The end of LP collecting????

Wow - that's a mouthful!

But much is true, the rich are getting richer and the poor and middle class are getting poorer - and many of the rich are taking up lp collecting, especially in Asia. My brother-in-law is a dealer overseas, and I have personally sent him almost 10,000 lp's over the last 18 months that have sold at shockingly high prices compared to what I'd get here. Even here though, look at the number of asinine "Northern Soul" 45's going for hundreds of dollars. It's like the Beanie Baby fad now. In all likelihood, it'll chill down after a while and prices will stabilize, so hang in there.

Hopefully, the other thing that may happen eventually, is a digital medium that equals, or even farther out, exceeds the quality of vinyl playback. It still won't be as much fun to "collect" but it would be nice to have the alternative for those who just want to listen in near-analog peace.

Chazz,
Take a breath and a paragraph or two.

The thrift stores and used LP stores in my town still have lots of great vinyl. I have probably bought 200 LPs in the last month, all for $1 or less each (which I consider very reasonable). In that batch I even got a couple of shaded dogs and 2nd pressing Londons. I could have bought an arm load of London Blue Back opera boxes, but I am not into opera. I wish I knew someone who was so I could pick up the box sets for them. I hate to leave them in the bins to eventually be thrown out. Nobody buys opera in this town.

Chazz, don't lament about the future. Ensure your own future by buying cheap vinyl now. That way when vinyl is no longer available you will have a lifetime of listening already on your shelves. Don't worry about what you haven't got, enjoy what you have.

God forbid the little guys (like me) who have spent themselves into ruin in this hobby should actually MAKE MONEY on something they've purchased!

Prices reflect demand! The question I have isn't so much about competing with lunatics on ebay for the more desirable rare lps but why if this is a dying hobby why is the demand so high. Even the new offers seem out of line at $40 a pop. You just have to be patient when there is real demand supply seems to follow.

A part of me finds this to be very good news. I think if there is demand companies like classic will release more titles. Enjoy the hobby.

I don't have a clue what you are trying to say, as I stopped reading after a few lines. Periods and paragraphs and dictionaries were all invented for very good reasons. Try one sometime, you might like it.

"A fool and his money are soon parted."

Nobody forces you to buy anything.
Oh and BTW, try decaf.

I'm sorry, but i didn't understand what the heck you were talking about____slow down, and i wouldn't pay those prices for LP's look around you can do much better, you can buy alot of new stuff at music direct or accoustic sounds for a heck of alot less than what your talking about, might not be those titles you were talking about, but you do the investageting i'm just telling you that vinyl is still reasonable. hell if i bought a record for $1500 i don't know if i'd play it or even take it out of the cover :) anyway. chill take a pill or whatever, enjoy the vinyl, even though i will agree that prices on the equiptment never ceases to amaze me.

Thanks for the post Chazzbo, which lays out the current LP situation pretty well. I say this after studying it for a long time though... Why all the crazy grammar and brain-bending typos? Why not run a spell check on your prose? And maybe throw in a space or two after commas and after the periods at the end of sentences?

That said, I agree that collecting vinyl is getting tougher on the Ebay front. Most of my used vinyl scores are local, not on the internet. I've found that plenty of people who unload their collections have neither the time nor inclination to list them singly.

If you are a "collector" of anything, you can usually expect to pay a premium for the creme de la creme. What's $1,000 for an LP if one has a 1/2-million dollar sound system, which I certainly don't!

I personally don't "collect" LP's, I listen to them. While I very much enjoy my Classic Records re-issues and the XRCD's, I'm into it for the music as much as(usually more so) the "fidelity". I'll often still take a $9.99 OJC LP over many of the redbook re-masters!

Look around a little more. I find new records at Amoeba in Berkeley that are cheaper than the same VG condition used record sells on Ebay.

No chance. We all want instant gratification but it's not going to happen. Relax, take your time, enjoy the journey, find the things you want, especially a spell check.

Judy426, I thinks it's actually "A fool and his money are soon partying"

I believe a good reason why prices are going up is the popularity of Ebay. I have been a member since 1999, and those were the good ole days. Bargans upon bargans.

