What should I look for when purchasing a quality album?

yoyoyaya I have been looking at those ultrasonic cleaners. It seems that even brand new record albums have plenty of dirt and debris on them.

I search BandCamp at least once a week (good for files and streaming, too). I use Discogs quite a bit, and keep some of the collection catalogued there. Discogs uses the Gold Mine rating system.  I have 2 used record stores near me, and stop at both every time I'm in town. I probably am buying 80% through BandCamp, Discogs, Music Direct, and etc. I used to buy through subscriptions, like R. Stevie Moore's catalogue, and some of the artists I am interested in only release on cassette, files or CDr. I follow the music, some of the media is not up to Audiophile snuff. It is somewhat common to end up with variations (pressing plants and other variables) of the same record. It's like collecting stamps or coins, you're going to have some "place holders".

I would encourage you to create an account in Discogs (free), and even use it to catalogue the albums you have. Most albums have multiple releases, and sorting through all the releases to find the one you have is an educational experience. I learned about the information in the run out groove and how to decipher it. That helped me figure out which pressings may be better than others of the same album. It also tracks the value of your collection (based on past Discogs sales), and you can set up a “wishlist “ of albums you’re looking for. Their marketplace is also very good and very vast.

Goldmine is an excellent grading system, but remember, its use is based on the honor system and interpretation/judgement/assessment of the person grading the record.

Best of luck and welcome to the wonderful world of vinyl!!

@yoyoyaya - actually you hit on a a key point here and one I think is actually a very important part of the OP’s question.

I too am starting a analog journey and learning the trials and tribulations already from the onset. From my very limited experience thus far, it takes A LOT of work to get this right WRT to table, arm, cart, RCM and finally the actually record version - if you want to get the best out of it - this of course is subjective.

Figuring out what pressing out of the "200 versions" (using discogs) of an album is really daunting (and where I am struggling) and only someone familiar with how to interpret the dead wax numbers, years, labels, reissues etc...it goes on and on. I don’t know if there is a guide or if this can actually be "taught" short of experience, but provenance is key and knowing what to look for. One can reference the DR website as a resource, but many times the people submitting their values don’t even supply the %#$$ cat # or anything, but I digress and that’s a diff topic.

All that said, I understand just as with any other medium everyone goes about this at different levels of "care" - some could care less about versions and just get whatever is convenient and others will research to try and find the best SQ version of digital, analog pressing etc..no right or wrong method, just the way it is.