My mistake at about the same time when I bought my first CD Player and disks was to sell or give away all my albums. Fast Forward 35 years, my wife bought me a TT as part of a package deal. At the time I had no Phono section in my gear but soon enough did. I started buying copies of what I lost and then found my brother still had the box I gave him. I got about 50 albums back in the exact condition as they were when I gave them to him and never played between then and when I got them back. Wish I had kept them all.
Sometimes you just get lucky
Back in the day, as CDs were all the "perfect sound forever" rage, my young daughters were in need of their first bicycles. Having just bought our first house, money was pretty tight. So, I looked at my collection of a little over 400 LPs -- classic rock, progressive rock, and jazz, mostly, and all in great shape -- that weren't getting much attention just then and decided to sell them at a local record store for some bike-buying cash. The clerk sniffed at me and declared that he would only give me $20 for the lot. At that point, I knew that bicycles would require a Plan B (which happened) and that I should probably hold onto the collection (which also happened). Fast forward to today, and my record collection is 3-4x the size it was back then and includes a fair share of rare items, MFOMR, One-Steps, UHQRs, box sets, etc. But those original albums remain some of my most cherished. And I constantly thank the "Great DJ in the Sky" that the clerk that day didn't make a reasonable offer. I wonder if any of you have had similar experiences?
Happy Listening,
Dawgfish