Now my mom/dad, the elderly couple who lives next door to me is on ebay. These people would have said "brick and mortor" or die in 1999. The influx of sheer masses who bring along the lack of mindset of "great deals" on Ebay have driving the prices up of almost everything on ebay. Ebay has also done a great job of letter the public know what YOU want is on Ebay..., people who WANT something, will pay for what they want.

Even oddball brands where I would be the only bidder years ago, and would have 40 views in 7 days, now get hundreds of views.

EJLIF, SHAME ON YOU for letting out the Amoeba Sercet! Glad you didn;t let everyone know about 10% off Thursday nights!

WoW! And your point is.............? ;^)
The economy sucks and I've been finding things on ebay that shouldn't be gong for the price that I'm paying, it's a buyers market, if you can find the right item. Just a few short years ago people were beating each other up on the bids, paying way too much for a record. If anything, I don't see the rare titles I used to see because people like all of us are buying them up.
Remember, it's sad but true that we are only care takers of the Lps for a short while and some day someone else will collect what we leave behind, just like so many of the vintage ones in my collection, I wasn't around to buy every one of them new! If your familiar with Neil young’s new album and the song “this old guitar” I find it most apropos in this circumstance. I'll leave you with the words of Chad of Acoustic Sounds "buy now or cry later", And so it goes...Happy record hunting and listening!

My solution: belt drive transport modded by Dan Wright.

How do you get LP's into that Psychic ?

I am in agreement with many of the other posters when I say....

"What?!?!?!?!?"

Oz

Psychic writes what he wants in spite of what he reads.

I have been collecting records since around 1967. I have collected in bulk with the thought of selling off when i retire. This is still my plan. I have albums i love and would never part with but I have albums that have never been opened and I see what they go for on Ebay.
When Cd's were the rage Fantasy Records sold their ENTIRE wherehoused Vinyl jazz catalog to some dentist in the mid west who sent me a catalog and was dumping OJC, Prestige and Riverside at 2.99 a pop. From Coltrane to Red Garland I loaded up on over 2000.00 dollars worth. 95% are still sealed. Blue Notes the 1992 Japanese limited issue where if you bought the entire set you recieved a ticket and if you sent it in you got a copy of some rare Vinyl recording of jackie mcClean or something like that I got em all. Even if I play them they are mint because i take care of my records.
One day I will sell the ones that don't interest me. I don't know how this guy got my address I suspect from the gentleman in Layrel Canyon that I was buying the Japanese Blue Notes from but to this day I thank my lucky stars that catalog was in my mailbox.
Chazzbo all I can tell you is what everyone else has told you look in thrift shops,garage sales,estate sales hell call em on the phone ask em if they have records,hell ask if they have stereo equipment sometimes people don't know what they have.I bought an Original Pressing of Miles Davis Live at the Blackhawk Vol. 1 in mint condition at a state fair in butte county for 35 cents in 1983. Whenever you travel grab a phone book and look up records go down there and talk to the people ask where you can get Vinyl. You'll never know what you will find.
Good Luck

Here's a recent example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4793089242&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

Sheesh!!!!

DEATH To The LP!?
Just toke a quick reality check on the current state of the record collecting situation on the bay (US) only, here are some stats:

Total LPs 64,270 (as compared to 1559 CDs/ 706 SACDs)

5,533 said to be MINT

7,004 said to be SEALED

and 6,805 45RPMs

And if you were looking for a complete Classical library in one purchase:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=4795041618&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT
(This just backs up what I was saying earlier in this thread unfortunately about record ownership being temporal.)

Heck, With my collection nearing that of Elizabeth's it would seem that some find great value in this dusty old imperfect medium.

I would guess our hobby is just about died... ;^)
Long Live the Long Play!
Happy listening!

chazzbo,

guess the six pack got to you joe, 'cause the way you were hammering on the keys you would think they were bad notes coming from an old upright 88, mottled through with slamming the can down hard on the low C.

While I tried to stay with you and make it through your thinking I kinda gave up. It reminded me of tending bar and listening to people slur their words the more they drank. But at least you didn't commit the other mortal sin of bad internet posts, ALL CAPS.

About the album pricing issue, back in the day some one bought 1 share of Qualcomm for $600.00. So, about the DUSKO GOJKOVIC Slavic Mood LP, am I missing something here or is this something I can't live with out and need to whizz away $415 on it. 'Course, some poor bas**d in Bangladesh lives for a year off the sum of that LP and doesn't know it exists. (Pearls before swine, don't you think, or don't cha?)

