Not sure how I missed this originally but I have the disease too.

I bought my turntable about a year ago and probably have close to 150 records by now. Definitely a money suck, but I enjoy the hell out of it.

I've collected about 500 albums over the past 35 years. When going to A&M in the 80s, I'd make a road trip every month to Austin and hit the many record stores along Guadalupe. Now my son listens and collects albums. Very cool.

No releases matter in the slightest if (or rather when, for most here) you are using an insufficient player.

A vintage turntable is an absolute must. I recommend a Pink Triangle deck.

The most authentic equipment can be found in Scotland's rural antique shoppes, a trip very far beyond even the imagination of your average American "music" consumer.

edit: I must emphasize that care for the craft of audio and audio equipment is not condescending. Please be cautious about your choice of player.

I dipped my toes into collecting vinyl for a few weeks last year, but the hobby didn't fit my minimalist lifestyle. I'm back to digital. I respect and understand the hobby, though. Keep us informed of your adventures.

CastleRock said:

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Anybody else into this packrat money suck?

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My advice is to only get what you like to listen to. You can collect stuff for value, but it will get expensive very quickly.

Also a decent place to start for pretty common used stuff is your local half priced books. The records are cheap and typically in pretty good shape. Sometimes you can find some good hard to find stuff in their collectible sections.


I travel a lot for my wife's job so whenever I'm in a new city I hit up the local record store. I'll buy a few records and a tshirt or sticker. Sometimes they have local bands that you can't find anywhere else. Welcome to the club!

I love the thread title. It expresses exactly how I feel now.

I started buying to get them signed, now I buy to listen and collect. Check out vinyldeals on reddit, I have saved plenty of money thanks to a bunch of deals found there.

Redstone said:

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No releases matter in the slightest if (or rather when, for most here) you are using an insufficient player.

A vintage turntable is an absolute must. I recommend a Pink Triangle deck.

The most authentic equipment can be found in Scotland's rural antique shoppes, a trip very far beyond even the imagination of your average American "music" consumer.

edit: I must emphasize that care for the craft of audio and audio equipment is not condescending. Please be cautious about your choice of player.

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You don't have to drop $100k on a table, but if you are listening to vinyl on a Crosley or some such garbage, then you are wasting your money. Same goes for if you are buying vinyl that is fully digitally sourced (in essence, is a CD pressed on wax).

That said, go get you a nice Rega or, if you have the dough, a Linn Sondek LP12, and dive into the golden age of recording (late '70s through early 90s). Also, Mobile Fidelity half speed masters releases are pretty much awesome. Sometimes they miss, but more often than not they greatly improve the original recording.

Have fun, y'all. And, for my man Redstone:

I see the Mobile Fidelity stuff. Do you have any more insight into it? Seems pretty pricey.

Started at the beginning of the year when I got a Fluance turntable for Christmas. My setup is nothing special and I only have around 20 albums at the moment, but I've really enjoyed the 7 months or so of collecting.

Some of the MoFi stuff can be absolutely ridiculous. Especially the vintage stuff (which is where most of the treasures are found). If you have a proper rig and listen to an album the way people watch a movie (that is you aren't just putting it on in the background), then you will get it. I think most people collect vinyl for the novelty or just because it is fun to hunt down old albums. That's totally cool and I've got nothing wrong with that if that is your thing. Mobile Fidelity remasters (like original Bob Ludwig pressings, or the like) are for people who like vinyl for the critical listening/immersive musical experience. It isn't a snob thing, although there is no shortage of that. It is a preference/expectation/quality thing.

For example:

I have about 3 different pressings of Dark Side: original, a recent re-issue, and the original MoFi remaster. I've Pepsi challenged all three. The recent re-issue comes in dead last. Sounds terrible compared to the other two. The MoFi has a much deeper sound stage and the dynamics are much more dramatic than the original. That's pretty much the case with most of their remasters (even if all aren't created equal). It becomes a full on experience. Pretty rad. They even took Weezer's Pinkerton (which I have always thought sounded like trash) and made it listenable.

