Why do I keep torturing myself with remasters?

For LPs, got to discogs.com or wikipedia, find the original record company, get an original copy of the LP from the country of the original record company.  Look for the lowest matrix number in the deadwax, i.e. 1A.  If you find a stamp or writing of the original mastering facility in the deadwax, that is even better.  For example, Sterling, Masterdisk, TML (The Mastering Lab), Kendun, Precision, GP (George Piros), Van Gelder, RL (Robert Ludwig).  Forget reissues including the dreadful half-speeds.

oleschool, I feel your pain.  I also have somewhere near 8000 LPs and have always feared their loss in a fire or earthquake here in parched CA, along with pictures and tapes of my family when they were younger.  I do have all of the original German Eloys that I bought for a song at a local record store years ago and can imagine what they go for these days on ebay.  It is nice that ebay has vastly increased the availability of many titles but also lead to ridiculous price escalation.  Go see what original Island King Crimson LPs sell for.

Speaking of hideously bad remasters, I once bought a MFSL 45 rpm remaster of Patricia Barber Modern Cool and compared it to the original 33 rpm Premonition pressing I had.  On the first track of the $50 MFSL the sonics almost completely disappear during the song, sounding worse than an 8 track tape or transistor radio.  The rest of the LP sounds better but still vastly inferior to the original as all MFSL titles do.  When I tried to return it to Music Direct they denied the whole thing and refused to give a refund.  So I sold it for big bucks on ebay and kept the far superior original.