But's we gots our priorities. Right! And we can spend our money the way we want. Now add to that, what about poor ol' Dusko himself. I suspect he might not have seen a total of $415 from that album either. But that's what makes the world an interesting place.

Me, I just picked up a clean copy of Bitches Brew at my neighbor's garage sale for $3.00. And I think I paid way too much.

I will agree, the thrift stores have gotten out of hand. Where I use to get amps, TT's, CD players and other electronics for the cheap now their prices are reflecting ebays. For example, Advent Original's for $20.00 five years ago, now going for $80.00. Not long ago I saw a Pioneer Pl 516 TT selling for a ridiculous $129.95 at my favorite thrifty.

To make this point clearer, I use to have rear room access to one of the thrifties in my city and could direct the attention of an item to the "marker" who would put it on the floor while I was still in the shop. (Mind you nothing shady was going on, just a little help from a friend. I always paid their price and up front too.) Now those items don't make it to the floor. They are being put on ebay instead. So lately I'm mostly finding the typical Best Buy consumer junk there too.

Although I did find a nice pair of Morduant Short MS 35Ti's and MS 15Ti's, with Monster Cable for $75.00 last month, because I don't think they knew what they had. What was disgusting is they had the the tuner from this setup, an below average Rotel 830, going for $59.95, and an Audionics CC 2 amp, temptingly over priced at $175.00. Now if the entire package was $175.00 that would have been a different story. But as far as I'm concerned these were not bargain prices. At these prices, the initial cost cannot justify the inherent risk of spending that much on an antiquated obsolete amp with limited replacement parts, no guarantee of working and no way to set up and test at store. 'Course I could of waited until Tuesday when they offer senior discounts of 25% off. But then it's no deal either.

So I going to paraphrase chazboo in this respect, thrifties are going the way of the past for cheap electronics.

Nah, my solution makes $sen$e...

Jealously rears it's ugly head. You make your way in this world but to condem someone for figuring out for himself how to live comfortably when he retires to persue other things in life is petty. I don't apologize for making an investment that paid off. I mean the last time I looked this still was the land of opportunity wasn't it?

Plinko, what makes you think there is any disgrace? I'm serious. I agree with Qdrone, to point out in others a disgraceful act, shame on you, what's wrong with you! Is it some how OK to go out and earn a buck wherever else, Oh! but not on the sacred Lp? Bull@#$%! Every loaf of bread you eat has a hundred taxes and profits associated with it why not the LP? That's some of the most hypocritical stuff I have heard on A'gon. I mean no personal offense to you my friend but, I strongly disagree with your ideas. Sorry.

i am not against used LP's becoming a commodity rather than an 'art' form or a vehicle to play music. why not. Price them right out of my reach. s 'ok.

used record stores, used clothing stores, used cars, ... make them an upper tier product.

So I won't be flipping thru old LPs in a dusty store anymore. I can buy 'brand new' LPs for 15+ and for that I am lucky.

I'll admit my wording was too strong but I simply don't find it attractive. You're either in it for the music or not. Profit should be the least concern if not nil concern but one post indicated it was the central concern so I thought I would offer thoughts from the other end of the spectrum. Yeah, I did it rather smugly. I'll try to do better next time. Apologies.

I'd rather talk lps with music fans than business men anyday. For the record, I'm not concerned with being consistent or winning over others to my philosophy. If you're out there buying lps for the sole reason of profit, I have little respect for you as a fellow music lover. Can I still have respect for you as a person? Sure. Just like I have little respect for those people who bought and sold houses in the same day at profit, at the height of the real estate boom. I'll sell my house for more than I paid for it in a couple of years but at least I enjoyed it, just like the lps. Hypocritical? Sure, you bet.

Collecting vinyl for profit is no different than wine, stamps, coins, art, etc. The hobbyist is no more (or less) righteous than the entrepreneur looking to make a buck. Stop your whining and grow up.

