying Nun Records released the 1992 album Hellzapoppin by former Dunedin band, the 3Ds, on vinyl for the first time.
Sound investment
Collectable Dunedin records.-
• Tally Ho - The Clean
• Boodle Boodle Boodle - The Clean
• Bird Dog - The Verlaines
• Death and the Maiden - The Verlaines
• The Dunedin Double EP - various
• Who Killed Colonel Mustard - Bored Games
• LBGBEP2 - Look Blue Go Purple
• Rolling Moon - The Chills
• Life in One Chord - Straitjacket Fits
Source: Too Tone Records