My favorite MoFis:

Supertramp - Crime of the Century
Supertraimp - Breakfast in America
Pink Floyd - Dark Side
Zep - II
Nirvana - Nevermind

My rig:
Linn Sondek LP 12 - Adikt cartridge
Naim Stageline
Naim Supernait II
Klipsch Cornwall IIIs
REL S/5 SHO

Sure, that's all well and good. However, if one must go with a "modern" player (I understand not traveling to rural Scotland, that's fine), my recommendations are:

- TechDas Air Force One

- Clearaudio Statement v2

- La Platine Magnum

- Goldmund Reference II

Obviously people's opinions can vary a bit here, and few appreciate a liquid nitrogen-rectified belt, or some other "non-essential" features. Fine.

But it's amusing how few appreciate the player, and focus on the music. Well, hardware matters.

I remember when Redstone's schtick was actually funny. Of course that was before vinyl was popular the first time around.

I had an easy time kick-starting my vinyl collection when I went through my Dad's collection in storage that he accumulated since the 60's. He kept every record he ever bought - over 1000 strong. Very jazz and big band heavy, with some of my own original records from the 70's mixed in - Saturday Night Fever, Endless Summer, Eagles, and of course, the Star Wars soundtrack.

Redstone said:

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But it's amusing how few appreciate the player, and focus on the music. Well, hardware matters.

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Not sure where anyone said hardware doesn't matter.

PDWT_12 said:

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Started at the beginning of the year when I got a Fluance turntable for Christmas. My setup is nothing special and I only have around 20 albums at the moment, but I've really enjoyed the 7 months or so of collecting.

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Basically sums up my experience, too.

I haven't bought any since the revival but I have a few hundred from back in the day.

Some of my favorite records are the A&M ones. I have a flexi disk record sent out by the AFS in 1971. Narrated by Buck Weirus '42 it has clips of the sounds of Aggieland, songs, yells, campusologies, etc. It finishes with a special message from Jack K Williams reminding you to send your donation checks in.

I have several hundred I never listen to. Guess I ought to start selling them.

"Wanna listen to Fleetwood Mac in the garage?"

Na. You should put them out on the curb for trash pick up.

By the way, I've been meaning to send you something in the mail. What's your address again?

wbt5845 said:

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I have several hundred I never listen to. Guess I ought to start selling them.

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Is it mostly classical or do you have some popular music? I may be interested in taking them off your hands.

Despite my best efforts of being against collecting vinyl here I am. I have a bad collecting mindset so I knew right away that getting into this would be a bad idea and would quickly become out of hand if I didn't actively do something, so I'll give some unsolicited advice that has helped me out.

• First: I'm not buying anything speculatively. Outside of the enjoyment I get out of the album I assume every record is worth $0 dollars the second I buy it and don't consider resale. This has helped me pass on a lot of famous albums that I come across that I don't actually like that much but "are a good deal" and "an album/artist I sort of like".
• Second: I created a list of all my favorite albums. They have to be full albums that I like listening to start to finish and I have to stick to it. It's helped really stem the impulse purchases of mid tier and good album so I'm only getting my favorites. Because of this my collection is smaller but more precise and I find I'm going back and listening to each record I get multiple times.
• Third: Unless it is by my absolute favorite artist or or something really exceptional I am not getting it if its a double vinyl. What I like about vinyl is letting an album play start to finish and it really gets in the way when you have 3 songs per side that you are constantly getting up and flipping or changing records. The worst example was 1989 that put 13 songs across two records. There are a few albums on my list I've passed up altogether because of they turned out to be double vinyls.

I will say the exception has been weird novelty records I've found for real cheap such as the Chimpmunks Punk Album and an album of the Rockafire Experience (the showbiz pizza animatronic band) album. That said its been a fun hobby. I travel a lot for work so I visit local record stores when I do and although I may leave without a new record (I usually buy something to support them), its been a fun thing to do while traveling.