I don't think the prices on Ebay are so outrageous when you consider what this portal provides (well OK a few bidders go way overboard). But how else would you access such an exceptional archive of jazz records? It would have taken me multiple lifetimes to find the stuff that I can find with a few keystrokes on Ebay. Yes, this is a quality over quantity solution. If you are into $1.99 LP's then forget about Ebay but if you are into pristine copies of classic jazz from the 50's that you could only dream about possibly finding someday, then Ebay is a dream come true. My average LP purchase on Ebay is $70 - $100 for a classic Prestige, Savoy, Blue Note etc. I consider it a deal since I would spend this much or more in gas and other expenses just to find such items and here others find them for me and I can purchase them with a few keystrokes from my PC. This is the golden age of LP collecting from my perspective!

No, really, I am of the same mind. My post meant only to elucidate the issue. [Sorry to say I flubbed.]

Buying LPs as an investment is greedy, vapid, etc. Will those records ever get listened to again? As an investment they must be kept in best condition so, no, they will never rest on a turntable again. That is the future of LPs along this train. NOW WHAT THE HELL GOOD IS THAT EXCEPT FOR $$$!?!?!?

My OPINION is that speculators will drive up the price and add NOTHING to the enjoyment.

Are they 'allowed' to do that? sure. so what?

To all my frieeeeeennds, -barfly.;-)

Chazzbo, I have found the blue note reissues from the 70's (the ones with a blue label and black B) to be a very good value if you don't want to shell out gazzillions for originals. They are better than the later Park Ave Blue Note reissues or OJC's (both of which you can tell from listening were digitally remastered) and they can usually be found for under $20 for a double LP. In fact the price they demand is so low that unfortunately many sellers don't bother to list them. They are usually in much better condition than the original issues as well - many are essentially mint.
The same can be said of 70's reissues under other labels. I recently acquired a copy of a two-fer of Cannonball Adderly on Savoy from the 70's called "Spontaneous Combustion". This includes a reissue of Bohemia After Dark (Kenny Clarke's album but Cannonball's debut) and the 1955 Savoy "Presenting Cannonball". Since I own originals of both LP's I did a listening comparison and was amazed to find that the reissue actually sounded better having corrected mixing problems on the originals! Best of all, the reissue cost $12 compared to over $150 that I paid for the originals and was in mint condition!

Anybody buying LP's as a long term investment at current prices is dreamin'. If you had the foresight to do it 10 years ago, that's another story. But buying now at these prices better be because you love vinyl and never plan on reselling.

Domestic prices are high because Baby Boomers who have lots of cash from refinancing their homes are chasing their memories, and Gen X is (still) chasing what they think is "cool". "Mod" is the profitable buzzword for anything selling on Ebay - put that in your title and get an extra 25%. Once these generations are over all that (which won't be long) prices on nearly all genres, etc. will decline. The DJ craze contributed to LP's reaching the younger generations - but many DJ's are moving to CD Decks now. And once the fad cools do you really think the younger crowd is going to care about 50's/60's jazz or 60's "psych" or Pink Floyd and Led Zep? - no more than the Boomers now care about the previous generations' Glenn Miller, Rosemary Clooney, or Artie Shaw. Or even - Doo Wop - remember that. Five Satins and Coasters records were going for big bucks in the 70's and early 80's.

Do you think the next generation is going to have the time and money to throw tens of thousands of $$$ at wildly priced collectible LP's instead of an acceptable sounding consumer format? They're going to be working 16 hour days just trying to buy a house and pay for their kids' kindergarten.

Overseas prices are up now because (classical mostly) lp's are a popular in Asia right now. For a while it was Deutsche Grammophon over there - then they figured out those were crap, then it was anything with a cello in the title - now that's cooling a bit. "Unaccompanied" Bach of any sort is hot but slowing. We've seen what happens with most Asian fads. They get dropped like a stone very suddenly for the next big thing.

Everything is a Beanie Baby right now - "Income" properties sporting negative cash flow and bought with Negative Amortization loans, hot Stock Offerings in unprofitable Solar Power and Search Engine companies, Muscle Cars, "vintage" crap from the '80's, and yes - LP's. There's like 12 or 15 amateur "dealers" who hang around my local Goodwill stores looking for anything they can put on Ebay. People are buying portfolios of unknown, not particularly talented, artists' works as investments figuring, assured by art dealers that they'll score with one or two of them. People are advertising beat up lp's of Abbey Road or Magical Mystery Tour on Craigslist here in San Francisco for hundreds of dollars, thinking they found a real score in their parents closet.

