Reaching the end of a music collection

I'd try to find a music "dealer". Much like we rely on dealers to expose us to new equipment, I'm always looking for the equilvalent "music dealer." In college it was easy to expand your collection. Most of my friends or friends of friends exposed me to music that I liked. Now out in the working world, I can't seem to find that close concentration of people in a small area with diverse listening tastes.

For awhile (when I was in high school and college), my "dealer" was either the guy who worked at the CD Warehouse (used CDs) Thurs/Sat (heavy metal recs), or this guy "John" who worked at Coconuts (classical recs). Unfortunately I lost track of both. I found a suitable "heavy metal" dealer on the net, at holeinthewall.com. His name exscapes me, but I'm talked with him over the phone and exchanged several emails (I'm also on the mailing list). Basically I let him know what I like and he makes new recomendations from time to time. He's been extremely helpful.

I'd like to find an equilvalent dealer for classical and jazz.

actually i'm not keeping too much of CDs and they serve me as an information flow material. i might listen to them once or twice and than sell them. i can figure that that way i've already had arround 5...6000 cds that went though my ears and 90% of them are sold to acquire another couple of thousands and so on on on and on...
thus i can say that i'm also different from typical audiofile since my goal is to learn more about music and its different styles without even paying attention to a recording quality. i do care about recording quality of the items i collect which you should guess should be 100% unique. if anyone interested to share or explore with me shoot me an e-mail and we'll probably arrange an exchange of unique CDs.

Lately I've been burrowing through the bins of LPs in my basement--the overflow that doesn't fit on the shelf in the living room--and rediscovering some gems I hadn't heard in a long while. I've even bought some new items because I wanted to hear more by an artist I've just "dug up" from the vaults. And my collection is a lot smaller than some of those being described here. If you've got 1500 CDs, there have to be some you haven't heard in years. Give 'em a listen, and I'm sure you'll discover some "new" music.

Don't worry. I think this happens to most people. Music we listen when we are younger tends to relate to certain significant times and occurrences in our lives and therefore hold more meaning than newer music. I have bought hundreds of records in the past few years and just a few stay in rotation. I was actually thinking of not buying any more records, but that would be even worse. Those few gems I find along the way make it worthwhile, I guess. It's kind of like playing golf and doing terrible for 17 holes and then hitting that perfect shot on the last. Besides, what would the used record store (Charlemagne in Birmingham, Alabama in my case) do without those discards I bring in?

T; I've occasionally wondered the same thing as you are expressing. For me, the possibility of finding exciting new artists or music that I really like is what keeps me looking for and buying new CDs. As an example, this year I "discovered" Allison Krauss, bluegrass in general, Allison Moorer, and Jacintha. And last year Shirley Horn and Diana Krall smooth jazz ballads. And BTW, these were all the result of other A'Gon members recommendations. My CD collection is a bit smaller than yours, but then I trade in CDs I don't care for, poor recordings etc.

As a suggestion, start a thread here on Audiogon about the types of music you like, and ask for recommendations every once in a while. You'd be surprised at what comes up. Personally, I'm starting to "explore" classical music a bit. Good Luck, and Cheers. Craig