Junkhead said:

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wbt5845 said:

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I have several hundred I never listen to. Guess I ought to start selling them.

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Is it mostly classical or do you have some popular music? I may be interested in taking them off your hands.

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About half classical and half 70s/80s rock. I don't even know what all is there. I have a couple of crates and haven't played any of them in about 20 years.

wbt5845 said:

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Junkhead said:

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wbt5845 said:

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I have several hundred I never listen to. Guess I ought to start selling them.

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Is it mostly classical or do you have some popular music? I may be interested in taking them off your hands.

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About half classical and half 70s/80s rock. I don't even know what all is there. I have a couple of crates and haven't played any of them in about 20 years.

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Let me know if you want to sell the non-classical stuff it it's in good shape.

I need to sort through and see what I have. Looking online, I don't think I have anything real valuable - for instance, I looked up The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour album - I know I got that - and it's $5 on eBay.

I didn't figure the classical would be very marketable, and those are the only albums I'd probably want to keep anyway.

Let me do a little inventory work and see. I'm trying to clear stuff out since we may be moving back to Georgia this fall.

Sister got me a Wu tang vinyl and a cheap table for Christmas. It has spiraled out of control since then with a good setup and many weekend amazon purchases. I will say I enjoy listening to classic vinyl is way more fun than watching Netflix. I've got some Tame Impala spinning right now. My favorite album I've bought so far is the early very psychedelic Piper at the Gates of Dawn by Pink Floyd.

MosesHallEnforcer said:

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I will say I enjoy listening to classic vinyl is way more fun than watching Netflix. .

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Hell ya.

*** UPDATE***

I finally took a few hours this weekend and went through my pop/rock/jazz vinyl. This is what I have.

A Night At Studio 54
Al Jarreau - High Crime
Animal House -
Barbara Streisand - The third Album
Bill Black's Combo - Solid and Raunchy
Blood Sweat & Tears - Child Is Father To The Man
Blood Sweat & Tears - Greatest Hits
Blowfly - Blowfly's Party
Blowfly - Business Deal
Blowfly - Porno Freak
Blues Brothers - Briefcase Full Of Blues
Bob James - Sign Of The Times
Boston - Don't Look Back
Cab Calloway - Hi De Ho Man
Cheap Trick - Cheap Trick At Budokan
Cheap Trick - One on One
David Bowie - Changes One
David Bowie - Changes Two
David Lee Roth - Crazy From The Heat
Di Mara Sisters - Italian Holiday
Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms
Don McLean - American Pie
Don McLean - Don McLean
Earth Wind & Fire - Powerlight
Earth Wind & Fire - The Best of Earth Wind & Fire
Elton John - Don't Shoot Me
Elton John - Greatest Hits
Elton John - Greatest Hits Vol II
Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
Empire Strikes Back
Eric Clapton - Time Pieces
ET Soundtrack
Flashdance
Genesis - A Trick Of The Tail
Genesis - And Then They Were Three
Genesis - Duke
Genesis - Genesis
Grease - Movie Soundtrack
Huey Lewis and the News - Sports
Jefferson Airplane - Bark
Jerry Jordan - Phone Call From God
Jethro Tull - Aqualung
Jimi Hendrix - The Essential Jimi Hendrix Vol II
John Fogerty - Centerfield
John Lennon - Imagine
Kenny Rogers - The Gambler
Led Zeppelin - In Through The Out Door
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II
Led Zeppelin - Presence
London Symphony - Jethro Tull
Lynard Skynard - Gold & Platinum Band
Madness - Madness
Madonna - Like a Virgin
Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Somewhere In Africa
Maynard Ferguson - MF Horn
Maynard Ferguson - MF Horn Two
Michael Jackson - Off The Wall
Michael Jacksonv Thriller
Miles Davis - *****es Brew
Miles Davis - Greatest Hits
Miles Davis - Heard Round The World
Miles Davis - Miles In The Sky
Moody Blues - Long Distance Boyager
Moody Blues - This Is The Moody Blues
Neil Young - After The Gold Rush
Oak Lawn Records - Uptown
Olivia Newton-John - Xanadu
Pat Benatar - Get Nervous
Paul Simon - Graceland
Paul Simon - Greatest Hits
Phil Collins - No Jacket Required
Richard Pryor - Bicentennial N*gg*r
Richard Pryor - That N*gg*rs Crazy
Richard Pryor - Wanted
Robert Palmer - I Didn't Mean To Turn On You
Rugolo Orchestra - Rugolo Plays Kenton
Santana - Amigos
Santana - Greatest Hits
Santana - Illuminations
Scorpions - Love At First Sting
Scorpions - Lovedrive
Seatrain - Seatrain
Simon and Grafunkel - Bridge Over Troubed Waters
Simon and Grafunkel - Sounds of Silence
Star Trek II
Steve Martin - Comedy Is Not Pretty
Steve Martin - Wild And Crazy Guy
Steve Martin Brothers
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Live Alive
Stradivari Strings - The Sound of Gershwin
The Beatles - Abbey Road
The Beatles - Hey Jude
The Blues Brothers
The Cars - Candy-O
The Cars - Heartbeat City
The Eagles - The Long Run
The Kinks - The Kinks Collection
The Moody Blues - A Question of Balance
The Moody Blues - Days of Future Passed
The Moody Blues - On The Threshold Of A Dream
The Police - Ghost In The Machine
The Police - Synchronicity
The Who - Face Dances
The Who - It's Hard
The Who - Quadrophenia
The Who - The Who By Numbers
The Who - Who's Next
Van Halen - Van Halen
Wang Chung - Mosaic
Wang Chung - Points On The Curve
WAR - Greatest Hits
White Boy Blues - Clapton, Beck & Page
Woodstock - Woodstock
Yes - Yessongs
Zebra - Zebra
ZZ Top - Afterburner
ZZ Top - El Loco
ZZ Top - Eliminator

