Haven't played my LP's in 20 years - still good?

Also, as soon as you clean them good I always replace the inner sleeve with a high quality rice paper sleeve. This way when you remove them after long storage, the static electricity discharge is greatly reduced. No stick with vinyl, the older, the further you get away from ' stereophonic ' recordings and into that high fidelity unbreakable, micro- deepgroove heavy thick plates of vinyl, the better the sound.
Enjoy

Richmon,

for the price range you mentioned I would suggest looking at the used market. You can get better bang for the buck that way. If your handy, you can build your own RCM that will work every bit as well as a VPI 16.5 for cleaning. There have been many threads here by people in your situation so search the archives and you'll get lots of ideas.

I'm so good at breaking my own rules. Just my way of stickin' it to The Man.

Good luck and welcome to the nut house.

Dan

Definitely don't believe any of the answers you have gotten so far. Your LP's are now trash. They will sound like poopy if you try to play them again after all these years. In fact, they might even qualify as toxic waste, so you can't just deposit them in your garbage can. You could get a big fine for that.

Just send them to me and I will gladly dispose of them for you :-)

Enjoy,
Bob

Some of my vinyl dates back to the 60's and they are still fine. The big threat seems to be damp and mould, which can be tough to deal with, typically if the records have been kept in a cellar(sorry basement) for years. Help is at hand, Michael Fremmer has a couple of recent articles on this very subject, the second in the current Stereophile. These includes advise on intensive care for really damaged Lp's. Some of my older 2nd hand buys have been very scratched, presumably by old worn cartridges, tracking at the higher weights typical of vintage cheap decks

Ptmconsulting is quite incorrect. They are not all trash, only some of them. Send to me and I will separate those worth saving and give you $1 each for the records that should be discarded. I'll split shipping with you as an added incentive. Let me know.