Original 1950’s-60’s Mint copies of Blue Note LP’s sell for up to (depending on title) thousands of dollars. You can get a new reissue (mastered by Kevin Gray, pressed at QRP) of many of them for $50-$65 (the Tone Poet series, done by Joe Harley---formerly of Audioquest---in collaboration with Blue Note President---and electric bassist---Don Was), $25 for those in the new "Classic" series.
I started buying LP’s in 1962, $2.99 for mono, $3.99 for stereo. What are those prices adjusted for inflation over the years? Regular (non-audiophile) LP’s of new releases now commonly sell for $20-$25, and are in general better made than were LP’s issued in the last half of the 70’s and into the 80’s. Even in the 60’s and early 70’s LP’s were not as well made as they could have been. Warps (VERY common, bordering on ubiquitous), noise, skips, mis-labels, mis-pressings, etc.---all very common. I was constantly returning defective LP’s to my local record stores back then. One label that was better than most was the Warner Brothers family (which included Reprise), a label whose artist roster was also better than most. Look for their series of loss-leader double LP samplers, available mail order only in the late 60's and 70's, a buck a disc!
IMO now is a great time to be an LP buyer, even if just starting out. The young people involved in this vinyl boom are the most passionate music lovers of their generation. I see teenagers and their parents shopping together in Music Millennium, a beautiful sight to behold! When I lived in Portland during 1976-7---prior to the introduction of the CD of course, most the main floor and mezzanine of Music Millennium was dedicated to LP’s. After moving to L.A. in ’78 and then returning for a visit in 2010, Music Millennium’s LP racks had been relegated to the mezzanine, the entire main floor given over to CD’s. By the time I had returned to Portland in 2016, half the main floor and the entire mezzanine was again filled with LP’s. And it is in those sections of the store that most of the activity is currently going on, the CD isles largely vacant. Those not buying LP’s are also---generally speaking--- not buying CD’s.
I started buying LP’s in 1962, $2.99 for mono, $3.99 for stereo. What are those prices adjusted for inflation over the years? Regular (non-audiophile) LP’s of new releases now commonly sell for $20-$25, and are in general better made than were LP’s issued in the last half of the 70’s and into the 80’s. Even in the 60’s and early 70’s LP’s were not as well made as they could have been. Warps (VERY common, bordering on ubiquitous), noise, skips, mis-labels, mis-pressings, etc.---all very common. I was constantly returning defective LP’s to my local record stores back then. One label that was better than most was the Warner Brothers family (which included Reprise), a label whose artist roster was also better than most. Look for their series of loss-leader double LP samplers, available mail order only in the late 60's and 70's, a buck a disc!
IMO now is a great time to be an LP buyer, even if just starting out. The young people involved in this vinyl boom are the most passionate music lovers of their generation. I see teenagers and their parents shopping together in Music Millennium, a beautiful sight to behold! When I lived in Portland during 1976-7---prior to the introduction of the CD of course, most the main floor and mezzanine of Music Millennium was dedicated to LP’s. After moving to L.A. in ’78 and then returning for a visit in 2010, Music Millennium’s LP racks had been relegated to the mezzanine, the entire main floor given over to CD’s. By the time I had returned to Portland in 2016, half the main floor and the entire mezzanine was again filled with LP’s. And it is in those sections of the store that most of the activity is currently going on, the CD isles largely vacant. Those not buying LP’s are also---generally speaking--- not buying CD’s.