The Lifespan of an LP?

Been buying vinyl record since 1964. When Capitol records state that they've sold 8 million copies of Sgt. Peppers my audio collector friend and I say hogwash, between the 2 of us, we've owned that many.........
Many of the answers and yes, even opinions stated here are quite true. It depends. Just up from here it was mentioned about playing a record more than once a day. If you've ever seen a microscopic video of a stylus passing in slow motion thru a record groove it gives the appearance of a tire going thru water. Even though vinyl is considered a solid, it's not. It is a very dense liquid state and the 1.5g stylus is making waves. I wish I could provide a link for this but alas I cannot. If someone can find this anomaly, please share.

Right, vinyl is not solid, stylus disturbs it and damages it a little, I suppose. 

The problem with vinyl is usually not out-and-out wear from too much playing. The problem is that a record needs to be treated with respect.  Don't eat fried chicken before you take a record out of the jacket to put it on.  Don't leave them out in direct sunlight to bake n' warp.  Put 'em back in the jacket after you've played 'em. If you see dust, cat hair, or sand on the surface, gently wipe it off with a clean soft cloth or dedicated record brush. Similarly, if you see schmutz on the turntable platter, clean it off.  Don't play 'em wet. Try not to zoom your tonearm sideways over the record when you're hunkering down to cue up the track you want to hear.  Don't stack them in a random pile.  Don't stack them horizontally, either.

Sure, all this stuff is pretty much common sense.  But if you're buying a used record, who knows where it's been?

Like Inna,
a Nakamichi cassette player becomes my musical source to cut down on my use of records.  I also 
Place Last record preservative on 
all new records.  Cd’s are also 
a source of my music.

When we were kids and the record would skip, someone told me to put a penny on the head shell. I'm sure that helped wear out the record!