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LP records: Time to... oi... buy another crate...?

OK, I'm not asking you what I should do, I'm asking what you did and, in retrospect, what you think about it. I was doing my annual assessment of my LP collection this winter, running cleaning fluid through the VPI 16.5, listening, and deciding what "VG" copy needs to be upgraded to a "NM" and what holes still need to be filled. I've never considered myself a "collector" and have attempted to "collect" only what I wish to listen to. I'm now at a crux: I've just about exceeded the "magic number" of LPs that I can reasonably expect to enjoy if blessed with a normal lifespan. I'll be one of those old guys, God bless 'em, whose survivors give his collection away to anybody who will take that pile of non-digital whatever.

For my sanity, I need to decide before Springtime whether to keep upgrading or housing multiple copies of stuff I really like (Do I need two copies of my favorites, just in case? How many versions of Quatour pour la fin du temps do I need? Do I really need mono and stereo versions of all my favorite 1958-1967 stuff? Should I upgrade my later Blue Note "player" pressings to early presses and/or 45RPM remasters? Will I really enjoy critically listening to six early copies of Aja one evening to determine which one is the "keeper?"), or just listen to what I have, get rid of what I don't think I'll play, and buy a new release now and then. I think I need to do this because managing the "collection" is now probably preventing me from enjoying it. I'm tempted to visit some of the local used bargain bin sellers with a stack for each, take whatever they offer me, and let somebody else make some lucky finds.

I'm not asking for advice or counseling, I just want to hear from those of you who also reached this point, which way you went, and how much enjoyment you get out of whatever you decided to do. If you decided to radically downsize and listen to everything you have, to "use it or lose it," how many did you keep? Do you miss any, or do you enjoy the remainder all the more? Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
morgenholz
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tan43
128 posts
 
I have also come to that point. I have about 5,000 lp's. I started going thru mine about six months ago. I am organizing them in three groups. Group one is going to a thrift store. These are in nice condition, but not mint. Group two will be put back and stored for now. These are near mint but not listened to. Group three will be kept in my music room. These I plan to enjoy.
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inna
7,296 posts
 
Elizabeth, perhaps you also want them to rescue you.
I listen for about 500 hours a year, that includes what was recorded in digital. Collections of this size are incredible.
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morgenholz OP
61 posts
 
My region seems to produce much of the usual suspects for the used bins. Like Elizabeth, I can't help "rescuing" mint common stuff that I like for 50 cents or a dollar just because it doesn't deserve to go out that way-- That's why I have six early-press copies of Aja and five mint copies of Learning to Crawl and four copies of Reggatta de Blanc. I do have two young daughters who express some interest in the arcane art of vinyl spinning, and one of them shows some technical facility, so there's hope for my Golden Years. I've bought them some Rickie Lee Jones and Stray Cats and Michael Jackson and other stuff they like, all under a dollar a pop. I have these in their own crate, so they don't count. Just move on, folks, nothing to see here.
buconero117
2,311 posts
 
I am always finding new people to give any extra copies of items I 'rescue'. First I gave them to my five children, along with a spinner. Then the eight grandchildren grew up and are now getting rescued copies, and of course a spinner to play them on. Since a great grand child has recently showed up, I now have another excuse to continue in 'rescue' mode. The 'beat' goes on.
lloydc's avatar
lloydc
751 posts
 
I have cut my record collection in half several times, due to moving into progressivley smaller spaces. Got rid of things I had outgrown and thought I would never want to listen to again (e.g, Gentle Giant, Roxy Music, Tangerine Dream) There are occasional pangs of regret (e.g., shouldn't have thrown out the Keith Jarret.) Hard to decide on some I might listen to, but probably won't (12-tone Schoenberg?) But since there are still 4 or 5 thousand, more than I will ever listen to, and I still don't have enough space and need to divest more, I don't feel bad about the occuasional error. It makes no sense to keep everything. Can't find the title I'm looking for often enough, as it is.
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inna
7,296 posts
 
Jealousy or envy, Elizabeth?
abucktwoeighty's avatar
abucktwoeighty
1,079 posts
 
Here I thought it was illegal to get rid of any lp's. Thought I'd be shunned by the audiophile world for even thinking of doing it... Hey Mikey, there's that odd fellow who removed part of his vinyl collection....

Seriously, I haven't listened to the last couple dozen or so I've bought. I have close to 200 I haven't played yet, and I'm wondering if I will ever listen to them all. Around 90 of them are 12 inch singles of the rap variety that I couldn't see going to the garbage. I hate rap, but still couldn't even think about seeing them destroyed. Weird, eh?
Just the other day I found an antique store with a dealer who has hundreds of excellent old lp's for sale. Maybe we can make some sort of deal on a trade....
rshak
419 posts
 
I've got around 8,000 LPs (give or take a few hundred) and, like Elizabeth, I am now retired, so I have time to mess around with the "collection," which consists of around 500 rock titles from the 50' and 60's with the balance a divided between classical and jazz.

About 6,500 LPs are stored in cabinets or custom-made shelving. I ordered my first custom made shelf from a place called *Nude Furniture* in 1985. It holds about 750 records, and at the time I figured it would be sufficient for years to come. Talk about "misunderestimating!" I've also got over 50 of the Per Madsen cubes, as well as a couple of other types of dedicated LP shelving I picked up over the years. About 1,500 records are still in boxes - - no remaining shelf space and no place to place any new shelving without really junking up the house. Time to winnow the collection down.

I have started the process by giving some of the records away - - mostly dupes but also some titles that I didn't care for. I have even (shudder!) begun pitching some records into the trash. And I have toyed with the idea of selling some of the choice items that I just don't appreciate that much but are saleable (e.g., some of the Mosaic jazz sets, and some classical rarities, like Joseph Szigeti's traversal of the Bach sonatas/partita's for solo violin - Bach Guild 627/9 - that I picked up for $3.00 used and even in the current market is worth a couple hundred bucks.

My goal is similar to Elizabeth's - limit the size of the collection to what current total shelving capacity can handle. How successful I'll be is another matter.
morgenholz OP
61 posts
 
I'm going the way of Rshak and Elizabeth. After trying everything over the years, I prefer to keep my LPs in the "200 LP" carpeted crates from Odyssey or Grundorf. Expensive, yes, but american-made, of uniform size, and with the recessed hardware very portable (by two people when full...). This does limit the size of my collection, which is good. At the crossroads last week, I figured I needed two more to house the stuff that sits out on the shelves but that I have removed repeatedly from the "take to the used record buyer" shelf. I split the difference and bought one more, leaving about 150 without storage. I'm now listening to those, and will know if I need to keep them. If I get rid of the second or third copies of things I consider essential, my troubles are over, but I hold onto these in case I ever need to get somebody hooked on the hobby. Now my confession: I keep thinking that if I got down to 700 titles, total, that I could listen to two sides per day and never hear the same thing for two years. Something about this seems very attractive to me, and no, I have not lost interest in vinyl, just the opposite-- I just want each experience to have maximum impact for the trouble I go through. "Beware the man who owns only one gun." I can always keep one crate next to the 16.5 for unexplored thrift store finds.
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