What will you pay for a new LP?

"I did get a wild hair and bought a 45rpm One Step, kinda choking on the $125 price."

I haven't tried a One Step yet. Most of the reports seem to be positive. At $125, a little steep for my budget. Wherever you purchased it, the vendor sounds like the kind I like shopping with.

I thought I thought I was going over the deep end paying $150 for a sealed Zeppelin Physical Graffiti years ago. The 2nd disc had a disappointing stitchy intro of "In the Light".
Couple of weeks later I found a cheap used copy with a near perfect disc 2 and QUIET intro.

I'm about the period press found for CHEAP. Though getting more difficult these days. Then it's cross my fingers when it's played. Always a crap shoot.

Like your no nonsense VPI Classic. Mine is 10 years old.

Depends on the LP.

@tablejockey 

VPI Classic, nice turntable! I had a HW19mkIII for 16 years before upgrading. 

I'll pay what the record is worth to me.  Might be 3 bucks.  Might be 300 bucks.  I don't especially like shelling out $125 for a UHQR, but the sound quality on the ones I've bought is amazing and they sell out in no time and will only appreciate in value.  

@big_greg

You’re right about the appreciation on the One-Steps, I’ve seen out of print copies posted for sale at 3x their selling price. Same thing with other audiophile labels sold in limited runs. I agree on the UHQR disc’s sound quality.

Then there's the company called  Better Records who goes thru a painful process of comparing used lp's to find which ones are sonically superior, calling them "hot stampers."

Tbeir prices vary from approx. $100-$600. Notice I said "approx."  While I have heard a lot of good things about these records, it makes me wonder how long it would take before buyer's remorse sets in. IMO, it wouldn't take a whole lot of plays to have that recording go high on one's crap list.

This to me seems like a whole lot of cash outlay, considering the cheap a$$ I am. But that's just me. :-)))

You can get a 96/24 copy of Physical Graffiti for $12.48 remastered for digital. I would never in my life spend $150 for a record of it. The new digital versions are top notch.
I don't care about the money or the value. I buy records because it makes me happy. Not for resale or value. My wife can do whatever she wants with them when I am gone. Modern recordings are better off in digital. Older recordings it depends. You never really know what you are getting up front which is why you need to love the music. 
While records may sound better in some instances digital is always going to be more accurate. I understand this is a painful truth for many vinylholics. Life can be tough. But, there is a satisfaction collecting records that is missing with digital files.  

one step are an indulgence, i savor those that choose to step up for….

Original 1950’s-60’s Mint copies of Blue Note LP’s sell for up to (depending on title) thousands of dollars. You can get a new reissue (mastered by Kevin Gray, pressed at QRP) of many of them for $50-$65 (the Tone Poet series, done by Joe Harley---formerly of Audioquest---in collaboration with Blue Note President---and electric bassist---Don Was), $25 for those in the new "Classic" series.

I started buying LP’s in 1962, $2.99 for mono, $3.99 for stereo. What are those prices adjusted for inflation over the years? Regular (non-audiophile) LP’s of new releases now commonly sell for $20-$25, and are in general better made than were LP’s issued in the last half of the 70’s and into the 80’s. Even in the 60’s and early 70’s LP’s were not as well made as they could have been. Warps (VERY common, bordering on ubiquitous), noise, skips, mis-labels, mis-pressings, etc.---all very common. I was constantly returning defective LP’s to my local record stores back then. One label that was better than most was the Warner Brothers family (which included Reprise), a label whose artist roster was also better than most. Look for their series of loss-leader double LP samplers, available mail order only in the late 60's and 70's, a buck a disc!

IMO now is a great time to be an LP buyer, even if just starting out. The young people involved in this vinyl boom are the most passionate music lovers of their generation. I see teenagers and their parents shopping together in Music Millennium, a beautiful sight to behold! When I lived in Portland during 1976-7---prior to the introduction of the CD of course, most the main floor and mezzanine of Music Millennium was dedicated to LP’s. After moving to L.A. in ’78 and then returning for a visit in 2010, Music Millennium’s LP racks had been relegated to the mezzanine, the entire main floor given over to CD’s. By the time I had returned to Portland in 2016, half the main floor and the entire mezzanine was again filled with LP’s. And it is in those sections of the store that most of the activity is currently going on, the CD isles largely vacant. Those not buying LP’s are also---generally speaking--- not buying CD’s.

@bdp24

Music Millenium is a jewel of a record store with record bins almost over-flowing and the walls covered with LP’s. It’s nearly sensory overload, but in a good way. Quirky Portland is lucky to have it and even luckier it’s endured.
There can be some treasured finds in used records there. A recent purchase was Julie London’s Julie Is Her Name double LP Japanese pressing—$12! A U.S. pressing at Better Records in similar A++ condition was around $500. I guess if you just had to have it…

I have 2,000 lps, mostly in pristine condition. I’ll pay up to about $40. But I prefer to brouse the used store and pick up albums in great shape for $5 - 15 then carefully clean them, LAST preserve them and add to my collection.

" A recent purchase was Julie London’s Julie Is Her Name double LP Japanese pressing—$12!"

bslon-great score.  I have the 1958 mono pressing. Great album with my favorite guitarist-Barney Kessel

Whenever I go to a show, I bring the album to hear "Laura"
Perfect example of an album recorded during  the "Golden Years"

$35

I think records are way overpriced - yet I buy,  It does hurt every time though - a slight jab in the chest. And then there's all the disappointing near mint buys from Ebay and Discogs - seldom are they near mint.  On the bright side, there are occasional surprises from the local used record store - such as Van Morrison's  His Band and the Street Choir and Wilco's Wilko Schmilko. Even the used decent records cost above $20. I usually pay anywhere from $25-$35 for regular new albums.

@speakermaster
+1

I paid $100 for the new Analog Productions UHQR of Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue and its worth every penny. I also got the MoFi One Step of Mingus Ah Um and the Impex One Step of Patricia Barber's Cafe Blue. These were exceptions to my budget but all worth the asking price to me. Whether its LPs or cables or components, its a personal choice as are regrets.

Depending on the performance, the artist and the venue, I will pay for a vinyl transcription.  If I agree with the price.