Our economy is totally dependent on foreigners lending us ever-increasing amounts of our own money back, our kids can't afford to buy gasoline, not to mention houses, our politicians' ethics are at a deplorable low, our reputation around the world is in shambles, our high tech military has been shown to be an emperor with no clothes. - And we just can't get enough beat up old "Northern Soul" 45's and Blue Note lp's. Keep bidding! It's a cultural phase of greed and delusion that the US is going through and it'll end just as every other phase has.

At the same time, no doubt, a digital or even some new analog format that makes mincemeat of Vinyl will come along and we'll all be quaint old men with a bunch of old-timey records destined to be given away to someone who'll just take 'em after we're gone.

I have many big $$$ records that my wife would love for me to put on Ebay - and I would if profit was the motive. If ever there was a time to be selling it is NOW. But I ain't selling my good ones - I'm buying more, because it's fun. BUT - I consider the cost as an "expense" not as an "investment"!

I've got to say that $70 dollars for a record is a wee bit high. I can now get first issue mono/stereo jazz LPs on labels such as MUSE, Prestige, etc because the local record store is frequented by a lot of DJs who, I assume, dump their LPs when this stuff comes out on CD. The cost of these LPs is less than $10. c'mon - $70 for ONE record on average!!! pshew.

I don't know ... I just don't know.

I've been a music lover all my life,I was the guy who collected records when I was in junior high. I have close to 18,ooo and I would venture to say I have listened to at least 90% of them. The jazz albums I purchased in lot was done as an investment because I already had most of them already. You have to realize this was around the time the internet was becoming a reality and Ebay did not exist. I figured if i bought a record for 3.oo I could sell it for ten but now with ebay it's what the market will bear. I still buy records having just purchased a couple of Simply Vinyl copies of the The Band and Swordfishtrombone at 20.oo a piece. I will put them in my collection after I listen to The band because it is my favorite album buy them. The swordfishtrombone will stay sealed because I had a friend who used to work for Columbia and gave me a lot of propmo of Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen and others. A Simply Vinyl record that is out of print at 20 dollars is I think a worthy gamble that in ten years it may be worth 40.oo Who knows they could reisssue it or some one else may do it better. It's a crap shoot

You may be right Opalchip, LP's at a few hundred dollars may not be a wise investment. When I pay that, or any amount for an LP it is to play it not to look at it as an investment. I can't comprehend spending hundreds for an LP just to think it is too valuable to risk playing. But actually, I think LP's are a good value, even at their current high cost. If I spend $10 for a CD and then listen to it once only to find it uninvolving, it is actually ten times more expensive than spending 100 for the same recording on a high quality LP that I find so involving that I enjoy it a ten times a year for ten years. And no, the LP will not wear out. I have many LP's from the 50's as well as my college days that must have been played many 100's of times and still sound fabulous. It's all a question of taking care of them. My objective is to collect only 500 - 1000 excellent copies of the best jazz LP's from the 50's to 70's and play the heck out of them. I don't need 10's of thousands - who has the time to listen to them? If they cost an average of $100 or so each, I don't really care as I have the money and they are so much better than the CD's that it seems a good value to me.
Would I like a high resolution digital format to come along and offer me the same quality at $10 per CD? - you bet but it will never happen. Beter snap up those LP's while they still exist because you'll never see their like again!

It would seem that with all the new high end turntables, cartridges, and phono amps being bought out there today people might be looking for something to play on them.
It also makes sense that as more and more people get back into analogue play back and find out how superior it is, they might start looking for vintage vinyl.
I buy for listening pleasure and I also speculatively purchase for resale.
Right now my record collection value is growing at a greater rate than my 401K, so how foolish is it to invest in something I know and enjoy?
Why am I as a collector and appreciator (listener) some how exempt from doing what record companies and record stores have been doing since the beginning of their time?
I buy, sell, trade, horde...Lps. Oh ya and Listen to them a lot.
Happy listening!

