Why vinyl?

I bought a lot of LPs for under $5, BUT my D2D and "audiophile" recordings were mostly in the mid-teens and some higher. I think you have to compare 180 gram current pressing to the high-end recordings of the 1970s and 1980s. When you do that, the cost ($30) feels comparable to me. $50 is a different story.

I've paid $50 for a lot of reissues. So far, the quality of the master and the pressings (particularly 45 rpms) have been worth it. (Thanksfully I make way more, inflation adjusted, money than I did in the '70s and '80s)

Dave

1) cheap used
2) very good sound is possible
3) older coots like me have a big investment in vinyl from the olden days already so why not more?
4) larger format with artwork that adds to the package and text fonts large enough to read.

By the way I forgot to mention. I have 10 gigs of digital music on my home laptop (listening to Joni Mitchell through headphones now), another couple gigs on my work laptop and we have a music server at work.
Mapman, I loved the big font comment. I first got glasses at 41 because I couldn't read the back of CDs - completely true.
We all use digital, it's convenient for casual listening or checking out music we may be interested in.

Digital is still in its infancy. I think that digital, maybe not cd but maybe 24/96 downloads or whatever comes next, will surpass the best sound quality available today in the not too distant future.

As far as sales numbers go, there's a January 10, 2008 Time magazine article about the resurgence of vinyl that has the 2007 numbers.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, of total album sales for 2007:
vinyl makes up about 0.2%
digital downloads are 10%
cds are 89.7%

The article says that Nielsen SoundScan may undercount vinyl since they don't always include sales at smaller indie shops where vinyl does best.

The 0.2% equals 990,000 vinyl albums sold in 2007, up 15.4% from 858,000 units sold in 2006.

So let's say they missed half the vinyl album sales, if we double the vinyl sales for 2007 we are still under 2 million sold for the entire year and have an increase of only 264,000 units over 2006.

The real growth is not in vinyl, downloads or cds. Video games on dvd are by far the fastest growing home entertainment product.

When I was at teens (late 70s and early 80s in Korea), I had spent $2~$3 for new albums (licensed copies made in Korea) with my own pocket money. I guess I've bought over 300 LPs, all bought new.
Now, there are many other sources of related entertainment -- CDs, movie and music DVDs, downloads, computer games, ..., and well LPs. I have about 600 CDs, mostly bought new (from stores or BMG, CBS, ...), and 100 DVDs, mostly new at around $20 (but no downloads and no games). But spending $20 for a new LP is still a bit odd to me now. (Even though I had spent about $2000 for TTs, cartridges, and preamps over last two years.) A few reasons:
1. I can salvage garage/estate sales and buy bulk of 20 LPs at $10~20. In most cases, half of them are in very good condition.
2. I live in a small town that has only one record store that sells very limited LPs. I can count them that probably at 100~200 new LPs. Most likely what I am looking for is not there.
3. If I go to the Internet or ebay, there is $4.00 minimum shipping/handling charges per piece.

The best LP I bought recently is Muddy Water's Folk Singer. The sound quality is amazing. $30 well spent.
Few other reissue LPs from Lenard Cohen, Rolling Stones, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis were so so, not any better than listening to CDs. So, I am very cautious in buying new LPs. I won't just walk into a record store and grap one that looks appealing as I have done for CDs and DVDs. I will only select some of those which have high regards on recording and sound quality.

The resurgence of vinyl has, IMHO, much more to do with the recent increase in turntable/cartridge sales. Those who have spent on new turntables have not spent as much on new LPs.