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Record collecting versus hoarding

At what point does "collecting" records become hoarding? Unless you are in the business of selling records either primarily or even secondarily, why do so many people here talk about having 2,3,4,6,10,000 records and CDs? It's not stamps or coins.

Let's say you listen to records 15 hours a week (a good estimate for me) that equates to about 750 hours a year or 1000 records a year. I like to listen to mine at least once every three months - I have 300 records and change. In the rare instance when I replace one for a better sounding one (I've done it maybe 4-5 times), I immediately sell the old one - with only one exception. The Sgt Pepper UHQR. I already had it on the Beatles Collection and do occasionally listen to it when I want a treat. It does sound better than the regular Mofi one, which sounds great to me.

Why would you have multiple copies of the same record and not just listen to the best sounding one and sell the rest?

Why would you want records you listen to less than once a year?

Maybe some people listen a lot more than me (and replace cartridges/styli pretty ofter or have a bunch of them)?

The reason I bring this up is because Acoustic Sounds is releasing Steely Dan's studio albums from the 1970s on their UHQR brand (not sure how they now own the name and not Mofi, but that is not the point), I am a huge fan and will be getting a few of these overpriced (IMHO) records, which will replace a few of my non-audiophile (except the Aja Mofi) records. I plan to sell the Aja Mofi immediately after getting the UHQR, which I am sure will sound much better. That is worth a few bucks, but the others I sell should be worth $10-15 in trade at a record store.

Anyone with records they play less than once a year or keep multiple pressings of a single album, please let me know your rationale.

Are you a hoarder? Too lazy to get rid of them? Like the way they decorate your room?

sokogear
dpop
293 posts
 

@big_greg Ha! I love it! 😂

dpop
293 posts
 

@whart 

Yet I am still emotionally attached to those records and I am a pretty good curator. Eventually, all will get disposed of through my estate when the time comes.

Same here.

ct0517's avatar
ct0517
2,041 posts
 

I will share, that having been through a house move, after many years in the previous house. If you have a lot of records....like on multiple floors, and a pending House Close Date; then you will have had a "Come to Jesus" moment, and determined already which of your records fall into the

1) Essential - you are taking - they define you, 
2) Collectibles - nice to have, unique maybe rare records, so worth it to make the effort, and 
3) All the Others - you are calling around to see who will take them. 
I came up with some decent Techniques for unloading records in category 3. 
In the end I still took too many, but I did probably a 35-40% cull.  

So everything in Category 3 is probably hoarding. 

 

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,788 posts
 

As always, @whart said it all. Well, almost all ;-) .

By the time I reached my mid-60’s, a lot of guys I had known had croaked, and my own mortality started staring me in the face (ever looked into a mirror whilst on LSD? If not, don’t ;-). I started thinking about how many hours I had left in which I could be listening to recorded music, and how many of the approximately 5,000 LP’s and 5,000 CD’s in my library would I be able to listen to again, even once? So I went ahead and did a cull, getting rid of about 1500 of each.

Which I now regret! I sometimes find myself jonesing to hear one of those titles I got rid of, and have even bought replacement copies of some of them. And I continue to learn of music I had missed at the time of its initial release. Plus, good new music keeps getting recorded; what am I gonna do, not add any more discs to my racks, just out of spite? ;-)

cd318
2,636 posts
 

At what point does "collecting" records become hoarding?

 

A very good question that could apply to a lot of other things too.

When you're young you don't see any horizon on life's journey and the voyage seems endless.

Later on, things change and you might be forced to take stock of exactly where you are currently.

Some decide to put their house in order in consideration of the cleanup job that family or friends might have to do after they've gone, whilst others don't seem to care in the slightest.

For them life is to be enjoyed, and the devil can take the hindmost. Too much is never enough for them.

The unfortunate truth is that often what is left behind may hold nothing of the value that the owner had placed in it. There's a good example of that in the closing scenes of Citizen Kane.

 

And then there are those unfortunate sufferers of OCD.

There is no nice way of dressing up the distress and discomfort that they often end subjecting themselves to (and often others) in their obsessive behaviours.

I try to be a minimalist when it comes to possessions, but there 50 odd LPs that I could not easily bear to be parted from.

My hoarding is now largely confined to the digital medium. The problem is time, the lack of it.

Perhaps this could be called underground hoarding?

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