Record collecting versus hoarding

One of the truly fun aspects of having a large vinyl collection is to be able to use one album to trigger the response to hear something else… and something else. Having a large collection let’s you wonder through all kinds of music at will. Of course this is before streaming.

Most of us started our collections when we were young… for me 1965… when I bought my first album. I have them all… cleaned and in great shape. My collection is 2,000 all carefully cataloged, in cabinets taking a whole wall. Hoarding would be piled everywhere, never used, collecting dust. Many of my albums are carefully chosen audiophile editions.

Also, I had 2,000 CDs. Most of which I have given away. Their serve no purpose now that streaming sounds better or at least the same. I think hoarding generally means most things, not just one. 
 

So, these things keep me in the collector category and out of the hoarded category. 

How do you end up with so/too many?

I bought LPs in the 60’s, high school, college days, beat em up pretty bad, Stopped buying for many years while paying college loans. Inherited some classical from my uncle, and got my first Jazz via a friends divorce.

Next, loans paid, CD’s drove LP’s price down, I bought unknown Jazz LP’s at Record Hunter, 5th ave, nyc, and 8 tracks six/$5. at ____ lexington ave. every Payday.

Then people got rid of their lps, gave them to me, I just put them on the shelves, much not even my taste. Playing CDs, SACD’s, but not disposing of LP’s.

Back to listening to LP’s, then joined here, upped my TT to 3 arm wonder, and started replacing favorites with new copies. about 2,500. on the shelves.

Then, my friend, a collector, and hoarder (couldn’t even reach his TT) left me 4,000 LP’s nearly all in very good condition, some played only 1 time, a great deal of jazz.,

What a mess, now 6,500 unalphabetized. I made 2 stacks, keep/go taking them out of the boxes, and successfully sold around 2,000 lps to individuals and 4 record stores.

Next, Jim alphabetized them for me (I'm limited, spine injury, probably surgery coming). Now, knowing what I had, I pulled a bunch more to sell. friends and individuals first, now ready to call the record companies again, they come here.

I’m hoping to get down to 2 shelves at easy to see/reach height, total 18lf, say 1600.

Then, buy one, at least one in that letter out. Gradually get down to my favorites and sell ones I doubt I would play again because I prefer the other.

While 1600 is a big drop from 6500, I can get it smaller. I improved my CD/SACD player to the point I am enjoying my too many, and buying used CD’s again.

To me horsing would be to buy LP’s just have them. Myself I am very deliberate in what a seek, source, and collect. 

Having shit just to have it is hoarding to me. 

Like @ghdprentice said…

One of the truly fun aspects of having a large vinyl collection is to be able to use one album to trigger the response to hear something else… and something else

Totally a hoarder! I now live in a tent in my back yard. Had to use the bedroom to store more records.

I’ve been buying records since the ’60s. As my tastes changed, so did my acquisition habits. I’m not a completist but caught the bug on more than a few labels- at one point early Island pink labels (mainly because I liked the bands Chris Blackwell signed, from Traffic and Tull to King Crimson, Spooky Tooth and beyond). Vertigo Swirl was another label that caught my fancy-- though best known for the first four Sabbath albums, the imprint had a deep catalog of fairly obscure psych, prog rock and other oddities that appealed.

When record stores were dumping vinyl in the late ’80s, it was easy to buy good quality LPs on the cheap, from "audiophile dreck" (Direct to Disc Flamenco Fever, anyone?) to classical, like EMI ASD, Lyrita, Decca, etc.

In around 2005, I started to comb through what I had, replaced some copies with better pressings and continued to buy even though the market for vinyl was still pretty bleak. Most of it was older pressings. I got bit by the post-bop jazz bug and started buying Strata-East and a lot of so-called "spiritual jazz" records before prices went bonkers. I also surfed artists- Cecil McBee is one of the great jazz bassists from the era and I bought pretty much whatever I could find with him appearing as a sideman or featured artist.

There are so many strands to this, it’s hard to say that there is any one motive for getting these records under one roof other than to listen to them, which I do. I know lots of folks are now turning to hi-rez streaming, but in my limited experience with Qobuz, they simply don’t have the depth of catalog. Many of these records were never released as CDs or reissued in any form.

I culled by getting rid of around 12,000 records before I left NY. That left me with a little over 5k LPs, to which I’ve added maybe another 1,000 in the years I’ve been living in Texas. I don’t listen to the "audiophile" records any more, and except for when the occasional mood strikes me, rarely listen to classical. Even most of the classic rock (which is fairly extensive including many multiple of things like the various Zeps) doesn’t get played much. Yet I am still emotionally attached to those records and I am a pretty good curator. Eventually, all will get disposed of through my estate when the time comes.

In the meantime, I continue to buy, but it is usually older stuff, soul or spiritual jazz, some "proto-metal" (i.e., precursor bands that anticipated Zep or Sabbath but never made a commercial dent). I also like the Tone Poets- Katanga! is a "must buy" in my estimation. I will fill in some empty niches with the occasional Chad jazz recut (though his older reissues are now getting expensive).

There’s a lot beyond the physical artifact and the playing of it- the history behind the record, the players, the label and the backstories of how some of these records got made, so it can be an intellectual pursuit as well.

PS: on multiples, I like to do my own shoot-outs and often there isn’t one "best"- different shadings. The Zeps- the RL is different than the UK plum; on Zep 1, there are many exceptional copies I’ve discovered over the years, not all of them expensive (yes, I have the 45 rpm Classics of a few, but those aren’t my "go to"). You can buy a record from Tom Port more easily at a price (I did buy one, a Free Tons of Sobs and it does trounce the other early copies I have here, but I’m not in the habit of paying big dollars for more common records-- that one was not a normal Tom offering according to his taste).