@edcyn: Put your covers in clear plastic outer sleeves; makes ’em look much more valuable ;-) . A guy in Canada is making some great ones (company name Vinyl Storage Solutions), featuring his patented "Double Pocket" (available in both 2mil and 4mil versions). The jacket goes in one pocket, the LP in the other; no more fumbling to cram the LP back into the cover. It’s changed my life!
@johnto: Good point. Mazzy has made the point that if you buy a first copy of an album, in just acceptable condition---then a second in better condition---and finally a third, a really clean copy---you have by then spent more than you would for a newly remastered version of the album.
There are some out there---and even here on Audiogon---who have for whatever reason---some legitimate---come to believe that new 180g LP reissues are "hype". All of them? Sure, if you are buying a new reissue of an album from one of the majors---either in a store or from, say, Amazon---you may get a piece of junk. Warped, noisy, poor sound quality, etc. The majors have always put profit above quality.
Those are NOT the reissues you want to be consider buying. There are a dozen small reissue companies making the best LP’s the world has ever seen---uh, heard. Everyone if familiar with some of them, if only Mobile Fidelity. There is one stubborn fool (now banished from Audiogon) who---after hearing one bad MoFi from back in the days before the company was sold to Music Direct, who hired the best mastering engineers in the world, and had Tim de Paravicini upgrade their entire mastering chain (he also did Pink Floyd’s London studio)---declared all MoFi’s to sound bad. Had he heard any Mo-Fi LP’s made in this century? It would appear not. Of course this same fella declared the loudspeaker he had just ordered to be better than any other costing ten times as much. You know, that kind of guy.
Most of the music I am interested in has not been reissued, and is far too "cult" level to ever be so (no one is going to reissue either John Simon albums). I have sprung for good reissues of albums that 1- I love to death, and 2- Have recorded sound quality high enough to warrant an "Audiophile"-level reissue. The three Ry Cooder’s on MoFi, for instance.
The Band’s debut Music From Big Pink was originally done by MoFi back in its’ early days, and was not good sounding (neither is their Beatles boxset). Their second stab at the album (done around 2012, I believe) is a very different story. Capitol’s original LP’s are severely compromised in sq: frequencies below 100Hz, Levon Helm’s kick drum and Rick Danko’s electric bass drastically emasculated. The second MoFi used the original multi-track masters, and restored the missing-in-action lower frequencies. Also, the Capitol LP’s are God-awful pressings, so noisy I ordered a copy of MFPB from England, the E.M.I. LP sounding much better. The second MoFi is even better in that regard as well.
The other companies doing great reissues include Analogue Productions, Speakers Corner, Intervention, Craft, a number of others. Not just 180g vinyl (it’s actually PVC ;-), but longer pressing time including the "cool down" phase (to prevent warps), better-than-original covers, plastic inner sleeves, high-quality electronics, etc. Engineers include Bernie Grundman, Shawn Britton, Kreig Wunderlich, Kevin Gray, and Ryan K.Smith. LP’s are pressed at either QRP in Salina Kansas (the Miles Davis estate uses QRP exclusively), Pallas or Optimal in Germany, or RTI in California. Great, great LP’s, the best the world has ever seen.
For verification, compare any copy of Cat Stevens' Tea For The Tillerman (including the original "pink label" UK Island pressing) with the reissue by Analogue Productions. If you don't prefer the reissue, you need a better hi-fi ;-) ..