How many plays can you get out of a good record?

drbond,

Is your cartridge set up correctly?

Do you clean the stylus tip after every play?

Is the record stored properly?

Do you have an adequate record cleaning procedure?

Are you a smoker?

Do you handle your records without touching the groove area?

You say "a good record", but what was the initial quality of the pressing?

Do you repeat play or allow a reasonable time interval between plays?

Do you have a clean, relatively dust-free environment?

With all that I can only say that I have LPs purchased 60 years ago that are still enjoyable and distortion free to listen to.  But as any wear may have occurred my hearing resolution has declined, so I can't offer a number. ;^)

In 2012 I compared a sealed 1971 Howlin Wolf to another original copy that had been played on/off since 1971 (didn't own a TT from 1986-2000).

They both sounded the same (good).

Found the sealed copy @ my mother's house when she was selling it in 2011.

Along with the sealed LP I also found 2 factory matched pairs of Mullard XF2 EL34's, a stack of used RCA 12at7 5-packs (pulls from my old Fender amps) and a small glass vile containing 3 squares of windowpane (the windowpane had turned from translucent to black over a 40 year period).

I gave the windowpane to a neighbor that I had grown up with and tossed the 12at7's after bringing them back to CA and testing them (they all had one poorly testing section).

DeKay

I have 28,500 LPs.   Those purchased new and of good quality vinyl over 50+ years should sound as good as when new,  I've used good (now great) quality equipment  (Dynavectors, Lyra and Benz cartridges for 45 years, VPI turntables for 40 years, SME IV arm for over 33 years).  @Inna is correct, LPs/vinyl require 24 hours to 100% recover from playing.  I've played some records 100-200 times and they sound pristine (and wonderful).  

The first.

Anything beyond that, your mind is 'filling in the blanks'.

Entropy, y'all.  It's a bitch. ;)

The general rule from the time I started collecting vinyl was to buy 1st pressing after that quality went down, 2nd have your arm and cartridge setup properly back then they used scopes and took 2 hours or more to aline both. Then store your LPs in rice sleeves, but after you play the LP-like tube gear both slowly start degrading as the groves become worn, the cartridge stylus also. Now if your dealer does not invest in scopes and proper equipment the decay and damage to the vinyl accelerates. Back then the guys into audio used reel-to-reel to playback their music and once you heard that you never go back to LP, same as hearing a 45rpm track to the 33-1/3 LP, again the LP came in last. But that was the only game in town for most of us so we lived with it and enjoyed it. After 2001 I went full CD and never looked back, sold my collection of vinyl for $$$$$ and used that money for audio gear. I Miss the covers of LPs and that is about it. Nothing against the format if you enjoy it that is great, but if not as the myth says the format. Reel to Reel is but today they want $450.00 a tape compared to $6.99 back the day in the ’60s and ’70s. Any format is good as the care taken, and even if mastered from a digital source, in fact, that can sound more accurate than coming from a master tape that is long past its prime and has degraded over the past 60 years. And chances are the master is long gone and they are using safety backups or less generation copies, so digital remasters is a life saver bring the sound back to a much higher quaity,