All these albums are for sale on eBay. I went through and found the lowest price on eBay for each album and the total above is valued at about $850.

Keep in mind many of these albums are in good to very good shape - probably only played once or twice.

If anyone is interested in the bunch - make me an offer. I'd rather sell the whole bunch than sell them piecemeal. We can save a lot by cutting eBay out and saving on shipping.

Contact me at my username AT yahoo.com if you like.

wbt5845, I sent you an email and want to make sure you go it?

I'm happy for you new collectors. The most important thing is to have fun.

That said, be cautious when detailing your equipment and albums. There's almost always a more knowledge collector out there, and long-timers who have put a lot of time, energy, and money into their set-up can have difficulty "carrying" a conversation with beginners.

I didn't know about this new trend until last year. I am much older than all of you and actual bought many albums when they came out in the 60s and 70s. We have long since gotten rid of our massive stereo speakers and systems. For some reason we never got rid of all the albums. Because my husband and I have similar tastes in music , we had many duplicates so some of those were barely played. We remodeled our house last year which made it important to go through all the stuff we had accumulated and donate or throw away things we no longer used. We found a shop called Vintage Freak in Hurst Tx, near us that buys old albums. We were really surprised at the amount they offered. Our son, Aggie Class 2005 came over and we told him what we had been offered for the collection, and he said, he really wanted them. We let him go through and pick out the ones he wanted and still made several hundred dollars on the remainder. I really enjoyed that wonderful music and I am happy a new generation has an appreciation for them.

My wife got me one of those crappy all in one players a year and half ago and it's been all downhill/uphill from there. Within two months I bought an Audio Technica 60. Another few months and I had to buy the 120.

I've had some killer finds on Nextdoor and it's the only reason I keep the app. Got a box from a lady that would probably cost me $400-500 if I bought it at a record store. She just wanted it out of the house. Filled with Classic Rock in amazing condition.

I buy a decent amount of new stuff as well. I really got into music in the early 2000's and that seems to be a black hole vinyl wise. Really hard to find some of my favorite albums from that time period without paying an insane amount of money.