GEEZ LOUISE YOU GUY"S!Listen I know typos are annoying and distracting but anybody reading my post must have known it was not only an issue of passion but my lack of brevity/editing was due to some manic state.I didn't mind some suggesting decaff but some of you seem so PO'd I guess I have to clue you it was written in a slightly manic stae (do to insomnia and nothing chemical in this case).But cripes I feel some of you will be critical of prose style at some pint.But thanks to all the folks who pointed out that while Mosaic may have nixed wax there has been a renaissance in re-issues and as I said in my post CD's now sound better.Lastly as one member pointed out I should show a little less consumptive eny and maybe a little more humility in that in some cultures a family of four will pay for food what a Bartney Wilen mint "Tilt" is worth ($2500-I bought the re-issue two years agho for $60 now it almost always goes for $100.But truth be known the $8 CD is put out by Vogue/Gintanes and availible on Ebay for $8 is just fine.My hope is the folks at Classic will keep the Blue Notes coming and Schema/rearward will keep pumping out $25 copies of double Lp's like Sihab Shihabs or Johnny Grriffin's LP's.And I guess it is just envey when I wonder are Calrke/Boland's "Music For The Small Hours" or "Jazz Un Bahnhnhoff" REALLY worth $500 to $800????.Lastly sorry for the folks who had to endure the scattered content delivered with admittedly little editing (not to mention brevity).But man some of the compaints it was like I kicked your puppy or took your last meal money.While I know typo's are annoying-SO Sorry!Tnaks to those who looked at the contetnt and made me appreciate what I had and what is availible.P.P.S.for those of you who got so touchy about "right to buy LP's as speculative commodity" I agree with you Lp's are just a commodity.So take what ever profits you have made from these sales and while writting a check to Jeb Bush 2008 and and another to the R.N.C. hoping WIC and Commuinty Colleges can get cut further (along with the current round of taz cuts with our defecit)so you can buy $2K per meter cables for your $300K system chuckle at my envy that I am such a loser as to have written this whiney missive in the first place.
Chazz

Chazzbo, dump the politics. Nobody's interested and this is the wrong place anyway. Save it for your ACLU meeting.

>>Listen I know typos are annoying and distracting<<

It transcends that.

DAMN YOU, Chazzbo for kicking my puppy and taking my last meal money, damn you!

That said, buck up, the great thing about humans is that we are mortal and cancer, heart attacks, traffic accidents and the rest mean that ownership of records is only temporary. And hopefully as the IRS cracks down on ebay sellers, and ebay raises it's fees, more records will start finding their way into stores again. At leat that's the optimistic view........

If you live near Hollywood I heard Aarons is going out of business after fourty years. They got Vinyl. Also Cd Trader in Reseda any vinyl under 15.00 is 20% off and over 15.00 is 30% off this weekend(between Tampa and Wilbur on Ventura blvd.)

Qdrone thanks for the tip.R F Sayeles also added the most relaxed and cogent reason for all of this.I just wonder if like stocks, real estate and fine art there at some point might be a correction to all of this.But then again they aren't making any more vintage LP's.And Judy lighten up.Even if your small mided little swipe was brief it's full of hypocrisy.
Politics,the economy,and attitudes about consumption are all related and related to ou "non-essential hobby".That remark about the ACLU was the way right wingers want to Willy Horton andbody or issue they don't like.You sounded like that woman Jean Simmons who recently questioned Sen.Murtha's partiotism and he's a guy who earned two purple hearts and actually spends many weekends at Bethesda Hospital and attends funerals in his district.
But I forgive you.But really only because it's all caving in. W. was able to throw a poplular Texas govenor by having an "unlinked group" put pictures of gay men kissing(in full leather regalia) under the winshield wipers of folks at Sunday church and make the whole campaign about a non-issue (gay's in Richards cabinet) it just keeps happening again and again.The Republican machine will smear like Max Cleland who lost three limbs in service to his country when his opponent said he wasn't a partiot.They even eat there own as John McCain can tell you.But from poll numbers it's obvious from his pole numbers that fewer and fewer are buying this New McCarthyism.What if my stereo had been in the 9th ward of New Orleans?Here we had Fema run by a guy who agrred with it's emasculationacting under Tom Ridge (an admittedly decent fellow personally) but this was the biggest restructuring of goverment since Roosovelt and giving this awesom agency over to a person whose only qulification was that he had held a congressionl seat and ran a governorship well this is how we get Katrina and New Orleans.No expensive voltage filter would have daved andbody's rig there.And issues of taxation which beyond paying for what we need is a form, of wealth reidstibution l;ike it or not.But maybe your just the type to agree with little Forbes Jr. who doesen't think the hallmark of a just society is graduated taxation and we should all pay the same rate.More tax cuts durring a war that nobody except the soldiers and families over in combat are asked to make scarifice?I say (as one who is registered as an independent and voted for Republicans in my own state) that this is just selfish B.S.But sorry I can't help gloating because the gig seems to up with right leaning Republicans thinking they got Ronald Reagan and are dealing with some one who has created the biggest defecit in history and is seen by this wing as a "big goverment" .Meanwhile the rest of the country has seen how dificult the new drug plan is for seniors and see it as being a give away to drug companies as muich as it is a help to them.W. can't even win on that score.No maybe he can get two more strict constructionists to further errode our rights allow "Red" states to remove a womans right to choose etc and that's about it.The rest of it from a boodogle of an fpreign occupation ( my cousin has three children serving there in the Marine Corp.who are there or going to be sent and while they serve they know they were sold out when they couldn't get better leadership after the figting).This plus huge defecits,a weakening of the dollar which hasn't helped our largest trade defecit in history etc well it may be three years to it's over but this seesm to be the legacy W will have.It used to sell but now 60% of the people no longer believe BS about Sadam Hussein having run the Al-Quieda.Nope that and baiting like yours about the ACLU (which many CONSERVATIVES agree with and work for) no longer is being bought without some scrutiny.People are looking and the Emperor has no clothes.I need to work to by my gear and LP's and that's fine even though I may have whinned about it a bit.I'd rather that then cutting every social program that helps people insight and ignoring our infrastructure from schools to roads that our competiveness depends on.Maybe we Audiophiles shoould pay through the nose for our nopn-essential hobby because it's only the consumer spending that has kept the economy running at 4% positive growth certainly not policiews like cutting the currency value which in theory should allow US to sell amps and cables to the rest of the world but history hs shown us that every time this has been tried it's failed and it only means our foreign bought Hifi costs more.But this piece I write I suppose you rae right isn't about what Tesla or Mullard tubes from England might costThe issue which is germain is we have a war run by chickehwaks who never served,and economy where pharmicutical companies and oil companies are given cart blanche to take whatever they can while they can get it.Everything from veterans benefits to school lunches are being cut back while we talk about the tax cuts in ac tion being made permananent while Orwellian changes as simple as changing the term Estate Tax to Death tax allows for a gross burden on the poor while the top 1 to 5% get all the goodies.Maybe poor people shhould be restricted to hand held radios and the middle class to boom boxes.
Well I think in two years folks of your ilk will have new reality since as I said what was "selling" people just aren't buying.Complian to Audiogon but I think that realizing as I do they catering to a luxury market including products that are not neccesisites that politics,economics and "luxury consuption" are linked.Fortunately not everything including this forum has been bought by Rupert Murdoch.Last time I checked this wasn't "Audiogon brought to you by Fox".I guess the forumn letters are like abortions if your aghainst it don't have one or against my premise that the to some extent all of our purhcases even over priced LP's and gear is related.Put that in your peace pipe and smoke it.
Chazzbo

On the contrary. I'd see these high prices as a healthy indicator that LP collecting is still alive and well, at least for the record collector. With record collectors buying all those priced first pressing just because they are prized, desirable, and valuable, it doesn't help the other three categories. Audiophiles (best sound quality), music lovers (of good music), and people in it for nostagia. So you have four sets of hands all reaching for the same LP. Looks like demand pull inflation (or similar) to me folks.

We will always have "textbook definition" record collectors. Just like there will always be some stamp and coin collectors and people into model trains.

As a fellow Gen-Y, I'm waiting for some of the bably boomers to expire and poof out mass quantities of vinyl dust. See you at the estate sales.

Chazzbo, I think you wore the auditors here on A'gon out. The last time I made any reference to what someone might be smoking based on their vinyl LP comments they threw my comment in a dark place where no one will find it! The record collecting market in many ways shows a much bigger sociological picture as I think you were painting for those who care to listen. It’s not all dr*gs, S*x, and Rock n’ roll.
Cheers! (with the legal stuff, of course)

Jeez:

Am I the only one who ordered/received "every album ever recorded" from Robert Klein, years ago, in the late 70's/early 80's?

Or, did those (many of those) aware of the offer mistake it for a frickin joke?

Sure, I've purchased a few LP's since then, but the bulk of my collection came from Bob's (one time only) TV offer.